Quintero One: This Hyperloop Pod Could Carry Passengers Next Year

As reported by Engadget: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has unveiled its vision for a passenger capsule that will ferry people around the globe. The company has pulled the dust sheets from its first pod, called Quintero One, at Puerto de Santa Maria, the home of Spanish manufacturing partner Carbures/Airtificial.

Now that the vehicle has been shown to the world, it'll be sent to HTT's European HQ in France for "additional assembly and integration." The company expects that Quintero One will be pressed into service in a fully working commercial system at some point in the future.

We won't know much about how the pod will work, but some of the specifications the company has revealed shine a light onto its thinking. For instance, Quintero One measures 32 meters (105 feet) long, with the passenger cabin measuring 15 meters (50 feet).

We can assume that the propulsion, life support and other systems are buried both in the nose cone and behind the smaller passenger compartment. We don't know how many people HTT expects to seat in every pod, but its dimensions roughly correspond to a New York Subway car.

A 15.6-meter R188 Car has a maximum capacity of 188, which includes a significant number of standing passengers. Some back-of-the-envelope math suggests that a fully-seated pod could comfortably carry around 80 people. The company says that it's worth thinking about the pod as an "airplane without wings," which makes plenty of sense given the aerospace engineering necessary to make it work.

Both HTT and Airtificial (a partnership between aerospace companies Carbures and Inypsa) say that the pod is a landmark piece of engineering. Airtificial co-founder Rafael Contreras added that, because the pod uses an unprecedented amount of carbon fiber and composites its in its construction, it's the "safest transportation vehicle in the world."

If you're wondering, Quintero is a Spanish surname that means the "fifth," and is associated with farming as well as being the name of a cigar brand. It might just be an act of whimsy by the pod's engineers, or a subtle nod to the fact that Elon Musk called Hyperloop a "fifth" mode of transportation way back when.

HTT believes that the capsule will be ready to convey passengers before the end of 2019, and committed to building a test track at its French facility. The company has also built an insurance and certification framework that, it claims, will enable it to roll out its technology across the globe without interference or worry.

Mountain Driving the Tesla Model 3 - The Initial Driving Experience

Our new Tesla Model 3 outside of the iTRAK Corporate office.

I received my Tesla Model 3 last week, and have already started putting it through its paces here in the Pikes Peak region of Colorado.

For those that don't know me, my background is in electrical engineering, software development and systems design - specifically for end-to-end systems for vehicle tracking; something I've been doing for more than 20 years and have multiple patents and prior artwork in the field. Prior to that I worked on vehicle based terminals, GPS and RF communication systems for public safety agencies, as well as E911 communication and console systems employing early multiprocessor and redundant systems architectures.  I'm proficient in multiple computer languages and I'm an ongoing student in areas such as AI systems and Python.

The Pike's Peak region and surrounding area is an optimal area for testing, as it has some challenging traffic and terrain in areas like Ute Pass (Highway 24), standard city highway traffic along I-25, as well as a wide range of seasonal conditions such as heavy snowfall, heavy lightning storms, hard rains with significant run-off, occasional mixed icy conditions, high contrast lighting changes in canyon areas where GPS and wireless signals can be difficult to maintain, large temperature changes over relatively short periods of time as well as the hairpin turns at high angle and steep traffic at altitude such as can be found regularly on the local Pike's Peak highway - a specific area where automotive and brake manufacturers test new products.  More recently Pike's Peak (which locally is known simply as 'The Peak') highway has been featuring EV's racing through the challenging terrain - and just this year VW's EV broke the overall racing record.

I've been very interested in the evolution of electric vehicle technology, along with the advent of self driving systems for several years now.  Given their cost and the inherent risks involved in the technology, being on the bleeding edge of such development didn't seem like a good idea.  Instead I've waited patiently till I could see the technology entering the 'slope of enlightenment' period on the curve around the third-generation shown in the graph below:

In my opinion, the Model 3 vehicles from Tesla are at this stage now, though the self driving features are more likely between the 'peak of inflated expectations' and the 'trough of disillusionment'.  The vehicle that we purchased is configured for all wheel drive (a must for mountain driving) and the extended battery, along with the enhanced autopilot and the future self-driving capability (when it becomes available).  The range with the extended battery should be over 300 miles on a full charge which should allow reasonable access to the ski resorts in the winter (which has some fairly challenging back-country driving at times), as well as for longer drives along I-70 and I-25 to other States using the Supercharger network as needed.  I used the included 120V charging system for the past week till my home charging system could be installed by an electrician.

Like many, I initially ordered my Model 3 shortly after the ordering process started in March of 2016 without ever test driving one.  I've been keeping a close eye on news and reviews regarding Tesla's developing manufacturing process and release dates for the various versions and features - knowing I'd need a 4 wheel drive or all-wheel drive vehicle for my particular locale - and betting that a self driving firmware release was not far away.

In early September, I configured the vehicle and provided all of the information needed in order to procure a vehicle.  I expected a relatively long delay of 2-4 months for delivery, but was surprisingly pleased by a delivery date scheduled in late September.  There was a minor one week delay due to the break-down of the vehicle carrier in Wyoming, but that was relatively quickly resolved and easily scheduled around.

The paperwork at the dealership in Littleton was relatively quick, about 10-15 minutes before we were escorted to our vehicle.  The dealership was fairly busy, and they indicated they'd be trying to deliver almost 90 vehicles that particular day.  I had read some of the manual, and watched several of the videos, but that had been a couple of weeks earlier, so it was nice to review everything quickly.  After configuring our phones and a quick overview of the vehicle (don't use the manual opener for the doors, use the switch - use two hands to close the front trunk or 'frunk' and just lean on it to close the hood, orientation on the central touch screen of the vehicle, location of the tow bar, etc) we experienced some touch screen related issues.  This turned out to be related to the poor WiFi signal for the vehicle.  Once that was disabled (for the dealership's WiFi) it seemed to operate as expected.  After a visual inspection of the vehicle, I tentatively started the drive home.

The new vehicle after inspection in Littleton, CO.

My initial reaction was that the parking brake must be on - not because the vehicle wouldn't move, but because of how quickly it would start slowing down once my foot was off of the 'gas' pedal.  This impression is related to the regenerative braking system for the vehicle which instead of generating heat generates electricity to recharge the system - which as it turns out is an excellent adaptation for mountain driving for multiple reasons.  More on that later.

The autopilot and cruise control systems were not immediately available as they went through a calibration period while I initially drove the vehicle.  This was no problem as I really wanted a feel for driving the vehicle myself anyway.  The central map and navigation system (similar to the Waze app which I use when driving my other vehicles) was already setup with my home address so I was able to find out quickly how long it would take to get home in traffic, and how much battery I would likely have left or available to me at that time.  As the battery was not fully charged when I picked it up, and I have more than an hour of driving to do to get down to the Pikes Peak region - the 44% battery level on home arrival did prompt some 'range anxiety' as a first time driver, so I had my wife follow me closely as we drove home.  Rationally I knew this was not a problem, but my emotional intelligence on the matter needed a chance to catch up.  Building trust with the vehicle performance is a must.

I was able to get some music up and running using the streaming service at the stop lights while moving through Denver street traffic.  When 'The Killers' came on performing 'The Man', the lyrics "I got gas in the tank, I got money in the bank, I got news for you baby, you're looking at the man..." I thought - for the first time I'm driving without any actual 'gas in the tank'.  It had a bit of an eerie but futuristic synchronicity feel that I've run into with the vehicle several times afterwards.

Driving in street traffic was no different than driving any other vehicle, except for the learning curve on how to feather the 'gas' on the vehicle using the regenerative braking - sometimes referred to as 'one pedal driving'.  Once on the highway, the quickness of the vehicle was immediately evident - I bounced my head off the head-rest more than once merging quickly into highway traffic.

Tesla vision and sensor overview.

While in I-25 traffic heading home the calibration completed on the Autopilot and I started by using the cruise control feature.  The most noticeable difference from my prior experience using various prior vehicle's systems was the Tesla's ability to use its sensors and forward radar systems to keep a controlled distance from the vehicle just ahead of me (while visually showing vehicles around me in a kind of 'ghost' image on the center console) - matching its speed when lower than my max setting speed, and speeding up to the max speed when the vehicle exited the lane.  It did have one incident of an advanced warning on hard braking that occurred in the vehicle in front of the one I was following - not uncommon in the heavy traffic at that time of day.  It not only braked early itself enough to stop me from stomping on the brakes, but it also helped to keep driving stress of the surprise to a minimum.  Out of habit, I gravely remind myself that Seymour Cray (of Cray Supercomputer) was killed on this particular stretch of highway in 1996 in a car crash.  It's a serious reminder that automotive accidents make no exceptions for genius and we're all taking a significant risk as we regularly travel about in our daily lives.  I'd like to think he'd approve of the technology being used to help prevent those kind of accidents now, and into the future.  In any case, I was able to become comfortable with its use on the highway back to Colorado Springs, but fairly quickly determined that I wasn't comfortable enough to use it when exiting I-25 to highway 24 (though there may be settings to help optimize the performance I experienced).  I was able to re-engage it again once I had merged back into traffic heading west.  I was also able to use the feature up through 'Ute pass' without too many issues, though there was a hint of what I'd see later in the curves.

One advantage of the more standard cruise control mode (vs autopilot) is that you maintain steering through what is sometimes difficult and crowded traffic in Ute pass where road construction and 'scaling' of the surrounding mountain cliffs can be common - but without the need to focus on the stop and go traffic itself, which seemed to help with stress relief during the commute - something my wife would likely appreciate since she travels the pass on an almost daily basis and complains regularly about the erratic behavior of visiting tourists.

The trip home proved to be safe, uneventful, and very informative.

Within the first week I was able to take the vehicle on a two hour trip through Wilkerson Pass, Hoosier Pass, Breckenridge and Frisco to Silverthorne's Supercharger, as well as to make an initial drive up and back down Pike's Peak highway.  It was important to get these completed quickly while the conditions were optimal, as there is snow in the coming forecast for early October and I wanted to set a base line of testing under the best conditions first.

As this is meant to be a multi-part series review I will plan to follow up on those and additional drives and feature tests in the coming days and weeks.

VW Electric Race Car Smashes Pikes Peak's Overall Record

As reported by Engadget: VW may have been overly cautious when it hoped to beat Pikes Peak's electric vehicle record with its purpose-built racer. Official lap time datahas confirmed that Romain Dumas' I.D. R Pikes Peak made it up the legendary hill in just over 7 minutes and 57 seconds, crushing not only the EV record (8 minutes and 57 seconds) but the overall record (just over 8 minutes and 13 seconds in the Unlimited class). It managed that with an average speed of 90.5MPH, clearly trouncing the 83.5MPH of its closest competitor, a Norma M20 SF PKP.

There's not much mystery to why the I.D. R Pikes Peak came out in front: it made the most of its electric motor. It doesn't have the most raw horsepower at 680HP, but the combination of instant access to 479 pound-feet of torque, a relatively light weight for an EV (2,500lbs) and Porsche-derived aerodynamics make for a vehicle that can quickly recover speed when exiting the hill's 156 turns. EVs are practically tailor-made for twisty hill climbs, and VW's achievement serves as proof.

VolkswagenMotorsport

✔@volkswagenms

The time is ... hold on. Is that? Whooooohooo! It is the new overall record for the @Volkswagen I.D. R #PikesPeak at the #RaceToTheClouds! C'mooooooooooon! 7m 57.148s make history! #ChargedToThePeak

10:20 AM - Jun 24, 2018

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Elon Musk's Boring Company Will Build a High-Speed Link in Chicago

As reported by Engadget:  Elon Musk's tunneling and transportation startup, The Boring Company, has been selected to construct a high-speed link in Chicago. The route, called The Chicago Express Loop, will run between Terminals 1-3 of Chicago's O'Hare airport, and Block 37 in downtown Chicago. At least, that's the plan.

Boring has been selected as the preferred option to build an express route between the airport and downtown by the city. The new line is part of an $8.5 billion redevelopment of O'Hare, one of America's busiest airports, which includes renovated terminals and gates. It's thought that, when running, the journey will take 12 minutes between the two stops, with fares expected to cost between $20 and $25.

TBC was the preferred bidder from a number of companies that pitched for the contract, and will now enter into formal negotiations with the city. When a deal has been thrashed out, a vote on the agreement will be put before Chicago's city council, after which point, construction can begin.

The Chicago Express Loop will utilize Boring's "Loop" concept, itself distinct from Musk's Hyperloop idea which Boring is also developing. This loop is the one in which passengers will ride on electric skates that are said to travel at speeds up to 150 miles per hour. So, just to be clear, that's a Chicago Loop loop using Loop not a Hyperloop loop, okay?

Each capsule will, essentially, be a Tesla Model X that runs on rails, albeit big enough to hold between 8 and 16 passengers. The hope is that the service will run every 30 seconds, and be in operation for 20 hours a day, every day.

According to the Chicago Tribune, there are plenty of details still to be worked out, including the proposed route the tunnels will take. The paper's sources believe that Boring's preferred route would be to run west from Block 37, before turning north to run below the Kennedy Expressway, Halsted Street and Milwaukee Avenue. The route would then, after some time, turn back west to go to O'Hare.

Chicago Tribune

✔@chicagotribune

Chicago has selected Elon Musk’s Boring Company to build high-speed transit tunnels between the Loop and O’Hare.

Here’s a conceptual look, provided by The Boring Company.https://trib.in/2JKqgKz 

8:40 PM - Jun 13, 2018

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If you're unfamiliar with Chicago history, Block 37 is the nickname for 108 North State Street, a large development in the city's downtown. The name comes from the fact that it sits on one of the original 58 blocks that were designated for the city, and houses a large entertainment and business complex. The site was expected to grow to include a large transit station in the basement that included a link to O'Hare.

If you're unfamiliar with Chicago history, Block 37 is the nickname for 108 North State Street, a large development in the city's downtown. The name comes from the fact that it sits on one of the original 58 blocks that were designated for the city, and houses a large entertainment and business complex. The site was expected to grow to include a large transit station in the basement that included a link to O'Hare.

The deal would see The Boring Company take over some interest in the transit station beneath Block 37 and fund its completion. It's not clear if the site would, as originally planned, include links to Midway airport and connections to both the Blue and Red subway lines.

It's thought that the whole project will cost less than $1 billion, and The Boring Company claims that it will finance the entire project itself. In a statement, an unnamed representative said that TBC had been selected to "design, build, finance, operate and maintain an O'Hare Express service." It will be a challenge for Musk's company, which has little-to-no experience in building a mass transit system of this caliber and importance.

And, of course, it comes at a crunch time for the billionaire, who has experienced pushback on another Boring Company project in LA. Not to mention the sustained production issues that have plagued his car company Tesla as it attempts to scale up to becoming a mass-market auto company.

Cynics may point out that Musk's strength has been to align his business interests into sectors where he can leverage government subsidy. They may have to change their tune if TBC does manage to build a working and reliable express route without a penny of public cash. Although we imagine that it will receive benefits in kind, like the land beneath Block 37, in order to get the system working.

Tesla Will Start Enabling Full Self-Driving Features in August

As reported by Engadget: Tesla has been promising true self-driving features in its cars for the better part of two years, but there has been precious little to show for it. Now, though, you might get what you paid for. Elon Musk has revealed that Autopilot version 9 should arrive in August, and Tesla will "begin to enable" the full autonomous driving features with that release. The company has "rightly focused entirely on safety" with previous versions, Musk said, but now it's time to spread its wings.

This doesn't guarantee that your Tesla will be a self-driving car, so you may want to forego dreams of your Model 3 traveling coast-to-coast by itself. However, the "full self-driving capability" package should actually mean something once Autopilot 9 arrives and the more advanced features kick in. There may be some situations where it's genuinely acceptable to let go of the steering wheel, even if it's limited to parking lots and other private spaces.


There's a lingering question, though: is Tesla ready to move beyond safety-related updates? Crashes with Autopilot active are still making headlines, and it's not certain that the drivers are entirely to blame. While Autopilot 9 doesn't signal the end to safety-related features (it'll include a fix for merging lanes in rush hour traffic), there's a concern that Tesla hasn't fully addressed driver anxieties before moving on. The company settled the latest lawsuit over Autopilot safety in late May.

At the same time, introducing some true autonomy features might address some safety issues. Many complain that the Autopilot name exaggerates the cars' self-driving abilities, giving some drivers the false impression that it's safe to check their phone or even leave the driver's seat. This could help Tesla more closely match those expectations and reduce the chances of a collision due to neglect, even if the initial self-driving features might only apply to a narrow set of circumstances.

Anand Krishnamurthy@anandrajk

10 Jun

Replying to @elonmusk and 2 others

Speaking of merging and autopilot the biggest issue i have noticed is when two lanes merge and it is rush hour traffic. The autopilot is not able to decide to let the car slightly ahead on the neighboring lane go ahead and I invariably find myself cornered !

Elon Musk

✔@elonmusk

That issue is better in latest Autopilot software rolling out now & fully fixed in August update as part of our long-awaited Tesla Version 9. To date, Autopilot resources have rightly focused entirely on safety. With V9, we will begin to enable full self-driving features.

6:01 AM - Jun 10, 2018

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Tesla Opens its 10,000th Supercharger Station

As reported by Engadget: Tesla's Supercharger network has come a long, long way since it was available in a handful of California towns in late 2012. The automaker has opened its 10,000th Supercharger station in Belleville, Ontario, Canada as part of a rapid expansion that (as of late May) included roughly 1,000 stations either in construction or at the permit phase. For context, it took roughly a year and a half for Tesla just to have enough EV charging stations for one coast-to-coast route in the US -- now, Superchargers blanket North America as well as significant stretches of Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East.

There's no question that Tesla's success as an EV brand (production problems notwithstanding) played a part in the expansion, but it also stems partly from the company's initial willingness to throw caution to the wind. Remember, Supercharger use was completely free for owners until 2017 -- Tesla was willing to take a financial hit to both create the infrastructure needed for long-distance trips and offer a strong incentive to use that framework. Rivals have typically had to worry more about profit, especially those that aren't attached to a car manufacturer.

As large as the network has become, though, it also underscores those gaps that are left. It's still impractical to cross some regions using Superchargers alone (most notably Canada and significant parts of China), and availability within cities is still thin. And then there's the competition. While their growth is currently slow, they're a clear reminder that Tesla isn't the only game in town. It just has advantages in performance and sheer ubiquity that may take a long time to beat.

All Cadillacs Will Have Semi-Autonomous Features Starting in 2020

As reported by Engadget: Every model Cadillac sells will be available with semi-autonomous features starting in 2020. The luxury automaker's Super Cruise system for hands-free highway driving will be available across its entire model line in two years; currently, it's exclusive to the CT6 sedan. After 2020, the feature will make its way to other GM lines including Chevrolet, Buick and GMC, according to TechCrunch.

More than that, Cadillac is also working on a "high volume" crossover vehicle that will debut around 2023 and feature vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, allowing the car to talk to everything from other vehicles, to infrastructure and other sources. So, for example, if there's road work up ahead or a light that's about to change, the car will know ahead of time and plan accordingly.

Much like how Super Cruise will make its way to other brands, so too will the V2X system, USA Today reports. And of course, Chevy is working on fully-autonomous vehicles, saying that those will first serve as taxis -- a byproduct of SoftBank's recent $2.25 billion investment.

The only way we'll get to a world where every car on the road can talk to each other is if more automakers get on board, and making sure that every new vehicle that rolls off the lot has a set of autonomous capabilities is the fastest way for us to get there. Now, we just need more automakers to follow the lead of GM and others to make it happen.