Blogs
Rules for choosing a Presidential nominee
Submitted by brad on Thu, 2019-01-17 11:32
As we enter election season, people wonder who the right candidate for the Democrats (or never-Trumpers) to stand against Trump is.
There are many factors, but let me start with some generic factors for the Democrats at any time.
EVSEs (car chargers) should be designed to do pass-through on dryer plugs
Submitted by brad on Wed, 2019-01-16 12:34
As an update to my proposal for a special circuit breaker to assist in managing home power I thought I would propose a much simpler alternative for those who have a dryer plug in their garage.
Big OEMs wouldn't mind a robocar slowdown one bit
Submitted by brad on Tue, 2019-01-15 12:28
We continue to see lots of reports of a "pull back" on robocars, a "winter" of sorts. It is often presented as "the problem was harder than people expected" I discussed some of this in the prelude to my 2018 year in review.
Let passengers reserve space in the overhead bins
Submitted by brad on Mon, 2019-01-14 12:02
The news from CES is there wasn't much news from CES
Submitted by brad on Fri, 2019-01-11 12:47
My feet are aching, as usual, after 3 days on the CES show floor, and the question people always ask others there is "what have you seen that was interesting?"
Tesla in autopilot whacks a robot at CES (or does it?)
Submitted by brad on Mon, 2019-01-07 16:29I'm on my way to CES tonight, and am surprised to have not seen much robocar news yet from there. I'll publish some reports of what I see. The first modest announcement is the creation of a public education collective called PAVE which is the first consortium to have almost all the major players.
If you're a computer nerd, buy the Tesla model 3
Submitted by brad on Fri, 2019-01-04 11:47
As I posted earlier I purchased a Tesla Model 3, the mid-range version with one motor and autopilot.
There are many reviews of this car out there, so I will go quickly over the common issues to get to areas I can give a special perspective on.
If Tesla wants to show off advanced summon, it could start at their superchargers
Submitted by brad on Thu, 2019-01-03 11:40
Robocar Year in Review for 2018
Submitted by brad on Sun, 2018-12-30 18:54
to learn from the crash damage.
The utilitarian math overwhelming says we should be aggressive in robocar development. How do we do that?
Submitted by brad on Thu, 2018-12-20 11:00A frequent theme of mine has been my identification of "proving you have done it" as the greatest challenge in producing a safe robocar.

Can we have self-regulation of customer satisfaction surveys?
Submitted by brad on Wed, 2018-12-19 12:42I've ranted a few times about the flood of customer satisfaction surveys we get. It seems you can't buy a tube of toothpaste without being pushed to fill out a survey on it.
Anthony Levandowski, Jiajun Zhu and Dave Furguson, all formerly of Google Car, make big announcements
Submitted by brad on Tue, 2018-12-18 12:05By coincidence we see two significant announcements today from people who were former leaders on the Google car project, now in their own companies.

Will AI bias be that hard to correct for?
Submitted by brad on Fri, 2018-12-14 11:41
Scooters are so efficient we should fix them, not ban them
Submitted by brad on Wed, 2018-12-12 11:54Scooters from Lime and Bird have been causing a stir as they move quickly into cities. There's been blowback, because riders travel recklessly, often on sidewalks, and they also leave scooters just lying on the sidewalk, blocking things, because as dockless scooters you can drop them anywhere. Riders are also getting hurt, these are not the safest things to ride.
So cities are striking back, trying to stop, regulate or collect money from these scooter operators.
Re-examining Bitcoin price collapses
Submitted by brad on Fri, 2018-12-07 13:00Uber dares to return, Senate pushes law, and query about recharging scooters
Submitted by brad on Thu, 2018-12-06 13:49Some news items, and then some analysis of the energy needed to reposition and charge all the dockless scooters from Lime and Bird.
Waymo soft launches in Phoenix, but...
Submitted by brad on Wed, 2018-12-05 13:21
Waymo announced today they will begin commercial operations in the Phoenix area under the name "Waymo One." Waymo has promised that it would happen this year, and it is a huge milestone, but I can't avoid a small bit of disappointment.
A circuit breaker designed for electric cars to lower costs
Submitted by brad on Tue, 2018-12-04 13:38
While I was watching a rocket lifting some of my friend's satellites into space from my driveway yesterday, my new electric Tesla car was delivered to that driveway.
To discuss transportation, we must agree on what the goals of a transport system are
Submitted by brad on Tue, 2018-11-27 13:11
People love mass transit. By this, I mean there are a lot of people who, either for historical or emotional reasons, love transit as a good in itself, rather than a means to various ends.