Rivian R1T All-Electric Pickup Truck
November 29th, 2018I’ve mostly stopped posting about future electric vehicles (you can’t even shake a stick at all the announcements), but the Rivian R1T is particularly interesting.
Days before the Rivian R1T was officially announced, Elon Musk said that Tesla will be bringing their pickup to market much sooner than previously indicated. It’s easy to see why, if you look at what Rivian has just announced.
What’s happening with electrification and the other big players in the pickup truck sector?
With Ford, who wants to increasingly focus on milking truck profits, it could get ugly over there in a couple of years when Rivian and Tesla enter the pickup truck market. Ford only has a hybrid F-150 planned for 2020.
How about GM’s plans for an electric pickup? Maybe after another couple of decades. *chortle* A bit like fusion power plants. *snort*
My take on EVs has always been that performance and eventual cost savings will make them attractive options. Internal combustion vehicles simply can’t compete with electric models in terms of performance. Ask Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc. who all got it wrong, got their asses kicked by Tesla, EVEN IN GERMANY, and are now tripping over each other trying to catch up.
The same thing that happened to the smug German luxury brands is going to happen to pickups.
The electrification of the truck market is the next multibillion dollar opportunity that the traditional American automakers will fumble.
Ah well, maybe they’re planning to ask to be bailed out by the government again.
Via: Electrek:
Following the unveiling of the Rivian R1T all-electric pickup truck, we took a closer look at what is becoming one of the most anticipated EVs scheduled to come out in the next two years.
Here’s a ton of pictures, videos, and GIFs of the Rivian R1T, and why I ordered one.
As we already reported, the R1T’s specs are unbelievable.
It’s equipped with 4 electric motors, each a 147 kW power capacity at the wheel, while the total power output can be configured to different levels from 300 kW to 562 kW (input to gearbox).
The different power levels match different choices of battery packs, which are another impressive feature since they have the highest capacity of any other passenger electric vehicle out there: 105 kWh, 135 kWh, and 180 kWh.
Rivian says that it will translate to “230+ miles, 300+ miles, and 400+ miles” of range on a full charge.
They’re talking about a charge rate of up to 160 kW at fast-charging stations and an 11-kW onboard charger for level 2 charging.
Related:
Could Rivian Founder Become Elon Musk of Electric Pickups?
Sedans Aren’t Dead. American Sedans Are.
Chinese Government Gets Real Time Location Tracking Data On Electric Vehicles
November 29th, 2018Via: East Bay Times:
When Shan Junhua bought his white Tesla Model X, he knew it was a fast, beautiful car. What he didn’t know is that Tesla constantly sends information about the precise location of his car to the Chinese government.
Tesla is not alone. China has called upon all electric vehicle manufacturers in China to make the same kind of reports — potentially adding to the rich kit of surveillance tools available to the Chinese government as President Xi Jinping steps up the use of technology to track Chinese citizens.
“I didn’t know this,” said Shan. “Tesla could have it, but why do they transmit it to the government? Because this is about privacy.”
More than 200 manufacturers, including Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Mitsubishi and U.S.-listed electric vehicle startup NIO, transmit position information and dozens of other data points to government-backed monitoring centers, The Associated Press has found. Generally, it happens without car owners’ knowledge.
The automakers say they are merely complying with local laws, which apply only to alternative energy vehicles. Chinese officials say the data is used for analytics to improve public safety, facilitate industrial development and infrastructure planning, and to prevent fraud in subsidy programs.
But other countries that are major markets for electronic vehicles — the United States, Japan, across Europe — do not collect this kind of real-time data.
Former Federal Prosecutor Behind Jeffrey Epstein Deal Is Now Trump’s Secretary of Labor
November 28th, 2018Via: Miami Herald:
Facing a 53-page federal indictment, Epstein could have ended up in federal prison for the rest of his life.
But on the morning of the breakfast meeting, a deal was struck — an extraordinary plea agreement that would conceal the full extent of Epstein’s crimes and the number of people involved.
Not only would Epstein serve just 13 months in the county jail, but the deal — called a non-prosecution agreement — essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe into whether there were more victims and other powerful people who took part in Epstein’s sex crimes, according to a Miami Herald examination of thousands of emails, court documents and FBI records.
The pact required Epstein to plead guilty to two prostitution charges in state court. Epstein and four of his accomplices named in the agreement received immunity from all federal criminal charges. But even more unusual, the deal included wording that granted immunity to “any potential co-conspirators’’ who were also involved in Epstein’s crimes. These accomplices or participants were not identified in the agreement, leaving it open to interpretation whether it possibly referred to other influential people who were having sex with underage girls at Epstein’s various homes or on his plane.
As part of the arrangement, Acosta agreed, despite a federal law to the contrary, that the deal would be kept from the victims. As a result, the non-prosecution agreement was sealed until after it was approved by the judge, thereby averting any chance that the girls — or anyone else — might show up in court and try to derail it.
This is the story of how Epstein, bolstered by unlimited funds and represented by a powerhouse legal team, was able to manipulate the criminal justice system, and how his accusers, still traumatized by their pasts, believe they were betrayed by the very prosecutors who pledged to protect them.
“I don’t think anyone has been told the truth about what Jeffrey Epstein did,’’ said one of Epstein’s victims, Michelle Licata, now 30. “He ruined my life and a lot of girls’ lives. People need to know what he did and why he wasn’t prosecuted so it never happens again.”
Now President Trump’s secretary of labor, Acosta, 49, oversees a massive federal agency that provides oversight of the country’s labor laws, including human trafficking. He also has been on a list of possible replacements for former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who resigned under pressure earlier this month.
Estimated Autism Rate in U.S. Is 1 in 40 Children
November 26th, 2018In other news, screen addicted babies.
Via: U.S. News:
An estimated 1 in 40 U.S. children have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and many struggle to access treatment, according to a new study led by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration.
Autism diagnoses have risen slightly in the last 20 years, and the figure cited in the new study – 1 in 40, or 1.5 million children – is higher than a previous government estimate. Yet the true scope of the condition remains unknown, according to the report, which was published in the medical journal Pediatrics and used data collected voluntarily from parents of more than 50,000 children ages 3 to 17 in 2016.
Google Pays $1 Billion for Huge Mountain View Business Park
November 26th, 2018“All the better to see you with, my dear.”
Via: The Mercury News:
In a head-spinning mega-deal, Google has paid $1 billion for a huge Mountain View business park, the Bay Area’s largest real estate purchase this year.
It is also the second-largest property purchase in the United States this year, eclipsed only by another Google acquisition, the $2.4 billion the company paid for Chelsea Market in Manhattan.
The newly acquired site in Mountain View, where Google has been the primary tenant, is larger than the property that accommodates the company’s Googleplex headquarters a few blocks to the west and also exceeds the size of the parcel across the street where Google is building an iconic “dome” campus that features canopies and tents.
Harvesting Battery Modules from Wrecked Tesla Model X 90D
November 26th, 2018Via: HBPowerwall:
GM to Slash Jobs and Production, Cancel Some Car Models
November 26th, 2018Via: Reuters:
General Motors Co will cut car production, stop building several low-selling car models, and slash its North American workforce, sources said on Monday, marking its biggest restructuring in North America since its bankruptcy a decade ago.
GM plans to halt production at three assembly plants in Canada, in Ohio and Michigan in the United States by not allocating new products, putting the future of those plants in doubt, the sources added.
…
GM has begun what is expected to be a long and expensive transition to a new model that embraces electrified and automated vehicles, many of which will be shared rather than owned.
World’s First Gene-Edited Babies Created in China, Claims Scientist
November 26th, 2018Via: Guardian:
A scientist in China claims to have created the world’s first genetically edited babies, in a potentially ground-breaking and controversial medical first.
If true, it would be a profound leap of science and ethics. This kind of gene editing is banned in most countries as the technology is still experimental and DNA changes can pass to future generations, potentially with unforeseen side-effects.
Many mainstream scientists think it is too unsafe to try, and some denounced the Chinese report as human experimentation.
The researcher, He Jiankui of Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, said he altered embryos for seven couples during fertility treatments, with one pregnancy resulting so far. He said his goal was not to cure or prevent an inherited disease, but to try to bestow a trait that few people naturally have: an ability to resist possible future infection with HIV.
He said the parents involved declined to be identified or interviewed, and he would not say where they lived or where the work was done. There is no independent confirmation of He’s claim, and it has not been published in a journal, where it would be vetted by other experts.
He revealed it on Monday in Hong Kong to one of the organisers of an international conference on gene editing that is due to begin on Tuesday, and earlier in interviews with the Associated Press.
Google Patents Reveal Plans to Monitor Our Moods, Our Movements, and Our Children’s Behavior at Home
November 25th, 2018I found myself thinking of a haiku about an imaginary situation in which my father (who died a while back) would be standing in a room, arguing with one of these “smart” speakers and eventually challenging it to a fight with his weapon of choice, a yard-long section of 2×4 lumber.
Old man stands bugeyed
Smart device suggests smooth jazz
2×4 held high
We don’t know what prompted dad to perceive that he needed to take up his combat stance, but the AI sensed danger and somehow knew that dad liked smooth jazz.
Has the AI come up with a way to survive one more encounter with dad?
We exit the scenario with the 2×4 drawn back fully into striking position…
Via: PJ Media:
Patents recently issued to Google provide a window into their development activities. While it’s no guarantee of a future product, it is a sure indication of what’s of interest to them. What we’ve given up in privacy to Google, Facebook, and others thus far is minuscule compared to what is coming if these companies get their way.
These patents tell us that Google is developing smart-home products that are capable of eavesdropping on us throughout our home in order to learn more about us and better target us with advertising. It goes much further than the current Google Home speaker that’s promoted to answer our questions and provide useful information, and the Google-owned Nest thermostat that measures environmental conditions in our home. What the patents describe are sensors and cameras mounted in every room to follow us and analyze what we’re doing throughout our home.
They describe how the cameras can even recognize the image of a movie star’s image on a resident’s t-shirt, connect it to the person’s browsing history, and send the person an ad for a new movie the star is in.
U.S. Closes Mexican Border Crossing, Repels Some Migrants with Tear Gas
November 25th, 2018Via: Reuters:
The United States closed its busiest border crossing with Mexico on Sunday after Mexican police broke up a protest of Central American migrants massed in Tijuana, scattering some demonstrators toward the border where U.S. officers hurled tear gas from the American side.
Traffic in both directions was suspended at the San Ysidro port of entry between San Diego and Tijuana, the busiest land border in the Western Hemisphere, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said on Twitter.
Mexican police, some wielding shields, scattered migrants and protesters, many of whom rushed toward the U.S. border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers repelled them with a volley of canisters emitting large clouds of gas as U.S. and Mexican government helicopters clattered overhead.
The Mexican government said later on Sunday it had retaken control of the border crossing after nearly 500 migrants tried to cross the U.S. border “in a violent manner,” and vowed to immediately deport Central Americans who attempt to enter the United States illegally.
