Future Cars: Electric and Autonomous Vehicles
-
- Stone Arch Bridge
- Posts: 7942
- Joined: June 19th, 2012, 2:04 pm
- Location: NORI: NOrth of RIchfield
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
FYI if you need to trench to your garage for solar on it... Put your mast on your garage, put your solar equipment in your garage, and put a master distro in your garage. Then trench to your master panel in your house. Then you won't have Xcel lines over your backyard.
-
- IDS Center
- Posts: 4760
- Joined: December 4th, 2012, 11:41 am
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
Ok! I will ask our solar guy about that. Thanks for the tip!
- mister.shoes
- Wells Fargo Center
- Posts: 1287
- Joined: November 26th, 2012, 10:22 am
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
We had Xcel bury our main line when we built our garage in 2012, but the meter is still on the back of the house. No lines over the backyard is glorious. I also have two 1.5" (I think) conduits running between the house and garage. One holds power for the garage; the other has coax and cat-6 because nerd. I don't think I'd have enough conduit capacity to run the wire needed for solar or EV charging, so...yeah.
This discussion is also making me regret the direction of our garage roof. Running the ridgeline N-S makes adding solar panels a no-go, even on a 10/12 pitch. Unless it's possible to capture enough early morning and late afternoon MN sun to be worth it.
This discussion is also making me regret the direction of our garage roof. Running the ridgeline N-S makes adding solar panels a no-go, even on a 10/12 pitch. Unless it's possible to capture enough early morning and late afternoon MN sun to be worth it.
The problem with being an introvert online is that no one knows you're just hanging out and listening.
-
- IDS Center
- Posts: 4760
- Joined: December 4th, 2012, 11:41 am
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
I'll ask our solar guy about the buried line option too. I hadn't considered things like coax and cat-6, but that's a good idea.mister.shoes wrote: ↑July 11th, 2017, 9:30 amWe had Xcel bury our main line when we built our garage in 2012, but the meter is still on the back of the house. No lines over the backyard is glorious. I also have two 1.5" (I think) conduits running between the house and garage. One holds power for the garage; the other has coax and cat-6 because nerd. I don't think I'd have enough conduit capacity to run the wire needed for solar or EV charging, so...yeah.
Yeah, my understanding is that's basically a no-go for solar. Our house has side gables which means most of the roof is unusable for solar but it has a large front dormer that lets us put several panels up there. If we ever move, E-W facing gables would be a requirement along with a garage amenable to solar PV.mister.shoes wrote: ↑July 11th, 2017, 9:30 amThis discussion is also making me regret the direction of our garage roof. Running the ridgeline N-S makes adding solar panels a no-go, even on a 10/12 pitch. Unless it's possible to capture enough early morning and late afternoon MN sun to be worth it.
One contractor did suggest stands to angle panels to the south on the main roof, but another said that was basically a ridiculous idea, so who knows? Might be worth looking into if it's your only option.
We did have to take down a large voluntary elm over the garage to remove shade, so that's not great but we will plant more trees. Our crabapple also bit the dust because of disease so our backyard went from (literally) almost no direct sunlight to almost no shade (!).
- FISHMANPET
- IDS Center
- Posts: 4602
- Joined: June 6th, 2012, 2:19 pm
- Location: Corcoran
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
Yo taking down mature trees in an urban environment and building an entire garage suited to solar seems like a gigantic pain in the ass, when we can just stick solar panels out in the prairie where they won't disturb anything.
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
As a heads up, I'm going to move these last couple pages over to the new green living thread in Anything Goes when I get home from work, as we've veered off a ways from future cars.
Joey Senkyr
joey.senkyr@outlook.com
joey.senkyr@outlook.com
-
- Capella Tower
- Posts: 3940
- Joined: June 3rd, 2012, 9:33 pm
- Location: Merriam Park, St. Paul
- Contact:
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
mattaudio wrote: ↑July 11th, 2017, 9:22 amFYI if you need to trench to your garage for solar on it... Put your mast on your garage, put your solar equipment in your garage, and put a master distro in your garage. Then trench to your master panel in your house. Then you won't have Xcel lines over your backyard.
Well, if youre trenching you'dight as well get some sewer lines and extra lv innthe ground.
Q. What, what? A. In da butt.
- Anondson
- IDS Center
- Posts: 4055
- Joined: July 21st, 2013, 8:57 pm
- Location: Where West Minneapolis Once Was
Future cars / Driverless cars
House passes legislation to prevent states from outlawing self-driving vehicles.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos ... SKCN1BH2B2
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos ... SKCN1BH2B2
-
- US Bank Plaza
- Posts: 667
- Joined: March 4th, 2016, 7:55 am
- Location: Oh, no, the burbs!
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
This seems like sort of a big deal: Bob Lutz (formerly of General Motors) says the end is nigh for cars & car culture:
http://www.autonews.com/article/2017110 ... es-goodbye
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
http://www.autonews.com/article/2017110 ... es-goodbye
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
-
- US Bank Plaza
- Posts: 667
- Joined: March 4th, 2016, 7:55 am
- Location: Oh, no, the burbs!
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
And then there’s this: Waymo is cutting out (front seat) drivers from their autonomous cars already. (In Phoenix, where there’s no rain or snow, or much of anything.)
Waymo’s Autonomous Cars Cut Out Human Drivers in Road Tests - The New York Times
https://apple.news/AFqun8gAuRiOE3PLiagmYFg
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Waymo’s Autonomous Cars Cut Out Human Drivers in Road Tests - The New York Times
https://apple.news/AFqun8gAuRiOE3PLiagmYFg
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
-
- US Bank Plaza
- Posts: 667
- Joined: March 4th, 2016, 7:55 am
- Location: Oh, no, the burbs!
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
(Sorry; just figured out how to remove my Tapatalk signature. It’s gone)
-
- US Bank Plaza
- Posts: 667
- Joined: March 4th, 2016, 7:55 am
- Location: Oh, no, the burbs!
Future cars / Driverless cars
Ha ha. Well, as it says, it was the human driver’s error (as it is in virtually every case).talindsay wrote: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41923814
Roads & streets will be much, much safer when computers direct vehicles. It’s almost like we can’t trust humans with speed or attention.
-
- Wells Fargo Center
- Posts: 1112
- Joined: June 1st, 2012, 8:03 am
- Location: Sommerset Knolls
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
A human would not have driven into a truck that was attempting into enter a loading dock. True driverless cars are 35+ years out.
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
Driverless cars are a race with a ridiculous number of runners, who have varying degrees of funding, talent, seriousness, and expertise. Unless the mistakes and accidents we see are coming from the biggest players, I wouldn't read into them too much as a read on how close the tech is to market.
Personally, I tend to think the tech actually is pretty close to market, but the social and planning consequences are poorly understood, and probably not as massive as everyone's making them out to be.
Personally, I tend to think the tech actually is pretty close to market, but the social and planning consequences are poorly understood, and probably not as massive as everyone's making them out to be.
-
- IDS Center
- Posts: 4760
- Joined: December 4th, 2012, 11:41 am
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
In general terms, I think the tech is pretty close. But I wouldn't say it's close to market. It's the edge cases that will get you and it seems like we need a lot more simulation, etc. to make sure we have as many of those covered as possible.
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
something i just thought of as an electric car driver: How terrible would it be if your self-driving electric car ran out of battery on the way to pick you up? it would just be on the side of (or possibly in the middle of) a road somewhere and you'd have to go and search for it to even know where it is. (i suppose the same applies for gasoline, to a lesser extent)
-
- IDS Center
- Posts: 4760
- Joined: December 4th, 2012, 11:41 am
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
Given the range of today's vehicles, by the time autoomous vehicles are widely available there will be no range issues at all and charging will likely be time-competitive to filling the gas tank.
ICE-based vehicles are rapidly losing their edge.
ICE-based vehicles are rapidly losing their edge.
Re: Future cars / Driverless cars
I've gotta imagine a fully self-driving car would have a software check to prevent it from starting a trip it didn't have the range to finish.
Joey Senkyr
joey.senkyr@outlook.com
joey.senkyr@outlook.com
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: amiller92 and 4 guests