#Electric Vehicle & Tesla
First of all thank you all for liking my last post so much... My today's post is about Electric Vehicles... As we see in #IAA 2017 (International Motor show, Germany) all the renowned automotive brands launched there electric vehicle/concepts either it's a sports car or a SUV or a hatchback, electric vehicles are the most popular and required technology of current time...
Now, the very first question arrives in our mind is
what is an electric car and how it is different from an IC engine cars...?
An electric car is an automobile that is covered by one or more electronic Motors, using electrical energy stored in rechargeable batteries. Compared with cars with internal combustion (IC) engines, electric cars are quieter and have no tailpipe emissions. When recharged by low-emission electrical power sources, electric vehicles can reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to IC engines. Where oil is imported, use of electric vehicles can reduce imports.
About IC engine...
An internal combustion engine (ICE) is a heat engine where the combustion of fuel occurs with the oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of working fluid flow circuit. Internal combustion engine, the expansion of high temperature and high pressure gas is produced by combustion of engine. The force is applied typically to Piston, turbine blades, rotor or a nozzle. This force Moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into useful mechanical energy.
Electric Engine...
Electric motor/engine is an electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. The reverse of this is the conversion of mechanical energy into electrical energy and is done by electric generator. Electric motors operates through the interaction between electric motor's magnetic field and winding current to generate force.
When we talk about Electric Vehicles the very first name came in our mind is
TESLA MOTORS...
Tesla, Inc. (Tesla Motors) is an American automaker, energy storage company, and Solar Panel manufacturer based in Palo Alto, California, 2003. Tesla is named after a Serbian electrical engineer and physicist, Nikola Tesla. The company specialized in electric car, Lithium ion battery energy storage, and through their solarcity subsidiary, residential solar panels.
Tesla first gained widespread attention following production of the Roadster, the first mass-produced electric sports car, in February 2008. The company's second vehicle, the Model S, an electric luxury sedan, debuted in June 2012 and is built at the Tesla Factory in California. The Model S has been the world's best-selling plug-in electric car for two years in a row, 2015 and 2016. Its global sales achieved the 150,000 unit milestone in November 2016, four years and five months after its introduction. As of December 2016, the Model S ranks as the world's all-time second best-selling plug-in after the Nissan Leaf.
Tesla's fourth vehicle that is designed for the mass-market is the Model 3, which was unveiled in March 2016 and its production started in July 2017 with a base price of US$35,000, before any government incentives.
Tesla global sales passed the 200,000 unit milestone in March 2017, making the car maker the second largest global pure electric car manufacturer after the Renault–Nissan Alliance.
Tesla Auto Pilot
Tesla Autopilot is a driver assist feature offered by Tesla. The company's stated intent is to offer fully autonomous driving at a future time, acknowledging that legal, regulatory and technical hurdles must be overcome to achieve this goal. Tesla plans to demonstrate full self-driving by the end of 2017 and to enable it by 2019.
Autopilot was first offered on October 9, 2014, for Tesla Model S, followed by the Model X upon its release. Autopilot was part of a US$2,500 "Tech Package" option. At that time Autopilot features included semi-autonomous drive and parking capabilities. Initial versions of Autopilot were developed in partnership with the Israeli company Mobileye. Tesla and Mobileye ended their partnership in July 2016.
In October 2015, Tesla released software package version 7.0 with Autopilot to its customers. In December 2015, Tesla announced that it will remove some self-driving features to discourage customers from engaging in risky behavior. Autopilot Firmware 7.1 made those changes and includes remote parking technology known as Summon that can park and "unpark" without the driver in the car.
On August 31, 2016, Elon Musk announced Autopilot Firmware 8.0, that processes radar signals to create a coarse point cloud similar to Lidar to help navigate in low visibility conditions, and even to 'see' in front of the car ahead. Autopilot, as of version 8, uses radar as the primary sensor instead of the camera. In November 2016, Autopilot 8.0 was updated to have a more noticeable signal that it is engaged and it requires drivers to touch the steering wheel more frequently, otherwise Autopilot will turn off. By November 2016, Autopilot had operated actively on hardware version 1 vehicles for 300 million miles (500 million km) and 1.3 billion miles (2 billion km) in shadow mode.
Autopilot was first offered on October 9, 2014, for Tesla Model S, followed by the Model X upon its release. Autopilot was part of a US$2,500 "Tech Package" option. At that time Autopilot features included semi-autonomous drive and parking capabilities. Initial versions of Autopilot were developed in partnership with the Israeli company Mobileye. Tesla and Mobileye ended their partnership in July 2016.
In October 2015, Tesla released software package version 7.0 with Autopilot to its customers. In December 2015, Tesla announced that it will remove some self-driving features to discourage customers from engaging in risky behavior. Autopilot Firmware 7.1 made those changes and includes remote parking technology known as Summon that can park and "unpark" without the driver in the car.
On August 31, 2016, Elon Musk announced Autopilot Firmware 8.0, that processes radar signals to create a coarse point cloud similar to Lidar to help navigate in low visibility conditions, and even to 'see' in front of the car ahead. Autopilot, as of version 8, uses radar as the primary sensor instead of the camera. In November 2016, Autopilot 8.0 was updated to have a more noticeable signal that it is engaged and it requires drivers to touch the steering wheel more frequently, otherwise Autopilot will turn off. By November 2016, Autopilot had operated actively on hardware version 1 vehicles for 300 million miles (500 million km) and 1.3 billion miles (2 billion km) in shadow mode.
Hardware Used
Hardware 1
Vehicles manufactured after late September 2014 are equipped with a camera mounted at the top of the windshield, forward looking radar (supplied by Bosch) in the lower grill and ultrasonic acoustic location sensors in the front and rear bumpers that provide a 360-degree view around the car. The computer is the Mobileye EyeQ3. This equipment allows Model S to detect road signs, lane markings, obstacles, and other vehicles. Upgrading from Hardware 1 to Hardware 2 is not offered as it would require substantial work and cost.
Hardware 2
Hardware 2, included in all vehicles manufactured after October 2016, includes an Nvidia Drive PX 2 GPU for CUDA based GPGPU computation. Tesla claimed that Hardware 2 provided the necessary equipment to allow full self-driving capability at SAE Level 5. The hardware includes 8 surround cameras and 12 ultrasonic sensors, in addition to forward-facing radar with enhanced processing capabilities. The Autopilot computer is replaceable to allow for future upgrades. The radar is claimed to be able to observe beneath and ahead of the vehicle in front of the Tesla; the radar can see vehicles through heavy rain, fog or dust.
Comments
Post a Comment