Tag Archives: innovation

Reviews

The new Tesla electric is a screamer

You may or may not have heard about Tesla Motors – if you haven’t, you’ll soon get an earful, and not just from me. There are plenty of other people (Wired News, Wired’s Autopia, Jalopnik, LA Weekly, New York Times, USA Today, LA Times, SF Gate, Washington Post, CBS Evening News, American Public Media’s Marketplace, CNET News, Newsweek) singing the praises of this amazing electric sports car. Here are just a few highlights:

  • 100% electric
  • 0 to 60 mph in about 4 seconds
  • 250 miles per charge
  • Equivalent consumption: 135 mpg
  • Gorgeous styling, amazing responsiveness
  • Truly innovative
  • Rule-breaker
  • Have a look at the tech specs for the other details

Tesla Motors just held a launch party for this amazing car – in CA, where it is based and funded by Silicon Valley millionaires. The event was invitation-only: selected potential buyers and journalists got the special invites, and each of them got chauffered around in the hot little roadster.

With all the excitement surrounding it, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that it’s amazingly energy efficient given its capabilities. Yes, you read correctly above: its equivalent consumption (in miles per gallon) at the current cost of electricity is 135 mpg. It costs about a cent per mile to drive!

If you want to see it in action, CBS News has a video posted alongside the article right here. It also features the Governator – Arnold himself – in the passenger seat, getting a really fast test drive around the hangar where the launch party took place.

Of course, there are also tons of photos available. I posted a few below, and there are a ton more on the Tesla site.

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Reviews

Three-wheeling in the city with Clever

The CLEVERCNET News has photos of the Clever, a new three-wheel sub-compact vehicle released in Europe. It gets the equivalent of 108 mpg and it looks great, too! Where can I get one? (Photo courtesy of CNET News and The Clever Group)

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Reviews

Robot runs over water

Assistant professor Metin Sitti at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh developed a little robot that can run over water. The professor looked to nature for his inspiration, in particular to the basilisk lizard, which creates little air pockets as it slaps the water with its feet. He created both two-legged and four-legged robotic lizards that can scurry across the water surface at .8 m/sec (that’s almost 3 feet per second). Pretty cool! Here’s the link to the Discovery News article.

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How To

Catch that hard drive before it croaks

Tom Krazit, writing for CNETNews.com, describes a piece of software called HDDLife Utility, that monitors the health of hard drives and lets you know how much longer they’ll last. This lets you plan data backups, so you’re prepared and most importantly, you don’t lose it! See link for details.

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Reviews

Wireless PC Lock

This USB Wireless PC Lock from Think Geek is pretty innovative. It’s made of two pieces, a USB dongle which attaches to your PC and a battery-powered keychain transmitter. As soon as the transmitter is more than 2 meters away from the PC, the PC is automatically locked. Once you get back within 2 meters, it’s unlocked. Available at Think Geek for $29.99.

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