tesla

App marries Google Glass to Tesla

Google Glass may not have as much porn as it once did, but an app developer is fulfilling another techie fantasy.

How about using the wearable computer to start charging your Tesla Model S, the electric automaker's sports sedan?

Developer Sahas Katta, known for a Microsoft fracas over a Windows Phone challenge, has created an app marrying Google glass with the vehicle, according to a post of his on a Tesla forum.

Katta says the app, called GLASSTESLA, can:

View vehicle charging status or start or stop charging via Glass Open the charge port without having to get back … Read more

White House petition backs direct sales of Tesla cars

A Tesla fan is asking the White House for help. He wants the federal government to stop states from requiring that cars be sold only by third-party dealers.

In a White House petition he created, the fan asks the Obama administration to "allow Tesla Motors to sell directly to consumers in all 50 states." He believes that states shouldn't be allowed to stop the electric car company from selling autos directly to customers.

"The state legislators are trying to unfairly protect automobile dealers in their states from competition," the fan writes in the petition. "… Read more

Tesla battery swap a dead end

One hundred years ago, car makers could have devised different fuel types and filling techniques for their internal-combustion cars, and drivers would have had to visit a Ford station, a Dodge Station, a Chevy station, or whatever the make of their car, to fill the tank. Fortunately, gasoline and filling standards prevailed.

In a publicity stunt last night, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk began pushing electric cars on the nonstandard path that gasoline cars didn't take.

At Tesla's design studio in Los Angeles, Musk showed a video of a Tesla employee filling the tank of an Audi, while … Read more

Tesla demos electric battery swap in just 90 seconds

Which is faster: changing a battery in Tesla's Model S sports sedan or filling up a car's gas tank?

The electric automaker put that question to the test in a Fast Pack Swap Event captured on video Thursday.

Posted on Vimeo, the video revs up with Tesla CEO Elon Musk touting that owners of the Model S will face two choices when their car's battery is almost depleted. At a Tesla station, they can either have the battery recharged for free or have it swapped out for another battery. The choice, according to Musk, is whether you … Read more

Tesla announces partial recall on Model S vehicles

Some Tesla Model S vehicles may contain a defect, the electric car maker announced Wednesday.

According to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Model S vehicles produced between May 10 and June 8 of this year could contain an issue with the mounting bracket on the left-hand latch of the second row seat. Musk specifically said that the mounting bracket could be "weaker than intended" in the four-door sports sedans.

"This reduces our confidence that the left hand seat back will be properly retained in the event of a crash," Musk wrote in a blog post Wednesday.

Musk … Read more

Elon Musk promises Tesla battery-swap demo on June 20

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has promised a swappable-battery demo at a company event on June 20 event.

In a Tuesday tweet, Musk said the Tesla event, which will take place at 8 p.m. PT Thursday at the company's design studio in Hawthorne, Calif., will include a "live pack swap demo."

Rumors have been swirling for months that Musk's Tesla was working on a technology that would allow drivers with batteries running low to get out of one of its electric cars and swap the battery for one that's ostensibly full. That would allow for … Read more

Tesla Model S and the Top 5 electric cars: CNET (On Cars, Episode 20)

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We round up and update a bunch of favorites this episode, including a look at the Tesla Model S that, since we first saw it in fall 2012, has gone on to become about the most celebrated car in the world.

We have also updated our Top 5 Electric Cars list with two cars getting bumped by new entrants in the market; six months from now we'll do it again as more solid EVs are in the wings. It's … Read more

Tesla expanding Supercharger network for coast-to-coast drives

PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- It appears that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk got bored with the Internet. After PayPal, Musk said creating another Internet company would have been like falling off a log. Instead he went for some more risky and ambitious projects -- sustainable energy and space exploration to make life interplanetary.

The sustainable energy project turned into Tesla Motors, and that seems to be going well after years of struggles and naysayers. "If I had a dollar for every time someone brought up DeLorean or Tucker I wouldn't need to IPO," Musk said in … Read more

Tesla repays government loan early, a boost for electric cars

In what could be viewed as a shot in the arm for U.S.-made electric cars, Tesla Motors has repaid a government loan nine years early.

"Today, Tesla Automotive repaid the entire remaining balance on a $465 million loan from the Department of Energy nine years earlier than originally required," the U.S. Department of Energy said in a statement Wednesday.

That clean-energy loan was made in 2010.

And the U.S. energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, seemed to address critics of clean energy loans while trumpeting the success of Tesla.

"When you're talking about cutting-edge … Read more