Shai Agassi: A bold plan for mass adoption of electric cars
http://www.ted.com Forget about the hybrid auto — Shai Agassi says it’s electric cars or bust if we want to impact emissions. His company, Better Place, has a radical plan to take entire countries oil-free by 2020.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, and “Lost” producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Watch the Top 10 TEDTalks on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/top10
Duration : 0:19:10
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Also take into …
Also take into considderation how quickly tech moves. this battery changing idea is only here because can’t think of how to charge the batt quicker. MIT claim to have a batt that can rappidly charge within about 10 seconds. supose that this battery changing system is implemented for the cost of billions what happens when the better quick charging longer lasting batt is introduced? billions to change the system again. the car of the future should be able to do that of the car of today.
Take your mobile …
Take your mobile phone as an example. yes the batt is removable ( as it should be in the car anyway) but how often do you walk into a shop and buy a new fully charged batt? evan if it cost you 2 bucks you would still end up going home and charging it. I should imagine the prospect of changing car componetnts daily would be quit alarming to some people. Shai spoke about changing horses when one is tired. imagine getting on a horse that you know nothing about and anything could be wrong with.
To add, Shai talks …
To add, Shai talks about how the end to slave trade brought on the industrial revolution. Where do u think we’d be if they’d decided instead of changing the way we utilise labor that we simply tried to find a way to make slaves work faster or make them live longer? Having swap stations where we have petrol stations. Drive in, swap and go without leaving your vehicle. How is that a step backwards?
step backwards? how …
step backwards? how is revolutionising the way a pollution emitting passenger vehicle charges its enginge a step backwards? If you swap the battery it can be maintained and kept at it’s optimum performance = has a longer life span. Example is a mobile phone. Would you rather have a phone with a built in battery and replace the whole unit when the battery dies (costing you more) or be able to swap batteries in and out when you like, legthening your user time and allowing you 2 keep the same unit?
Yeah but who foots …
Yeah but who foots the bill when a faulty batt breaks som1’s car? or when som1 crashes and breaks the batt? how are they going to be able to store the diffrent types of batt?
imagine a pump that pulses electricty all you have to do is set it to your batt and fill it like a petrol car. Technologically i think changing the batt is a step backwards its like saying change your gas tank every time you need a refill. the best thing to do is work on filling that batt quicker.
The concept is to …
The concept is to swap the battery taking a fraction of the time it takes you to fill your tank with petrol. A smart system would direct debit your account upon the machine swapping it over. Easy
Info Tidbit—-Mr. …
Info Tidbit—-Mr. Agassi had on exactly the same slick outfit here as he did on The Hour interview with George Strombolopolis.
forget all this …
forget all this charging while you stop. Is there no way to suddenly charge the battery using a pulse?
Electricity moves fast, can we not get it in to a battery quicker? you touch a cable and your body is fried instantly.
Aren’t there …
Aren’t there already more than one million hybrids on American roads today?
Yeah indeed it was …
Yeah indeed it was confusing. It’s probably best to $/100miles to compare both gasoline and EV cars for the time being. That sounds intuitive to me.
I am European and …
I am European and no matter how good the ICE get they will never beat the better place price. even if it stayed 8 cent a mile for ever. as the cars get better at using less fuel the higher the price of fuel gets. I pay 4 pounds a us gallon atm. even at 55 miles a gallon that works out to be 6 pence a mile, so 10 us cent a mile. And i tell you something I actually am prepared to pay more if it is 0 carbon. I pay more for my electricity for it to be from wind energy.
your numbers make …
your numbers make no sence
even 8 cents a mile …
even 8 cents a mile is less than what I pay now in the uk. plus my car is cheaper in the first place. So what is the issue. Batteries do follow moore’s law, but even if they did not. 8 cents is good enough for me.
Forget the numbers. …
Forget the numbers. Pared to its essentials, this is a very good idea and could be entirely workable for a large portion of the people. Any system that can use non-polluting renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro) to produce portable energy (battery, fuel cell, etc.) is a great place to start. What other viable near-term choice is there?
Yes. It helps to …
Yes. It helps to listen again (multiple times if necessary). The number 80 that Agassi refers to is, supposing a kind of Moore’s law in the future drop in cost of battery miles (better energy density, etc), by 2020 his battery miles - which are currently 8 cents/mile become 2 cents/mile.
And his supposing the 40 mile/gallon ICE automobile, his 2 cents/mile becomes an 80 cent gallon of oil. (2 * 40 = 80).
I found his use of his numbers confusing (obviously) and smacking of hucksterism.
he said 8 cents per …
he said 8 cents per mile…
If i had the …
If i had the government behind me, i would be very succesfull as well.
if i had money for …
if i had money for it, if it was practical for me(as in there were battery change stations in my city and province) i would buy this car. i would volunteer my support. i am a consumer. this company needs support from governments to make this kind of thing happen, it isn’t government “business”, it’s government interest, he has to get the government behind him, or it will never succeed, transitioning millions of gas vehicles to millions of electric is not just a market issue, it is a global one.
yes. the i-battery. …
yes. the i-battery. a white battery with wifi and an apple logo on it. genious.
Youtube ” LIFE : …
Youtube ” LIFE : laser initial fusion energy system ” (Stanford)
Shai Agassi is a …
Shai Agassi is a very smart guy but he throws around a lot of numbers sort of like holding up flash cards.
So let’s think about just one instance. 80 cents/mile for a car that gets 40 mpg. Well that works out to a price for gasoline of $32.00/gallon.
I think something big would break well before we ever got to that point. So I’m not totally in sympathy with the umptions that are made.
People dont want to …
People dont want to pay $40,000 for an electric car that is only $25,000 for the gas model. Especially right after a recession. Its simple economics, not some conspiracy
He talked a lot of …
He talked a lot of babble, but he got there in the end.
My next car will be …
My next car will be an electric car. I will never purchase another petrol ( gas ) car. A message to non believers a electric motorcycle rode past me in a shopping center last weekend. Car industry - get your dumbers and people who don’t beleive in the next phase, out of the industry - you are killing us with your canser fumes and noise when the technology exists now for electric cars.
Have the Apple …
Have the Apple engineers design the battery.