The Nürburgring Conquest and V10 On the Horizon - Everything New This Week in the World of Tesla

Tesla Strives to Beat Porsche at the Nürburgring

At the launch of the new Porsche Taycan, Porsche knew that Tesla and their eleven year old technology had them beat, except for one category. Porsche was dead-set on having their Taycan be faster around the track and thus sell it as more of a driver’s car.

Of course anyone who’s sat in the driver’s seat of a Model S (especially the Raven cars) would know that with their low center of gravity, they can corner at neck-snapping velocities. Porsche confidently came out of the gate at the Taycan launch with their relatively quick 7:42, but after a tweet received by CEO Elon Musk, he and his team became determined to prove that with their superior technology, they could beat Porsche’s time.

They began at home, in Monterey County at the EV proving ground, The Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway. On that track they claim to have set the record for the four door sedan segment, which is a very impressive feat considering Teslas have been known for their temporary reduction in performance only after a few minutes on the track. The epic then continued, this time taking a red and a blue Model S “Plaid” to the Nürburgring track in Germany, in hopes to defeat the Taycan on its own soil.

Upon their arrival in Germany, Tesla was seen testing both cars on the track and these “Plaid” variants had some notable differences. As one can see below, the opening in the front bumper is bigger, most likely to allow for better cooling. In addition, the fenders are flared to accommodate the wider racing tires. These fender flares look to me like just some plastic pieces, most likely tacked on in the tent in which they used to build Model 3s. There is also a rather large plastic rear wing attached, presumably for more downforce around corners.

In addition to all of this, it earns its “Plaid” name through the new Roadster powertrain which uses two rear motors and one in the front, instead of the previous one in the rear, one in the front configuration.

Eyewitnesses said to have timed the car going around the famous track at 7:23, about 20 seconds faster than the Taycan. Due to the fact that this lap was not during a time where Tesla had the track all to themselves, most suspected that they could do even better. Well, good news speculators, you were right. In a recent tweet by Tesla they expand upon the previously hand timed 7:23 and say,

“Data from our track tests indicates that Model S Plaid can achieve 7:20 at the Nürburgring. With some improvements, 7:05 may be possible when Model S returns next month.”

If you weren’t excited enough before, now’s the time to get pumped; The possibility of a 7:05 lap time would put the Model S well above even super-limited cars like the Jaguar XE SV Project 8 which ran an impressive 7:21. Tesla’s new lap time isn’t official as the German track doesn’t allow official times to be clocked in during these “Industry Pool” sessions. Speculators also argue that the “Plaid” variant isn’t a production car as it hasn’t gone into production. Well to that I say that Tesla has stated that it will go into production and while the Taycan was doing it’s lap it was not in production either. If you’re not willing to sell your house and children for this car now, I suspect you will be in a month or so when Tesla will have the track all to themselves!

Tesla’s V10 Software Enters Early Access Testing

Ever since Tesla has gotten onto the Fall massive software update schedule, the holiday’s have consistently come early for us Tesla owners. This new Version 10 update packs a much bigger punch than all of those little “bug fixes” updates we see throughout the year. From your cars’ favorite food to Netflix and chill at a supercharger, V10’s release notes are sure to become a piece of classic literature, here are only three of the best features:

1. I’m feeling lucky/hungry

When us peasant V9 users tap on “Navigate” at the top of the screen we only see two options; work and home. With V10 two new options will be added, I’m Feeling Lucky, and I’m Feeling Hungry. “Hungry” will take you to a nearby restaurant which is frequently navigated to by other Tesla owners, and “Lucky” will take you to a cool place nearby that you may have not known was there. The introduction of both of these new features are just another great example of why owning a car from a company founded in the 21st Century has a surplus of benefits.

2. Tesla Theater

A feature that has been tweeted about endlessly for months is the ability to watch Netflix and Youtube while your car is parked. Although for the lucky few Early Access members who already have V10, they can stream

endless video through the satellite connection through the car, once released, it will only be available while on Wifi. The feature will also allow you to watch Tesla’s very own tutorial videos if you are a new owner or just want to obtain a deeper understanding of your personal laptop on wheels. Elon Musk also mentioned a while ago that Wifi connections would be installed at more Superchargers, however we have yet to see this fully come to fruition.

3. Sentry Mode Refinements

As an avid user of the Sentry Mode and Teslacam features, I find it immensely annoying how every three or four weeks, I have to unplug the USB stick and clear the memory. If you don’t you’ll have that pesky red exclamation mark at the top of the screen, where every time you get in you fear that something has gone wrong, but then you realize that you just can’t save the video of that cute bunny that ran across the road while you were driving. With a new V10 feature, it will automatically clear old Sentry footage from your drive once it is full, which means that you will almost never have to manually clear it again. This feature is a massive streamline to the somewhat difficult to figure out Sentry and Teslacam features.

Mack Trucks is Bringing Electric Garbage Trucks to NYC

As a person who lives in New York City, I not only have to breathe the toxic air, (when I’m not in my HEPA filtered Model X of course) but listen to the loud and polluting noises of trucks as they drive by at all hours of the night. One of the culprits is garbage trucks, with their constant stops and droning of the exhaust, they drastically take away from the overall charm of the city, while polluting the air and atmosphere. According to Mack Trucks, these new electric trash-haulers will use their own developed electric powertrain specifically designed for city use.

Beginning in 2020, they will be testing these new trucks in the five boroughs and eventually roll them out of the testing program and into implementation. Even though they’re not as nice to look at as the Tesla Semi, this would definitely help the city in their 80% reduced emissions by 2050 goal and all residents should be excited about these positive steps taken.

‍