Your Tech News Digest via the DGiT Daily Tech Newsletter for Wednesday, September 23, 2020, just before the release of the Samsung Galaxy Fan Edition.
1. Tesla: No batteries to show, but battery tag anyway
Not for the first time, Tesla and Elon Musk have made some big promises and details, but in real Tesla way, much is still years away. (To be fair, Musk admitted this beforehand!)
- Find out about the event here if you missed it, and the honking of the shareholder meeting and presentation – the shareholder event starts approximately after 41 minutes, with Musk taking the stage at around 1:06:30 AM.
- The Battery Day presentation begins at around 1:40:30.
- Some high hopes were not fulfilled: There was no mention of the “million mile” battery that can last 10 years or more.
- And Tesla didn’t set any specific cost reduction targets. In the industry, this is one dollar per kilowatt hour.
- The path has been a drop from $ 400 per kW / h in 2010, which was seen as a significant obstacle at the time, to the more difficult $ 100 per kW / h in 2020.
What Tesla announced– battery:
- Tesla said it has plans to make its own “tabless” Li-on batteries that work on self-made batteries.
- Many details have been given to the cell design, which now measures 46 x 80 mm and gives them the name 4680.
- The company said this would give the cells five times the energy density, six times the power, and allow a 16% increase in range, but didn’t reveal any published performance metrics.
- The company also failed to show a prototype, but confirmed that it had built a pilot battery manufacturing facility at its Fremont facility, but it is still not working, even though the cells are not just constructions but real, working components.
- Musk said it would take “about a year” to reach serial production at the planned 10 gigawatt hours per year.
- TechCrunch has probably the best look at the big picture of new battery technology, but the evidence is evident as to when this will hit cars and consumers.
- Overall, it is unclear what exactly Tesla has here, when it will arrive and what that all means.
- A very good note: Tesla plans to eliminate the use of cobalt in its cathodes, a problematic mineral that is mined in conditions that violate human rights, as is common in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The affordable car is three years away (again):
- Part of the benefits of Tesla’s battery hopes are cheaper batteries, and therefore cheaper cars.
- While Tesla didn’t set out or comment on exact details, Musk promised to cut battery costs in half over the next several years.
- That would then lead to huge savings and deliver Tesla’s first “affordable” electric car. It could be $ 25,000 by 2025, a sum that was first promised in 2018 as feasible in three years.
- The goal was re-emphasized for three years: “In about three years,” said Musk, adding at the end of the presentation, “Tesla will make a compelling $ 25,000 electric vehicle that is also fully autonomous.”
- According to Reuters, analysts Tesla batteries will cost an estimated $ 156 per kWh in 2019. Halving it would cut prices across Tesla’s lineup and approach $ 25,000 for a new car.
Tesla’s Plaid Model S sports sedan with 1,100 hp will arrive at the end of 2021:
- Tesla’s fastest EV of all time finally had more details: Tesla promised 1,100 horsepower, 0 to 60 MPH time under two seconds, and a top speed of 200 MPH with a range of 520 miles (probably not at 200 MPH).
- Videos showed that it beat the Laguna Seca lap recordsand logged a 1: 30.3 according to Musk.
- It will retail for $ 139,000.
Lithium mining too:
- After some mentions of Tesla, which mined its own metals in 2019, Musk said the company was on the way to lithium mining “10,000 acres of lithium-clay deposits in Nevada.”
- In addition, Tesla will build a cathode system to make cathodes “76 percent cheaper”.
- Tesla believes it offers a more environmentally friendly way of extracting lithium from ore using table salt (sodium chloride).
- “Nobody has done this before, to the best of my knowledge nobody has done this,” Musk claimed.
Full self-drive?
Fast thoughts: Everything Telsa does, especially the often hyped promises made by Elon Musk, triggers a quick reaction, but many details are not yet visible, so it is difficult to assess.
- The naysayers point to nothing more heralded than a pilot plant several years away from scale production and lithium mining, which greatly exacerbates vertical integration problems.
- Other nonprofit views are encouraged that the new battery cells are now working, that Tesla no longer seemed as over the top as it was before, while verifiable details are only briefly accepted.
- Wired has a pretty good chunk somewhere in the middle that is skeptical: “Where was the battery on Tesla’s Battery Day?”
2. Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G announced: More choices for affordable 5G (Android Authority).
3. Leaks in Amazon Fire TV Stick Lite: A Rival to the Coming Chromecast? (Android Authority).
4. Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 / S7 Plus test: The only Android tablets to buy (Android Authority).
5. Fitbit Sense Review: A Work In Progress (Android Authority).
6. One of the best could get better if Jabra announces new Elite 85t earbuds and an ANC update for 75t earbuds (Android Authority).
7. Interview with Satya Nadella and Phil Spencer: How Microsoft’s CEO, Xbox boss, says they won’t screw up Bethesda (CNET)
8. After delays, Amazon’s Prime Day 2020 will begin on October 13th (CNET).
9. Oh no: “It looks like a few people who are about to be disappointed have accidentally bought Xbox One X today” (The Verge).
10. Overview of the status of the bundles in 2020: Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft (Stratechery).
11. Air Shepherd: Using drones to bring rhinos and elephants to safety (reset.org)
12. The spaceship DAPPER will investigate the ‘Dark Age’ of the universe in radio waves (phys.org).
13. “ELI5: Why does it feel better when you rub your head when you hit it?” (r / EXPLAINLEIMFIVE)
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