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If they are successful in getting the world to switch to electric vehicles (and I hope they are) then they may not even need these in the future.

mtgx 10y ago
This really should've been an ICE car feature: "Don't worry about all the pollution you're causing outside with your humongous SUV - you're safe inside."
wolf550e 10y ago
Fossil-fuel power plants that charge a Tesla pollute quite a bit, so you need to switch to electric vehicles and non-polluting energy generation to fix air pollution.
- r00fus 10y ago
  That's a red herring, unless you're going to do a full EROEI and compare the cost of petroleum extraction and delivery with the power generated from a power plant. Electric cars are simply cleaner - and by far. It gets far more interesting once you add in externalities like wars for oil or the nascent pervasiveness of solar power.
  - seanp2k2 10y ago
    Someone did: http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/electric-cars-green http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/electric-cars-green TL;DR right now EVs pollute about as much as a normal car getting 40MPG. There were ICE cars in the mid 80s doing better than that on combined mpg: http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-transportation/green-vehicles/miles-per-gallon-cars-zb0z11zblon.aspx http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-transportation/green-ve... Edit: solar was 0.6% of total power generated in the US in 2015 : https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3 Solar panels aren't the easiest thing to manufacture. Consider how much energy mining and refining the toxic components and intermediaries of cells uses. http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/solar-energy-isnt-always-as-green-as-you-think http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/solar-energy-isnt-...
- jsingleton 10y ago
  While this is true, it depends on what you mean by pollution. Air quality (NO, PM etc.) is highly localised and simply walking or cycling on a quieter road is better for your health. So moving energy generation away from population centres helps a lot here. See Bankside and Battersea power stations in London for examples. Additionally, modern power stations have very strict air quality rules and heavily scrub their exhaust fumes to almost totally remove hazardous (to health) substances. This is much easier at industrial scale than on car exhausts. See SELCHP for an example. Obviously none of this is relevant to the separate issue of human induced climate change from CO2e emissions. However, EVs decouple the generation from the consumption, enabling more types of generation. The benefits of decoupling should be clear to anyone working in software.

mtgx 10y ago

This really should've been an ICE car feature: "Don't worry about all the pollution you're causing outside with your humongous SUV - you're safe inside."

wolf550e 10y ago

Fossil-fuel power plants that charge a Tesla pollute quite a bit, so you need to switch to electric vehicles and non-polluting energy generation to fix air pollution.

r00fus 10y ago
That's a red herring, unless you're going to do a full EROEI and compare the cost of petroleum extraction and delivery with the power generated from a power plant. Electric cars are simply cleaner - and by far. It gets far more interesting once you add in externalities like wars for oil or the nascent pervasiveness of solar power.
- seanp2k2 10y ago
  Someone did: http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/electric-cars-green http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/electric-cars-green TL;DR right now EVs pollute about as much as a normal car getting 40MPG. There were ICE cars in the mid 80s doing better than that on combined mpg: http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-transportation/green-vehicles/miles-per-gallon-cars-zb0z11zblon.aspx http://www.motherearthnews.com/green-transportation/green-ve... Edit: solar was 0.6% of total power generated in the US in 2015 : https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3 https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=427&t=3 Solar panels aren't the easiest thing to manufacture. Consider how much energy mining and refining the toxic components and intermediaries of cells uses. http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/solar-energy-isnt-always-as-green-as-you-think http://spectrum.ieee.org/green-tech/solar/solar-energy-isnt-...
jsingleton 10y ago
While this is true, it depends on what you mean by pollution. Air quality (NO, PM etc.) is highly localised and simply walking or cycling on a quieter road is better for your health. So moving energy generation away from population centres helps a lot here. See Bankside and Battersea power stations in London for examples. Additionally, modern power stations have very strict air quality rules and heavily scrub their exhaust fumes to almost totally remove hazardous (to health) substances. This is much easier at industrial scale than on car exhausts. See SELCHP for an example. Obviously none of this is relevant to the separate issue of human induced climate change from CO2e emissions. However, EVs decouple the generation from the consumption, enabling more types of generation. The benefits of decoupling should be clear to anyone working in software.