Month: January 2023

Tesla has been the most popular electric car brand, and is now one of the most popular automative brands in the world. They started off by releasing the Tesla Roadster in 2008, which was a Lotus that they retrofitted with an electric motor, and made their first flagship vehicle, the Tesla Model S, in 2012. Today, Tesla has a fleet of electric vehicles ranging from luxury sedans (Model S) and luxury SUVs (Model X) to compact sedans (Model 3) and compact SUVs (Model Y), with a semi-truck, pickup truck, and supercar on the way.

While the Tesla Model S performance has always been the fastest electric vehicle and would outperform some fast sports cars in a straight line, Elon Musk was not done there. In June, 2021, Tesla released the Tesla Model S Plaid. This car was a refreshed version of the Model S with improvements in every part of the design, build-quality, hardware, and software features of the vehicle. The most notable feature of the car, though, is that it is the quickest production car in the world. This car goes 0-60 mph in just 1.98 seconds and reaches the quarter mile in under 9 seconds. I’ve had the privilege to be launched in one of these cars and my stomach dropped right off launch. It was weird because we were going so fast but there was no sounds due to the electric motor.

This vehicle is significant for the electric vehicle revolution because it proves that going electric means you don’t have to sacrifice speed or performance if you decide to go electric. While there are super cars that go higher speeds than the Model S Plaid, the average person does not even drive that fast in their day-to-day life. Not to mention that this car costs $140,000 compared to Additionally, the Model S Plaid has about 400 miles of range, equivalent or better to most gas tanks.

The car also features a more aggressive front grill, an updated center console with screen, more luxurious seats, soundproofing, black trim instead of chrome, along with a yoke steering wheel. The yoke steering wheel is similar to the normal steering wheel, except there are no stalks, the wheel is wider, and there is no top of the wheel. It looks quite similar to a Formula 1 car’s steering wheel. This yoke steering wheel was very controversial because it causes drivers to adapt to something they’ve been acclimated to their entire driving careers. The turn signals are haptic buttons on the wheel instead of stalks next to the wheel.

Elon Musk’s thinking behind the wheel is that the car is already able to drive itself, therefore the driver should be better able to see the instrument cluster (screen) behind the wheel rather than being obstructed by the top of the wheel. All Tesla vehicles come with software and sensors to be able to drive themselves. Tesla has released multiple videos of the cars driving completely without human-input, and they have also released full-self driving to beta testers.

At the end of the day, companies like Tesla prove to us that electric cars have a very promising future, and that we will be able to live and transport as usual while saving the environment and preventing global warming.

Links used:

Article: https://www.autoblog.com/2022/08/17/tesla-model-s-plaid-road-test-review/

Images: https://www.tesla.com/models

https://www.tesla.com/compare

My passion blog for this semester will be about cars. This time is a very transformational period for the car world as many cars are going electric. We are saying goodbye to the gas-guzzlers that make loud rev sounds and saying hello to electric vehicles that sound like the future. Each passion blog, I will pick a particular topic related to cars and provide my own analysis on it based on all I know about cars. I am a big fan of Elon Musk, so I will talk about Tesla and news related to the company, along with car brands like Porsche and Mercedes Benz who are the leading luxury German car brands.

My civic blog will be about privacy rights on social media. Many users have no idea what goes on behind the scenes every time they like a post on Instagram. They also don’t know why they see ads for a bicycle on every website after looking it up once. Each civic issues blog, I will go in-depth on a specific service, and talk about what they do with our data. I will also discuss preventative measures, similar to how Apple allows their users to disable apps from tracking them.

Introduction

1. Attention getter: Imagine coming home from school. You walk in the door, your family is in the kitchen, and you see a cake on the counter. You think that cake is for you because your birthday is only a few days away. Then it all flushes down on you… You forgot it was your mom’s birthday.
2. Context/ethos: Well this is exactly what happened to me. It was my sophomore year of high school, and not only did I forget to get my mom a gift, I didn’t even do the minimum of acknowledging it was her birthday.
3. Thesis: I believe in writing things down because it helps me stay present in the moment, and also saves me from embarrassing moments like forgetting it was my mom’s birthday.
4. Preview: Today I will be telling you all a story about how I forgot my mom’s birthday (along with other important dates), learned to write things down and stay organized, and a story where I remembered all important dates for a year straight.

Body (Conversion)

1. Cause, non-belief, Reason #1: During my underclassmen years of high school, I thought anybody who used a planner was childish. I would ask them “Why do you have to write all of your assignments and dates down? You can’t just remember them?” After forgetting important dates, assignments, and even tests, I learned that I needed to make a change…

[transition to MP B]

1. After buying my own planner (since I threw away the one that my school gave me to look cool), I wrote down all my important dates. I also took inspiration from my idol Elon Musk (who plans his day to the minute) and planned out my day the night before. Not only did I stop forgetting important dates and assignments, I noticed how I was able to stay in the present moment more than before since I didn’t have to worry about forgetting anything. 
2. My upperclassmen years consisted of me being more prepared than before since I had everything organized in my planner. Everything I had going on in my life was available to me at a glance rather than trying to piece it all together in my head. I ended up having a lot more fun during high points and was able to better handle low points due to better mental clarity.

Conclusion

1. Summarize main points: A key takeaway from this lesson for me was to give new methods a try instead of neglecting them. You’ll never know what works and what doesn’t unless you try it yourself. 

1. Restate thesis: In my case, writing things down saved me from embarrassing moments like forgetting my mom’s birthday and helped me stay in the present moment.
2. Memorable conclusion: The next year, I surprised my mom with breakfast in bed and a day of fun activities that we did together as a family.

“This I believe podcast:” An idea I have for my podcast would be “you can do anything as long as you put the hard work and time into it.” I have always stood by these words so it would be nice to explain my thinking behind it in the form of a podcast. Another idea would be “you need to go lower to come back even higher.” Everyone has experienced ups and downs in life, but they do not realize the lesson behind the downs until afterwards. Changing our mindsets to enjoy and learn from those low-points while they are happening can spark an even larger impact.

Passion Blog: I am a big fan of sports cars (both gasoline and electric) and now is the best time to be a part of the car world as it is about to experience a lot of change. With more regulations and the power that exists through electric motors, many auto manufacturers are switching from gas to hybrid or even fully electric vehicles within the next few years. Writing about cars in my passion blog would help me keep up will all of the changes happening and reflect on how it affects the future of the car world. Another idea I have for my passion blog would be vacation spots. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel to many places across the world and I could even write about the places that I want to visit in the future.

Civic Issues Blog: With most people in my generation using social media on a regular basis, I believe the privacy rights need to be enhanced. Many social media companies are selling their users’ data, and many (including the social media companies themselves) don’t know what is being done with that data. Another idea would be discussing human-gene modification. I would address both the history of the topic, where we stand currently, and what the future of it is looking like. Many do not even know that there are gene-edited humans that exist today.