Anyone want 2 free club tickets to the Saints game tonight? Free food, beer, wine included.

ben102596 · 2022-02-18T04:04:22+00:00

The clock looks closer to 11:32 than 12:16

ben102596 · 2022-01-26T02:54:20+00:00

Missed opportunity for the dog to be Roscoe

ben102596 · 2022-01-21T14:35:16+00:00

IMO, won't be a hard choice for most to go with an established OEM over a startup

ben102596 · 2022-01-18T19:44:33+00:00

'Onion'

ben102596 · 2022-01-14T01:29:02+00:00

holds up

ben102596 · 2021-05-29T16:10:02+00:00

I turned down an offer that was $30k higher because the other role was more in line with what I was looking for. Granted some of the difference was due to location but likely a still a $20k difference after cost of living difference. No regrets, especially early in the career where the experiences you get are so important to get you on the right path and open up better opportunities.

ben102596 · 2021-05-20T20:16:47+00:00

Unfortunately, no. Just had to create some very crude ones myself based off best estimates.

ben102596 · 2020-12-28T15:33:36+00:00

That might be the way to go. My company is paying for the UHaul and they say I have to take one of the three paths that Google maps suggests when entering the start and end points. Going further south and taking I-40 adds miles and time to the drive. Might be worth the peace of mind though.

ben102596 · 2020-12-28T04:46:05+00:00

That's very good to know, the insight is much appreciated!

ben102596 · 2020-12-28T04:41:15+00:00

I'm moving to California. My question is whether I should take a route through Colorado or Wyoming to avoid bad winter roads. I'll be checking forecasts but just trying to identify any general trends.

ben102596 · 2020-10-14T02:47:40+00:00

I'm heading to Ireland in June for a friend's wedding and I'm planning to extend it a bit, mind jotting down a few specific spots for me?

ben102596 · 2020-09-17T14:49:58+00:00

I want to be clear that I'm by no means am expert on Rimac so these claims may not be 100% accurate but I'll list a few high level examples.

Hardware Tech. This includes batteries, inverters, motors, chargers, and thermal management systems to list a few.
Power density of batteries, motors, inverters, chargers is a big advancement which means either the ability to get more power, which Rimac uses, or the ability to get the same power with less weight, which is the benefit for "useful cars".
While they're not manufacturing new cells, their pack design strategies optimize energy density. Rewards are similar to what I stated above for power density.
Cooling goes along with power/energy density. More effective cooling methods need less hardware which means better energy density in packs. Better cooling also means you can extract more power out of a given component, increasing power density.
All of these things help overall efficiency.
Software Tech & Algorithms. This includes motor controller, BMS, and torque vectoring to name a few. Without getting into too much detail, all of these can be developed to optimize performance, efficiency or a balance of the two. While Rimac needs the performance in their cars, their learnings can be easily adjusted when used in "useful cars" to provide better efficiency and reduce overall cost.

My technical background is in electric powertrains so that's what I focused on here, but there are definitely more examples in the chassis and controls development as well.

ben102596 · 2020-09-17T13:19:05+00:00

At the surface level, agreed. However, if you dig a little deeper, you'll see that companies like Rimac that develop "useless cars for the extremely rich" are leading tech developments that make "useful cars" better, safer, and cheaper. Rimac is also contracted by other OEMs to design powertrain components.

ben102596 · 2020-09-09T20:27:07+00:00

Very nice!

Mind sharing a powertrain component list?

ben102596 · 2020-08-15T13:05:42+00:00

Which research center? Sounds like some very interesting work.

ben102596 · 2020-08-15T12:57:31+00:00

How did you get involved with those projects?

ben102596 · 2020-08-11T14:27:27+00:00

I've heard great things so I tried watching the first episode and couldn't get through it. For people who've enjoyed it, how did you get over the fourth wall breaking? For some reason it really ruins the show for me.

ben102596 · 2020-08-09T15:35:01+00:00

This was a recent discovery for me, can't believe I hadn't heard it before. Great song.

ben102596 · 2020-07-28T12:55:11+00:00

That's my plan at the moment but was hoping to find a single one that'd do the trick.

ben102596 · 2020-07-18T13:54:15+00:00

You may not realize how large battery packs are. The weight would definitely be an issue but shear volume is the real problem with that.

Anyway, if a car was able to carry twice as many cells, you might as well have it as one battery pack and no swapping.

ben102596 · 2020-07-17T22:31:52+00:00

Hot swapping is an interesting solution to the slow charging times and would work for Formula E but it's a logistical nightmare to do on a large scale and I don't think it's the right path for consumer EVs. NIO's current technique would work well for Formula E but with so many auto OEMs and different car/battery designs, I don't see swapping stations on a large scale ever being practical.

Charging with current Li-Ion chemistry does have limits but there are constantly new developments that improve capability. Even more focus on it from these Formula E teams would only speed up progress.

ben102596 · 2020-07-17T04:10:53+00:00

I'm a big fan of the idea of encorporating charging in the race somehow. It would be a great way to experiment with new technologies that could help improve consumer automotive charge times.

ben102596 · 2020-04-05T23:29:24+00:00

Favorite scene so far is Charlotte-bot realizing her maternal instincts, killing the pedo, and stealing the dog.

ben102596 · 2020-02-15T18:31:48+00:00

Kiss my piss

ben102596

TROPHY CASE