ArcAttack is performing a Tesla Coil version of Iron Man by Black Sabbath. The Guitar Player is using an iron guitar in a faraday cage
ArcAttack testing out the world's first lighting-proof MIDI guitar in their warehouse in Austin, Texas.
The MIDI signal from the guitar is routed through a fiber optic cable to control the Tesla coils.
Tesla Motors, Inc and Toyota Motor Corp have officially announced a partnership in next-gen technology for electric cars that begins with a $50 million investment from Toyota. The collaboration involves not just electric cars but also parts, production and engineering support.
Governor Schwarzenegger had first leaked the news during a visit to Google's headquarters in Mountain View. It's safe to say that this was not good news for everyone. Telsa had been in talks to build their electric car plant in a former NASA manufacturing complex located in Downey City.
"We are shocked, upset and betrayed. We can see why the public is so upset with corporate America," said Downey City Councilman Mario Guerra, adding that Tesla had told the city it would sign the lease for the Downey plant on Friday.
The thousand-plus jobs the operation is expected to create will remain closer to Tesla's home-base of San Carlos, CA. The automakers are re-opening the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., or NUMM, assembly line across the San Francisco Bay in Fremont. NUMMI--which primarily existed as a joint effort between Toyota and General Motors--had officially stopped operating in April when GM ended the 25-year partnership. A decision that cost about 4,700 workers their jobs.
No wonder NUMMI is trending on Twitter.
The official announcement came was made at 5:00 pm today when Schwarzenegger joined President and CEO of Toyota Akio Toyoda, Co-Founder and CEO of Tesla Elon Musk to announce the historic partnership. "Toyota is a company founded on innovation, quality, and commitment to sustainable mobility. It is an honor and a powerful endorsement of our technology that Toyota would choose to invest in and partner with Tesla," said Musk.
Governor Schwarzenegger added that "We love our cars in California and California loves cars! But we also love our environment and the coastline." He went on to explain that "This all happened because we created tax incentives for this company and this partnership," Schwarzenegger said.
The first car to roll of the production line will be Tesla's Model S electric sedan which costs around $57,400. While Tesla will still be late to the game when compared to the LEAF or the Volt, this amps up the company's reputation ten-fold. For a recent study just named Toyota as one of the top three companies consumers would buy an EV from.
Musk also noted that several former employees of the NUMMI plant have already been rehired.
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It appears Tesla Motors has truly sweetened up their Chicago home and officially opened its Windy City doors. Although they have already been conducting some small amount of business from the location, Thursday night saw a gathering of current Roadster owners, Model S reservation holders, investors and other VIPs gathering at the new 1053 W Grand Ave. location for a little celebratory shindig.
PRESS RELEASE
Tesla Motors Opens Chicago Store
Test-Drives of the Electric Car Available Starting January 21st at Tesla's Chicago Store
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tesla Motors, the only automaker producing highway-capable EVs will celebrate the opening of its Chicago store on Thursday and offer test drives throughout the weekend of the world's most exciting electric vehicle, the Tesla Roadster.
The City of Chicago, in collaboration with Chicago Area Clean Cities Coalition and Gas Technology Institute, was a recipient of a US Department of Energy 2009 Clean Cities Petroleum Reduction Technologies grant. The award aims to reduce vehicle emissions, displace 3.08 million gasoline gallon equivalents of petroleum every year, deploy 554 alternative fuel and hybrid vehicles and install 149 alternative-fuel fueling and electric vehicle charging stations throughout the Chicago region.
"With over 50 Roadster owners in the area, Chicago is an important market and strategic base for Tesla," said Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
US Roadster customers get a $7,500 federal tax credit and the Illinois Alternate Fuels Rebate Program provides a rebate of $4,000.
Tesla's Chicago store, located at 1053 W Grand Ave., is also the newest regional hub for Tesla's pioneering mobile service squad. Professional technicians known as Tesla Rangers will travel to customers' homes and perform annual inspections, firmware upgrades and other services. Tesla uniquely offers "house calls" so all customers can enjoy service from their home or office.
Tesla's house-call approach is an innovative initiative to give customers peace of mind – whether they live in Chicago, Indianapolis or Iowa City. The Chicago facility will be the service hub for customers throughout Illinois and the Midwestern United States.
The Roadster Sport, with an acceleration of 0-60 in 3.7 seconds, consumes no gasoline. Owners simply charge the Roadster overnight and wake up to the equivalent of a full tank – roughly 240 miles of driving. The Roadster requires less routine maintenance than conventional cars. It does not need regular oil changes or exhaust system work. Roadsters have no spark plugs, pistons, hoses, belts or clutches to replace. Zero tailpipe emission means no smog checks.
About Tesla
Tesla's goal is to produce increasingly affordable cars to mainstream buyers – relentlessly driving down the cost of EVs. San Carlos, Calif.-based Tesla sells cars online and has delivered nearly 900 Roadsters to customers in North America and Europe. In addition to South Florida, Tesla has showrooms in California's Silicon Valley and Los Angeles, New York, Seattle, Boulder, South Florida, London, Munich and Monaco.
The Tesla Roadster is faster than many sports cars yet more efficient than a Hybrid. With an EPA-estimated range of 244 miles per charge, it costs less than $5 to charge.
A New York taxi company owner makes enough money to not only live near Monaco but also to buy a Tesla Roadster. More shocking? He wants his neighbors to actually know how he made his money with a taxi-liveried Tesla.
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Digg co-founder Kevin Rose has accidentally broken the embargo on the Tesla Model S Sedan concept set to be revealed in Los Angeles in mere hours on his flickr account. Developing!
UPDATE: We now have all the details and a slew of live shots of the Tesla Model S concept. Read the full story here!
What these first shots reveal is a rear 3/4 shot of the new concept, a side look and an interior filled to the brim with wires, looking like it's still being put together. Makes sense, as it appears the shots were taken three days ago, probably as they were still putting together this hand-built concept. Other than those details, we guess we'll just have to wait a few more hours to find out more information — like, for instance, what car platform they're planning to build it off of.
Because here's the problem. If Tesla claim they've built their own chassis, then this car is vaporware. Because in order to get a new chassis on the road, they'll need much more capital than what they've already asked for to do the necessary safety testing and durability testing. So it has to be another automaker's chassis. But which one?
Even without details there's a lot we can learn from these pictures. For starters, Tesla already has a deal worked out with Mercedes for providing electric drives for a small batch of Smart cars. Assuming they continue that relationship with Mercedes, and given the wheels, for instance, appear to be a version of this Lorinser wheel and seems to carry the 5-112 bolt pattern, means if it's a Mercedes, it's likely based on a Mercedes C, E, or CLS chassis. If those are 20-inch wheels it's unlikely it's a C-class platform and more likely to be E-series or CLS-based. Of course this is just our stretch-of-a-guess, no matter how educated they may be. We really will have to wait until later today to find out for sure how Tesla built this concept.
Also, that's one seriously sweet full-screen dashboard.
UPDATE: For some odd reason, Tesla's asked Kevin Rose to pull his pictures down off Flickr. We echo Kevin's comment of "not sure if the company knows how the 'ol web works."
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