Tesla is putting up something like $2B of the total estimated $5B price tag. So they would be a partner, not just a consumer.
But you are correct that US news outlets were overplaying Tesla's involvement in the project and underplaying Panasonic's.
Battery weight, size, capacity, and charging time are all important attributes for electric cars in general. R&D is being done to address all of those things, with varying success. You are correct in noting that even if a battery is capable of recharging in minutes, delivering that much power safely in the real world has some major hurdles. Other replies have mentioned battery swapping as one workaround. Another workaround that I'm hopeful for is batteries full of electrically charged liquid slurry. You would pull into a "gas station", the slurry in your battery would be pumped out to be recharged on site, and a fresh load of charged slurry would go in.
Each potential customer has a threshold of what is good enough for their individual needs. I got a Nissan Leaf a year ago because my threshold is pretty low, and I've been extremely happy with it. On the rare occasion when I need to make a trip that exceeds my car's capabilities, I just switch cars with my wife. If I couldn't do that, my threshold would be higher.
The main court case in People vs Larry Flynt is about the right to mock public figures, in that case Jerry Falwell. It had nothing to do with pornography.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustler_Magazine_v._Falwell
People with lower incomes buy less expensive devices and spend less money? Who could have ever guessed? Brilliant work by Slate.
Don't bring a basic grasp of history and networking into this. We're being mad at the NSA.
Voting is private. Donating money is public.
Did you just tell me what I meant?
Foxconn plans on replacing over a million workers with robots in the next few years. I think that the Chinese economy and society are in for a bumpy ride in the next decade.
No. That's domestic manufacturing. The US still manufactures far more than every country except China, who passed us in 2010.
Where do you think the US produces $2,300,000,000,000 worth of manufactured goods each year?
You're the only one talking about violence.
It is odd that people in the US think it is okay for all the taxpayers to pay for the health care of government workers, military personnel and retirees, but not the working poor.
It's not odd when you realize that the right wing has spent 100 years telling people that the working poor are lazy worthless leeches. When your only interaction with poor people is ordering food and having them park your car, people start to believe it.
...or Totalitarianism, which is what he's actually describing.
Ahhh...Slashdot...where the first post for literally any submission is likely to reference NSA backdoors.
It had nothing to do with his personal beliefs.
Always draw your curves, then plot your reading.
