.. to provide batteries at 1/3rd their current cost.. then the bus will have ~100 mile range while costing the same. (Space/weight isn't an issue, since a regular diesel bus already weighs around 75,000 lbs.)

Better yet, have batteries slotted into the bus like a giant laptop battery. A robotic arm can swap them out in seconds.

Tesla is now worth 20 billion dollars, and their battery partners (Panasonic) are also chipping in on building the factory. I doubt they need much help from the public.

I wouldn't say California is overpopulated. Sure the urban areas are pretty tight, but as this factory is solar powered it'll most likely be in the southern inland counties (Kern, San Bernandino, Riverside or Imperial).. these areas which are mostly desert.. some sparsely populated and economically poor.

It's strange how California's environmental protection law was put in place by the beloved icon of Republican party... the same party who now say it's the reason for companies to stay away from California.

"California's landmark environmental statute, widely known by its acronym CEQA, was signed into law by former Gov. Ronald Reagan. It requires state and local government agencies to review development projects to identify potential threats to the environment and recommend ways to reduce or eliminate any potential damage."
http://www.latimes.com/busines...

...as long as their corporate/special interests "freedoms" take priority from the public's interests, everything will be peachy.
 
    Also see: Tesla vs. State auto dealership associations.

Here's a suggestion: Don't ever listen to research announcements. Just buy the best of whatever exists right now.

Meanwhile the true nerds (like myself) will be excited about it because they give us a glimpse of what may become....

Especially laws that would place the interests of the individual ahead of the interests of an established industry cartel? That's a laugh.

In the next few decades there'll be plenty of elderly that need to get around: They're a huge part of active society, yet for simple physical reasons (eye-sight or limb coordination issues) many of them can no longer drive, and a lot of them are homeowners that live in the suburbs, far away from public transportation. I'd say that's a much bigger market, especially in the next 30 or 40 years.

It's in California because California has huge historical ties to aerospace/defense-- and there's still a good amount of engineering talent that has never left the state.

that the best programmers/software engineers are astoundingly more productive; something like 10 to 25 times faster then average ones. He obviously wanted to do what it took to retain them, since he was knew that his new product developments relied on impossibly fast deadlines.

Microsoft indeed tried to get their Tablet to sell over 10 years ago, but their mistake was in adapting Window UI directly into a tablet without adapting the user interface. A pure hands-only tablet has no stylus, no resizeable windows and must support multiple finger touches + gestures.. which is totally different then WIMP. The genius of Steve Jobs is he figured that out early on and directed his engineers to tackle it appropriately- (hence a totally separate UI interface stack for OS X; hence iPhone OS = OS X core + different UI)

Steve Jobs also had the vision to know that people will accept something they've never seen before... as long as the usability is good beyond a reasonable doubt.

Try having cancer with the old system, you'll see how much your insurance company "cares". Even with coverage, entire families would still go bankrupt.
And the thing about cancer is it seems to strike regardless of how healthy your lifestyle is.

Unfortunately, it doesn't help the people in GOP states that refuse to expand Medicaid to cover those who cannot afford Obamacare... they're just left to die.
http://www.thewire.com/politic...

Um.. most of US population is already covered though their employers/family plan. They're talking about the 40 million or so Americans who cannot get affordable coverage due to preexisting conditions, income restraints, and the like.

I'm not too sure how a no-fly list works since many people can have the same name.
If that's the case, what's stopping someone from legally changing their name to something more american/western-european and re-issuing their passport?