gangzoom

Automounous driving is going to come much sooner than 2030.

I've been driving EVs since 2015, even 2030 seems like its still a long time away.

^Upuntill now loads of people have said Tesla cannot achieve FSD without Lidar. Hopefully its not obvious LIDAR adds nothing cameras cannot do, the latest Tesla FSD beta software can 'see' everything we can, including speed humps and even road debris. The challenge is how the car navigates the real world. Which is why Tesla have given a limited number of owners access to the software......Driving in on a one way road with tram lines and construction work going on? That is the kind of real world situation the car has to learn to navigate, and something you simply cannot replicate in labs or on closed roads. Apparently these cars are uploading 15gigs of data back to Tesla every few days. How quickly the system now really learns real world situations is the key question.

Its actually nearly £10k in the UK if you haven't already paid for basic Autopilot. Prices are apparently going up by another £2k soon!! Tesla is clearly learning from Porsche interms of charging for options. Luckily our car is already speced for 'FSD', so its now just waiting to see much much EU regulators will allow the software to control the car before Tesla can push out the software in Europe.....I don't expect anything new interms of FSD software on our car till next year :(.

The infotainment stuff is just a bit of fun, actually used it last weekend when waiting for my daughters Saturday activities to finish, and in between a trip to the park before swimming. The extra CPU power is a secondary benefit of this crazy stuff which in coming to Europe soon!! With the new CPUs in the car even our 2017 X will be able to do this. The Taycan is a lovely bit of tech, I cannot see Porsche supporting a 2020 car with retrofits to make it bang up to date interms of CPU/software ability come 2023.

CPU upgrades done, very impressive to have a manufacture support for such a major retrofit :). The car now has Netflix.... Built in dash cam + 'sentry mode' using all the cameras around the car.... And some limited FSD 'beta' visualisation, its good enough to spot a motorbike sandwiched between two cars even at night! The Taycan makes a strong case for itself as our next car purchase, but am a tech geek at heart, and Tesla has just set a new bar. Our car is over 3 years old, and literally now feels like a new car interms of user interface and future autonomous driving. I've never owned a car where the manufacture has provide so much support post delivery. Is there any chance Porsche will upgrade a 2020 Taycan to latest CPU spec come 2023?? I think we all know the answer to that!

Porsche like the rest of VAG uses Mobile Eye tech, the Taycan I believe has the same driver assist features as the 2019 A8, and as per Porsche is fairly expensive non upgradeable option But that's not the USP Porsche commands a premium for. Tesla on the otherhand apparently is about to do this.... https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-limited-fsd-beta-release-date-elon-musk/ Our 2017 car is actually booked into Tesla to have essentially a whole CPU upgrade for both Autopilot computer and main user interface computer and will apparently than be able to access any of the 'Full Self Driving' features coming next year. Whilst I have doubts about what Tesla claim about the self driving features, its the first car I have ever owned where the manufacturer has supported a full blown hardware upgrade 3.5 years post delivery!!! The software integration Tesla offer is their USP, no other car manufacturer can come close. In no particular order these are just some of the software updates pushed to the car since I bought it. 1. Dynamic brake lights. 2. Phone app update allowing window opening/closing - surprisingly useful in summer when parked up and the sun is blazing. 3. Bluetooth integration changed so your phone doesn't switch to the cars speakers until you sit in the drivers seat so not to interrupt your phone call - am susprised how often its effected me. 4. Sentry mode - Dash cam for the car using its built-in cameras, auto records any collisions when stationery. 5. Geolocation for wing mirror folding - The ultimate laziness, the car will autofold mirrors for locations where width might be an issue. If you are half interested in Tech Tesla really is a fascinating product to own. Am genuinely intrigued at how our car will be like post CPU upgrades. The approach Tesla has on car software/tech really is their USP versus the Taycan. Am not 100% convinced they are targeting the same demographic. I wouldn't sell our Tesla to fund a Taycan, I do want to own one, but it will along side the Tesla not as a replacement for it :).

Sadly that's unlikely to happen with used prices. Our X is now 3.5 years old, cost us £71k back in 2017, currently its still retailing for £50k used - sub £500/month depreciation which is crazy for a £70k+ car. A new one is now over £90k!!! So prices have gone UP not down :(. I suspect the Taycan will loss very little in depreciation over the next 5 years, the Porsche badge alone will ensure that. Cheaper EVs are out these days, MG, Kai, Hyundai, even the new Mini EV is cheaper than the petrol version. But sadly Porsche has never been affordable for the masses, the Taycan doesn't change that.

They are expensive but its a Porsche so expected. The base 4S with long range battery has enough range + speed for anyone. Add in a few options and you are around £93k. Its shed load of money but when a Model S is £88k with options and Model X near £90k+ the Taycan is actually surprisingly well priced. We are not at a stage in life to fund one yet though :(. As they say if you have to ask how much you cannot afford it. But cars have always driven me to work harder, I'll have a Taycan on our driveway at some point, that's a guarantee :).

I've seen more Taycan in the last months than Xs and Ss combined. Lovely looking cars, and probably the 'best value' Porsche on sale today. A decent spec 4S is only about £5k more than a Model S which is frankly amazing given the Porsche heritage. I have my eye on one as our next car purchase in a few years time.

The PowerWall is Lithium Ion but very pricey - there are cheaper options, and if you don't have an EV you don't need 14kWh either. Interestingly it looks like I used 3500kWh of electricity to charge the EV, 99% of that is at home. So if you take away our home electricity usage it shows our home electricity usage was about 3000kWh, so our relatively small 4KW solar PV panels covers nearly 90% of home electricity usage!! Am going to add another 3-5KW of solar panels to the house at somepoint in future, we should be able to achieve near 100% off grid usage excluding EV charging at some point :).

We've had our PowerWall installed for 11 months now. Even with just 14kWh usable, and charging an EV, we have been able to shift our electricity usage to 'off peak' rate 93% of the time. Interestingly with a relatively small 4KW solar PV panel with non ideal facing it generated 43% of our total electricity usage - which again including charging an EV. Without charging the EV I recon the solar PVs would have covered 80%+ of our electricity usage. Am not sure using your car EV battery to grid shift makes much though versus just getting some home batteries.

Infinity has now officially pulled out of Europe, sales figures were terrible overall. They are rare sights any where in the UK.

Last couple of months with sun the PowerWall is starting to show it's real potential. Essentially since the mid April our house is almost using no grid electricity!! This is my electricity bill for last 30 days. Despite having less than ideal SE/SW solar PV, there are days when we are generating more electricity than we can use. Yesterday at 5pm the PowerWall was at 100%, the EV at 90%, eletric water heater was off because the water was hot and we still ended up exporting 4kWh to the grid!! I estimate half of our reduction in electricity usage is due to not doing so many miles in the car, currently 350 mile a month down from over 1000 miles a month. Some of that is because am doing more miles on the pedal bike, around 200 miles a month, but still it's pretty impressive performance by the PowerWall. If this level sun keeps up our electricity bill for 6 months+ of the year will be crazy low. Our standing charge for electricity is currently triple the cost of our actual electricity usage!

Done more miles on these two than the car since end of Feb. The Trek is nearly 10 years old but still rides like a dream.

Well since its the weekend there isnt much else to do in a situation like this..... I wouldn't be doing my job though without pointing out this isn't the offical coping strategy as outlined by the Intensive care society:).

If you are young (under 40) you will most likely be fine, but it's a numbers game once the infection starts. The more people that get it, the higher the chance someone will get seriously ill:(. Age is a really important risk factor, 70% of our consultant staff (average age 40) who have been in contact with patients has now had it/symptoms, but only 20% of junior doctors have had symptoms (average age under 25). We are actively keeping older staff away from infected zones, it's a case of risk management for most hospitals now, not infection control! Good luck in your work setting, but having clear/flexible leadership is vital at this time. We are changing protocol/practices twice a day sometimes in response to new information/clinical situation, and we certainly aren't waiting on any official guidance if we think action needs to be taken. Look after your staff, your selves and your 'clients' first. Do what you think feels right on the ground, those giving press conferences in government have little idea what's actually needed on the front line, they all still have have half an eye on the next election.

To be honest outside if ITU the so called 'PPE' is next to useless. I have my own eye protection (cycling glasses), and the surgical mask is OK. But the plastic half apron is a joke, and gloves are not any replacement for hand washing. If you do end up with a prisoner with COVID I suspect it'll spread like wild fire just like in hospital regardless of PPE. This virus at times must be airborne not just droplets, we have gone from a few patients infected last week to 20+ now infected, that's despite all staff wearing PPE. If someone is actively coughing than you are in a proper @*!# storm. The PPE we have really is useless at that point, as some coughing is in effect producing an aerosol of virus every few seconds. The only way to stop the spread is proper filter mask, total body protection (including shoes), negative pressure rooms. All of which we lack, even ITU is now running low - Government advice on 'reusing' long sleeve gowns is an utter joke, viral contamination is more likely to occur when taking the gowns off than when wearing them!! For contact with confirmed patients reducing your viral load exposure is vital. So if you have 2 people on a 14 day shift, rather than someone doing 7 days on than off, alternate one day each is much better. In short the best protection is try and make sure no one catches the virus, which is why social distancing/isolation is so important. It's also why once it hit a care/nursing home sadly its game over for half the residents. No amount of non ITU level PPE will protect staff/patients once the virus gets a foot hold :(. Though new case numbers are steady this virus is going to be causing chaos for a while yet. Out ITU is even now running out of dialysis fluid!! We all need to support each other/colleagues through this :).

Looking fowards to 5pm today, apart from Easter Sunday been working/oncall every day since the 3rd. It's been the most stressful stint at work I've ever done. Not necessarily the busiest interms of actual patient numbers, but I've never seen plans/demand change so quickly. Yesterday went from feeling 'relaxed' after seeing COVID+ patient numbers continue to fall, to near full out panic when ITU called and told us they were running out of fluids for their dialysis machines and if we could help. We have gone from having 3 COVID+ patients in the department to now having 2 wards full. I've lost count of the number of COVID+ patients I've seen, wearing PPE is now second nature, I've also lost count of patients who have sadly passed away, can someone make this virus go away now please??? :(. Anyways, 12hrs to go, than having a bottle of wine, may be two :). Bizzarly I've not come down with this virus, three out of 4 colleagues whom have been working with me during the same time period have now tested positive. So either 2 of us are super good/lucky at PPE, or we are the 10-20% of asymptomatic super spreader!!!

6 kids are now without a mum, and all because they were simply doing their job of looking after people. One of our ITU nurses is now ventilated on ITU .Beyond the figures this is the true cost of this pandemic, can you imagine the fear/anxiety of our nursing staff today!!!Once this is all over the idiot politicians and so called health 'experts' advising the government have alot to answer for. Even now our trust is refusing to give nursing staff full selved gowns because NHS England says it's not needed........All to save 50p per gown, and also to make the politicians look like they have delivered on PPE.Am off to work in a hour, and half considering going by theaters and just grabbing a whole load of long sleeve gowns for our nurses........But as the captain of the Theodore Roosevelt has found out, as ever the importance of image to politicians/those in power is far higher than the actual health of people on front line .

50% of nursing staff are already in self isolation on some wards, the GMC is anticipating medical students will be used widely for health care delivery by the time we are done with this!! I actually worry quite a bit about the mental health of staff in the coming weeks. Am use to seeing people die in front of me, talking to relatives and dying patients, but even after 15 years+ of doing this, dealing with death isn't 'natural'. Currently we are working on building up reliesence of our staff so they can be prepared for what's coming. But how a group of 18 year old kids, and volunteers who may have never seen any one die is going to deal with potentially seeing multiple death on their first day on the wards is anyone guess. Hopefully things woudlnt be as bad as predicted!

Data from China shows viral load in GI/faeces is fairly low (though only based on a case series from 8 patients), most patients who are COVID+ don't seem to have much detectable viral load from GI tract. The virus is also very unstable once the Ph goes much above 8 to below 6, am not sure what the Ph of sewage is, but I doubt an RNA based virus can survive long. Your chance of catching it from a colleague is probably higher.

I was one of the consultants on call two weeks ago when we first started getting the first confirmed COVID cases in. Since than I've see half a dozen patients whom have now been confirmed with COVID. This week we've been trying to get some mental support in place for staff whom are going to be seeing some horrific scenes in the coming weeks :(. COVID19 case are now going up 30% every day in our hospital, average age of patients with COVID on ITU is only 65 and mortally rate is 50%!! We still have capacity at the moment, but am not looking forwards to been on call next weekend. We are projecting 'peak' demand will hit in 10 days, how long it stays at 'peak' levels no one knows. Only thing I enjoy about work at present is the commute in on the pedal bike, even at Christmas time the main road into town is never this quite!!

Personally I wouldnt wait on any kind of NHS wide policy before taking action to protect your self, your patients, and your staff. The few things we know about this virus so far is quite scary: 1. In a young, not disease burden population the mortality rates is around 2% (Wuhan), but in an older, more co morbid population (Italy) that figure is near 10%. 2. Only 40% of patients initially present with a cough/fever, a large number of patients are 'asymptomatic', how long they stay asymptomatic for is not known, nor the impact of been exposed to increasing viral loads. 3. Social distancing works, so far antibiotics, steroids, antiviral don't. In effect we have no proven medical treatment for this condition. Colleagues in London tell me the hospitals there are already starting to creak, and wouldnt last long if patient numbers keep on going up. Stay safe, stay clean, and we will all get through this. Though the coming months will be hard for everyone.

It's not the media saying we need to turn car factories into ventilator factories, it's our current health minister. Pretty much all of Europe is now in lockdown, with every country now shutting their boarder. Spanish police is using drones to enforce public cufies. This isn't SciFi or hype, it's coming to the UK very soon.