Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, September 06, 2007

The Tesla Roadster Hits The Road…To Tahoe

from Earth2Tech by Katie Fehrenbacher

What could be more "San Francisco" than Mayor Gavin Newsom taking the Tesla Roadster — Silicon Valley's clean tech hot rod — for a spin around the block down at Fisherman's Wharf? I almost choked on the orange smoothie the caterers were passing out as the lanky mayor drove the silent silver electric sports car out of the Hyatt Hotel parking lot this morning — it was too classic.

Newsom was there as part of a Roadster roadtrip publicity stunt in which the car will be driven up to Tahoe and back, stopping off in Sacramento on the way. The driver making the trip, Andrew Simpson, a vehicle test engineer, looked as responsible and clean-cut as someone about to make a long journey in an expensive test vehicle should. Tesla spokesman David Vespremi told us he is their "efficient driver" – i.e. he doesn't speed. Simpson said he was excited to start off on the journey.

Newsom is actually a bona fide Tesla customer; the company just received the mayor's $98,000 deposit, according to Vespremi. Wow. Vespremi also said Tesla has more than 600 preorders for the Roadster; other famous customers reportedly include George Clooney and Jeff Skoll.

Newsom told me he wasn't interested in a hybrid, which he called a "halfway" solution, and he's buying the Roadster as a luxury item, he said, as it's "perfect for a trip up to Napa." He told a crowd of reporters that he was formerly an owner of an EV1 — the now-recalled electric car of ' Who Killed the Electric Car' fame. The Roadster [and all its buzz] is needed, he said, to create a market and an industry for electric cars. So true. He's smarter than his hair looks. (Just kidding, Gavin — I'm always up for a trip to Napa).

Over the past few weeks, the San Carlos, Calif.-based startup that has raised at around $100 million in funding has faced a few speed bumps. The company's founder and CEO, Martin Eberhard, stepped down, citing his inexperience in running such a large-scale business. Michael Marks, former CEO of Flextronics (FLEX), has stepped in temporarily.

Solar Funding: SolFocus Raises $52M

from Earth2Tech by Katie Fehrenbacher

SolFocus, a Mountain View, Calif. based startup that develops solar concentrator technology said this morning that it has closed $52 million in funding, which included a $27.4 million series A for SolFocus Europe. The rounds were led by New Enterprise Associates , and included Moser Baer India, David Gelbaum, Metasystem Group, NGEN Partners, and Yellowstone Capital , among others. (Update: The company adds that it is expecting to expand the round to $70 million by the end of September.)

Investors have been stuffing money into all kinds of solar startups recently. Last week Solarcentury, which supplies solar photovoltaic systems raised $27.2 million, while Solexant, which is developing efficient, low-cost solar cells, raised $4.3 million. Also last week Plextronics raised $20.6 million for its organic semiconductors, which can be used for thin film solar applications. This weekend it was reported that solar startup Sierra Nevada Solar raised $4.5 million in Series A funding.

Last time we wrote about SolFocus was when they bought Madrid-based solar tracking company InSpira at the end of July. The company told us then that they have been raising money to grow fast and commercialize their technology by the end of this year. The company previously raised $32 million in venture money and has roughly 60 employees.

SolFocus' concentrating technology uses lenses and curved mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto solar cells. Its arrays are mounted on trackers that orient panels to track the sun in order to maximize the power output throughout the day.

The Fetish Is Almost Here

from Earth2Tech by Katie Fehrenbacher

Electric car startup Venturi will start rolling out its first electric sports car this month, says Greentech Media, which recently talked to the CEO. And yes, it has the unfortunate name of the Fetish.

Name aside, it’s about time — the Monaco-based company talked up the car at the 2004 Paris Motorshow. But while Venturi will only produce five a year and sell them for 450,000 euros ($612,225) apiece, the Fetish could be positive for the electric car market on buzz factor alone. As San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom recently pointed out about the Tesla Roadster, the industry needs high-profile cars like these to spread awareness and expand the market beyond just the early-adopter earth-loving set. Well, in this case, just to the extremely wealthy.

Can Google Do What Amazon Couldn’t? The Search For Steve Fossett In The Nevada Desert

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

When computer scientist Jim Gray was lost at sea earlier this year, Amazon stepped in to help. They arranged for a satellite sweep of the area and stored the images on their S3 storage service. They then created a task on their Mechanical Turk service to allow volunteers to scan the images to look for the boat. Thousands of people joined the search, but he was never found.

Now Steve Fossett, a 63 year old aviator, sailor and adventurer with a number of world records, has disappeared as well. On September 3, an airplane he was flying in Nevada failed to return. No one has any idea where he is.

His friend Richard Branson now says he will use Google Earth to try and find Fossett. Google may have taken new satellite photos over the last few days which may have information that can help find him.

With Gray, there was a lot of data to review and a boat appears as a very small number of pixels in a given satellite image. Looking for a plane, or even a weather disturbance, in the Nevada desert may not be much easier. Still, if Branson and/or Google call for volunteers to help with the search, I am sure that thousands will join the effort. And once again, Mechanical Turk would be a perfect way to organize the volunteers, even if they are looking at Google data.

Let’s all hope that this has a happier ending than the Jim Gray story.

Amazon & Google To Enter eBook Business

from TechCrunch by Michael Arrington

The New York Times is reporting that both Amazon and Google are entering the eBook business this year, joining Sony and others who already have products (image is Sony’s Reader).

The new Amazon product and service will be called The Kindle and will compete directly with Sony. Google will begin charging users to read the full text of some of the books they have indexed.

Amazon: The Kindle

The Kindle will be a device to read books - black and white screen, internet connectivity via EVDO and a keyboard to take notes and surf the web. The device, which will cost $400-$500, will interact with an ebook service run by Amazon.

The fact that the device can access books without being separately connected to a computer will be a big selling point over Sony Reader, which sells for $300. The Kindle will also be able to surf the web and users will also be able to read newspapers, magazines, etc.

I’ve had a chance to test the Sony Reader on a number of occasions and found it to be a great way to read books, although the content selection wasn’t great. The Kindle will also use E Ink technology for displaying content. It’s great for reading text in all light conditions but does not display video or other animation.

Amazon isn’t supporting the industry’s open standard around eBooks. Instead they are using their own proprietary format from Mobipocket, a company they acquired in 2005

Like the iPod, the key driver of sales of the device won’t be the depth of content available on the associated service, but the availability of pirated, free content on BitTorrent and other P2P networks. eBooks are coming, but they’re not here yet.

Google

Google isn’t getting into the device business. Instead, they will start charging users to view some full text books that they’ve indexed, although this is separate from the Google Book Search Library Project. No word on whether Google is sharing revenue with publishers.

Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook

Thursday, September 06, 2007