Archive for the 'First Post' Category

Beyond Walter Mitty: Living a Dream as the 100th Delivery Published on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 in Uncategorized, First Post.

Sam Perry is president of Silicon Valley startup consultancy Ascendance Ventures and a member of E2 – Environmental Entrepreneurs, the national independent business voice for the environment.

Sam gained fame last month after an intimate encounter with Oprah Winfrey was broadcast around the globe. Sam was caught in cameras standing next to the talk show icon in Chicago’s Grant Park on Nov. 4, when Oprah wept on Sam’s shoulder during Obama’s victory speech.

Several weeks later, Sam became the 100th person to take delivery of a Tesla Roadster. The company marked this important milestone with a Dec. 9 news conference at its Menlo Park, Calif., flagship store. Read more…

The EV Experience Published on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 in Performance, First Post, Batteries, Vehicle Engineering.

Stephen Casner spent 25 years working on protocols and systems for transmission of audio and video over packet networks, starting before the Internet existed and continuing through the Internet Multicast Backbone (MBONE). He was recruited to the Silicon Valley to work with startup Precept Software and its IP/TV product, which was later acquired by Cisco. He is currently a Fellow at Packet Design, working on route analytics, and waiting patiently for his Signature One Hundred number to be called.

I’ve been driving production electric vehicles since November, 1998, when I took delivery of a General Motors EV1. I lost that first-generation EV1 when it was recalled in March 2000, but two months later I was able to lease a Gen 2 EV1 with NiMH batteries. GM pried that one out of my fingers when the three-year lease was up. I managed to continue driving electric by leasing a Ford Ranger EV pickup, but again that was only for a year before it was taken back. Luckily, I was given the opportunity to lease or buy one of the last few 2003 Toyota RAV4-EVs. Given the EV1 lease experience, the choice to purchase was obvious! Read more…

Energy Published on Wednesday, February 21st, 2007 in Performance, First Post, Energy Efficiency, Company, Solar, Vehicle Engineering, Motor.

Jon Mittelhauser is one of the early developers of the World Wide Web. As a Master’s student at the University of Illinois, he co-wrote the first widely used web browser, NCSA Mosaic, and helped to define many of the earliest web protocols. Upon earning his Master’s degree for the work on Mosaic, he left the university and became one of the founders of Netscape Communications. Since Netscape he has worked for various startups (some successful and some not!). He currently spends his time as a dad, angel investor, and consultant for early stage companies. He also admits to spending a fair amount of time daydreaming about the Tesla Roadster, which he already has on order… Read more…

Powering the Tesla Roadster with ‘Green’ Electrons Published on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 in First Post, Energy Efficiency, Photovoltaic, Solar.

Dr. Rob Wilder is CEO of WilderShares LLC and manager of the WilderHill Clean Energy Index, the first Index/Fund on Wall Street for renewable energy, better energy efficiency, and zero-carbon solutions. He is also a Lecturer at University of California, San Diego, and was previously on faculty at University of California, Santa Barbara, and University of Massachusetts. Dr. Wilder has been an AAAS/ EPA Fellow in Environmental Science & Technology, Fulbright Fellow, and National Academy of Sciences Young Investigator. He is widely published and has sat on various boards, such as the marine section of the Society for Conservation Biology. He resides in a solar-powered home in Encinitas, Calif., with his lovely wife, Diana, and their two children. Read more…

The Perfect Car, Enemy of the Good Car Published on Wednesday, December 27th, 2006 in Performance, First Post, Environment, Energy Efficiency, Solar.

Jon Faiz Kayyem, PhD, is a Managing Partner of Efficacy Capital, which manages a biotech public equities fund. He previously founded Clinical Micro Sensors, now an operating subsidiary of U.K.-based Osmetech. The firm uses advanced electronics and biochemistry to create electronic detectors of specific DNA sequences. Since 1997, Dr. Kayyem has been awarded 31 U.S. patents in nucleic acid detection technology. He serves on the board of several privately-held startup businesses and has produced two documentary films. Dr. Kayyem reserved one of the first 100 Tesla Roadsters and in this week’s blog explains why he will never buy another gasoline-powered vehicle.

“The perfect is the enemy of the good.” Voltaire said something like that, and I think about it often when making “think” versus “act” decisions. For example, should I buy a 60-inch plasma screen or wait and see what comes next?

But how about the bigger question that has bugged me for a while: Should I switch to alternatively-fueled vehicles or wait and see what comes next? I was definitely in waiting mode until one day in 2004 when I saw Al Gore give his Inconvenient Truth slide show. I left the presentation vowing not to buy another gasoline-powered car, a vow that now has me owning a biodiesel Volkswagen and on the list to receive one of the first 100 Tesla Roadsters. Read more…