Lucid Motors unveils its 400-mile range luxury EV
After a few sneak peeks during the LA auto show, Lucid has finally ripped the camouflage off its luxury electric sedan: the $100,000-plus Air. The luxury vehicle is taking aim not only at Tesla’s Model S but also traditional gas-powered cars like the BMW 7 Series and Mercedes-Benz S-Class. The company is expected to start production in 2018 at its Arizona factory.
Today’s event showed both what the luxury car looks like as well as its battery pack — the largest in the automotive world. The standard Air comes with a 100 kWh battery, the same as what Tesla currently uses in the Model S, but Lucid also plans to offer a 130 kWh option. According to the automaker and its energy partner Samsung SDI, that car has a range of 400 miles per charge.
The company said the Air will fill the luxury, sports car and commuter needs of drivers. When it comes to power, each electric motor outputs 600 horsepower. That powertrain has been integrated with the HVAC and suspension system in the front of the vehicle. The rear wheels get the same set up with an integrated transmission, motor and suspension. By pacing everything together, CTO Peter Rawlinson said the car has more seating capacity since everything is pushed to the edges of the car.
All those motors are pushing a combined 1000 horsepower with a zero to 60 MPH of 2.5 seconds. The Air is also autonomous-ready with short and long range radar, cameras and Lidar. Some of those self-driving features will be available at launch but most will be added later via over-the-air updates. Of course, the tech doesn’t stop there. Like most luxury cars it also has a companion app. It also uses voice control like the Amazon Echo or Siri to control aspects of the inside of the car.
Naturally, the Air is a luxury car with the price to match. Lucid says a well optioned model will cost more than $100,000 but that an $65,000 model will be produced in the future.
Source: Lucid Motors
Steam now has full support for the PS4 controller
Valve tried to radically redesign the gaming controller with its own Steam controller, but for a lot of players it never quite caught on. Fortunately, Steam is a very flexible OS and it’s pretty easy to use your controller of choice. Like the PS4’s Dualshock 4 controller, for example: Valve just announced today that the Steam client now fully supports the Dualshock 4. That means all the controller’s capabilities can be mapped to various functions in Steam, including the trackpad and gyroscope.
Valve also notes the controllers will have access to the full range of APIs that Steam controllers have access to. There’s a whole host of other controller feature additions in this update, as well. There are settings to control the LEDs on your controller (like the Dualshock 4 has), a joystick-controlled mouse, preferences for haptic feedback, and software-based gyroscope and accelerometer integration — something that’ll specifically add extended support for the PS4 controller’s gyro input.
Via: Gamasutra
Source: Steam
New MacBook Pro Users Report Improved Battery Life on macOS 10.12.2
Apple released macOS 10.12.2 yesterday with stability improvements and fixes for several key bugs, including major graphics issues plaguing some late 2016 model MacBook Pro users. What the changelog did not mention is that Apple also removed the “time remaining” battery life indicator following an increasing number of battery life complaints, likewise among new MacBook Pro users.
A new MacBook Pro on macOS 10.12.2 with a 99% charge and an estimated 9 hours and 21 minutes of battery life remaining
What it may have also failed to mention is that macOS 10.12.2 appears to have led to battery life improvements for some users. A growing number of MacRumors forum members using the new MacBook Pro claim to be experiencing longer battery life after updating to macOS 10.12.2, despite experiencing less-than-desirable battery life while running macOS 10.2.1 just days earlier.
Many of the users using battery apps like coconutBattery have noticed their new MacBook Pro’s battery is discharging with lower wattage, and if accurate, the lower power consumption would certainly lead to longer battery life.
MacRumors forum member lobo1978 — edited slightly for clarity:
Ok it is official. macOS Sierra 10.12.2 fixed my battery. I am up back to 9-10 hours of regular use. Before updating, idle power consumption was not going lower than 6 watts. On macOS Sierra 10.12.2, it is now MacRumors forum member JohnnyGo:
Before the update was getting 7-9 hours with 50-60% brightness. Now getting >10 hours with 70-75% brightness with the same workload (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on of course).
At least a dozen other users have reported similar results since yesterday after upgrading to macOS 10.12.2.
While the user reports are worth acknowledging, they remain anecdotal and reflect only a small subset of new MacBook Pro users. It remains to be seen if Apple actually made battery life optimizations in the latest macOS Sierra update; if it did, however, Apple could be choosing to do so quietly as to not confirm that battery life issues were actually a problem for some users.
Apple officially says the new MacBook Pro is rated for up to 10 hours of battery life. Specifically, its tech specs page says all new 13-inch and 15-inch models are capable of up to 10 hours of wireless web browsing, up to 10 hours of iTunes movie playback, and up to 30 days of standby time on a single charge.
Following the release of macOS Sierra 10.12.2, Apple told The Loop that, after a lot of testing, it stands behind the 10 hour battery life advertised.
As more user reports surface, we should be able to see if the alleged battery life improvements are circumstantial or part of a larger trend.
Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, macOS Sierra
Tag: battery life
Buyer’s Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now)
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