Public News

This Public News section of our website is a blog visible to the public and our members. It describes club events and news relevant to Tesla and electric vehicle owners living in or visiting Florida. The blog has a Comments feature that we made available to the public for a couple of months. Unfortunately, we were inundated with spam and inappropriate comments. As a result, we are forced to limit comments to our membership. Non-members can still view our news articles and the remarks submitted by our members, but we regret that they won’t be permitted to leave their own comments.

  • January 24, 2018 12:52 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    Club member Jorge Sierra was featured on a guest blog posting on the EVANNEX Tesla News page.  

    Jorge discusses his reactions to the private unveiling of the Model 3 in Florida.

    TESLA HOLDS A PRIVATE EVENT FOR MODEL 3 IN MIAMI


    Jorge also provided us with a video of Francoise Lavertu, Tesla's General Manager addressing those in attendance and providing a little news of "coming soon" developments.


     

  • January 23, 2018 11:14 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Florida Tesla Enthusiasts, Space Coast EV Drivers and the City of West Melbourne partnered to celebrate the opening of the West Melbourne Supercharger Station on January 20, 2018. The event was well-attended with an estimated couple hundred people joining in the celebration. Remarks were provided by Joshua Pritt, President of Space Coast EV Drivers; Larry Chanin, President of Florida Tesla Enthusiasts; Hal Rose, Mayor of West Melbourne; John Tice, Duty Mayor of West Melbourne and State Representative Randy Fine.

    If you have a Facebook account, you can view a Facebook video of the remarks.

    SpaceX employee Ty Morton very graciously provided his Model 3 for display and permitted those in attendance to sit in his car.

    Here are some photos of the event:


    State Representative Randy Fine and Hal Rose, Mayor of West Melbourne


    Joshua Pritt, President of Space Coast EV Drivers & Larry Chanin, President of Florida Tesla Enthusiasts


    Hal Rose, Mayor of West Melbourne


    John Tice, Deputy Mayor of West Melbourne



    State Representative Randy Fine


    Brenda Boritzki, on left, is a member of both clubs and was instrumental in organizing this event.  Larry Chanin, on right, President of Florida Tesla Enthusiasts.


    Some of those in attendance.


    SpaceX employee Ty Morton graciously displayed his Model 3

    Here's a short Facebook video of Ty's reaction to his new Model 3.

    Here's some photos of Ty's Model 3:











  • January 06, 2018 2:55 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    An alert member of the Tesla Motors Club forums recently discovered a New Tampa Supercharger Station under construction at the WAWA at 2502 N 50th St, Tampa, FL 33619, located at the corner of Columbus Drive and 50th Street, Tampa about 4 miles from the Tampa Service Center.

    The nearest “Coming Soon” Supercharger Station location according to the Tesla “Find Us” map is the Tampa FL – Hyde Park Station which is targeted for the end of 2018.  Hyde Park is about 6 miles from this location, so it is possible that this may be a new unadvertised station not listed on the Find Us map.

    This will be an 8 stall station.  All the charging terminals are installed as well as the Supercharger cabinets and switchgear.  It would appear that the utility power transformer and meter have yet to be installed.

    This photo shows 3 of the 8 charging terminal and the Supercharger cabinets and switchgear.

    Public records provide a Photographic Simulation of the site and Tesla construction drawings.

    Here is a portion of the Tesla drawings: (For a full-size image, right-click and open in a separate tab or window.)


    People checking this location for future progress should make a point of taking photos of the area shown on this drawing for the location of the transformer and meter for signs of work. It should be located on the grassy area near the existing storm drain.

    Update as of January 11, 2018:


    Utility transformer and meter cabinet have been set.  After the meter is installed in the meter cabinet the utility should be energizing the transformer.

    Update: As of February 24, 2018

    Although neither the Tesla website or navigation systems show this Supercharger Station as being operational, it has been demonstrated that Tesla owners have been able to charge.  



  • December 18, 2017 10:16 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    The $7,500 federal electric vehicle (EV) tax credit was not cut in the combined tax package legislation that Congress released on Friday. Below is the exact language , page 568 of the 1097 page document. You will note that for the present law "Qualified vehicles are subject to a 200,000 vehicle-per manufacturer limitation. Once the limitation has been reached the credit is phased down over four calendar quarters."

    Conference Agreement 

    The conference agreement does not include the House bill provision. 

    3. Repeal of credit for plug-in electric drive motor vehicles (sec. 1102(c) of the House bill and sec. 30D of the Code)

     Present Law 

    A credit is available for new four-wheeled vehicles (excluding low speed vehicles and vehicles weighing 14,000 pounds or more) propelled by a battery with at least 4 kilowatt-hours of electricity that can be charged from an external source.80 The base credit is $2,500 plus $417 for each kilowatt-hour of additional battery capacity in excess of 4 kilowatt-hours (for a maximum credit of $7,500). Qualified vehicles are subject to a 200,000 vehicle-per manufacturer limitation. Once the limitation has been reached the credit is phased down over four calendar quarters. 

    House Bill 

    The provision repeals the credit for plug-in electric drive motor vehicles. Effective date.−The provision is effective for vehicles placed in service in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2017. 

    Senate Amendment 

    No provision. 79 Sec. 22(e)(3). 

    ______________________

    80 Sec. 30D. 


  • December 03, 2017 1:31 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    It had been observed that during the construction of the Coral Gables Service Center, which should be opening soon, that Tesla had installed part of the infrastructure for an 8-stall Supercharger Station.

    However, it had also been reported on the online forums that Tesla had changed their mind about completing the onsite Supercharger Station.

    A recent visit to the construction site by a club member has confirmed that there will not be a Supercharger Station there for the foreseeable future since, as you can see in the photo above, the conduits installed to carry the cables have be capped off.


  • November 14, 2017 2:42 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    A member of the Tesla Motors Forum has found the location of the “Coming Soon” Orlando Supercharger Station. The station is under construction at a Wawa at 6500 W Sand Lake Rd, Orlando, FL 32819.

    It appears to be very strategically located.  Here is a vicinity map: (For a larger version of these images, right click images and open in a separate tab or window.)


    Here's some more progress:


    It apparently is going to be an 8-stall Supercharger Station.

    As of January 6, 2018:

    1E1BF34F-E030-4B96-A0EB-BD9FABF5925C.jpeg

    Utility power transformer was set on January 6, 2018.  No meter yet.

    Update as of March 9, 2018:

    Although the neither Tesla website, nor the navigation systems have been updated yet, nevertheless this Supercharger Station is now operational.



  • November 12, 2017 10:43 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)


    OVERVIEW

    Some people think autonomous vehicles  (AVs) must be nearly flawless before humans take their hands off the wheel. But RAND research shows that putting AVs on the road before they’re perfect improves the technology more quickly—and could save hundreds of thousands of lives over time.

    Why Waiting for Perfect Autonomous Vehicles May Cost Lives

    Michael DeKort is an engineer who is the Founder of Professionals for Safe and Responsible Autonomous Mobility. He’s also a member of the SAE On-Road Autonomous Driving Verification and Validation Task Force and a vocal critic of Tesla and Elon Musk’s approach to implementing autonomous vehicles. A month before the Rand article (linked above) was published he and I had a conversation on this very subject. Here is one of my comments to him.

    Michael,

    Thanks for reaching out. I have read some of your articles and while I am not a technical expert, I believe I understand the gist of your argument.

    Before I give my opinion, it might be helpful to provide you with a little background about my perspective. Yes, I am the president of a large Tesla enthusiasts club in Florida and not surprisingly I am an avid supporter of what Elon Musk is attempting to do in a number of areas, including autonomous vehicles.

    Paraphrasing the Chinese proverb, we Floridians in particular happen to live in interesting times with regard to the implementation of AV. I have never thought of Florida legislators and transportation officials as being progressive in their outlook. However, a few years ago I had the opportunity to hear one of our Secretaries of Transportation speaking on the subject of AV and I was frankly surprised to hear how much they are promoting its development.

    He went on to candidly state that due to the aging driving public that FDOT had essentially failed in its basic mission to reduce highway accidents and fatalities and they viewed AV as a means of reversing that trend. Likewise, the Chairman of the Florida Senate Transportation Committee and the Governor are also big proponents of AV. As a result, Florida has passed AV legislation that is the least restrictive in the country. I view that as a good thing in accelerating the development of AV, particularly for Tesla owners in Florida.

    Last year, immediately following the death of Joshua Brown in that terrible crash here in Florida, I was interviewed by a couple of national news reporters. They wanted to know if I had changed my attitude regarding Tesla’s Autopilot. I told them no, that in fact I had a Model 3 on order with Autopilot and I had no intention of cancelling that order.

    From early reports it appeared that Autopilot had encountered a situation in which it couldn’t “see” the truck. I told the reporters that even conceding that specific situation in which an engaged human would have done better than Autopilot, in terms of overall safety we need to consider the totality of driving situations. When using Autopilot as a driving assist feature, in my opinion there were going to be more situations whereby the system sees better, reacts faster, steers more accurately such that, in totality a Tesla with Autopilot engaged in conjunction with an engaged driver, is going to be safer than if it were turned off.

    As you know, months later, after reviewing the statistics, the NHTSA reached the same conclusion.

    I also told the reporters that Joshua was unfortunately too much of a Tesla enthusiast and was misguided in his trust of the technology. I explained that despite the questionable selection of the name, “Autopilot”, it definitely wasn’t self-driving and Joshua made a fatal mistake in treating it as if it were a fully autonomous vehicle. I said that a better name for the feature would have been “Driver Assist”.

    Both the NHTSA and the NTSB also agreed with my initial assessment that the driver was at fault in his unfounded, over-confidence in the level of installed technology. After recently reading the NTSB report, I also agree with them that Tesla’s implementation of Autopilot, with limited driver warnings, played a major factor in the fatality.

    Earlier this year I traded my four-year-old Tesla in for a new model with Autopilot. I also paid the additional $8,000 for the hardware and the eventual software for promised full autonomy. I have no illusions about the rudimentary current version of Autopilot. I use it exclusively in highway situations with no intersections. It excels in stop-and-go traffic. I don’t use it on exit ramps, or on secondary roads.

    Last week while my wife and I were driving on the highway she asked me, “Is she [meaning Autopilot] driving?” My response was, “No, the three of us are driving.” What I meant was that before I upgraded my car to Autopilot, driving was a collaboration between my wife and myself. We are both over 70 and now at our stage of life it frankly helps to have more than one set of eyes on the road. So even before Autopilot I was already driving in Shadow Mode with my wife providing “Driver Assist”.

    Returning to your basic question, even with the current basic version of the Autopilot software, I view it as a valuable safety feature when used as it was intended and for certain currently limited driving situations (highways for now). Inherent in this view is that the driver must take full responsibility for his/her actions and be fully engaged in their driving just as if Autopilot weren’t engaged. Some may say, “Well if I can’t relax behind the wheel what is the point of engaging Autopilot?” The answer is simple, there are going to be driving situations, especially for older drivers, whereby Autopilot is going to react faster than a human and mitigate an accident.

    Some may say, “But won’t some people misuse the feature or fall asleep and die in fatal crashes along with their children?” Yes, absolutely. We can’t help that. The relevant question is, “When applied to the entire population of drivers, statistically is it safer to engage Autopilot or not? Experts can make recommendations to our legislators as to what that threshold should be, 2 times safer, 5 times safer, 10 times safer? However, everyone should recognize that many adults and children will die while we wait to implement “perfect” solutions.

    Regarding AI Simulations versus Shadow Driving versus Test Tracks, I don’t view this as a pick-one-approach situation. I believe that multiple approaches should be used. As a layperson I am not qualified to speak to the ideal mix, but I believe that it is likely, especially here in Florida, that more lives will be lost by unduly deferring the implementation of AI by relying solely on simulations.

    Sincerely,

    Lawrence Chanin

    President, Florida Tesla Enthusiasts



  • November 02, 2017 6:45 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Image result for plug in america logo

    Help stop Congress from trying to kill the electric car! Just this morning, Chairman Brady of the House Ways and Means Committee introduced the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, H.R.1. The bill calls for the repeal of the $7,500 federal electric vehicle (EV) tax credit, effective December 31, 2017.

    Please click link below:

    We need you to send a message to your Representative and Senators right now and tell them to leave the $7,500 tax credit alone. 

    Thanks.

    Larry Chanin

    President, Florida Tesla Enthusiasts

    Website: teslaownersflorida.org

    Facebook: Florida Tesla Enthusiasts


  • October 30, 2017 10:21 AM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Car Companies Rev Up Focus on Electric Cars

    David Link, of the Village of La Belle, owns a 2013 Tesla S P-85. Link, along with his wife, Angelia, are members of the Florida Tesla Enthusiasts club. The Links said they are in the process of buying two more Tesla electric vehicles.

    Some of our club members were featured in an article in  The Villages Daily Sun.  Here's a link to the article:

    Car Companies Rev Up Focus on Electric Cars


  • October 28, 2017 12:12 PM | Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Florida Public Service Commission Electric Vehicle Charging Roundtable

    Above is a link to a 3 hour 17 minute video of the EV Charging Roundtable discussion to the Florida Public Service Commission. It's purpose was to discuss the potential effects of public and privately-owned electric vehicle charging on the state’s electric grid. Participating were representatives from Tesla, GM, electric utilities, companies providing charging equipment and Drive Electric Florida.

    Drive Electric Florida Voting Members:


    Our club, Florida Tesla Enthusiasts, is a voting member of Drive Electric Florida and at about 40 minutes into the video the Chairman of the Commission asked about our club. At about 1 hour 17 minutes into the video Tesla made a presentation. 

    I know that not many of us have more than 3 hours to spare on this type of topic, but it illustrates the FPSC's appreciation of the inevitability of the exponential growth of EVs and their desire to proactively plan for that load growth on the Florida electric grids.

    Here's an article summarizing the Roundtable discussions:

    Charging options in focus as Florida prepares for rise of electric vehicles

Florida Tesla Enthusiasts, Inc. is an enthusiast club and 501(c) 7 non-profit organization. It is registered with the Florida Department of State and is also registered to do business in Florida as Tesla Owners Florida.

The use of the trademarked name "Tesla" in our club names is strictly for the nominative purposes of description and identification as granted by the Lanham Act for fair use of trademarks. Its use is in no way intended to imply any business affiliation with Tesla or its subsidiaries.

Our club is an official partner of the Tesla Owners Club Program. While it is recognized and sanctioned by Tesla through the program, Florida Tesla Enthusiasts, a/k/a Tesla Owners Club of Florida, is an independent enthusiast organization and is not affiliated with Tesla or its subsidiaries. TESLA, MODEL S, MODEL X, MODEL 3, POWERWALL and the “TESLA,” “T” and “TESLA and T Flag” designs, and certain other marks, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Tesla Motors, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software