Tesla’s Model S Gets “Ludicrous” Mode, Will Do 0-60 in 2.8 Seconds

Even if not a software update, I still find Tesla&#x27;s way of thinking of a car as an actual (continuously update&#x2F;upgrade-able) product fascinating. Very rare for hardware.<p>It gives an amazing user experience, &quot;Hey restart your car and it&#x27;s now got X and Y&quot;. Respect.<p>Edit: clarifying the term &quot;product&quot;.

One thing I don&#x27;t understand is the position of the big car makers(BMW, MB, AUDI) being a passive observer in this field.<p>Tesla is getting so much, that if any automaker that can deliver a car with half the specs of a model S, and keeping their model&#x27;s prices as a mass produced car, would deliver a big punch to Tesla, and would greatly move the market forward.<p>Is it the investment necessary for building a network of charging stations?<p>I highly doubt it is because Tesla has more money for R&amp;D than any other car maker.<p>Is getting a Model S, earns you the title of being an early adopter. Because I believe the market already shifted towards this type of vehicles, but I may be polarized, because I already desire an electric car.

Amazing, that&#x27;s as fast as the Lamborghini Aventador <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Lamborghini_Aventador" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Lamborghini_Aventador</a>

More impressive to me is the fact that the 90kWh battery is already trickling down to the Model S. It was originally developed for the Model X.<p>I think it&#x27;s safe to say that we&#x27;ll see Model X features moving down to the Model S much faster than previously thought. This is how you relentlessly improve a product instead of holding specific features to a Model without solid technical reasons.

If you can do this as a $10k update &quot;safely&quot; with a computer-controlled pyro fuse, I wonder what you could do by hacking the firmware and replacing it with a piece of busbar. 2 seconds?

I like the Spaceballs reference. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=mk7VWcuVOf0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=mk7VWcuVOf0</a>

More usefully, there&#x27;s an option to increase the range to 300 miles. That&#x27;s still only half the range of many stock gasoline cars, though.

so it&#x27;s a fuse that costs $5k or $10k. is it made from 5oz-10oz of solid platinum? what am i missing here [1]?<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;s&#x2F;ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dautomotive&amp;field-keywords=300a+fuse&amp;rh=n%3A15684181%2Ck%3A300a+fuse" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;s&#x2F;ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3D...</a>

Does it cause it to go to plaid?

0-60 times are nice but I want to know what the 60-100 time is. That&#x27;s what generally used for 1&#x2F;4 mile estimates.<p>Is there any diagrams of information easily available about the couple style used between the motors and the wheel hubs? I wonder how they&#x27;re done and what the limit of them is with the amount of torque they put out. In a previous life I used to build a lot of race cars and shearing axle bolts wasn&#x27;t uncommon in drag applications.<p>It would be awesome to see them test out a full on drag tesla.

On a different note: is it possible to opt out of Tesla software updates (for whatever reason)? AFAIK, this is not possible (<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;my.teslamotors.com&#x2F;forum&#x2F;forums&#x2F;same-distasteful-appeasing" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;my.teslamotors.com&#x2F;forum&#x2F;forums&#x2F;same-distasteful-appe...</a>) The two options when an update is available seem to be install now or later.

It&#x27;s a $10k upgrade, not cheap! I wonder which Ludacris song[1] was the hold music looping before today&#x27;s Tesla press conference call...<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;7&#x2F;17&#x2F;8994519&#x2F;tesla-ludicrous-speed-model-s" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.theverge.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;7&#x2F;17&#x2F;8994519&#x2F;tesla-ludicrous-sp...</a>

How can they get that many amps out of the battery? It seems like you&#x27;d need a capactior to have that kind of power?

Tesla&#x27;s seems to be beating a dead horse! Don&#x27;t get me wrong; I love what Tesla does but making a faster production car seems to be an answer to the critics who I think have already taken home the message that the electric car is as fast as the best IC car!<p>I think what they should address is getting out the affordable Model 3 as fast to the market as they can. They may loose the game if the incumbents beat them to it. They would need volume to sustain their production and maintenance costs. Once every manufacturer gets onto the electric wagon, a lack of wider adoption, could become their Achilles heels.

and still no Model X or even serious updates about it... and yet I will still let them keep my $5k until it arrives...

Seems like they took inspiration from the branding on the Chromebook Pixel LS (Ludicrous Speed)--the 16GB RAM, i7 one that I&#x27;m lucky enough to have ;-)<p>Fun fact: most cars today run about 20 separate operating systems. My guess is Tesla is fairly above average. Anyone have a figure on this?

I wonder if it will have a &quot;Drake&quot; mode to do 0-100 real quick.

this alone will be a good enough excuse to get this car if you could afford it.<p>Asides Nissan GTR, supercars running in 300,000 USD will do roughly 3.0~3.1. hypercars like pagani, p1, porsche, laferrari achieve sub 3.0<p>I&#x27;m extremely impressed. Even more because this was just another regular software update.

Where is source code?

No-one needs this, I predict accidents.<p>I hope insurance companies can determine which models have this and inexperienced drivers should pay more.<p>Just hope no-one kills anyone.