

Elon Musk may be right about his simple solution for Boeing - alexqgb
http://qz.com/51775/elon-musk-may-be-right-about-his-simple-solution-for-boeing-loosen-up-the-battery/

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CanSpice
Okay, this is probably going to get flagged or downvoted or something, but
that Quartz site really sucks in Firefox. I have to keep scrolling up and down
to get another two sentences of text, and even then it's hit-or-miss as to
whether it's going to give me more. Why do sites need to have fancy scrolling
effects that aren't needed?

And now the title says "Why Obama's pick for Secretary of the Interior is a
shrewd move" while Elton Musk's story is still up there.

Some web developer or designer over there is being too clever by half. Keep
the damned thing simple.

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ignostic
I block plugins from sites unless I give permission. Can't see a damn thing.
(Chrome)

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jmspring
Same, and running ghostery, I am getting consistent experience on both Safari
and Chrome.

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djt
Text for people that cant read it: About two weeks ago, spaceship-and-electric
car-maker Elon Musk (pictured above) got in touch with Boeing, whose 787
Dreamliners are grounded because of smoke and fire problems with their
powerful lithium-iron batteries. His team had figured out how to tightly pack
such batteries into both space-going and earthly vehicles. He was happy to
pass along lessons learned. Boeing replied that the situation is “under
control,” Musk said.

Now, Boeing appears to have reconsidered. Though it is not saying so
explicitly, it seems to be looking at Musk’s main advice—reducing the chance
of fire hazard by increasing the space (paywall) between the lithium-ion cells
in the battery pack, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A Musk fan site is crowing about Boeing’s possible about-face.

The reporting on Musk gets one thing wrong—his Tesla automobiles do not use
the lithium-cobalt-oxide chemistry that is in the Dreamliner batteries. They
rely on Panasonic nickel-cobalt-aluminum lithium-ion batteries, which may be
less volatile.

In the end, that may not be a crucial difference, one battery scientist told
me—“I would be the first to say that there are safer battery chemistries
available than [Boeing's lithium-cobalt-oxide],” he said, “but if you know
what you’re dealing with, you can make a system safe.”

Yet it may be at least partly about perception. Why choose the most volatile
of all the standard lithium-ion configurations when, in a crisis, that could
turn into a public relations nightmare?

Generally speaking, battery scientists will speak only not-for-attribution on
the 787 issue. In some cases this is because they have been hired by Boeing as
consultants to figure out what went wrong. The one quoted above doesn’t want
to be identified.

But he also thinks that, contrary to what some reports have suggested, Boeing
has made progress in figuring out the root cause of the problem with the
Dreamliners. “The process of elimination does rule out many possible root
causes and gets you closer to the answer,” the scientist said. “I’m sure they
have a short list that’s getting shorter by the day.”

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jws
Yahoo News republished the story: [http://news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-may-simple-
solution-15441942...](http://news.yahoo.com/elon-musk-may-simple-
solution-154419423.html)

You can read it there without the awful UI decisions of the original site.
(Some Firefox and some chrome are unable to use it.)

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virtualritz
The website doesn't work in Chrome 25.x on OS X. No scrolling. Lame.

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alexqgb
OP here; the site worked on my iPhone, didn't realize it would cause so much
grief elsewhere. I've sent the post's author a link to this thread. I'm sure
he'll get it to the right people.

tl;dr/cr: Elon Musk called Boeing to say "I've got an idea". Boeing said "Our
guys are on it, so thanks, but no thanks". A couple of weeks later they called
him back. "Hey, about that idea..."

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snogglethorpe
> _A couple of weeks later they called him back. "Hey, about that idea..."_

That's not what the story seems to say though.

It sounds like Boeing may have reached conclusions through their investigation
that resemble what Musk said.

The "Musk fan site" is naturally interpreting this as "Musk's idea," but it's
not at all clear Musk had anything to do with it. If there's a reasonable and
natural solution to a problem, it's not all surprising when independent teams
discover it.

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genwin
This site crashed my browser (Chrome Version 24.0.1312.57 m). The video card
had to reset.

