I haven't taken a flight in over a decade, so I knew a lot has changed (I would have a steep learning curve to bone-up on since . After navigating the newer method of getting your reservations (flight, lodging, car) on-line, I decided to do a reconnoiter (dry-run) and check out what my 1st flight in 10+years would be like.
Leaving early to avoid the heavy (speeding-to-work & draging-home) traffic time-periods in Silicon Valley, I left ~1pm and headed south. Even just trying to get on Hwy 101 south, I was seeing EVs also on the road (White Tesla-S, gray-silver Leaf) speeding by. Formerly, when I was a hp-CE, I listening to the traffic reports on the car radio as a useful tool (it helped me arrive on time to keep my customer happier). Sure enough, this time it alerted me to an accident that slowed the highway I was on (101 south) to a slow crawl. Memories of years of wading through traffic-jams like that reminded me why I drive so little now (been-there, done-that ... no-need-to-now). Except that day, so I could get up to speed. Traffic into SJC airport was quite light at ~1:40pm, even for a Friday. I used the near-full long term parking lot I would use in the future. All seemed straight forward. After luckily snagging a parking spot near a shuttle pick-up kiosk, when I looked up out my windshield, I saw an i3 EV parked in front of me (in the spot of the opposite row of parking). Oddly, it did not have either white CA hov stickers (for an EV) or green CA hov stickers (for a pih). The i3 looked similar to: http://www.bmw.co.za/content/dam/bmw/common/all-models/i-series/i3/2013/at-a-glance/i3-slider01-ataglance.jpg The rear did state it was an i3, but no mention of having a rex (looking similar to: ) http://st.automobilemag.com/uploads/sites/11/2015/01/2014-BMW-i3-eDrive-rear-end1.jpg Could this i3 be so new that it has the latest larger 33kW pack? (see: ) http://www.caranddriver.com/news/bmw-for-2017-whats-new-feature New Cars for 2017: BMW AUG 2016 i3 ... lithium-ion battery pack in BMW's funky EV runabout grows from 22 kWh to 33, which means an increase in rated range from 81 miles to 114 ... http://media.caranddriver.com/images/media/51/bmw-inline-photo-670565-s-original.jpg After taking a shuttle bus (with a loud automated voice system) to the terminal (the bus still had a human driver, but much of the driving was sensed and automated to limit the driver's speeds, and stop-wait times - the shuttle could not leave unless the system allowed it). I wondered what the full-auton shuttle-buses (no human driver) of the future will be like, hoping there would be a way to turn down the blaring volume of the (annoying) automated voice that was screaming at me of things I did not want to know. Once I had finished learning where to: walk (hobbling with a cane), enter, check-in, re-learn how to time my slow footing on escalators, and talk to the people that will scan me of what their SOP was, I was ready to leave. After being dropped off from the (LOUD) shuttle back to my car, the i3 was still there. I thought that large long-term parking-lot had a lot of sq footage going to waste above the parked cars. When I left, I purposely drove to the end of the lot, to know that there was a shuttle pickup kiosk back there. This meant using state and federal solar grant funding, the airport could install solar canopies in their parking lots. If so, it would so simple to also install L1 outlets or EVSE for drivers parking in the extreme rear of the lot (far less likely to have iced spots from lazy ice drivers). Having a cover over the vehicles also would mean all vehicles would be more protected from sun damage and droppings from local and seabirds (yup, they got my car while I was gone). As it tuns out, I came over an hour early for my flight. That time of day, made leaving the airport easy. But as I re-entered Hwy101 (north), the south bound lanes were now jammed (stopped) with traffic (funny how much difference an hour makes). I decided I will still come too early, to minimize the affect traffic will have (better to wait than be sorry). Half way back, a Volt pih flexed its performance and cut me off (I usually let those things slide, and those drivers are likely too amp'd up on caffeine or something to care). Later, before my Hwy exit to do some shopping, a white Tesla-S EV was unhappy that I was in their way (almost side-swiping me). I continued to keep the same legal speed, and let them pass. As one can summarize, if you take a inconsiderate ice driver and put them in a plugin, you get a inconsiderate plugin driver. Now off the Hwy and on Mt. View's city streets, I spied a Goog nEV (looking similar to: ) https://fortunedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/google-car-1280x720.png It it looked taller and narrower (skinnier) than all the images I seen. The middle aged driver was there (CA law sez auton vehicles must have a driver) but really they had nothing to do. After I finished my shopping task and was leaving, I saw the Goog nEV again as it was exiting the neighborhood streets behind the shopping center (it must have been on a pre-programmed route). I passed it after letting it get up to its maximum speed. Yup, its a nEV alright: 30mph on a 35mph 4 lane road, where everyone drives at least 45mph between red-lights. No one seemed to care what it was ('autonomous vehicle' blazoned all over it), they just passed it like they would any other too-slow vehicle in their way. As was posted, if you are in Goog's Mt. View area, you will likely have to share the city streets with one of their nEVs. Here's a news blurb mentioning to them: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_30295551/googles-rivals-self-driving-cars-may-force-it Google's rivals in self-driving cars may force it into hard choice 08/26/2016 Amid a blitz of progress announcements this month from robot-car firms that could beat ... and has helped the firm successfully market its pricey electric vehicles. http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2016/0826/20160826__sjm-googdrive-0826-1~1_300.JPG Before I got home I took a side road as an opportunity to visit my old-stomping grounds: the former hp-neely sales and support office in Mt. View which had moved away (relocated) way-back when Fiorina devoured compaq. Pictured in: https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/10/27/us/27jpCARLY2/27jpCARLY2-master675.jpg Fiorina toured the Y2K Command Center at the company’s Palo Alto, Calif., headquarters on the afternoon of Dec. 31, 1999. Credit Associated Press ... I had worked with the men in the picture, and was not allowed to sleep for days (on-call) up to Y2k at our Y2K command center. All of which ended up (thankfully) for naught ... http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB936631030737169806 http://time.com/3645828/y2k-look-back/ I wanted to see the changes to that site (what companies were now there, if my original EVSE hp paid to have installed was still around, etc.). As I entered the parking lot way in the back, one of the companies (coursera) leasing one of the buildings was holding a Friday soirée (a beer-bust, which are fairly common for Silicon Valley Hi-Tech companies to do on Friday's). As I swung around, it seems Mozilla (Firefox) has now leased the building I used to report to when I was a hp CE. I did not go inside, as I later found a website that showed me how much it had changed (it had been gutted - see: ) https://officesnapshots.com/2014/09/29/mozilla-corporation-mountain-view-headquarters/ https://blog.mozilla.org/places/tag/mountain-view/ I could almost see/imagine where my manager used to sit https://ffp4g1ylyit3jdyti1hqcvtb-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/places/files/2013/12/20131010_142805_resized.jpg before they revamped the whole building https://ffp4g1ylyit3jdyti1hqcvtb-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/places/files/2013/09/20130829_142824_resized.jpg Outside the building, in the parking in front of their entrance https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MozillaEvelynAveHeadquarters.jpg is where I saw two CT4000 Chargepoint EVSE installed (that looked like: ) https://evermorecdn.s3.amazonaws.com/content/uploads/ct4021-bollard-dual-left1.jpg with a Soul EV and a Tesla EV plugged in. Their EV signage stated their EVSE was for their employee use only. Later, I found plugshare did not list these EVSE (you could not use them even if you were almost bricked). My original lo-tech two outlets (5-20 & L5-30) that were mounted on a metal stanchion cemented in a 2x2' pad in front of a side parking spot, was totally gone. A large metal storage enclosure was now in its place (out with the old, in with the new ... ). That change was par, as many of the hp sites I had supported that I had installed EVSE at, hp had sold off: Kifer site in Sunnyvale (now intuitivesurgical), Mayfield site in Mt. View (now Goog), the Cupertino site (now Apple), the Deer Creek site (now Tesla), &more. On my way out, I briefly yakked with a tall slender young man (picture perfect example of a Silicon Valley engineer hiring candidate). He knew that hp had been in the complex before, and knew of the EVSE in front of Mozilla (he was a sharp dude). When I told him I put in EVSE over 20 years ago, he smiled. He said he would tell who was plugging in now that I paved the way for them to charge at work (that made me smile). When I got home, I knew I had accomplished quite a bit, and I was already feeling the burn from all the exercise I had done. Crawling into bed, and closed my eyes knowing all my good EV deeds at one of my many former hp work sites had paid off :-) For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.0catch.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVangel-about-Goog-auton-nEV-spied-counting-EVs-Leaf-Tesla-S-i3-more-tp4683515.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
