Tesla's Solar Roof Almost Ready for Distribution, How Much Will It Cost?

Billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently launched the new Tesla Solar Roofs using a 'Desperate Housewives' set as a model house. The new Tesla roofs are equipped with solar panels are not just designed to harness solar power and store them in Power Wall, but the new solar roof is also designed to replace existing roofs.

The innovative solar roofs are said to be stronger than traditional roofing system. The solar panels are built in within the roofing panels so that the roofing itself will serve as the solar panels and vice versa. During the launch, Powerwall 2 and Powerpack 2 were also unveiled. The solar roofs will directly work with Tesla's home-based Powerwall.

Although it is not available on the market yet, it is looking good for Tesla as a lot of manufacturers and industry players are praising the new building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solar roofs. This is the reason why a lot of industry players and the consumers as well are looking out for the would-be price point of Tesla's innovative solar roofs.

Typical solar shingles are already expensive, to begin with like CertainTeed, Suntegra and Atlanis. This is due to the high cost of materials and installation cost. But Musk argued during the launch that in the long run, installing solar roofs would be beneficial environmentally and economically.

The solar roofs are composed of a 6-inch solar cell. The economical advantage can be calculated depending on how powerful the solar cells and the kilowatt-generating power or solar cells on the roof combined.

Tesla's solar roofs are also designed to replace the typical type of roofing materials. On the onset, it will be of course, a bit more expensive than the regular ones especially if the home owner will choose to replace the whole roofing system with its solar counterpart. But Musk had also given that a thought. The Tesla CEO said anyone could choose only parts of their roofs to be replaced with the ones with solar cells and still keep some of the typical roofing materials. This is in respect to existing homes and the owner's aesthetic preferences.

In an educated guess, Brian Cinnamon of Green Tech Media expects that the Tesla solar roof to cost about $15,000 for a set that is capable of producing 9,000 kilowatt-hours per year.

But until the solar roofs roll out in the market, no one can tell for sure how much will the solar roof cost. Tesla's acquision of SolarCity paved the way for the production of Solar Roofs that is considered an integral part of Musk's environmental agenda mentioned in his 'Tesla Master Plan Part 2'.

Top 10 Quietest Tires of 2016

Tires are manufactured according to specific standards in order to facilitate driving in any type of weather on almost any type of surface. Not many tires, unfortunately, are supposed to provide a quiet driving experience because there isn’t an industry standard for such a thing to begin with.

Many people, however, prefer to do their driving as quietly as possible and understandably so. If you’re one of those people, you’re probably wondering just how much of a difference quiet tires can make and how would you go about getting some?

This is a list of the ten quietest tires in the world right now, tires that are guaranteed to bring a bit of serenity to your driving experience without taking anything away from their adherence and durability.

Goodyear Fortera HL Radial Tire



The Fortera HL isn’t exactly designed to be quiet, but it is nevertheless. This being said, you shouldn’t expect it to retain its quiet nature when driving at considerable speed, but you should expect a smooth ride otherwise. It is also a very durable tire, coming with a 60,000 miles warranty and a speed rating of T-118 MPH. Also, it has a serrated black stripe and a load index of 107.

General AltiMAX RT All-Season Tire



Thanks to its acoustic modulations sound technology (AMST), the AltiMAX RT is quiet than your average tire by quite a bit. Combined with its reactive contour technology, this makes the AltiMAX not only quiet but responsive at the same time


Goodyear Wrangler ArmorTrac Radial Tire



Goodyear is known for making high-quality tires and it was only natural for some of them to be quiet as well. This being said, do not expect the Wrangler ArmorTrac to be as quiet as tires that were specifically designed this way. You can, however, rely on the Wrangler ArmorTrac to be a lot quieter than most tires for pickup trucks / light trucks being sold nowadays.

Bridgestone Dueler H/T 684 II All-Season Radial Tire




This all-season tire for SUV’s, light trucks, and crossovers is designed to provide outstanding wet weather traction while being extremely quiet at the same time. This doesn’t mean that it isn’t quiet most of the time, because it is. It just means that due to its rounded casting profile and specially designed notches, these tires will allow you to experience a pretty smooth and quiet ride in bad weather.

Dunlop Grandtrek AT20 All-Season Tire



Made with dimensionally stable polyester that ensures its uniformity, this particular type of tire is a lot smoother that other tires in its class. It features a VersaLoad technology that maintains the tire’s stability and wear in a variety of conditions while its variable pitch tread blocks ensure that you will experience a very quiet ride. Furthermore, its powerful adherence allows it to be used as a reliable traction tire.

Goodyear Eagle LS Radial Tire



Goodyear’s Eagle LS Radial Tire features four circumferential grooves for increased wet traction, special tread block sequence for enhanced handling, and premium sidewall styling for a more contemporary appearance. Its special tread block sequence also reduces tread noise while making the overall driving experience much smoother. Its reliable traction under almost any conditions allows it to be used in any weather while its adherence is way above normal.

Cooper Discoverer H/T Plus All-Season Tire



Using a non-directional tread design, the Discovered tire from Cooper provides a much quieter driving experience overall but especially when driving in a straight line. Intended for SUV’s, this tire can be used by light trucks or crossovers just as well. It has a rubber rim protector and a rounded mold profile that balances traction and tread life. Furthermore, its overall rigid, yet adherent nature makes it an all-season tire.


Hankook Optimo H724 All-Season Tire



This all-season tire from Hankook uses a center rib block that improves handling and stability while changing direction. Its pitch design technology drastically reduces tire noise, even when driving at a fast speed. Its jointless full cover improves its overall durability and brake performance while its high-hardness bead filler ensures its resistance in any weather. 

Continental ExtremeContact DWS All-Season Tire



Continental’s ExtremeContact DWS all-season tire uses easy-to-read tread wear level indicators for greater comfort, improved water evacuation for improved wet handling, and a design that ensures enhanced overall performance in dry conditions. Speaking of design, this particular tire is designed to provide increased traction in light snow conditions and a much smoother, more quiet performance when driving in a wet environment.

Continental ContiProContact SSR Run-Flat All-Season Tire


This all-season passenger tire from Continental uses a central rib that reduces thread pattern noise levels quite a lot, ensuring a much smoother ride overall. It has a run-flat ability for greater mobility in case of a puncture, optimized sipes with defined radius for improved stability, and a circumferential groove for better water evacuation and breaking on wet surfaces. Overall, the ContiProContact SSR from Continental is not only one of the quietest tires on the market but one of the most stable, reliable, and durable tires money can buy.

Understanding How Brakes Work

Besides Shorter Stopping Distance, What Else Would You Improve about the Way Your Brakes Perform?

·         Reduce the amount of ugly black brake dust that appears on your wheels?

·         Reduce or eliminate that annoying squeal as you pull up to the toll booth?

·         Reduce the amount of pedal pressure required to bring your vehicle to a stop?

·         Improve the ability to stop at the maximum level even after repetitive stops?

Brakes work by converting kinetic energy (forward motion) into thermal energy (heat). The friction between the stationary brake pad and rotating disk or drum as it slides past the pad convert the motion of the wheel and tire into heat, much the way rubbing your hands together on a cold day will warm them up. Bringing your car to a stop generates enough heat at each wheel to boil a liter of water in about 7 seconds. Brake temperatures can reach around 500°F during normal everyday use, and can reach up to 1000°F under heavy or repetitive braking.

The brake disk or drum is designed to work like a heat sink, and absorbs as much as 80% of the heat generated during stopping. Fortunately, it also makes a good radiator, cooling as it spins through the air on the way to the next stop.

The front brakes do most of the work as the vehicle's weight pushes forward while stopping. Therefore, many vehicles are equipped with disc brakes on the front axle and drum brakes on the rear. A disc brake's superior performance is largely due to its ability to generate friction as the brake calipers force the pads to clamp against the rotors. The brake rotors are cleaned and dried by the brake pads dragging across them and the entire brake system is exposed to the air for efficient cooling. The advantages of rear drum brakes are lower cost and the ability to easily integrate a mechanical emergency/parking brake system.

Most Original Equipment brake pads are made of many different compounds, and try to achieve a compromise between stopping power, low noise, dusting and long wear. Gone is asbestos, now replaced with modern friction materials.

OEM -- original equipment manufacturer

Vehicle manufacturers understand that there is little reason to spend millions of dollars developing the ride and handling qualities of a new vehicle's suspension if they are going to omit integrating the influence of its Original Equipment tires. This has resulted in either completely new tire designs or fine-tuned versions of existing designs being engineered for every new car and light truck from the beginning of the vehicle's development process.

There was a time in America when it was thought that the only reasons a vehicle manufacturer chose Original Equipment tires were "how wide were the whitewalls" and "which manufacturer would sell their bias ply tires for the lowest price." Well even if that had been true, times have changed and neither whitewalls nor cheap bias ply tires are used on vehicles today.

Part of the reason for this is because tire comfort and tire performance directly correlate with the driver's overall vehicle satisfaction. Original Equipment tires play an integral role in achieving the vehicle's desired comfort and performance capabilities, and greatly influence the vehicle's personality. And as vehicles have evolved, so have OE tires. For the most part, today's vehicles are lighter, more fuel-efficient and more responsive than those built a decade ago. This has caused corresponding reductions in tire weight and rolling resistance, while enhancing the tire's handling capabilities.

A tire's characteristics can be represented graphically in a "spider" chart (see below). These charts provide a visual means of presenting multiple performance characteristics to allow direct comparison of an existing tire's capabilities (usually established at the 100 level as a baseline) to the targets and/or realized performance levels for a new tire.

While the tire manufacturer's ultimate goal is to develop technology that allows them to expand the new tire's entire comfort and performance envelope in all directions compared to the original tire, frequently they are only able to expand the tire's capabilities in several areas without causing compromises that would result in less performance in other areas. This type of analysis allows confirmation of the accomplished improvements and any resulting compromises.

Starting from the same original tire would result in identifying different goals for a tire intended for a luxury coupe vs. a tire intended for a true sports car. Which is the better tire? In reality, neither of them is better; but they are both different. Most importantly, both would be tuned to meet the desired personality of the car. However, if misapplied, the driver would experience a loss of performance if the luxury coupe tire was installed on the sports car, or a loss of comfort if the sports car tire were installed on the luxury coupe.

Maintaining high customer satisfaction is key to vehicle and tire manufacturers alike. Vehicle manufacturers benefit from higher vehicle satisfaction ratings, and tire manufacturers that have high levels of driver satisfaction also have the highest percentage of drivers who report that they intend to buy that same tire brand in the future. Among year-one owners, more than 60 percent of the drivers on OE Michelin report that they plan to repurchase Michelin tires in the future, the highest repurchase intention of all tire brands.

Additionally, the vehicle manufacturers have learned that if the driver is satisfied with their tires they are also likely to be satisfied with their vehicle, increasing their intent to repurchase the same brand of vehicle in the future.

Goodyear develops concept tires for Lexus UX concept car

Lexus has introduced its UX concept car, fitted with Goodyear Urban Crossover concept tires.

The spokes of the rim flow smoothly into the sidewall design of the tire, creating one unique feature consistent with the rest of the car.

The sections of the sidewall, seamlessly integrated in the wheel, give the tire its urban crossover look, while the tread pattern gives the tire a dynamic appearance. The tire’s design is created using Goodyear’s hi-tech laser carving technique.

It incorporates state-of-the-art features including Goodyear’s sound comfort technology, which uses an open-cell polyurethane foam element attached to the inner surface of the tire. This technology dampens the tire cavity resonance sound peak that is generated when the tire rolls over a surface, enabling the vehicle’s cabin to be extremely quiet.

This has been combined with the company’s chip-in-tire technology, which sends vital information to the car’s onboard computer, enhancing the stability and performance of the car when cornering and braking.

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Mr.Goma Team

For a hundred years, General Motors was defined by its brands: Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, GMC, Cadillac; Saturn, Saab, and Hummer later joined the portfolio.

But the lead-up to the financial crisis and the Great Recession, driving GM into bankruptcy, saw Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Saturn vanish, while Hummer and Saab faded away.

This was actually a plus for GM, as supporting all those brands had become a drag on the business. Since coming out of bankruptcy, however, GM has discovered that it can develop new brands without having to promote them and market them as such.

On Friday, the automaker's Buick division announced that it had created a new sub-brand, "Avenir." That's the French world for "future," and it takes it cue from a concept car that Buick unveiled in 2015.

"Through the first half of 2016, Buick has been the industry's fastest-growing major international brand, and Avenir is key to future growth and delivering on the high expectations of new customers coming to our showrooms," Duncan Aldred, Buick's boss, said in a statement.

"Avenir will be Buick's signature. The highest expression of the luxury experiences we're delivering now and in the future."

The carmaker says Avenir vehicles "will add distinct touches to Buick's timeless, sculpted designs, including a three-dimensional mesh grille, large-diameter wheels, and unique trim finishes." Interiors will also be upgraded.

The inspiration for this brand-within-a-brand idea at Buick has come from its stablemate GMC. Dealers often sell both brands, and the Denali designation for GMC vehicles has become a de facto premium nameplate, with sales prices approaching those traditionally captured by better-known luxury brands such as Range Rover.

Creating Avenir as a sub-brand also avoids GM's perpetual problem of brand management. The automaker has always struggled with a business model that required brands to capture customers in different market segments, but that also eventually sees the lines between those brands blur.

It's probably better to think of Avenir as a sort of super-trim-level, with premium pricing attached. The move also proves decisively that Buick is back. GM considered killing the brand — the original GM marque — as the Great Recession loomed. GM's China business depended on Buick, however, so the brand had to be fixed at home. The arrival of a new crossover SUV, Enclave, rescued sales at an opportune moment.

The creation of Avenir is a good indication that Buick will be around a lot longer.