The San Francisco Citizen

How many Tesla Roadsters have been delivered to paying customers so far, after a half decade of development and at least four production delays? A handful, so far.

How many Tesla Motors products have suffered accidents already? Well, let’s see, there was that one involving the car of a “Founder,” and then there was that other one that no one’s supposed to know about, and… Pictures or it didn’t happen, right?

Pictures! Now really, is an advanced air bag waiver appropriate for the typical driver of the Tesla Roadster? Is it true this particular car crashed something like ten minutes after delivery? Is it true that Tesla is trying to make the Roadster faster than the somewhat similar gasoline-powered Lotus Elise? Is it true that you could get a Lotus Elise for something like $30K and then have something like almost $100k left over to buy massive carbon offsets? Is it true that you can actually get a Lotus sports car with a manual transmission? So many questions.

Shouldn’t Tesla work on something practical like increasing the Roadster’s abysmal range instead of trying so hard to make it accelerate faster?

Here’s a Tesla in San Francisco that managed not to crash, on a least one day, anyway:

Noblesse oblige is nothing to kill yourself over.

It seems Volkswagen is making progress with fuel cell technology. VW dropped by a few places in the bay area this past week to show off their latest effort in the development of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. VW just happens to be introducing their “Tiguan” (tiger plus iguana, in German) crossover vehicle soon, so why not put this experimental propulsion technology in the latest platform?

CNET was there at the W Hotel and they took some photos. Wired also took some shots, plus they have a nice rundown on the whole affair.

This Tiguan uses hydrogen fuel cell technology, which differs from what BMW has done with hydrogen so far. BMW’s approach is to just modify a typical internal combustion engine so that it will accept either gasoline or hydrogen. Comedian Jay Leno explains. But this method comes with its downsides.

VW was also pleased to show off the new fifty-state-legal Jetta TDI diesel. You can’t hardly tell it’s a diesel. Look to see lots of these TDI cars on the streets of San Francisco soon. It seems everyone who owns a TDI just raves about this high-MPG technology.

Invizabul driver in the SOMA. This new 50-state-legal Jetta has plenty of power and very high MPG - perhaps you’d prefer this VW over the slightly larger and more expensive Toyota Prius hybrid?   

And let’s not forget about the Jetta TDI Cup Race, which shows the young’uns that diesel engines have come a long way since the bad old days. It’s the first clean diesel racing series evah.

A  speedy TDI at the yummy XYZ restaurant in San Francisco.

VW says that their hydrogen fuel cell technology is seven to ten years away from being available. The sooner the better.

Petaluma-based Diggler, the original mountain scooter company, is selling more and more of its products to San Franciscans. Check out this sweet electric ride seen at Crissy Field.

And check the video. Maybe a little more practical than an E-Glide electric skateboard, anyway.

So when you hear the name Diggler, don’t think about Dirk Diggler (or Brock Landers), think about scooters.

Generally speaking, that is.

Back in the day, old boxy 200-series Volvos had the rep of having drivers that had issues. But these days, it seems the worst motorists on the roads are caged-up in Toyota Priuses. Why’s that?

Could it be that the primary reason most owners bought is that the purchase “makes a statement” about them?

Getting the “what’s a matter you?” Italian-style hand gesture from a perturbed pedestrian on South Van Ness in San Francisco. The driver was blocking a crosswalk for a good 45 seconds while paying attention to something in his right hand. Note body damage from a prior allision.

Another Prius driver recently caused a stir in town by driving through the streetcar-only Sunset Tunnel and getting stuck for a few hours.  

Things have gotten so bad that some people keep an eye out just for these particular hybrids.

Keep a look out and stay safe out there.

All that copper over your head - that’s where the Internet lives.

Click to expand:

Ninth Avenue, The Sunset Distict of San Francisco

Look at what you can see rolling down Market Street during these days of four-dollar gasoline - E-Glide Electric Skateboards.

The problem with riding around on your regular old-fashioned skateboard is that it burns calories. That causes you to expel extra carbon dioxide into the air. Instead, you should take it easy and let your E-Glide do all the work.

Zero-emissions, sort of.