Who Bricked the Electric Car?

You may have caught the story last week about Tesla, the maker of extremely high-end electric vehicles, (EVs), and the accusation that if the $100K Tesla Roadster's battery pack was allowed to drain all the way to zero, (basically to go completely dead), that the car could not be simply re-charged in the normal fashion, and that in fact the entire battery pack would have to be removed and replaced, (at $40K).

This phenomenon, and already some are disputing how much of a real problem it presents, has been termed 'bricking', as in without the ability to operate the $100K Tesla has been effectively turned into a brick. A stylish one no doubt, but a brick nonetheless.  And having your $100K car essentially rendered useless without dropping another 40 large for the repair would have to classify as a bad day, and if indeed this is even a remote possibility, one would hope Tesla has taken adequate precautions and will look to improve the technology such that this kind of bricking either can't happen or really almost would never happen.

But for now, it appears like at least the possibility for bricking exists, according to a follow-up piece in Engadget, the Tesla company (sort-of) acknowledged that a full battery drain would indeed 'brick' the car and issued the following statement:

All automobiles require some level of owner care. For example, combustion vehicles require regular oil changes or the engine will be destroyed. Electric vehicles should be plugged in and charging when not in use for maximum performance. All batteries are subject to damage if the charge is kept at zero for long periods of time. However, Tesla avoids this problem in virtually all instances with numerous counter-measures. Tesla batteries can remain unplugged for weeks (or even months), without reaching zero state of charge. Owners of Roadster 2.0 and all subsequent Tesla products can request that their vehicle alert Tesla if SOC falls to a low level. All Tesla vehicles emit various visual and audible warnings if the battery pack falls below 5 percent SOC. Tesla provides extensive maintenance recommendations as part of the customer experience.

Essentially Tesla is saying, 'Look, we sold you an incredible piece of technology, the most fabulous EV on the market. All you really need to do on your side is to not leave the car idle for months on end and forget to charge it up. And we will even offer to call you up to remind you to run out to the garage and plug in the thing in you forget. For months. Seem reasonable?'

Probably pretty reasonable.  Tesla, like just about any other make of cars, gadgets, games, or even business systems at some stage arrives at the end point of their ability and responsibility to ensure that the consumer will have a great experience with their purchase, and won't actually do something really dumb with their new shiny object after they take it home.

Over on Talented Apps last week, Meg Bear hit upon this point when she re-stated Meg's Law for Talent Management software development -

It is the intention of our team to build excellent, usable software to optimize a well thought out talent strategy.  BUT if you suck, there is nothing we can do in software, to fix that for you. 

And I am pretty sure Meg's Law could apply to Tesla as well.  I am sure it is their intention to build the best EV in the world, but if you suck, and you forget that an EV actually needs to be plugged in once in a while, we can't fix that for you. Or rather we can, but it will cost you $40K.

Sadly, the organizations that Meg is referring to, the ones with the terrible talent strategy, can't get off that easy.

Staying classy on the way out

So we are all coming down from the excitement, drama, and spectacular display of talent from the Super Bowl, (actually I am sort of guessing about all that, as this post is being written about 8 hours before the actual kickoff), and for the last day or so talk about the game, the commercials, the half time show (how was it?), has dominated online and offline discourse. Tiquan Underwood - Source AP

In all the excitement over the build-up, the game itself, and all the hype surrounding the event, you may have missed or forgotten about one piece of game-related news that broke late on Saturday night, less than 24 hours before the latest Game of the Century. The New England Patriots made a final roster move, releasing backup Wide Receiver Tiquan Underwood, and activating from the practice (reserve) squad, Defensive End Alex Silvestro. Since this move did not involve any well-known players, or figure to have a meaningful impact on the game, it was not really big news. But to Underwood and Silvestro, the move has enormous significance, one player losing the chance to play in the biggest game of his life, (even as only a little-used reserve), and the other given the chance to suit up, run through the tunnel, and take a small part on the stage of the biggest sporting event of the year.

The Patriots made it clear that the decision to release Underwood was 100% football-related, as in the past some players have run afoul of team rules and curfews on the night before the big game. No, the team executives and coaches simply felt having another defensive line player on the active roster for the game was more important than one extra wide receiver. 

But the real story in this to me is how Underwood, at least publicly, reacted to what must have been the incredible disappointment after he learned his Super Bowl dreams were done. According to the ESPN.com report of the transaction, Underwood, after learning the news tweeted - 

"Good Luck To The New England Organization, The Coaches, & All My Teammates. #PatsNation."

And in a text message to ESPN reporter Ed Werder, Underwood said:

"I don't want to be a distraction to the game or the New England Patriots.....i will say this, The New England Patriots are a GREAT Organization. I wish them nothing but the best today. This season has been dedicated to Myra Kraft (MHK) Mr Kraft's wife....w/ that being said i hope they pull out the victory in honor of her & because the coaches & players have worked so hard this season for the opportunity to play in Super Bowl 46. Go Pats!!!! #PatsNation"

That is remarkably classy and mature coming from a guy just a few hours from running out on the field for the Super Bowl, the pinnacle event for his profession, and if he is like most other professional players, the culmination of a life long dream. Underwood may or may not have another chance to get into a Super Bowl, as it stands he is on the edge of even being an active player in the league, but I suspect the classy and professional way he handled this disappointment will help him immeasurably in the rest of his career.

A team guy, a 'don't make this about me guy', a reminder to keep focused on the overall goals and mission of the team - that is the kind of guy you want on your team, no matter what your sport or business might be.

Sure, the Patriots might have just shut the door on one of Underwood's dreams, but his actions and comments on the way out might have just opened up some new doors as well.

At the time, it seemed perfectly logical

Last night on the HR Happy Hour show, 'HR Horror Stories II', I shared a tale from one of my college summer jobs, as a landscaper in a large cemetery.  The details of the story are kind of interesting if not all that important, suffice to say that we, (not me personally, mind you, I was kept at a safe distance from this sort of thing), had managed to 'place' a couple of recent arrivals to our facility in the wrong plots, and they needed to be 'swapped'.flickr - casch52

In case you (and I hope this is most of you), have not had a close encounter with the process of digging, positioning, leveling, and backfilling burials, to effect this 'swap' would require several hours of work, varying in intensity from not too hard, (operating the backhoe), to pretty hard, (raising, transporting, and replacing the coffins).  It was not a normal kind of activity for us, in the two summers I worked there this was the one and only occurrence of such a situation.

So in the morning we got the order that essentially read - 'Dig up Person A.  Dig up Person B. Put Person A where Person B was, and vice versa'.  And get this all done by 4:00PM, because no way we are paying overtime to any of you goofballs.'

Ok, I added the 'Goofballs' bit.

You would think that it would be the kind of hard, tedious, and unappealing task that the staff would try to avoid, as most of our days consisted of driving around on riding lawn mowers.  When the supervisor asked the seasonal help for volunteers to assist the 'real' staff, I stepped up, figuring I had six more weeks of riding around on the mower before I went back to college, and a day of exhuming and re-interring bodies seemed sort of appealing by comparison.

I hopped in one of the pickup trucks accompanied by one of the long-time, permanent cemetery workers who immediately shared his excitement and enthusiasm that he was assigned this duty, and he continued on to congratulate me on volunteering for the job, as it would be 'the best deal I had all summer'. I sort of thought the guy was a little weird to begin with, so the comment did not phase me too much, and I figured that at the very least the whole exercise would make for a good story. I suppose I was right as here I am telling it again after more that 20 years.

When we arrived at the plot of 'Person A' rather than call up the heavy equipment, and proceed the (likely nasty) process of exhumation, I was instructed to hop out of the truck, and grab the little plastic sign that served as a temporary marker (the permanent gravestone had not yet been placed), and get back in.  We then drove the short distance (none of the permanent staff walked anywhere when they could drive), where I snatched the temporary plastic marker from the site of 'Person B', and replaced it with the one for 'Person A'.  We completed our version of the exhumation/re-internment by putting the marker for 'B' on the original site of 'A'.

Yep, instead of actually digging up and re-burying, we simply switched the temporary markers that had been placed on the sites.  We saved ourselves several hours of hard work, were able to slack off for the rest of the day, (the staff were incredibly adept at hiding and doing nothing), and for the families/customers of 'A' and 'B', when they next came to the cemetery and saw the recently upturned soil and the temporary marker with the 'right' name, they were happy that the error had been 'corrected'. In a way we made it right, without actually doing the right thing.

As I look back, I am not especially proud of the story, I can rationalize it by saying I was just a 19 year old kid on a summer job and was trying to not make too many waves and get into trouble with the permanent crew. We should have moved Persons A and B like we were instructed. But thinking about it now, did it really matter that we didn't actually move them?

The only people that truly cared, the families, were convinced that we had actually executed the switch. The owners of the cemetery only cared that the customers were happy, which they were. The workers drove off to hide and sleep in their trucks for most of the day.

If Person A and Person B were unhappy, they sure weren't talking.

So if everyone ended up happy, why do I still feel a little guilty?