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Tesla extends range on cars to help owners avoid Hurricane Irma
Tesla may have software-limited the battery capacities of some cars to upsell owners to pricier trim levels, but it's now clear that the company is willing to lift that limit during a crisis. The EV maker has confirmed to Electrek that it temporarily unlocked the full battery capacity on 60kWh Model S and Model X cars in Florida to give them the full 75kWh and help them escape Hurricane Irma. As you might guess, the extra range (about 30 to 40 miles) could be vital -- in one case, it helped an owner in a mandatory evacuation area optimize his escape route and get out in a timely fashion.
MIT is crowdsourcing hurricane flood maps in Florida
People in Broward County, Florida have one more map to rely on this weekend as Hurricane Irma passes through the state. MIT has launched RiskMap, a crowdsourced platform meant to track and map flooding by relying on people's social media reports, as a pilot project. The county's residents can update the map by contacting its Twitter DM, Telegram and Facebook Messenger chatbots. They'll then have to submit their location, a description of its conditions and a photo showing its current flood level. Other residents and officials planning evacuations or sending help can then see those updates on the map as they go live.
Florida Gov: Use Google Maps for real-time road closure updates
Google and Florida have teamed up to make Maps a much more useful resource for the state's evacuation plans in preparation for Hurricane Irma's arrival. Florida Governor Rick Scott has advised residents to use various apps and websites to help them navigate their way if they have to leave their homes due to the category 5 storm expected to hit the state this weekend. One of those apps is Google Maps, and the big G promises to mark closed roads in it as soon as its emergency response team notifies the company.
