While we were doing our West Palm Beach to Toronto road trip last weekend, I started wondering how much longer the trip would be taking had we been driving a Tesla. The drive, according to Google Maps, is normally about 20 hours and 46 minutes. It's a long one. About 2,288 km. The mountains in Virginia are nice, though.

The route I threw in is West Palm Beach to Junction House (2720 Dundas St W, Toronto):

According to Tesla, this same route using a Standard Range (400km) Model X SUV is now estimated to take 34 hours.

The additional travel time is a result of charging time (anywhere from 20 - 70min per charge depending on the device) and the fact that you need to go where the chargers are. In this scenario, you end up driving an additional 155 km. However, you will end up saving money on gas.

This reminds me of something that Bill Gates argued in the talk I recently posted. Electric vehicles are the future of personal transport, but they're not great for commercial applications: planes, boats, and so on. The battery capacity simply isn't there, and it's unlikely to be there anytime soon. But perhaps the charging times can be brought down. That would help.

I'm not planning on doing this drive again anytime soon. But if any of you are, you may want to leave the Tesla at home if you're in a rush. However, using an EV would, of course, be the right thing to do for our planet.

Bill Gates recently spoke with David Rubenstein at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Full video, here.

The bit that got a lot of attention is his admission that Microsoft should have dominated in mobile (in lieu of Android). The core competencies were all there and the company was in investing in mobile at the time.

The technology discussions in general are interesting, but I also really enjoyed hearing about his efforts to address climate change. He spends a good chunk of time talking about that. Strongly recommend. (Related link: Breakthrough Energy.)

On a somewhat unrelated note, this is also the first time I've seen every question and answer neatly transcribed below a video. This makes it very easy to find the parts that may be of interest. All video discussions should have this.

Last week the Government of Canada filed a 2,100-page submission with the United Nation's Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Under UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCOLS), states with coastal territory have the exclusive rights to about 370 kilometers beyond their shores in order to conduct economic activity. This includes the exclusive rights to any resources. However, states may also make claims to further extensions underneath the water if they can substantiate them through scientific research. Last week's submission attempts to do exactly that for an additional 1.2 million square kilometers of sea bed.

Here is a map from High North News:

The challenge with all of this is that Norway, Denmark, and Russia all have their own continental shelf claims, and there's geographic overlap. (The US has not yet ratified their UNCOLS agreement.) So it is unlikely for this to be resolved anytime soon, though all states seem willing to work with the UN. This is a relatively new debate because the North Pole and Arctic Ocean were previously considered neutral territory. But climate change is opening up new economic opportunities (i.e. there's a lot less ice). That's worrisome in its own right.

Click here for the full press release from the Government of Canada.