So people who live in cities aren’t “regular people”?
4 Likes
Maybe people don’t buy EVs when it’s hot? 
3 Likes
“Hey Siri, make a u-turn”
1 Like
Autonomous cars redefine the concept of car ownership, an autonomous uber would optimise the vehicle effective hours so much that having your own car parked at your garage would be considered a luxury. (Or, to put it the other way around, owned cars would become much more expensive so mostly everyone would have to rent an autonomous vehicle per the hour)
1 Like
Negatives:
- Lots of people lose their jobs (or have to be redeployed).
- We’ll never know what they were actually working on. (I’m curious, at least).
Positives:
- The tech press will soon stop talking about the dratted thing they know so little about.
- The onslaught of memes (see above for an example) will also soon die away.
- Freed up investment $$$ for something I might actually get to see, because I live outside of Apple’s ‘annointed’ half dozen countries.
I’m seeing a lot of negativity here around EV’s but it seems to be mostly from folks with no first-hand experience.
There are a lot of considerations for electric vehicles, but after sitting on the sidelines I bought a used Tesla Model S.
I have to say, as a prior skeptic, I’m greatly impressed with the technology, the reduced cost of operations, and the Tesla charging infrastructure has removed most of any range anxiety.
There’s a reason every car manufacturer in the world has caved and is adopting the Tesla charging standard instead of pushing their own or the de facto standards for which there is a dearth of reliable chargers.
Buying used, I paid less for the so-called luxury S class than a new fossile fuel lower spec vehicle which much less capability.
Ignoring the autonomous software stuff, to my surprise, I found going back to using Apple Car Play in friends or rental vehicles felt like using 1990’s Windows XP and removed my initial concern that the lack of Car Play / Apple integration would be something I regret.
Apple Music is now built-in to Tesla, and I can share-sheet anything from my iPhone contacts directly into the nav computer of Tesla. Those were really the two things I missed, and recent upgrades fixed the lack of Apple Music and the share-sheet thing has worked for many years.
3 Likes
That’s an interesting hypothesis.
It might work out that way. On the other hand that might only work for a local area. Would the Uber owner be OK with drives to a distant location since it may be difficult to optimize fares/customers for the vehicle to return home.
The Nav and infotainment system is clearly first-class. But that could just as well be installed on a gasoline car too.
Reduced cost of operation needs to consider the whole lifecycle of the car, from purchase to eventual sale. It’s not at all clear that is less for EVs.
Range anxiety is indeed not a problem given the excellent nav software. But you still would likely find charging to be inconvenient if you did not have a garage with charger at home. On a long x-ctry it’s pretty easy to plan out a trip without much time loss for charging; for local driving you might well need a significant detour to charge.
1 Like
Unfortunately, I don’t have enough campaign contributions to be persuasive. 
On a serious note, the situation with the EV market is a prime example of the unintended consequences of government interference in the free market. And for the record, I wholeheartedly endorse government involvement to ensure genuinely free and just markets. 
2 Likes
I disagree with both of these statements.
Range is adequate for the vast majority of people, but it’s something that people who don’t own EVs worry about. I know many people who own EVs and they’re more than happy with the range of the vehicles they own. Very few people travel 50 miles a day, never mind 100 or 200. Every once in a while “normal” people do. Your Average (not cheapest) EV has a 180-230 mile range which is realistically 130 - 180 miles. People are used to having 300 miles in their tank if they fill up and being able to fill up in 10 minutes. In the latest EVs you can get 80% charge in 15-20 minutes. We’re not a million miles away, 15-20 minutes every 3 hours is not bad and it’s good for drivers to take a break on that schedule anyway.
Regarding the cold, it’s also true that Petrol and Diesel cars use more fuel when it’s cold, between compression in the liquid due to the temperature and the increased load from the vehicle and electronics. EVs are a little more extreme, but EV sales are going gangbusters in Scandinavian countries, so I suspect they have better charging infrastructure or that the problem is not as bad as the sensationalists would try to have us believe.
EVs are more reliable than liquid fuel cars as they have fewer moving parts, need less servicing and software can be updated remotely to make them better (and also worse sometimes). They also have better diagnostics so can highlight potential and imminent issues BEFORE they occur.
Cost is the biggest factor though, new EVs are very expensive up front, and second hand values remain strong. Running costs are a lot cheaper than petrol or diesel cars both in the fuel, but also the upkeep, however the cost to buy or lease is a big deterrent, so it’s no surprise that only those who are better off can afford to make the leap, ironically (as always) those most in need are prevented from benefiting.
I ran a Mitsubishi PHEV for 4 years and a Tesla for a year (both company cars) . If it wasn’t for the high cost of purchase, I would have bought an EV in a heartbeat again with my own money, just not a Tesla as I detest Elon after what he did to Twitter.
2 Likes
I knew that, but had forgotten. 
Can you imagine how much electricity it would take to power a small EV truck stop that could charge 100 trucks an hour?
In a typical household that’s fine for a second car used locally or for commuting to work.
But I dare say most people go on occasional longer trips. 130-180 mile range is very inconvenient for such trips.
1 Like
I suspect that varies a lot by country/region. I had a pal who used to do 200-mile each way trips to the supermarket every week (rural Australia) but 200 miles in the south or SW of England is an epic road trip (and might easily take 6 hours)
1 Like
I suspect that in any country on the globe, if supermarket shopping requires a 400-mile round trip then it is unlikely that same region has sufficient chargers to make EV travel realistic.
EVs are fine for some people but not everyone. Here in the USA, and especially out west, the distances are great and charging stations are not in abundance. I have a Lincoln Nautilus (gas), but my friends with PHEV Lincoln models only get 18-28 miles per charge, depending on the temperature. That’s a joke. There are stories upon stories of people trying to do cross-country trips and having to worry about where to charge next. Even trips of 100 miles can be problematic, depending on where you go and at what time of year. In a recent cold snap, not even the Teslas would charge.
My view is if you want to drive an EV, you should be able to. But you should also be able to choose a regular gas engine as well. It doesn’t have to be an either/or situation, but sadly the government is making it so.
Making the MBP thicker so they could add a few more ports, adding a notch to the screen, and updating and reconfiguring the components doesn’t seem at all comparable to engineering a new car from scratch, especially for a company that never built one before. Hard to believe the MBP team couldn’t have done that on their own.
1 Like
In addition, many arrive at a charging station to be confronted with nonfunctioning chargers.
Assuming that there is a net carbon reduction after calculating emissions caused by battery manufacturing, added electrical generation, and more, EVs may be a good idea. But there has to be a robust, nearly ubiquitous, reliable, fast charging infrastructure, much longer range, and more dependable battery capacity in extreme cold and heat before EVs will be widely adopted as a primary or only vehicle. Moreover, few repair shops can fix EVs, and even body shops are ill-equipped to repair them. And, based on an article I read (I believe in the WSJ), repairing an EV is far more expensive, even though there is less need for routine maintenance. I suspect insurance is also higher due to the higher cost of repair. These support infrastructures need to be in place for broad adoption.
I’m writing as an average consumer, not a policy advocate.
3 Likes
Gosh I dislike Elon Musk and his permanently 12 year old mind.
2 Likes
My Tesla gets over 300 mile range which is on par with a full tank of gas on an ICE car.
1 Like
FYI, an insane understatement. The drive chain of an EV is an electric motor, battery, and basic controls.
Compare that to the thousands of parts, and ongoing maintenance of a gas vehicle which is basically a controlled explosion in a high temperature pressure vessel to generate mechanical pulses conveyed through an intricate mechanical assembly of gears, rods, bearings and assorted stuff I still can’t pronounce or identify.
Every time I take one of our gas cars in for “routine maintenance” it is a $500 to $1500 fee and a logistical hassle (loaner car or get a ride back and forth, etc.)
3 Likes