Future Cars: Electric and Autonomous Vehicles

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Multimodal
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Multimodal » July 23rd, 2018, 10:53 am

The Tesla Model S is a pretty neat $80K car, but most $80K cars are pretty neat. Somehow they are building 5000 model 3s a week but no where near that many are being registered.

He is a charlatan, pure and simple.
But no other $80k car is electric. They’re selling every one they build; sales are not declining. People consistently want these cars.

And they *just* started building 5k cars/week. What about processing, delivery, etc.? Jeez. Give ‘em a few weeks.

I have major problems with some things Elon has done. But he consistently delivers (late) results. ;)

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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby tmart » July 25th, 2018, 8:18 am

I don't have a problem with Elon when he stays in his lane. Even if Tesla goes underwater in two years, they've still accelerated the broader transition away from fossil fuels, and that's an unqualified good thing. But building a car, or a car company, doesn't make you qualified to talk about infrastructure or interurban transit or urban planning or vacuum tube trains, and he has a tendency to have very strong, very wrong, opinions on those subjects. Elon Twitter is the GM Futurama expo of our generation.

Multimodal
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Multimodal » July 25th, 2018, 10:36 pm

Well said

bubzki2
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby bubzki2 » July 26th, 2018, 9:32 am

Tesla makes technologically advanced and cutting-edge BEVs. It's the almost universally sanctimonious owners who turn me off from buying one.

The company is built on fairly sound market speculation, but its survival will be a close call. Jaguar's I-Pace is up to Tesla's standards on range for less money. More will follow.

Anondson
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Anondson » July 30th, 2018, 5:16 pm

Uber will cease developing self driving freight trucks.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber ... SKBN1KK2GD

Huh. I guess I expected self driving trucks before passenger cars.

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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Silophant » July 30th, 2018, 5:19 pm

I still do. I don't expect Uber to be first to market with either of them, though.
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Anondson » September 21st, 2018, 3:55 pm

This is half about electric cars and half about solar and wind turbine electricity storage.

Companies are well on the way to making the batteries from electric vehicles find a second life as storage for solar and wind when their suitability for vehicles is spent.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features ... hey-retire

mplsjaromir
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby mplsjaromir » September 27th, 2018, 2:48 pm


Silophant
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Silophant » September 27th, 2018, 3:36 pm

Looooool
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Anondson » October 26th, 2018, 11:20 am

Rather than try to drop huge subsidies to get electric 4000 lb cars made for hauling a 200 lb person, India shifted to launching companies making e-rickshaws.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features ... c-vehicles

Not only have they been cleaner (very importantly so), but the e-rick drivers can make a greater income because they are cheaper to maintain and can be used to make many more rides.

India has since sold more e-rickshaws than China has sold electric cars.

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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Anondson » November 26th, 2018, 10:36 pm

Kinda future car news, GM laying off up to 14,000 (15% of its workforce) partly to place stronger focus on battery electric architectures.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ ... 112539002/

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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby bubzki2 » November 27th, 2018, 8:19 am

Cheap gas strikes again. This is really a further shift to sell fewer loss leader, fuel-efficient ICE cars, and more crossovers and SUVs for the bottom line. Very much like what Ford did recently. BEVs are coming either way as they'll very soon be cheaper to buy and own than even cheap ICE cars. Interestingly, the Volt PHEV was among the six models killed off, and the Bolt EV hasn't sold particularly well, either.

Multimodal
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Multimodal » November 27th, 2018, 9:10 am

Yeah, something to do with larger vehicles getting a break on gas mileage requirements, pushing American companies to sell SUVs.

Terrible long-term plan, unless the idea is only to make van & bus-like vehicles that makes sense for an autonomous vehicle-based service, where people won’t own cars individually anymore. But I doubt GM is thinking about anything other than short-term profits of trucks & SUVs.

The Bolt hasn’t sold well because GM’s dealers don’t want it to sell well (little maintenance & repairs needed for EVs, so little dealer profit long term), and it probably doesn’t generate much profit for GM, either.

But Tesla builds enough EVs & batteries to bring costs down, so their vehicles are profitable.

In 10 years, the number of car companies will be 1/2 or 1/4 of what we have today. It’s going to be bloody.

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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Anondson » January 30th, 2019, 7:24 pm

Wired ran this article on what electric cars deal with in the cold.

https://www.wired.com/story/electric-ca ... ther-tips/

Multimodal
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Multimodal » January 30th, 2019, 8:01 pm

Not so different from lead-acid batteries not starting, or gas—and especially diesel—engines not performing well in the coldest temperatures; covering your radiator, etc.

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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby mister.shoes » January 31st, 2019, 10:04 am

Considering I have my eye on the VW I.D. BUZZ and I live in &^#$%ing cold Minneapolis, that was a good article to read. Should probably set aside some $$$ to insulate and heat the garage by the time the new bus is available.
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Bob Stinson's Ghost
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Bob Stinson's Ghost » January 31st, 2019, 11:35 am

This may be relevant. It's my favorite Norwegian Tesla review so far:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ5PqPeOPT0

mplsjaromir
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby mplsjaromir » January 31st, 2019, 2:22 pm

Musk is a brain genious

Image

bubzki2
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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby bubzki2 » January 31st, 2019, 3:42 pm

That's a BIG "IF." That long-promised 35k TM3? Vaporware thus far. Go out and buy a Hyundai Kona EV in a month or two (37k), get full tax credit, readable gauges, less pretension, and better range.

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Re: Future cars / Driverless cars

Postby Bob Stinson's Ghost » January 31st, 2019, 5:30 pm

Here's another Norwegian test of non-Tesla BEV's in winter driving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdvTRzOeIgo

They seem to have performed quite adequately, even in the cold temperatures.


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