I don't actually drive that much daily, but I do go 125 miles (relatively level, with a quick charge station about halfway) a couple of times a month and 100 miles (over mountains, again with an easy quick charge) once a month or so. So 60 miles of range would be inconvenient, but 100 or so is fine given the chargers around me.
I'm willing to deal with having to understand the limitations of the battery pack for the price I can get the Leaf for, and while I had considered the Volt I really prefer to go all electric. And since I'll still have 2 other ICE vehicles at least for a while, I'm not too worried about any of the downsides.
Yeah, the used ones are tempting, but I can use the extra range of the 30kwh battery in the 2016 & 2017, and with the incentives available I should be able to get a new one for $13k or so when it's all done. Used 2016s around here seem to go for $11k, so not a huge premium to go new.
A Justice Department spokesperson has confirmed on the phone that his arrest is in relation to his alleged role "in creating and distributing the Kronos banking Trojan."
As someone who is actively looking to buy a Leaf, I'd say one thing that's better is simply not having to deal with car dealerships. Trying to actually get to a price is tedious, and their processes seem backwards. For example, I went in for a test drive. They photocopied my license and entered all my information painstakingly into their computer. When I then wanted to test drive a different model, they did the whole thing over again. Even to the point of making a new photocopy **while the first photocopy was still sitting out on the desk**.
Then they tried to sell me a 2016 (rather than a 2017), which was literally sitting in the back corner of the lot covered in leaves and with a dead 12v battery, with a promise of "a few hundred dollars off" and an assurance that their service department would make it as new.
So yeah, if Chevy dealers are as useless as Nissan ones, that alone would make me want to wait 18 months for a Model 3 which reportedly handles nicely rather than pay about the same for an econobox. The Leaf is being heavily discounted right now, which is why I'm even considering one.
Just last week I finally threw in the towel on FF on my home machine. Random hanging just got too annoying. Guess I won't be changing back, since they're getting even further from what I want in a browser.
It's a great idea, we'll see how it pans out when it starts shipping. There is a lot of light collecting surface on the Light, so it should be really competitive with a DSLR in a lot of situations.
You'll never eliminate road fatalities. You might limit them, but never eliminate them.
A tyre bursts at 70mph on the motor-way. Possible death. Brakes fail. Possible death.
True, but a self-aware car could handle these types of situations better than a human. Front right tire blows? Only apply the rear brakes and pull over safely. Brakes fail? use the other half of the system, or in the case of an electric car use the regenerative braking instead.
Elimination may never happen, but almost every scenario should be able to be vastly improved.
You think universal health care should exist. Good do so. Pass it in your state.
I mostly agree with you, but this one would run into problems if one state provides universal health care and other states' residents still could move there freely if they had a serious issue. Health care seems naturally to make sense as a national issue.
Having broad standards for autos, which inherently are mobile, makes a lot of sense. If I buy a car from the next state over I don't want to have to worry about whether the reverse lights are in the right place or whatever.
Well, there are a lot of companies which have always accepted cash, have cash drawers etc, yet may actually find they do very little cash business. This seems pretty much like a gimmick/contest, since they are only going to pay $10,000 to 50 businesses. It's basically a half million dollar ad buy, which for all the publicity they've had seems to have been effective.
There are real costs to cash too, though. Just off the top of my head: - Having to physically gather it up and take it to the bank - Potential for theft, either during the transfer or just in the shop - Higher insurance premiums to cover the potential cost of robberies Really, for a small business, it probably comes down to who your customers are. If they are younger and/or more affluent, getting rid of cash may make sense.
The Leaf, at least, is available with a heat pump, which is way more efficient than resistive heat. And a lot of people seem to pre-heat or cool their cars while they are still plugged in, which in some cases can be done through an app. They also come with heated seats and steering wheel, which will reduce the heat demand somewhat.
But yeah, it's an issue; as batteries improve, though, it should become less of one.
Yes, I read through the ProPublica article and my takeaway is that the systems are flawed and should be reviewed and either fixed or scapped. If your algorithm is supposed to predict recidivism, and it fails to do so, then it's broken. The fact that it fails to do so in a racially baised way is really icing on the cake.
Couple of points: - I'm not in the market for a Model X or any other car which costs more than ~$40k, so this is just an academic exercise - The GP stated an interest in lighter cars a la Model 3 - I am interested in an electric car, but I will not be looking for one which can meet all my needs for a good few years - My example was just one of many, any of which could potentially be a dealbreaker for someone. But if you'd like to see what would possibly work for the case I'm thinking of, here's the route I use to go skiing:
Start in DC, 20016, end at Snowshoe WV. Leaving on a Friday at 3pm to try to beat some of the traffic. In January the temperatures are worst case -10 degrees F or so by the time you get up there. Usually no snow to worry about until the last 1/3 of the drive, the bigger roads are plowed. But the last 15 miles (the steepest) are often really hairy, with 4 wheel drive SUVs who don't think snow tires are needed getting stuck. I can usually do that in 5 1/2 hours of actual driving, but I'll stop for an hour or so for dinner (usually in Harrisonburg VA) so that could be time spent charging.
I walk or bike to work, so I don't really drive a lot. Like I said, maybe a Model X could do it, but I don't want a $100k car. For these types of situations you can't just rent, since you won't get a roof rack or snow tires. In 10 years I expect it will be fairly easy to find something fully electric which can do this for a reasonable cost.
I'm not the OP, but I regularly (3 or more times a year) "get away to the mountains" by driving 250 miles with 4-6 people plus skis, an elevation change of ~5k feet, and often 6 inches of fresh snow on the road when I'm nearing the resort. Maybe a Model X would let me do that, but I think I'll keep an ICE for that type of stuff for a while. But 95% of my driving is not that, and we have 3 drivers in the house, so I'll be getting an electric car soon.
I'm planning to buy a Leaf this fall, so I'm in favor of electric cars and I do think that they are the future. However, at this point, very few of them are profitable for the manufacturers. The CEO of Fiat told people not to buy the 500e, the Soul EV is very limited in availability. Just last month the Leaf was available with a $10k rebate. It seems like GM loses ~$7k on each Bolt right now. Tesla seems like one of the few which would be making money if they weren't reinvesting.
One problem with the rapid advances in batteries (which are usually ~50% of the cost) is that older EVs lose their value horrifically. Even after you account for the tax credits, an older Leaf for example (which might have only a 50 mile usable range at this point) is around $5-6k. I expect that when the new Teslas start rolling out that will drop even more. But at some point, probably not to long from now, the battery prices will mean that the cost for a reasonable range will be competitive with ICEs. But if you think that time is right now, I think you're mistaken.
It's crap like this experienced by friends which means that I'll never buy in an HOA. Maybe a condo when I'm old, but a house on a lot where I can't do what I want? No thanks.
I didn't pay much attention to this until I noticed an article explaining the thinking behind it. Basically, the idea is to substantially reduce the cost of a tunnel system, and they are going to try to do that through a combination of: - smaller tunnels, which will require only 1/4 of the dirt removal of standard vehicle tunnels - automated, continuous tunnel lining, to reduce downtime for the boring machine - speeding up both boring and lining The small tunnel size is what necessitates the cars-on-sleds idea. Can they load cars on sleds quickly and cheaply? Who knows.
I keep Google News in one of my home tabs, and apart from the reduced density the thing I like least is that if your mouse is in the left hand 25% of the screen the scroll button has no effect on the content. It's surprising how many times it has caught me out already.
Even on the road; you brake and the guy behind you hits you instead of you hitting whatever was in front of you; at the end of the day you still got in an accident. The difference is, if you brake, the asshole who actually caused the accident gets to keep driving like nothing happened.
In my book, if you can't stop in time and hit something, you caused the accident. I agree on keeping an eye on the person behind you to see if they are going to hit you, but there's no excuse for me to hit the person in front of me.
I'd agree - we have a Comcast business connection which we use for moving around backups. It's pretty much always doing 10-20Mbps, 24x7, and over the last couple of years we've had maybe one interruption, where we rebooted the router. The service for us has been solid.
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I don't actually drive that much daily, but I do go 125 miles (relatively level, with a quick charge station about halfway) a couple of times a month and 100 miles (over mountains, again with an easy quick charge) once a month or so. So 60 miles of range would be inconvenient, but 100 or so is fine given the chargers around me.
I'm willing to deal with having to understand the limitations of the battery pack for the price I can get the Leaf for, and while I had considered the Volt I really prefer to go all electric. And since I'll still have 2 other ICE vehicles at least for a while, I'm not too worried about any of the downsides.
Yeah, the used ones are tempting, but I can use the extra range of the 30kwh battery in the 2016 & 2017, and with the incentives available I should be able to get a new one for $13k or so when it's all done. Used 2016s around here seem to go for $11k, so not a huge premium to go new.
... no one seems to know.
Well, TFA gives a likely reason:
A Justice Department spokesperson has confirmed on the phone that his arrest is in relation to his alleged role "in creating and distributing the Kronos banking Trojan."
What's better about the Model 3?
As someone who is actively looking to buy a Leaf, I'd say one thing that's better is simply not having to deal with car dealerships. Trying to actually get to a price is tedious, and their processes seem backwards. For example, I went in for a test drive. They photocopied my license and entered all my information painstakingly into their computer. When I then wanted to test drive a different model, they did the whole thing over again. Even to the point of making a new photocopy **while the first photocopy was still sitting out on the desk**.
Then they tried to sell me a 2016 (rather than a 2017), which was literally sitting in the back corner of the lot covered in leaves and with a dead 12v battery, with a promise of "a few hundred dollars off" and an assurance that their service department would make it as new.
So yeah, if Chevy dealers are as useless as Nissan ones, that alone would make me want to wait 18 months for a Model 3 which reportedly handles nicely rather than pay about the same for an econobox. The Leaf is being heavily discounted right now, which is why I'm even considering one.
Just last week I finally threw in the towel on FF on my home machine. Random hanging just got too annoying. Guess I won't be changing back, since they're getting even further from what I want in a browser.
It's actually a lot of plastic ;)
It's a great idea, we'll see how it pans out when it starts shipping. There is a lot of light collecting surface on the Light, so it should be really competitive with a DSLR in a lot of situations.
You'll never eliminate road fatalities. You might limit them, but never eliminate them.
A tyre bursts at 70mph on the motor-way. Possible death.
Brakes fail. Possible death.
True, but a self-aware car could handle these types of situations better than a human. Front right tire blows? Only apply the rear brakes and pull over safely. Brakes fail? use the other half of the system, or in the case of an electric car use the regenerative braking instead.
Elimination may never happen, but almost every scenario should be able to be vastly improved.
You think universal health care should exist. Good do so. Pass it in your state.
I mostly agree with you, but this one would run into problems if one state provides universal health care and other states' residents still could move there freely if they had a serious issue. Health care seems naturally to make sense as a national issue.
Having broad standards for autos, which inherently are mobile, makes a lot of sense. If I buy a car from the next state over I don't want to have to worry about whether the reverse lights are in the right place or whatever.
~$1.5T for the solar panels
If you think of that as less than 2 years of the US military budget, for hardware which could last 20+ years, that actually doesn't sound so bad.
I imagine the batteries would be really expensive right now though.
Well, there are a lot of companies which have always accepted cash, have cash drawers etc, yet may actually find they do very little cash business. This seems pretty much like a gimmick/contest, since they are only going to pay $10,000 to 50 businesses. It's basically a half million dollar ad buy, which for all the publicity they've had seems to have been effective.
There are real costs to cash too, though. Just off the top of my head:
- Having to physically gather it up and take it to the bank
- Potential for theft, either during the transfer or just in the shop
- Higher insurance premiums to cover the potential cost of robberies
Really, for a small business, it probably comes down to who your customers are. If they are younger and/or more affluent, getting rid of cash may make sense.
The Leaf, at least, is available with a heat pump, which is way more efficient than resistive heat. And a lot of people seem to pre-heat or cool their cars while they are still plugged in, which in some cases can be done through an app. They also come with heated seats and steering wheel, which will reduce the heat demand somewhat.
But yeah, it's an issue; as batteries improve, though, it should become less of one.
Yes, I read through the ProPublica article and my takeaway is that the systems are flawed and should be reviewed and either fixed or scapped. If your algorithm is supposed to predict recidivism, and it fails to do so, then it's broken. The fact that it fails to do so in a racially baised way is really icing on the cake.
Couple of points:
- I'm not in the market for a Model X or any other car which costs more than ~$40k, so this is just an academic exercise
- The GP stated an interest in lighter cars a la Model 3
- I am interested in an electric car, but I will not be looking for one which can meet all my needs for a good few years
- My example was just one of many, any of which could potentially be a dealbreaker for someone. But if you'd like to see what would possibly work for the case I'm thinking of, here's the route I use to go skiing:
Start in DC, 20016, end at Snowshoe WV. Leaving on a Friday at 3pm to try to beat some of the traffic. In January the temperatures are worst case -10 degrees F or so by the time you get up there. Usually no snow to worry about until the last 1/3 of the drive, the bigger roads are plowed. But the last 15 miles (the steepest) are often really hairy, with 4 wheel drive SUVs who don't think snow tires are needed getting stuck. I can usually do that in 5 1/2 hours of actual driving, but I'll stop for an hour or so for dinner (usually in Harrisonburg VA) so that could be time spent charging.
I walk or bike to work, so I don't really drive a lot. Like I said, maybe a Model X could do it, but I don't want a $100k car. For these types of situations you can't just rent, since you won't get a roof rack or snow tires. In 10 years I expect it will be fairly easy to find something fully electric which can do this for a reasonable cost.
I'm not the OP, but I regularly (3 or more times a year) "get away to the mountains" by driving 250 miles with 4-6 people plus skis, an elevation change of ~5k feet, and often 6 inches of fresh snow on the road when I'm nearing the resort. Maybe a Model X would let me do that, but I think I'll keep an ICE for that type of stuff for a while. But 95% of my driving is not that, and we have 3 drivers in the house, so I'll be getting an electric car soon.
I'm planning to buy a Leaf this fall, so I'm in favor of electric cars and I do think that they are the future. However, at this point, very few of them are profitable for the manufacturers. The CEO of Fiat told people not to buy the 500e, the Soul EV is very limited in availability. Just last month the Leaf was available with a $10k rebate. It seems like GM loses ~$7k on each Bolt right now. Tesla seems like one of the few which would be making money if they weren't reinvesting.
One problem with the rapid advances in batteries (which are usually ~50% of the cost) is that older EVs lose their value horrifically. Even after you account for the tax credits, an older Leaf for example (which might have only a 50 mile usable range at this point) is around $5-6k. I expect that when the new Teslas start rolling out that will drop even more. But at some point, probably not to long from now, the battery prices will mean that the cost for a reasonable range will be competitive with ICEs. But if you think that time is right now, I think you're mistaken.
It's crap like this experienced by friends which means that I'll never buy in an HOA. Maybe a condo when I'm old, but a house on a lot where I can't do what I want? No thanks.
I didn't pay much attention to this until I noticed an article explaining the thinking behind it. Basically, the idea is to substantially reduce the cost of a tunnel system, and they are going to try to do that through a combination of:
- smaller tunnels, which will require only 1/4 of the dirt removal of standard vehicle tunnels
- automated, continuous tunnel lining, to reduce downtime for the boring machine
- speeding up both boring and lining
The small tunnel size is what necessitates the cars-on-sleds idea. Can they load cars on sleds quickly and cheaply? Who knows.
I keep Google News in one of my home tabs, and apart from the reduced density the thing I like least is that if your mouse is in the left hand 25% of the screen the scroll button has no effect on the content. It's surprising how many times it has caught me out already.
Ah, Windows - the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems.
Even on the road; you brake and the guy behind you hits you instead of you hitting whatever was in front of you; at the end of the day you still got in an accident. The difference is, if you brake, the asshole who actually caused the accident gets to keep driving like nothing happened.
In my book, if you can't stop in time and hit something, you caused the accident. I agree on keeping an eye on the person behind you to see if they are going to hit you, but there's no excuse for me to hit the person in front of me.
"when a suitcase starts to rock out of control, the correct response is not to slow down but to pull it faster."
My buddies who race cars always maintain that braking never solved anything, you save yourself with the gas pedal.
Strange. I'm a customer yet companies are allowed to do whatever they like (against my will) with MY DATA.
If you were single handedly buying 75% of what they were selling, you could probably dictate the terms under which your data was to be used or stored.
I'd agree - we have a Comcast business connection which we use for moving around backups. It's pretty much always doing 10-20Mbps, 24x7, and over the last couple of years we've had maybe one interruption, where we rebooted the router. The service for us has been solid.