Technology

I wouldn't call Kia nor Hyundai nor Toyota nor Honda anything close to pseudo luxury. Has the bar been lowered because of all the plasticated electronics and DUAL ZONE AC?

It's almost as if consumers influence markets.

hear hear.

I want to buy a honda plug-in hybrid.

they only make a fucking SUV plug-in hybrid.

That's fine for people who live in cities (which I acknowledge is a lot of people), but for people who live in smaller more remote and more rural places, it will never be possible to fullly be free of personal vehicles.

Maybe, but I feel like that ship has sailed in the US. Both for practical/economical reasons and because will resist. If half the people fought against wearing masks to protect vulnerable people from covid, good luck getting them to give up their "single family home with a yard + 2 cars” lifestyle. For those fortunate enough to have a single family home, that is.

I’m not saying it SHOULD be this way, and I’m not arguing against reducing cars with public transit and walkable/bikeable towns. However, from my perspective inside suburbia that borders rural areas, electrification of vehicles and supplying the grid with renewables is 1000x more likely as the path to fix this stuff environmentally.

And to get rid of cars for non-environmental reasons, I think that will be even more difficult. I mean, I visited Sweden earlier this year and for all the progressive stuff they’re way ahead of us on, there are still cars everywhere. They are smaller, more sensible cars with a much larger proportion being electric, but cars just the same.

Think of the shareholders!

Honestly that would be great - make the head unit similar to a car from '07/'08 and then if we want to upgrade it wity something aftermarket, we can. Then we can choose what bells and whistles we want.

No autopilot, not internet connected BS. Heck I'd even go without adaptive cruise control and lane assist.

07/08 really was one of the best eras for car interior, because the head units weren't usually integrated into the dash, meaning you didn't have to replace trim pieces with your unit in order to upgrade the damned stereo.

If you're being fiscally responsible there's no way to buy most new cars. People are too used to living well above their means. How these Army recruits straight out of boot camp are dropping 80k on a truck that'll never even see a sheet of plywood or drywall assuming the bed is even big enough is beyond me.

I haven't paid more than 18k on a car and even that felt like too much. And I'm well above the median household income for my region.

Frankly I wish I didn't need a car at all, but it'll be decades before our infrastructure can support that lifestyle if ever. Unless you're willing to give up an additional 2 to 3 hours per day on travel ... and I'm not.

I got a barebones Chevy Bolt. Simple car - absolutely perfect for the city at times when public transport isn't an option.

What's more - it has AndroidAuto/Carplay (mandatory in any future car purchase for me).

GM subsequently cancelled the model (though rumours say they'll bring it back?) and are building bigger cars instead. Ridiculous.

What we need is a smaller, practical EVs and a robust charging infrastructure. (especially in condos/rentals)

People are genuinely unimpressed with the high prices and low range numbers on what are supposed to be the next generation of vehicles. Volume and tech advancement were supposed to make them cheap and practical, but all that's gone up is the price.

Especially with talk of banning the sale of gas vehicles in the fairly near future, they are going to have to do a lot better than this or a lot of people are just going to end up without any vehicle at all.

Myself living in a rural, cold climate, 200km from any major center, nobody has made any practical vehicle for me yet. I even already own an EV, but it's really just a powerful golf cart. Once it gets much below freezing, I'm lucky to make it to a neighbour's place and back.

This. Just this, so much. How much would a battery, an electric engine and safety shit cost?

They aren't. They are making larger vehicles to keep up with the demands for fuel efficiency (in gasoline vehicles) and max range in electric vehicles because of NHTSA regulations.

There absolutely have been better times to invest in public transit and expansion of transit systems. You require skilled man power for those things. Not just to build them but to upkeep them. And we're at a time where there are a lot of things that will need to be fixed first or we won't be able to have nice things. The mental health crisis for one, and homelessness/ rising housing costs for another. Adding infrastructure skyrockets the cost of living making affordable housing farther out of reach, and that adds fuel to the fire where the mental health crisis is concerned. You touch on corporate greed but you don't outright say we need more regulation. We do. But to get it we have to have people to enforce it. We don't have that either.

I saw in Asia there is a Chinese EV, I think the brand is Wuling, for about ~13-15k with about 180 miles of range. Small car but perfect for local driving.

Yes the energy density is less, but the efficiency is better. ICE wastes like 2/3 of that extra energy. Still has more, but 1/3 that you might think.

Blame the manufacturers and our obsession with driving land whales, not the batteries.

A Tesla Model 3 SR+ was almost the same weight as a Toyota Camry hybrid of similar shape and size.

EVs should weigh 2-300kg more at most