Considering SSD prices have crashed it’s the only way to go IMO, it solves literally all of the problems with other iptions like power draw for hard drives and longevity and speed over flash drives
I actually think robotaxis will never really catch on widely in the US outside of big cities or maybe very poor people with no other option or misc use cases like if you own a car and drop it off at the dealership or if you’re out with friends and want to go home early. Most of the US is designed for you to own a car and drive it everywhere, just because cars can drive themselves now isn’t going to make self driving taxis more convenient than driving yourself without changes to how cities are already set up. Eg if you use a taxi you have to drag all your stuff with you and it’s less convenient if you live in a place where parking is effectively guaranteed. I think it will displace the existing app based taxi market and regular taxis by offering lower prices but greed will prevent companies from pricing them low enough for them to truly get people to stop driving personal vehicles. They’re really going to do well in parts of the world where taxis are already very popular because parking is limited or expensive like Singapore, Japan, China, and Europe.
I was thinking that elderly passengers could be one use-case where robotaxis catch on. Although I guess you'd still be poor in this circumstance, since otherwise you could just own a self-driving car. Or have the self-driving car from one of your adult children drive you around when they are at work. And so I just talked myself out of robotaxis being a very big market for the elderly.
I mean Waymo already has competitors, Uber, Lyft, and regular taxis. Right now Uber and Lyft are typically strategically priced to be slightly cheaper than taxis are but I think Uber has enough margin to cut costs to compete with Waymo as they enter more markets, and Waymo needs to get people on board to make robotaxis a real thing people use and to offset their dev costs.
As long as your old cars are like Toyota corolla/camry’s and not like giant gas guzzling SUV’s or trucks keeping them on the road is better than buying a new EV IMO. I think the current EV gen is kind of doomed because of the fact the next EV gen is going to have massive QOL features the current one doesn’t and waiting for a more compelling car is worth doing IMO
Even vehicles with poor fuel efficiency are better to keep on the road until EOL. This is why cash for clunkers was such a terrible program.
I don't follow your take on the current EV gen either. A car at the end of the day derives most of its value from taking you one place to another. The current gen of EVs do this and do it well. "current EV gen is kind of doomed" that is just hyperbole, nothing is changing in the near future that would doom current EV vehicles on the road.
Define massively. I think a 2024 M3 has ~20% better range than a 2018 M3. 2018 was the second year of the M3. The 2018 LR version still had a ~300mile range. No doubt future generations will be better but again, I don't think we will have a case that "dooms" the current generation of EVs, they will serve their primary purpose well until EOL.
I think proper V2H/V2G (vehicle to home/grid) is a big one that is very rare at the moment but is probably making a lot of people who could buy an EV at the moment (i.e. have a garage/driveway in a city) hold off until it's more common, because it makes the economics a lot more attractive.
(In general, because of cratering manufacturing costs, improving tech, and a still low trust for battery health, being an EV early adopter is an expensive option at the moment because even if an early EV is still at 80% functionality compared to new, the resale value is terrible, and I think this plus the lack of charging infrastructure is a big impediment to adoption growing to become dominant in the mainstream)
I'm not super convinced about the V2H stuff, tbh. I only need backup power at home to keep the heat on when I'm not there. If I'm not there almost certainly my car isn't either. When I am there I can light a candle and run the wood stove to keep the pipes from freezing. So a stationary battery bank for my solar system makes a lot more sense than trying to use my car for that purpose.
And probably a backup generator with a big propane tank is a better solution.
I've thought about it over the years and if I was regularly away for long periods in the winter I'd probably have spent the money. As it is, I cross my fingers and generally try not to have long periods away from my house in the winter.
Ah. I think lots of other people would like to keep their refrigerator and freezer and appliances running in the event of multi-day power outages when they are at home, even when it is not freezing (like in Florida, for example).
Sure, but if you're already going to make the investment in the grid cutoff, inverter, etc then the fact the car could in principle act as a battery/generator is a little gimmicky. Might as well also get a generator (or battery if you've already got solar). Then it works automatically whether you're there or not.
The vehicle already has the inverter, using the same active rectifier hardware in the on-board charger. People want to have electricity when they are at home. And they are home a lot of the time. So I agree that it is a very niche case to want to have a backup system to provide electricity to your house during a natural disaster when you are not even there.
Whatever you call it based on exact details, my point is that using your car for power is not "gimmicky" like they said. Based on budget you can get a transfer switch or you can get an extension cord. Either way you're making effective use out of the car you already own, and the idea that you're wasting time and should really just get a generator or fixed battery is incorrect.
Fast recharge and high capacity long life batteries.
Reliably getting 300-400 mile range (even in cold), getting 250 miles range in 10-15 minutes of fast charging, and seeing batteries comfortably make it to 150k miles with small degradation.
Unfortunately people seems to really care about edge cases (What if I have to unexpectedly drive 400 miles on a frozen January evening?), so until EVs can easily cover those bases, people are really trigger shy.
The biggest one I can think of is really stupid actually which is a NACS port and proper supercharger network access for any non Tesla (and I personally would recommend against buying a Tesla for build quality and lack of repairability). Either way ICE cars are basically about as good as they can get while EV’s have a ton of room for improvement
Also worth noting that all of the Toyota trucks are way less reliable than their other cars because truck fans are pretty adamant about having the best technology and being able to do everything possible ever in their truck so they update the drivetrain more consistently and there’s more failures and issues. Other Toyotas are more reliable on average
I drove a first generation hybrid 2006 Lexus RX 400h for many years until 2024 and I’ve never had any issues with the hybrid system. There were a few other issues with the car and the battery has obviously degraded over time but everyone saying hybrids are less reliable are ignoring a lot of basic facts such as the fact that hybrids don’t have as prone to failure transmissions, don’t have an alternator, can use less powerful engines without turbos, etc. I would argue hybrids are a better choice than gas powered cars in 2024 considering how complicated gas powered cars need to be to meet modern emissions standards.
Depends, as soon as you get into the exurbs where plots of land range from 1 to 5 acres, you can start growing a significant % of your caloric needs on your land.
Not with lettuce or fruits, of course, but with potatoes/beans and gourds likely.
Sure you can but that’s not necessarily what people with large lawns are going for. Also a lot of the areas like that are completely unsuitable for growing food
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