bidens incredible transition to electric cars
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Oceanslider
Known around here
Oceanslider
Known around here
ARAMP1
Pulling my weight
I'm not at all against EVs. I think what Tesla has accomplished so far has been awesome. And, one day, I hope to have an electric car. Maybe an old converted 911 or 356 Porsche. Right now, I drive from Memphis to Pensacola at least once a month, so it's just not practical.
That being said, my commuter car/daily driver is a Shelby GT350. (I've always been a hotrodder with a car, bike or truck to tinker with). A buddy was trying to get under my skin saying his Tesla S3 was faster. Well, in the 1/4 mile, just barely, even though the GT350 has a higher top speed. I told him "You want to race...lets race to Florida and see who gets there first. I'll even drive the speed limit." LOL.
That being said, my commuter car/daily driver is a Shelby GT350. (I've always been a hotrodder with a car, bike or truck to tinker with). A buddy was trying to get under my skin saying his Tesla S3 was faster. Well, in the 1/4 mile, just barely, even though the GT350 has a higher top speed. I told him "You want to race...lets race to Florida and see who gets there first. I'll even drive the speed limit." LOL.
^Now that is what I expect to see when someone says they have a Mustang!
Not this piece of crap LOL When was the Mustang ever a 4-door and sit higher than a Honda CRV lol
Not this piece of crap LOL When was the Mustang ever a 4-door and sit higher than a Honda CRV lol
Smilingreen
Known around here
THANK BERNIE: The Trains Will Stop, and So Will Your EV | Steve Berman
Congress must block the railroad strike but Democrats are grandstanding
My fav excerpt?THANK BERNIE: The Trains Will Stop, and So Will Your EV | Steve Berman
Congress must block the railroad strike but Democrats are grandstandingwww.thefirsttv.com
“The rail industry has seen huge profits in recent years and last year alone made a record-breaking $20 billion in profit,” Sanders said. “Last year, the CEO of CSX made over $20 million in total compensation, while the CEOs of Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern made over $14 million each in total compensation.”
In light of what's at stake, those compensations rate a 
, IMO.
The nations railroads have been beating down their labor forces for the past decade. Their intent is to reduce crew size (manning) of freight trains from two crew members to a single crew member. That effort has been ongoing for the past 30 years. Sound ridiculous? The premise behind it certainly is! The rail carriers believe that freight train operation can be fully automated meaning trains operating via remote control or via AI! Allowing that intent to march forward will place the American public in imminent danger as without onboard live people in place to operate equipment that moves the worst of the hazardous materials known to man, weighing tens of thousands of tons, and stretching more than 3 miles in length at this time is pure insanity yet the carriers are obsessed with doing so to increase share holder profits and line the pockets of high ranking management!
I speak from a voice of experience having worked in the rail industry as a train crew member for 46 years before retirement in 2019. A freight train with less than two crew members onboard cannot be allowed to happen! This current standoff between the carriers and the operating craft unions is a smokescreen to what the true intent of rail carriers is make no mistake about it! Even if an agreement is reached and accepted by the parties to this negotiation the fight will continue and congress will ultimately have to act! Let us hope that when that day comes congress will act in a responsible manner to protect the safety of the citizens of our nation!
I speak from a voice of experience having worked in the rail industry as a train crew member for 46 years before retirement in 2019. A freight train with less than two crew members onboard cannot be allowed to happen! This current standoff between the carriers and the operating craft unions is a smokescreen to what the true intent of rail carriers is make no mistake about it! Even if an agreement is reached and accepted by the parties to this negotiation the fight will continue and congress will ultimately have to act! Let us hope that when that day comes congress will act in a responsible manner to protect the safety of the citizens of our nation!
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,892
- 21,408
Lets stop with the scare tactics. If it was truly unsafe to the dangerous levels you speak of the railroads would be bankrupt after the first accident. Time to train replacements who will work for less.
I am more concerned about automated vehicles on the roadway than I am a train on a fixed rail with railroad crossings, etc. to maintain safety.
Almost every accident with a train is not train error - it is someone walking the tracks on a suicide mission or simply didn't hear it or an idiot trying to beat the train at a crossing.
Look at all the articles of crashes with Tesla in automated pilot mode or whatever they call it. Has there been an incident with an automated train that was the train's fault?
But even then I still think a train should have a crew as technology can be wrong.
Almost every accident with a train is not train error - it is someone walking the tracks on a suicide mission or simply didn't hear it or an idiot trying to beat the train at a crossing.
Look at all the articles of crashes with Tesla in automated pilot mode or whatever they call it. Has there been an incident with an automated train that was the train's fault?
But even then I still think a train should have a crew as technology can be wrong.
When the cost of employees gets too high, the companies will look to automation to reduce cost and improve reliability. The same thing is happening in the restaurant business.
fenderman
Staff member
- Mar 9, 2014
- 36,892
- 21,408
Most of the crashes are those teslas that dont have true full self driving. Regardless, I would much rather have tesla FSD or any other self driving system piloting most of the cars on the road than human imbeciles on their cell phones. The number of crashes, serious injury and death would drop by 99 percent if not more.
Plus, the advent of self driving cars will open up a whole new market that has up to now been unserved. Blind people will now be able to own a car and drive.
Smilingreen
Known around here
Have you ever had your GPS take you the extra long route, to the incorrect destination or tell you to go ahead 1/4 of a mile through the washed out bridge that has been in that state for the past 3 years before. Stevie Wonder would be pissed!
If I didn't know any better, I'd think we're experiencing that now!
Which brings to mind.....when I first saw this sign below I wondered how good of a job can that company actually do?
IReallyLikePizza2
Known around here
I don't know if I've already posted in this thread, but I'm a HUGE fan of EV's for the most part (Not the current "Self driving" cars and all that nonsense, just the EV as the powertrain). I won't replace either of my cars until I actually need new cars, and it will be a while until the range of any EV can match my F150 with the 36 Gallon tank, but my wife's car could easily be an EV, and it would be so much better
It would leave the garage every day fully charged if needed, so never have to refuel it. No oil changes and it would be so much cheaper than gasoline. No more relying on the fluctuating price of gas and no more filling the pockets of the Saudis when they decide to jack up the price with OPEC (Why are we supporting such a backwards country again?)
I also have solar panels, so for the most part my electric cost is fixed, and I overproduce. So instead of that going back to the grid, I could charge the car for actually free.
The posts about the power gird I think are mostly nonsense or people that have never even thought about the topic, saying we shouldn't transition to EV's because the power grid is crappy is weird. Why don't we just you know, fix the power grid? The nice thing is that introducing more load will FORCE them to fix the power grid. Here in Texas we get ERCOT alerts to save power, then they say "Phew, those notifications we sent out saved the day" and next week we forgot it happened. If no one saved power and it caused a big problem, then it gets fixed. The squeaky wheel gets the grease! When AC's first came out, did everyone say "No, I'm not going to get AC because the power grid can't handle it", nah, we got AC's and the grid adapted
But, I think its not even an issue now. I did the math, and for either my or my wifes driving, just coming home and plugging an EV into a regular 15a outlet would MORE than provide enough charge to go anywhere we wanted. An EVSE plugged into a 15a outlet doesn't use more than 12a anyway for the 80% rule. So less than my wifes hairdryer. Are we also saying we shouldn't get new hair dryers because of the grid collapsing?
I fully expect there to be no additional load to the grid for a long time. Appliances like hot water heaters are getting 4x efficiency increases with things like heat pumps, and new AC's are way more efficient (I just installed a Mini Split that is 33 SEER, vs 14 of my main AC) Take away the 30a load of hot water heater and replace it with a 15a heat pump water heater, add your EV and now we are at net reduction.. Of course not everyone will get an EV, and not everyone will get new appliances right away, but over time the shift is the same way. I also saw a post somewhere about a Dillards that got closed, and they had 8 x 400a 277v electrical panels just for incandescent lighting. Now that's all gone, and its LED. So new things come along like EV's that need power, but the net trend is that everything else uses less and less power
Its going to take a long time for everyone to move to EV's, a lot of these memes and posts seem to thing that we will wake up tomorrow with all EV's and have to figure out a way to charge them, its just not the case
The only places I think we will need to see change is DC fast charging for thing like road trips. But then they are so big of an installation that we add the capacity as needed as they get built anyway, so I don't see an issue there. After all, its going fine now so as time goes on its only going to get better.
So many out of touch people seem to try and fit EV's into the gas station model where you have to go down to the local charger to charge it each week. Why, when you can just charge it at home? Only issue there is renters and people who park on the street, but even that is making progress now
It would leave the garage every day fully charged if needed, so never have to refuel it. No oil changes and it would be so much cheaper than gasoline. No more relying on the fluctuating price of gas and no more filling the pockets of the Saudis when they decide to jack up the price with OPEC (Why are we supporting such a backwards country again?)
I also have solar panels, so for the most part my electric cost is fixed, and I overproduce. So instead of that going back to the grid, I could charge the car for actually free.
The posts about the power gird I think are mostly nonsense or people that have never even thought about the topic, saying we shouldn't transition to EV's because the power grid is crappy is weird. Why don't we just you know, fix the power grid? The nice thing is that introducing more load will FORCE them to fix the power grid. Here in Texas we get ERCOT alerts to save power, then they say "Phew, those notifications we sent out saved the day" and next week we forgot it happened. If no one saved power and it caused a big problem, then it gets fixed. The squeaky wheel gets the grease! When AC's first came out, did everyone say "No, I'm not going to get AC because the power grid can't handle it", nah, we got AC's and the grid adapted
But, I think its not even an issue now. I did the math, and for either my or my wifes driving, just coming home and plugging an EV into a regular 15a outlet would MORE than provide enough charge to go anywhere we wanted. An EVSE plugged into a 15a outlet doesn't use more than 12a anyway for the 80% rule. So less than my wifes hairdryer. Are we also saying we shouldn't get new hair dryers because of the grid collapsing?
I fully expect there to be no additional load to the grid for a long time. Appliances like hot water heaters are getting 4x efficiency increases with things like heat pumps, and new AC's are way more efficient (I just installed a Mini Split that is 33 SEER, vs 14 of my main AC) Take away the 30a load of hot water heater and replace it with a 15a heat pump water heater, add your EV and now we are at net reduction.. Of course not everyone will get an EV, and not everyone will get new appliances right away, but over time the shift is the same way. I also saw a post somewhere about a Dillards that got closed, and they had 8 x 400a 277v electrical panels just for incandescent lighting. Now that's all gone, and its LED. So new things come along like EV's that need power, but the net trend is that everything else uses less and less power
Its going to take a long time for everyone to move to EV's, a lot of these memes and posts seem to thing that we will wake up tomorrow with all EV's and have to figure out a way to charge them, its just not the case
The only places I think we will need to see change is DC fast charging for thing like road trips. But then they are so big of an installation that we add the capacity as needed as they get built anyway, so I don't see an issue there. After all, its going fine now so as time goes on its only going to get better.
So many out of touch people seem to try and fit EV's into the gas station model where you have to go down to the local charger to charge it each week. Why, when you can just charge it at home? Only issue there is renters and people who park on the street, but even that is making progress now