all 20 comments

[–]Bigs 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (10 children)

You still think they intend letting filth like you own and use your own car? BWAHAHAHA!!!

No.

The aim for electric cars is precisely because they can't go far, can be remotely controlled etc. You won't own your own, just a subscription service so you can call some self-driving Piss Pod. I call them Piss Pods because I guarantee they will soon smell of piss.

The next stage will be sharing them, so you'll call a PP and have to wait for the next one passing by that's going your way, like a bus, and like a bus it will already have some (pee-smelling) passengers in it. And this is if you're lucky. If you live somewhere unlucky they'll just tell you to get on a bus.

On the bright side, by then your digital ID and their master computer will figure out where you should live and work, so there'll always be a Piss Pod within the hour or two of you needing one to get to and from your designated place of work.

Obviously other destinations will be banned unless you have a suitably high social credit score or sucked the right cock.

Are you new around here?

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

[deleted]

    [–]BravoVictor 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

    If Taco Bell wins the Franchise Wars, I just might have to kill myself.

    [–]Dr_Bukkake 1 insightful - 3 fun1 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

    This guy probably doesn’t even know how to use the three seashells.

    [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

    I get all that. What I'm wondering about is the mechanism by which consumer goods companies are being made to shift production to something for which there seems to be little demand.

    I buy Subarus. I bought a new Impreza, kept it 10 years, then bought a new WRX. Meanwhile, Subaru has apparently decided to half-ass the WRX and start on electric cars.

    I'm the consumer. I don't want an electric car. Why would Subaru not continue making the cars I do want if they're not being compelled to?

    I've heard talk of regulating carbon dioxide as a pollutant. I don't think it's really happened anywhere. Our overseers can't afford that economically or politically, and they know it.

    My hope is that Subaru, etc. have been "wrong-footed" here and are planning around things that won't actually happen. There is some precedent for that.

    [–]Bigs 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

    My wife as a Crosstrek, lovely little motor :)

    We specially got that from the dealer because it was the 2016 model, as new-old-stock, because the new one had that 'eyesight' or whatever bullshit, where it steers you into oncoming traffic if you don't indicate or something. Fuck all noise, didn't want it.

    Even then, much as we love the car, it must be said the ICE (in-car entertainment, not the engine) was utter shit and we had to replace it in the end. As I said to Wifey "Betcha glad we didn't rely on even more Subaru electronics?"

    [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    That interesting. The electronics are great on my 2019. It's mostly just a host for Android Auto. I have heard that Starlink itself (and the pre-2019 stuff in general) is pretty clunky. Oh, and no EyeSight on the WRX, unless you want an automatic!

    The 2019 base model stereo is also shockingly good. For decades it seemed like an upgrade was mandatory if you wanted to listen to music in a Subaru.

    [–]Bigs 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

    Well sadly enough we probably won't get another one, as all the new ones here have the Eyesight stuff (Malaysia). If forced down that route then I'd go for Toyota, simply for reliability. Our Scooby has been entirely reliable, other than the electronics.

    Did I mention the ICE managed to destroy all the speakers? When my wife told me it needed all the speakers replacing I said that was utter bullshit and demanded we take it elsewhere. Took different audio specialists said the same thing; all the speakers were dead. Not blown skins or burnt or anything, just... dead. As was the head unit. Quite bizarre really.

    So I'm happy yours seem OK but no, I won't trust Scooby electronics again any time soon.

    [–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    Oh, I seriously doubt I'll buy another one. I somehow managed to buy one at their peak, out of luck

    [–]thomastheglassexpert 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

    It is a mistaken idea that electric cars are self powered and self generating all just consume fairy dust all green ya know. No damn idea of the horrid means to make the batteries or they must be powered up by another source like plugging it into a petroleum consuming power source. A cute joke I read = "So when your electric car runs out of juice in middle of desert or a snowstorm do you walk to nearest juice station to pick up a bucket of juice to bring back and power it back up?"

    [–]AntiSemit 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

    horrid means to make the batteries

    Someone hasn't heard of Sodium-Ion

    [–]chadwickofwv 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

    You really shouldn't count your chickens before they hatch.

    [–]AntiSemit 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    Sodium-Ion hatched

    [–]iamonlyoneman 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

    There's a shit-ton of money to be made and politicians are making some of it

    It seems good for the environment on a surface level and many politicians are only good for reading the surface level apparently

    They are still not mainstream except in 'bubble' areas like major coastal cities. They're single-digits of sales most places elsewhere

    TCO is low and if you get cheap electricity it can actually be a good choice

    [–]BravoVictor 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

    You mean other than government subsidies?

    Cleaner air, quieter vehicle, easier to maintain vehicle (internal combustion engines are a mess), and more choice in fuel sources (you can still burn fossils fuels to charge, or use solar/wind). That's the dirty little secret a lot of pro-electric car folks don't talk about. The majority of electric cars will still be fueled by oil, since renewables aren't prolific or reliable enough. But hey, even then, it's easier to regulate and clean a single oil-burning factory, than it is a million cars.

    There's almost no downside other than the lack of infrastructure and high upfront costs, which should diminish as the industry updates.

    [–][deleted]  (6 children)

    [deleted]

      [–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

      The Chinese

      I think that's really why we're going to electric. Companies here will get rich off China exploiting Americans. Yet again.

      [–]BravoVictor 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

      Really, where do you think we shall dispose of all the batteries? Who will incur the cost to "recycle" as to reuse them? Where are all the precious minerals coming from to manufacture the batteries? Do you know who currently owns the mines that create much of the minerals in these batteries? The Chinese.

      Yes, exactly. How do you think we currently handle batteries, or really any other technology?

      We haven't just started to use batteries, nor are conventional engines clean. These problems have been solved for a century.

      We used to just dump used motor oil down the drain before we realized it was killing us. We know how to recycle batteries, and already do.

      [–][deleted]  (2 children)

      [deleted]

        [–]BravoVictor 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

        Ha, Jesus H Christ.

        I'm actually not sure what they do with oil when you drop it off at a recycling center. I'm guessing they clean it and re-purpose it. It's not like it's unusable. It just has impurities from the engine wear and ignition. Remove those and it should be good to re-use, if not for engine oil then at least as a source for other petro-chemicals.

        Dumping it back into the group seems like the dumbest way to dispose of it.

        [–]jet199 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

        Do I have to be the person who says "Israel" on this one?

        I remember seeing a programme about electric cars run on a battery exchange scheme in Israel 30 years ago. You wouldn't charge the car, you'd stop at a petrol station and just swap your low car battery out with a fully charged one.

        There was a bit about global warming on it but mostly it was about taking money out of the hands of their Arab neighbours and being self-reliant as a country.

        I can't say either of those concerns is a bad thing, all countries should be worried about being dependent on imported energy.

        [–]SoCo 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

        Electric vehicles are simply a get rich industry. Maybe 50 years from now, consumer electric vehicles will start being better for the environment. Right now, the technology has just become mature enough to sell some terrible ones, so there is a rush to make and sell them before the fad wears off.

        The main goal is to always make you buy, yet another, hugely expensive vehicle. If they keep making terrible cars, without any real advancements, but instead selling you on a new vehicle for each tiny slow-rolled advancement, they can maximize selling the most amount of products.

        This is the absolute worst for the environment. Each time you buy another vehicle, your CO2 cost to the planet, explodes. That vehicle was made the shittiest way in some state, then shipped across the country, sat in dozens of car lots, while being rotated across the country for at least several years.

        The best thing you can do for the environment, is to use your current vehicle as long as possible, even if the damn thing runs on coal. If you buy/trade up, even to a more efficient one, you've already negated any environmental benefit and instead went massively in CO2 impact debt.

        [–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

        No one has really addressed my actual question though.

        I understand why the government and shadowy "gray eminence" types want me in an oversized golf cart. What I don't understand is why the manufacturers are on board, or frankly where they're getting the money.