Posted 21 Oct 2022 doubts rise over whether robo cars will ever work, investors trying to pull out ... Driverless Car Development Sets Ablaze a Bonfire of Billions https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/driverless-car-development-sets-ablaze-130019834.html 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 23 Nov 2022 10 months after ordering, my Cupra Born arrived yesterday. Yes! Everything works the way it should so far and the driver assistance (auto cruise control, speed limit sign recognition, lane keeping, lane changing, stop & go) makes everything easy-going. I opted for the base model 18" aero wheels due to improved range. I was kind of overwhelmed though with the whole UI and needed to spend 2 hours last night familiarizing myself with all the system settings. Before you used to buy a car that happened to have a computer - nowadays you buy a computer that happens to be a car. The current wait time for the Born is about 4-6 months now that demand has dropped a bit due to lowered subsidies next year and perhaps supply chain easing. 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 23 Nov 2022 On 21.10.2022, 16:31:03, yesterday said: doubts rise over whether robo cars will ever work, investors trying to pull out ... Driverless Car Development Sets Ablaze a Bonfire of Billions https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/driverless-car-development-sets-ablaze-130019834.html This was predictable. Most of these companies were making great demos with HD maps and LIDAR. They cashed in, now "suddenly" it will never work. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 23 Nov 2022 Tesla Gigafactories, News and Conversation has been discontinued ( This topic is now closed to further replies. ). My attempts to ask "why"? have been unsuccessful. This is no known way to contact TT moderators. All of the prescribed methods no longer function or have disappeared. It would appear that the topic became too popular and exceeded an arbitrary user input limit. Only in Germany would success be penalized. TT's FSD is broken and no one cares. Thanks to those who contributed comments. I, personally, got a lot of good info there. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 23 Nov 2022 31 minutes ago, catjones said: My attempts to ask "why"? have been unsuccessful. Maybe TT has been taken over by Musk, like Twitter,and what staff are left after 50% job cuts have been locked out of their company PCs. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 23 Nov 2022 1 hour ago, keith2011 said: Maybe TT has been taken over by Musk, like Twitter,and what staff are left after 50% job cuts have been locked out of their company PCs. It's possible. Elmo loves to buy social media platforms where people are making fun of him. I hear dozens, perhaps even scores of euros were offered as the purchase price. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 1 Dec 2022 Interesting interview with Tesla’s Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen: 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 27 Dec 2022 One more review of the Ioniq 5. Did 800km in one day last week. The car got a serious new SW update with a lot of great improvements. Unfortunately this had to be done in the service center as part of a "yearly maintenance". And the i-pedal bug is still there. One new feature is the speed on HUD will turn red if you're over speed limit and there is a nearby radar! Really nice! One thing i've notice is that charging speed and consumption are severely affected on long trips. If you drive for, let's say 2h, charging speed above 80% drops to 3kW... And right after fast charging to 80%, consumption increases by 50% for 20-30 minutes! Perhaps the battery is hot? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 27 Dec 2022 My son came over on Christmas day with his new VW ID.3 (company car). Hes enthusiastic. Took us for a short drive. Reckons that in the brighter half of the year it will charge from the panels on his roof. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 27 Dec 2022 2 hours ago, MikeMelga said: One more review of the Ioniq 5. Did 800km in one day last week. The car got a serious new SW update with a lot of great improvements. Unfortunately this had to be done in the service center as part of a "yearly maintenance". And the i-pedal bug is still there. One new feature is the speed on HUD will turn red if you're over speed limit and there is a nearby radar! Really nice! One thing i've notice is that charging speed and consumption are severely affected on long trips. If you drive for, let's say 2h, charging speed above 80% drops to 3kW... And right after fast charging to 80%, consumption increases by 50% for 20-30 minutes! Perhaps the battery is hot? Were you driving that car in Portugal? Was it really cold there? We get the SW updates on air. Himself put one in by USB - not at the service center. We don't use full i-pedal at all, only auto recuperation which adjusts to our driving style. That feature is moot to us. We have never experienced the consumption increase of which you speak after high speed charging on long trips. Sounds like something is wrong with that car. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 29 Dec 2022 On 27/12/2022, 23:05:30, fraufruit said: Sounds like something is wrong with that car. It´s not a Tesla. Faults in a Tesla get excused by "software update,FUD" etc but because this is not a Tesla it´s free reign to criticise. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 29 Dec 2022 Himself took our Ioniq in for its first servicing. It now has a new feature whereas the battery pre-heats when you choose a charging station on the navi. This makes the charging more efficient in cold weather. Not necessary in warm weather. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 29 Dec 2022 On 12/27/2022, 11:05:30, fraufruit said: Were you driving that car in Portugal? Was it really cold there? Portugal, around 15-22C. On 12/27/2022, 11:05:30, fraufruit said: We get the SW updates on air. Himself put one in by USB - not at the service center. We don't use full i-pedal at all, only auto recuperation which adjusts to our driving style. That feature is moot to us. If you get used to full i-pedal, you won't go back. I'm not saying everyone should use it, but at least the setting should not reset constantly! On 12/27/2022, 11:05:30, fraufruit said: We have never experienced the consumption increase of which you speak after high speed charging on long trips. Sounds like something is wrong with that car. The higher consumption might be a calculation bug. But I've seen it several times, both in hot and mild weather. 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 29 Dec 2022 On 27/08/2022, 14:28:54, yesterday said: Electric cars will be more expensive to run than petrol ( in the UK at least ) Electric cars will be more expensive to run than petrol (yahoo.com) Just thinking what will happen in Germany ?, the same ? That's already the case in Finland with public chargers, at the moment it's cheaper to fill up your ICE than charge your EV - sorry don't have the link. it's just a matter of time till the government starts ramping up taxes on EVs to replace the lost income from gasoline taxes. There is a massive push to electrify everything under the sun, from cars (EVs) to heating systems (heat pumps) but aside from the cost ( a heat pump costs 5 to 10 times as much money as a gas or oil furnace 20,000-50,000€ or more depending on the system). The question nobody is asking is how in the hell is the grid going to be able to handle this. Watch an EV youtube video and every presentor makes the same point. It's Ok when one person on the street has a charge box but when everyone has one the grid will collapse. The governor of California had to ask car owners not to charge their batteries as the grdi couldn't handle it. And this was before shutting down the last of their nuclear power pants. Switzerland is banning the charging of EVs during the winter again for the same reasons. There's also the issue of can the world open enough mines (approx 500 more needed in the next couple of years) to meet all these targets. Watch the price of copper - that is the canary in the coal mine! Meanwhile in La La Land France gets finned a half billion Euros for not producing too little carbon. Unlike the green Germans Frances fleet of nuclear power plants produces almost no carbon -to meet targets people are going to have to do a lot more driving!!! 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 29 Dec 2022 Fantastic Interview if you care about this I recommend setting aside an hour to listen to it. He also does a summary of it as well what I linked to. I highly recommend his newsletter as well - it's a nice change from The Locals coverage. Interview: Germans are 'brainwashed' on renewables 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 29 Dec 2022 26 minutes ago, Rushrush said: There is a massive push to electrify everything under the sun, from cars (EVs) to heating systems (heat pumps) but aside from the cost ( a heat pump costs 5 to 10 times as much money as a gas or oil furnace 20,000-50,000€ or more depending on the system). The question nobody is asking is how in the hell is the grid going to be able to handle this. Watch an EV youtube video and every presentor makes the same point. It's Ok when one person on the street has a charge box but when everyone has one the grid will collapse. The governor of California had to ask car owners not to charge their batteries as the grdi couldn't handle it. And this was before shutting down the last of their nuclear power pants. Switzerland is banning the charging of EVs during the winter again for the same reasons. So for 3 months of the year nobody in Switzerland is allowed to charge an EV? Forgive me for thinking that claim smells more than a little fishy... The question about the grid is often asked. It's an engineering problem; it's neither simple nor impossible but somewhere inbetween. But you don't need to think very hard to see solutions. If the grid is running at peak demand and millions plugin their EVs then it's obviously a problem. If millions use wallboxes that charge in the wee hours of the morning when demand is lower, then not only is this not a problem for the grid it's actually better for the operation of the grid as demand is more consistent. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 29 Dec 2022 4 minutes ago, Dembo said: So for 3 months of the year nobody in Switzerland is allowed to charge an EV? Forgive me for thinking that claim smells more than a little fishy... Definitely fishy. There may be some bans with the charging of EV 'under certain conditions' - https://www.stern.de/politik/ausland/schweiz-will-elektroautos-bei-strommangel-mit-fahrverboten-belegen-32967884.html Translation via Google: "If the electricity runs out and you are the only car with an electric vehicle, it could soon be largely forbidden for the Swiss to drive it. Our neighboring country is preparing for possible outages of a nationwide power shortage. The regulations summarized under the term "power shortage" provide that under certain conditions it can be prohibited in future to drive electric cars, since their power consumption is to be reduced. The draft published immediately by the Swiss Federal Council summarizes that "in the event of an imminent shortage", appeals would first be made to all electricity consumers to save energy.“ So nothing about not being able to charge EVs in CH for the Winter. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 29 Dec 2022 Quote In the last few days, reports in various media outlets have circulated which, at least in their headlines, somewhat luridly suggested that Switzerland was planning driving bans for electric cars. It turns out the truth behind the “news” is not quite that wild. The basis for the reports is the ‘Ordinance on Restrictions and Prohibitions on the Use of Electric Energy’. So far, this is only a draft the Swiss Federal Council is currently writing to prepare for the possibility of an electricity shortage, as are other countries – as an emergency response. The draft ordinance regulates “restrictions and prohibitions on the use of electrical energy in order to secure the country’s electricity supply”. It outlines four possible escalation levels within which the use of bans would at best be staggered in the event of a crisis. E-mobility is only mentioned in escalation level 3 as one of many possible measures. There it says: “The private use of electric cars is only permitted for absolutely necessary journeys (e.g. exercising one’s profession, shopping, visiting the doctor, attending religious events, attending court appointments).” So: Should there really be a power shortage in Switzerland, according to the draft, partial driving bans for electric cars could be considered as one of numerous upstream measures. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 30 Dec 2022 On 29/12/2022, 15:34:14, warsteiner70 said: So nothing about not being able to charge EVs in CH for the Winter. Yes definitely my bad! This is the biggest issue I see coming to wide spread adaptation of EVs obviously higher prices bring in new players etc but it takes time to build and develop mines. Quote The price of a new Ford 150 electric truck increased 40% since launch. Costs have more than DOUBLED for battery minerals such as cobalt, nickel & lithium. The battery accounts for ~30% of the total cost of an electric vehicle. via twitter https://twitter.com/BrianGitt/status/1608509739151028224?s=20&t=i9A6vOgKHstMWV_mXdY2Sg 0 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
