121–130 of 133 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If we are "throwing out the existing paradigms of road transport” then why not throw out roads completely. Rails are way more efficient.
That's true only if they reach all destinations
https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?lang=null&lat=48.21003212234...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It was abandoned because fast charging stations keep improving, and are much simpler and cheaper to operate than battery swap stations. It's already at the point where you can take a 400-500 mile road trip in a Model 3 with maybe a single twenty minute charging stop, which is just not that much extra time, and most people like to take a short break every few hours anyway. I suspect Tesla knew this would probably happ…
I’d still like to be able to tow a battery behind me for extended trips. I don’t know how running the AC impacts range, I would like to know. Places with extreme weather and major population centers can make an otherwise short drive really taxing on resources through ac use or just being stuck in place for extended periods of time. Like how peak LV traffic can turn a 15 min drive into a 50 minute drive in 120f+ heat.…
A car cruising at highway speed is lconsuming something on order of 10x as much power. Given how much smaller cars are than apartments, it's an even greater difference.
So to answer your question: not much. Heating in cold weather is much worse on range, as it's not just the cabin but also the battery that needs to be maintained at an adequate operational temperature.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is often said, but I am not so sure. Fast-charging takes somewhat longer than filling with gasoline/petrol, but I usually also want a bathroom and coffee break. I can easily do that while my car is charging. That is not really true while dispensing gasoline. It is not so obvious to me that I am losing out time-wise. This is not idle speculation. I own an electric car. Furthermore, the vast majority of my chargin…
> Fast-charging takes somewhat longer than filling with gasoline/petrol, but I usually also want a bathroom and coffee break. It's more than "somewhat". I can put over 400 highway miles of range into my vehicle in five minutes with a gas pump. It takes 30 minutes to put half that into an EV. I don't want to stop for half an hour every 200 miles. > This is not idle speculation. I own an electric car. Furthermore, the…
Ugh, I don't even want to drive 200 miles in a day if I can avoid it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's true only if they reach all destinations
Yep, they do already! The future is here, just not evenly distributed (to the US :P) https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?lang=null&lat=48.21003212234...
Not all pairwise points are connected by rails, while they generally are by roads.
Asking sincerely: Why should we not simply pull over to do this? Planes obviously are a different situation, but cars can easily just stop. While cool to imagine, it seems unnecessarily complicated and unsafe to do this in motion on the road. [Edit: The prof and his team are quite serious about it, so I assume there must be a reason and I'm actually curious what it might be.]
It seems like a valuable proposition if we threw out the existing paradigms of road transport. If we throw out concepts such as ownership of vehicles and fuel and treat all road vehicles as one system of controlled individual elements, you could envision is a more efficient solution. Traffic jams would be lessened, trip times would be shortened, total fuel usage would go down, etc. On road-fueling would be one elemen…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is often said, but I am not so sure. Fast-charging takes somewhat longer than filling with gasoline/petrol, but I usually also want a bathroom and coffee break. I can easily do that while my car is charging. That is not really true while dispensing gasoline. It is not so obvious to me that I am losing out time-wise. This is not idle speculation. I own an electric car. Furthermore, the vast majority of my chargin…
> Fast-charging takes somewhat longer than filling with gasoline/petrol, but I usually also want a bathroom and coffee break. It's more than "somewhat". I can put over 400 highway miles of range into my vehicle in five minutes with a gas pump. It takes 30 minutes to put half that into an EV. I don't want to stop for half an hour every 200 miles. > This is not idle speculation. I own an electric car. Furthermore, the…
You might be able to do a gas stop in 5 minutes. I'm willing to bet that you can't do a gas stop and pee in that time. Two hundred miles is probably 3 hours of driving, so I am also willing to bet you want at least a coffee. Add five minutes (or more if you have to move your car). If you add in a snack, your total time will probably be around half an hour. A meal, make it an hour.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, they do already! The future is here, just not evenly distributed (to the US :P) https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?lang=null&lat=48.21003212234...
Can I go from my house to my friends house using only rails? My house to the supermarket? Not all pairwise points are connected by rails, while they generally are by roads.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Trains are large and inflexible. Short of having a city-block resolution freight train network at every population center, you'll need something flexible for the last mile of delivery.
The inflexibility of trains can be a feature in some cases. People like to live near subway and commuter rail stations partly because they know the route and service level are much less likely to abruptly change on them than a bus route would.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem I have with the 40 mile range is that is highly dependent on 1. temperature. Extreme cold lowers range 2. topography. Inclines can drain a battery quickly. Declines can add range. 3. driving style. Do you have a lead foot? 4. Driving type. Are you on a highway?
You're nitpicking here. 60 mile range. 100 mile range. Whatever customer needs daily is far different from their outlier use cases. Most people with home/work charging never go below 40 miles from full.