61–70 of 207 posts
I wonder the same, there's a bunch of budget electric bikes out there, I'd love something small that I can get around in the winter with!
Try a coat.
If you look around you discover that cycling cities tend to be places with harsh winters. While cycling dies off in winter, there are some die-hards go year round and they will report what you need if you ask them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's what your phone or tablet is for. No need for all that custom UI tech in the car, just provide a documented API and open-source app you can run on your phone or even dedicate a tablet for it. Proprietary screens and their supporting computers will be obsolete quickly, will break easily and be exorbitantly expensive to fix/replace, and of course there's a good chance they will also surveil everything you do, mo…
I have no confidence that auto/carplay of today will work with whatever phone I have in 12 years. Car makers want to ship their cars and forget about them. They hate warranty work. Tesla does software updates but the others don't want to (they do but only when they must or if they can charge for them - the maps on my 12 year old car are way out of date because like most car buyers I won't pay to update them). I'm not…
And for sure, assuming a popular standard physical/radio interface is used now, it will still be supported, either through backwards-compatibility in the standard, or with gateway dongles etc, far into the future.
I have no confidence you'll be able to get a replacement screen or computer mainboard etc for any car you buy today, in 12 years, and almost certainly not in 20,30, etc.
1. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/japans...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess that's why the Zoe has been discontinued: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Zoe Twizy and Ami are not regular passenger vehicles. I am sure there are less requirements for them.
Zoe is very popular in France and is being discontinued because it's replaced by the new Alpine A290, that was announced 2 hours ago. Edit: Correction, it's the most popular electric car un Europe. > by the end of 2020, the Zoe ranked as the all-time best selling plug-in car in Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Zoe#Sales_and_markets
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn't it be fun if electric cars were the same way as PC's. Plug and play the parts you want, switch motor / battery.. choose a new chassis as you wish. And LED lights of course.
The only reason that exists for PCs is the same reason we even use the word “PC”: they’re all just legacy holdovers from manufacturers copying IBM. And really, the subset of the market that still follows these standards is small, and shrinking. The vast majority of PCs today are laptops with few, if any, swappable parts. Pretty much the only segment where this still exists is the enthusiast subset of the gaming PC ma…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn't it be fun if electric cars were the same way as PC's. Plug and play the parts you want, switch motor / battery.. choose a new chassis as you wish. And LED lights of course.
The only reason that exists for PCs is the same reason we even use the word “PC”: they’re all just legacy holdovers from manufacturers copying IBM. And really, the subset of the market that still follows these standards is small, and shrinking. The vast majority of PCs today are laptops with few, if any, swappable parts. Pretty much the only segment where this still exists is the enthusiast subset of the gaming PC ma…
It is a bit more complex than that of course and generally speaking you are right.
The big reason screens matter for electric cars is planning long range trips with stops at a battery charge location. Without the map/screen in-car you can’t integrate battery level with routing. Maybe you’re fine doing this manually, but range anxiety is the big reason consumers who can afford electric don’t buy electric, so it seems self defeating to remove features that help with that. The screens and stuff aren’t…
But that doesn't explain why automakers are moving the regular controls from physical buttons to the touchscreen. That's the part that I consider a serious problem.
The big reason screens matter for electric cars is planning long range trips with stops at a battery charge location. Without the map/screen in-car you can’t integrate battery level with routing. Maybe you’re fine doing this manually, but range anxiety is the big reason consumers who can afford electric don’t buy electric, so it seems self defeating to remove features that help with that. The screens and stuff aren’t…
> The big reason screens matter for electric cars is planning long range trips with stops at a battery charge location. But that doesn't explain why automakers are moving the regular controls from physical buttons to the touchscreen. That's the part that I consider a serious problem.
Not sure about other regions, but in the EU, low tech cars are not allowed. Required safety systems include emergency breaking, emergency lane-keeping, intelligent speed assistance (car must use cameras or GPS to determine current speed limit), driver attention warning systems and many more. That fancy screen is really not a cost factor. These days you can buy after-market screens with Car Play and Android auto suppo…
Which is a rather recent development and certainly a protectionist move and will hinder adaptation massively.
You need the full suite for lane controls, attention monitoring, emergency brake systems, etc...
It is simply impossible to now release low tech cars and it is a political decision by the EU that is highly questionable.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only reason that exists for PCs is the same reason we even use the word “PC”: they’re all just legacy holdovers from manufacturers copying IBM. And really, the subset of the market that still follows these standards is small, and shrinking. The vast majority of PCs today are laptops with few, if any, swappable parts. Pretty much the only segment where this still exists is the enthusiast subset of the gaming PC ma…
Traditional, expandable towers certainly still exist. I just bought three of them.