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Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

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Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#101

Post by mschuster91 »

bob1029 wrote: post #84
UncleEntity wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Collision avoidance that likes to have false alarms going around curves on wet, sub-freezing roads. Auto transmission that wants to downshift into redline going down hills. General unpredictable behavior on slick roads where it is pretty important to be able to pick your gear. Partially this is the company’s fault because they turn off a bunch of stuff for “fuel economy”.

Why does something with as much mass as a semi truck have the ability to wrest control away from the operator in the first place? Collision avoidance nannies seem substantially more tolerable when the physics equation has 2 zeroes removed from the mass figure. It's not like arbitrary jackasses can get behind the wheel of these vehicles anyways... there is a reason a commercial licensing program exists.

> It's not like arbitrary jackasses can get behind the wheel of these vehicles anyways... there is a reason a commercial licensing program exists.

The problem isn't "arbitrary jackasses", the problem is the relentless pace modern truckers are put through. Utterly insane demands for just-in-time delivery that have absolutely no margin left for inevitable delays or completely unrealistic schedules that many drivers compensate for by driving longer than allowed. Add on that drivers who self-medicate the loneliness on the road with alcohol, dope or other stuff and that explains a majority of the accidents that could be (or are) prevented with collision avoidance systems.

The remainder are irresponsible other motorists who think it's a great idea to merge 2m in front of a truck after overtaking it - yeah of course, the truck driver will be widely awake now, thank you very much...

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#102

Post by b112 »

pirate787 wrote: post #100
b112 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? You can repair parts that fail on cars. And I grew up driving 70s, 80s cars , and 100k was completely normal.

No this is survivor bias, most cars in the 70s and 80s did not make it to 100k.

Most rusted, or were discarded. They were forced to die.

There were loads of cars I, and my friends inherited, because the car was "old", a repair was $500, and the car was only worth $1k (this is the 80s, so 80s figures...), and the car had a tiny rust spot or two.

Yet that repair done at home, with a friend, could be done for 50 bucks and parts from a wrecker.

This is not survivor bias, these cars were in great shape, but instead for appearance sake, and "estimated value of the car" sake, people would throw it away.

Fix it vs throw away culture.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#103

Post by maxerickson »

gambiting wrote: post #99
maxerickson wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first poster is clearly talking about local power generation when they say roof, so a building, not the freaking vehicle.

I'm literally replying to a comment that is talking about solar panels on a car, did you reply to the wrong person maybe?

No, I replied to you because you felt the need to hammer on the misunderstanding in the comment you replied to. The horse, it's dead, look, it doesn't twitch when I beat upon it!

Both of you had the opportunity to not assume the first post was stupid but passed on it.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#104

Post by sokoloff »

b112 wrote: post #102
pirate787 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No this is survivor bias, most cars in the 70s and 80s did not make it to 100k.

Most rusted, or were discarded. They were forced to die. There were loads of cars I, and my friends inherited, because the car was "old", a repair was $500, and the car was only worth $1k (this is the 80s, so 80s figures...), and the car had a tiny rust spot or two. Yet that repair done at home, with a friend, could be done for 50 bucks and parts from a wrecker. This is not survivor bias, these cars were in great sha…

I think there is likely a more throw it away culture overall now than in the 70s.

Cars started to last significantly longer when body rust-proofing improved (mostly in the 80s for American cars), when electronic fuel injection reduced fuel wash in the engines, and when anti-collision tech reduced the number of write offs of lower value used cars (ABS being perhaps the single biggest one, which prevents a lot of $2000 accidents from taking a $2500 used car off the road).

A carbureted, unprotected mild-steel car built in 1959, 1969, or 1979 was much less likely to be on the road 23 years later than a fuel-injected, galvanized steel 1999 model is to be on the road today.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#106

Post by throwaway0a5e »

mschuster91 wrote: post #101
bob1029 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does something with as much mass as a semi truck have the ability to wrest control away from the operator in the first place? Collision avoidance nannies seem substantially more tolerable when the physics equation has 2 zeroes removed from the mass figure. It's not like arbitrary jackasses can get behind the wheel of these vehicles anyways... there is a reason a commercial licensing program exists.

> It's not like arbitrary jackasses can get behind the wheel of these vehicles anyways... there is a reason a commercial licensing program exists. The problem isn't "arbitrary jackasses", the problem is the relentless pace modern truckers are put through. Utterly insane demands for just-in-time delivery that have absolutely no margin left for inevitable delays or completely unrealistic schedules that many drivers com…

Remind me again, what's your point of exposure to the American trucking industry?

It's kind of ironic that someone on a different continent feels as though they can speak authoritatively on the subject. This kind of hubris, albeit in the Diamler-Benz office rather than wherever you're sitting, is exactly how the half-baked tech features the person you are replying to is complaining about make it into the truck. Of course there's multiple parties at fault. The American bean counters have no incentive to not buy those features even if they make the job worse for the employees.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#107

Post by VLM »

r00fus wrote: post #31

"The rip-offs of common powertrain control module 4 units relate to the ongoing shortage of microchips" So how long does the microchip shortage continue?

We're still in the toilet-paper-hoarding stage. Also people are still reselling at 400% to 1000% markup.

Probably at least a couple years.

Imagine if a shipment of 100K Raspberry Pi 2 W Zero came in today. "Everybody knows" if you buy direct you can pay $5, and the lowest price for scalpers on Amazon for a 2 W Zero is currently $149 so you can probably actually sell for $130-ish and clear $125 of scalping profit per unit shipped.

Note there's not much risk... Put $500 of Pi on the credit card, get 100 units, if you can scalp FOUR at hyperinflated prices you broke even, even if the price craters to $5 tomorrow and you're sitting on 96 unsold units.

There's just too much money floating around for the shortage to go away. The only way for a manufacturer to crack the scalper market is to get financing so cheap they can out-finance the entire scalper "industry". But no cross-planet exporter can out-finance the consumer sector credit card printing press of cash, so the scalpers are semi-permanent and some technologies are essentially dead now.

Now personally I've written off the Pi and STM32 ecosystems. Everything in resale is either fake or falsely marked ("8GB" but its actually 2G, etc) or marked up to insane prices so those technologies are dead to me. Unfortunately there's still people trying to use those legacy technologies so prices on Amazon are $149 for a $5 product, but eventually those techs will be widely regarded as dead and then the market can clear and go back to normal. Overall I'm "enjoying" ESP32 products, at least those can still be purchased at a reasonable price...

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#108

Post by DennisP »

b112 wrote: post #69
DennisP wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, any electric car can be charged from solar panels on your roof. Then there's Aptera, which can charge itself from the sun if you're in a reasonably sunny area, and which has a strong commitment to right-to-repair: https://aptera.us/right-to-repair-commitment-feat-rich-rebui... They also make their own battery packs, despite not exactly being a large operation. https://aptera.us/battery-update/

Solar panels on my car roof might be good to charge my laptop. Or, keep a car from losing charge while idle. I think you'd have to leave the car in the sun for days, just to drive to the 5 minutes away store and back.

Well that depends on the car. Solar race cars cross the country on sunlight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car_racing

Aptera is less extreme than that, but still a lot more efficient than a normal car, mainly due to aerodynamics, plus light weight and three wheels. Take a glance at aptera.us and you'll see how far they took the aerodynamics.

They claim up to 40 miles of range collected per day, if you're someplace like southern California, and max out their panel options. The car is pretty flat and wide, which also helps.

If you don't have much sun available, you can plug into a regular wall outlet and add range reasonably quickly.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#109

Post by throwaway0a5e »

sokoloff wrote: post #44
KennyBlanken wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article implies the control units are coded to the vehicle's VIN at least to some degree and mentions Freightliner asks people to look out for logged errors indicating someone attempted to use a control unit from a different VIN. There's also mention of a separate password function. However, if there's a market for these units, someone's likely developed a tool to "re code" the control units. But: "Moving toward"…

The average age of vehicles is trending up because cars are more reliable and just last longer. It used to be an event to roll over a 5-digit odometer. Now, 250K miles is just getting broken in.

Cost of replacing like for like is a huge factor.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#110

Post by DennisP »

maxerickson wrote: post #98
gambiting wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It just doesn't make any sense if you know anything about physics. Sun provides about 1kW of power per square meter.....at noon, at the equator, with no clouds. Automotive solar panels like they use are about 20% efficient. Your average car roof is....let's be super forgiving and say 2sqm. So in the middle of the day, at the equator, you are generating about 400W of power. The average EV battery is 50kWh. So you'd ne…

The first poster is clearly talking about local power generation when they say roof, so a building, not the freaking vehicle.

I started by talking about solar collection on the roof of a building, which applies to any electric vehicle.

But Aptera actually has panels on the car. That would be useless on a Tesla, but the Aptera is far more aerodynamic and only has three wheels. They don't claim to fully recharge in a day, just to get enough extra range in a day to cover many people's typical driving needs.

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