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A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

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Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#471

Post by dummydummy1234 »

bilsbie wrote: post #405
conradev wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd recommend folks watch the video – it's fascinating. The truck gets OTA updates through your phone and not some LTE modem. It doesn't have one. They moved all car management including OBD-like functionality to the phone, too, which I think is awesome. This is how I want the interior design philosophy of manual controls to be digitized – with digital control. I'd pay $10k more for physical buttons, though.

I’d be good with no updates. Ie make it simple enough that there shouldn’t need to be updates. And if there’s something major maybe you download it onto a thumb drive and plug it in. I’m tired of my vehicle being changed without my consent.

I mean yes, but also this is a complex new prototype vehicle. I can assume that there may be mistakes/ non ideal things that they only catch post production.

As long as the fixes are a long the lines as bios updates (not required per say, but may fix bugs or edge cases) then that seems reasonable.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#472

Post by trgn »

i hate trucks because they're big and trash up my neighborhood with their noise and size, just don't belong in the city. but since some neighbors have started driving electric (rivian, cybertruck), I tolerate them so so so much more. it's amazing how just making them electric has changed (and I hope, continues to change) the gestalt of my block.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#473

Post by bgnn »

MostlyStable wrote: post #308
aidenn0 wrote: post #253

For anyone curious, if you made a similarly sized gas-powered pickup with an i4 engine, it would be penalized more than a full-sized pickup for being too fuel inefficient, despite likely getting much better mileage than an F-150 because, since 2011, bigger cars are held to a lesser standard by CAFE[1]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_average_fuel_economy...

Example #5621 that a simple carbon tax would be miles better than the complex morass of regulations we currently have.

why can't we just tax the gas at the pump? this is, at least, what I'm used to in Europe.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#474

Post by tw04 »

nancyminusone wrote: post #423
tw04 wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Noooooooooo! No apps, please! Finally a car not tethered to and dependent on your phone, and we already have our first request to app-ify it! What car is tied to your phone? A mustang mach-e, for instance, does not require your phone at all. It has a FOB for opening the doors and starting it, you can program the charging times from the in-car screen. The app is optional, exactly as it should be. This car DESPERATELY…

> DESPERATELY is going to need an app when it comes to charging whether you know it or not I don't own an EV. What for? Do you really need more than a button or two and some leds?

Controlling your charging. You shouldn’t be charging more than 80% for daily driving unless you want to destroy your battery.

You will almost assuredly also want to be able to precondition if you live in a cold climate.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#476

Post by brianwawok »

bgnn wrote: post #473
MostlyStable wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Example #5621 that a simple carbon tax would be miles better than the complex morass of regulations we currently have.

why can't we just tax the gas at the pump? this is, at least, what I'm used to in Europe.

We do. But it’s a super regressive tax. Lots of very poor people depend on a bad MPG car to get to work and live.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#477

Post by Braxton1980 »

hinkley wrote: post #430
Braxton1980 wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rear seats of almost all new cars are bench seats though. Is side impact safety requirements the same or apply the whole side of the car? I believe airbag requirements prevent this because the middle seat would require a console mounted airbag where infotainment systems normally live

I suspect GP is misremembering why bench seating went away. Bench seats for the driver can lead to steering errors which can result in crashes.

There are other reasons too.

1. Cars that offered manual options needed a center console. Japanese imports would always have a manual version, even if that version wasn't in the US. Same with European.

The only one alternative is a column manual shifter which is horrible to use.

You couldn't use a forward floor shifter unless you want to shift between the legs of the person in the middle.

There are dash mounted shifters but would probably hit the middle person's knees. Not sure since these are rare and usually European (fiat multipla) /Japanese

2. At a point a US safety requirement was all front passengers needed either an airbag or a automatic shoulder seatbelt, basically it ran along the door with a motor when the door closed.

Automatic shoulder belts were cheaper than airbags so manf usually picked that option but don't work with middle seats since they need a door/column for the rails.

3. Minor, but, additional side safety rules increased door thickness. Both sides pushed in more making it uncomfortable. Fine in rear but front, as you mentioned, is a danger to steering.

4. Smaller import cars due to gas crisis in 70s that US companies (eventually) copied that combined with reason (3) made the middle seat basically useless

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#478

Post by AlexandrB »

Aurornis wrote: post #436
Yhippa wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anybody know how it got to this point? It can't be because of regulatory capture, right? I don't think small cars are getting made for the US because of SUV mania and something like a 67 MPG requirement for the Honda Fit based on it's build.

> I don't think small cars are getting made for the US because of SUV mania and something like a 67 MPG requirement for the Honda Fit based on it's build. The famous 67MPG requirement was for a hypothetical 2026 model year car But Honda discontinued the Fit in the United States in 2020, long before the hypothetical 2026 target. The reason is consumer demand. People weren't buying them. There are thousands of lightly…

> The reason is consumer demand. People weren't buying them.

I think this over-simplifies things. Strict milage standards force a set of compromises on ICE car design that make them both shittier and more expensive[1]. Why would anyone buy such a product when they can get an SUV instead?

[1] Some examples: turbochargers, CVTs, start/stop systems. All of these increase both the cost and complexity of building as well as repairing the car. And with higher complexity comes higher chances for something to fail as well so reliability suffers.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#479

Post by qudat »

everdrive wrote: post #455
taylodl wrote: post #43

I LOVE it! THIS is the kind of truck I'd be looking at to replace my 1998 Ford Ranger. Here is what could be potential deal-breakers: - Lack of a mobile app. Minimalist design is great, but I still want an app to manage charging and be alerted to any vehicle issues. - Lack of good charge management and battery conditioning. Either that, or a cheap and easy to replace battery pack. I'd really like both! - Comparable h…

Please no apps. Please no smart phone garbage.

I'm kind of excited by their App idea. They don't have an infotainment, speakers, etc. You can just use your phone + their app + bluetooth speaker.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#480

Post by mrweasel »

itsoktocry wrote: post #379
alistairSH wrote: post #172

~$30k for a manual-window, slow-charging truck? Will anybody in the US actually want one? It's a cool concept... looks good to my eye, small trucks are neat, etc. But, I'd want push-button windows, up-to-date charge controller/battery tech, and the normal EV integrated app. Maybe if it was really a $20k truck (they're advertising the price after incentives, many of which are either going away or vanish for higher inc…

> It's a cool concept... looks good to my eye, small trucks are neat And it's barely a truck, 1000-lb towing capacity. A VW Golf can tow twice as much.

Makes you wonder if they picked that form factor to appeal to a certain market segment that's current underserved?

I love the concept, but at $20.000USD it's to much. My guess is that they'd need to hit 15.000USD for the extend range version. Two minor thing I would chance, as others pointed out: Bench seat, and the second: Just make the holes/mounting options for an after market stereo.

Hopefully this is successful and will push other manufacturers to create similar options. I saw an old Morris parked outside the gym the other day, it took up maybe 2/3 of a parking space, it was perfectly size for my grandparents, it perfectly sized for my needs. I get that the car grows a bit in size, once all the modern safety features are added, but I don't see why that would amount to much more than the size of say an Opel Kadett D or E, or a Volvo for the 1980s.

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