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VW invests $2.6B in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

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Re: VW invests $2.6B in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

#61

Post by lazyjones »

navigatesol wrote: post #52
jillesvangurp wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the more expensive EVs come pretty close to that and seem to be competing on getting the numbers better there. E.g. I think Tesla is planning to break the 400 mile barrier pretty soon. 300 mile is pretty normal already. Most EVs charge pretty quickly to about 80%. 20 minutes to half an hour gets you plenty of range. Mostly EV owners don't charge to 100% unless they are at home or doing some overnight stop. I…

> I think most normal drivers on a cross country trip need bathroom breaks, lunch/snacks/drinks, leg stretching etc. every 2-3 hours. Great opportunity to plug in and recharge enough for another 2-3 hours. Everytime I hear this I wonder if the people saying it have ever taken a road trip. Stopping every 2-3 hours for a half hour on a long road trip seems downright crazy to me. This is beside the point that during the…

> Stopping every 2-3 hours for a half hour on a long road trip seems downright crazy to me.

It seems crazy to you because you haven't done it. It seems perfectly normal and acceptable to people who drive Teslas over long distances. I see people going for lunch, shopping, sightseeing at Superchargers. If you know you'll have to wait 20+ minutes, you just find something to do instead of biting your fingernails.

Re: VW invests $2.6B in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

#62

Post by kszxgz »

dmix wrote: post #28
jillesvangurp wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the more expensive EVs come pretty close to that and seem to be competing on getting the numbers better there. E.g. I think Tesla is planning to break the 400 mile barrier pretty soon. 300 mile is pretty normal already. Most EVs charge pretty quickly to about 80%. 20 minutes to half an hour gets you plenty of range. Mostly EV owners don't charge to 100% unless they are at home or doing some overnight stop. I…

Have EV companies completely abandoned the swappable battery idea? I always thought thatd be the endgame. Some standardized battery design where you roll up on top of a station and it swaps the battery underneath the car. Or maybe this is something your car does for you before arriving. Which eliminates the amount of dead time tens of thousands cars will need to spend while using up expensive property in cities while…

NIO is currently building a network of battery swap stations in China.

https://cleantechnica.com/2018/11/24/nio-builds-battery-swap...

Re: VW invests $2.6B in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

#63

Post by saalweachter »

amelius wrote: post #27
choppaface wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uber proved it's possible to burn a lot of money on a team that is ineffective due to needless infighting and excessive internal competition.

In other words, you can't just throw money at the problem.

You need more of a targeted money laser than a money shotgun.

Re: VW invests $2.6B in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

#64

Post by saalweachter »

threeseed wrote: post #25
sschueller wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Elon [1] Tesla will have this by the end of 2020. At some point reality has to kick in or not? [1] https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-tesla-full-self-drivin...

Of course. Which is why many of the key members of the Autopilot team have recently left. https://bgr.com/2019/07/09/tesla-autopilot-team-elon-musk-sh...

Maybe they finished their work, solved all of the problems including the ones for extra credit on the back of the last page, and went home early?

Re: VW invests $2.6B in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

#65

Post by jillesvangurp »

navigatesol wrote: post #52
jillesvangurp wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the more expensive EVs come pretty close to that and seem to be competing on getting the numbers better there. E.g. I think Tesla is planning to break the 400 mile barrier pretty soon. 300 mile is pretty normal already. Most EVs charge pretty quickly to about 80%. 20 minutes to half an hour gets you plenty of range. Mostly EV owners don't charge to 100% unless they are at home or doing some overnight stop. I…

> I think most normal drivers on a cross country trip need bathroom breaks, lunch/snacks/drinks, leg stretching etc. every 2-3 hours. Great opportunity to plug in and recharge enough for another 2-3 hours. Everytime I hear this I wonder if the people saying it have ever taken a road trip. Stopping every 2-3 hours for a half hour on a long road trip seems downright crazy to me. This is beside the point that during the…

My understanding is that for road safety, getting out of the car every 2-3 500-600 km in a single day. On the extremely rare occasions that I do; I'll plan to have some food in between and will likely end up stopping multiple times. That leaves plenty of room to charge. I don't think I've ever filled up a car and then drove it non stop until I nearly ran out of fuel. And I've driven some shitty cars with quite poor range.

Anyway, range anxiety would be justified if it was hard to find a charging point and or if you'd have barely enough range to get to the next charging point. Neither is the case. Your car will tell you how much juice you have left and where you can get some more. Unlike gas stations, charging points are all over the place and not bottle necked on fuel truck deliveries to handful of locations. So, there's no need to queue up to charge.

Re: VW invests $2.6B in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

#66

Post by pmorici »

Incumbent car companies seem to have recently realized they are about ~2 years away from being put out of business by Tesla. In the past two weeks we've seen the CEO of BMW step down with speculation it was over BMW's botched EV strategy. Now the VW / Ford alliance on electric and self driving.

Re: VW invests $2.6B in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

#68

Post by trilila »

pmorici wrote: post #66

Incumbent car companies seem to have recently realized they are about ~2 years away from being put out of business by Tesla. In the past two weeks we've seen the CEO of BMW step down with speculation it was over BMW's botched EV strategy. Now the VW / Ford alliance on electric and self driving.

German car makers are an enormous source of pollution in Europe. I am shocked anyone wants to buy their cars anymore after the emissions scandal.

Re: VW invests $2.6B in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

#69

Post by hodder »

pmorici wrote: post #66

Incumbent car companies seem to have recently realized they are about ~2 years away from being put out of business by Tesla. In the past two weeks we've seen the CEO of BMW step down with speculation it was over BMW's botched EV strategy. Now the VW / Ford alliance on electric and self driving.

They clearly are at no risk of being put out of business by Tesla. All electric car sales are still only a fraction of ICE and given Tesla’s stagnant sales nuns it looks like it will remain that way for a while.

Tech early adopters have bought and most others aren’t interested until the price falls significantly and the reliability becomes something like a civic.

Re: VW invests $2.6B in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

#70

Post by cj »

trilila wrote: post #67

Given that VW was caught cheating emissions on a global scale, and far worse than other carmakers, i find it surprising that anyone on hackernews would consider buying their cars.

If the VW brand is too far below hacker news standards, what car brand isn’t? (Excluding Tesla, and other brands priced 40k+)
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