Technological/practical "backward steps" we all just accept now

I'm fairly sure my uncle got an EV just to have an excuse to stop for a burger wherever he goes

fair play

You know that someone is going to have beef with electric cars

I wish there were more electric cars even though I generally hate ALL cars. That satisfying hum of an electric motor is so much nicer than some cunt who has modified their muffler to sound like a F1 machine. Fucking cars and internal fucking combustion engines really annoy me these days. This is a 19th century hangover that needs to be phased out now. Doesn't solve the problem of cars being shit though. A friend of mine pushing his kid in a buggy, spat in contempt at a car parked on the kerb. Because of low sun glare he didn't realise the car window was open and driver was in there and he'd spat in his face! And then he took the dodgy moral high ground by retorting: are you threatening me here, there is a baby present!

It really doesn't make much sense to bring 6,500 lbs of steel with you when you're going out for a pack of smokes... everything is still based on horse & buggy routes and infrastructure

That satisfying hum of an electric motor is so much nicer than some cunt who has modified their muffler to sound like a F1 machine.

Truth

The town i live in appears to be going through a phase of who can create the loudest backfire

same

imo people are going to need to adjust their expectations about when and how they put energy into their cars. like, it mainly happens at home, and if you’re going far enough that you need to do it on the road then you’ll need to combine that with a bit of a break. a meal. watch something on your ipad. yes that feels less convenient than spending 5 minutes pumping poison into a tank but one of the tradeoffs is that you never have to pay $1000 to replace a $50 HVAC sensor or deal with a main seal or whatever.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, September 20, 2021 2:03 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Right now, top of the line EVs can go about 350 miles on a single charge, highway driving, fwiw. That simply isn't good enough to be feasible for any sort of long-distance driving, at this point— I can make it to the other side of the state, and that's if I'm lucky. Until better systems are in place, most people are going to spurn these cars because of their price point and the fact that you can't get from the Bay Area to LA on a single charge, as just one example.

tbf 350 miles at highway speeds is a long haul by everyday standards --- 4.5 hours of driving. i'd want to stop for lunch and to stretch my legs, myself. but i am obv not a "typical" driver.

Yeah, I think I'd want to have a break after much less than 350 miles. I guess, assuming you can plan your trip with a rapid charging point on the way, it all depends how long you want to stop and how much more charge you need to get the destination/next stop. I read that a half-hour rapid charge gives you "60-200 miles of range" depending on your battery and the charge speed, but there's quite a lot of difference between 60 and 200 miles.

I guess I just stop as little as possible, for as short amount of time as possible, and anything making those stops longer just makes me angry.

Yabbut I'd have the same question for people who want towing capacity or cargo space: how often are you driving 500 miles? Versus the everyday 10- and 15-mile trips that most people do for groceries and work and whatnot.

I drive more than 100 miles at a stretch... let's see... once or twice a year.

Seems like you could rent a car for those couple weekends (it costs what, like $150?), and come out ahead in cost and environmental impact.

don't get me started on people who have huge pick up trucks that rarely need to haul things.

Yeah, if you have a boat or a camping trailer that you use for five or ten days a year? You don't need your year-round vehicle to be capable of towing it.

Most of your trips are the drugstore and the florist and dropping the kids off at school. Get an eco-friendly car for 355 days + rent a truck for the 10 days you need a truck. Way better than driving six tons of towing capacity around all day every day.

Its hard for urban apartment dwellers to have an all-electric car, unless they have the good fortune to have a reserved parking spot with a charger.

My boss bought a plug-in hybrid, and prides himself on driving so.. erm, parsimoniously that the gasoline motor never comes on.

Thats the dream

Sounds like my mom.

Seems like you could rent a car for those couple weekends (it costs what, like $150?)

It's a bit more rn because of Covid-related car shortages and situations. We tried to rent for a weekend trip back in July and it would have been about $400 (with the refundable deposit, but still) for a little Toyota.

Renting a car is pretty inconvenient outside of metro areas. Totally understand the sentiment though: my friend bought a truck and main reason was to haul corn during the 2 months of corn season. I would just make a couple trips in a normal car (it's a 15 minute drive from corn field to corn stand).

How much corn is your friend hauling?

I have become one of those people who used their tow vehicle as a daily drive. Not ideal but I am using a rental truck to haul my horse around. I would love a truck that gets better gas mileage but this seems like it will be years away?

*not going to use a rental truck to haul.

Also not going to buy a second vehicle

The practical solution would be to just ride your horse to wherever you want to take it

signed, someone who has never owned a horse

just ride your horse to wherever you want to take it

Jesse James tried this and look where it got him

In theory I support this approach, but it turns out to be difficult to ride an injured horse to the vet :(

Anyhow as a horse owner I can’t decide if a horse is overall a backward step from a motorized vehicle

"How much corn is your friend hauling?"

Idk a whole field's worth! I guess what really made me rmde was there's already 2 SUVs on the household, yet they felt a need for a huge pickup truck to do the corn haulin for 2 months out of the year. Some people just love spending money is how I break it down.

ohhhhhhhhhh okay now that I get that your friend is running the corn stand as opposed to buying out their entire inventory, this makes more sense to me

I was like, how much corn can you possibly eat

Renting a car is pretty inconvenient outside of metro areas.

lol, you know ilx has a pretty vocal "ban private car ownership" cadre.

In response to "what about people who live in rural areas / areas not well served by public transportation?" the answer seems to be "wull, just don't live in rural areas / areas not well served by public transportation."

My stepbrother lives in rural NorCal and there's still major bragging rights over new truck purchases; the biggest 3/4 ton, the newest, that's what you want. There's no charm in carefully maintaining a truck for years or decades, just trade it in and get something bigger and newer than the guy across the road.

And you definitely need a 3/4 ton when you're buying a bag of potting soil at Home Depot.

Lol Dan

_Renting a car is pretty inconvenient outside of metro areas. _


lol, you know ilx has a pretty vocal "ban private car ownership" cadre.

In response to "what about people who live in rural areas / areas not well served by public transportation?" the answer seems to be "wull, just don't live in rural areas / areas not well served by public transportation."

And you definitely need a 3/4 ton when you're buying a bag of potting soil at Home Depot.

― Andy the Grasshopper, Tuesday, September 21, 2021 2:20 PM (three hours ago)

lol -- one of these days when I have plenty of time on my hands, I want to do a field study at Home Depot -- where I note the make/model of vehicles in the parking lot and the size of what they are purchasing. ... I spend a lot of time at Home Depot. The 3/4 ton truck dudes are buying a bag of potting soil; the dudes with 20 year old Toyota Tacomas are buying actual construction materials

I’m sorry but for the climate we are going to have to empty rural villages Ceaucescu style.
― Porking level G4 (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, September 21, 2021 3:29 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Fuck. Off.

Drones raining from the sky in Zhengzhou 😬

Word on the street is that a rival drone company that lost the bid interfered to overwhelm the drones nav system!pic.twitter.com/MukM8PjJJr

— Sheel Mohnot (@pitdesi) October 4, 2021

endtimes stuff there

I dont think we all necessarily accept that tbf

The true technological backward step that's really irking me lately is having chips and sensors in fucking EVERYTHING. All kinds of devices now have functions that no one asked for and no one wants (why does my dehumidifier need to connect to wifi? Why do I need 30 different settings on my clothes washer?), and they fail more easily as a result. To make matters worse, now that there's a chip shortage it's difficult or impossible to get many of these devices. Can't you just fucking go back to making them without chips? Of course not.

^^^ otm

We've been helping with laundry for a friend because their washer died and it has been two months and counting waiting for a new one. I would love this shortage to mean that companies decide they don't need to pit chips in literally every-fucking-thing, but I'm afraid it's too late to put that genie back in the bottle because Joe Schmoe likes being able to get an alert on his iPhone that his washer finished the cycle.

obv building towards a subscription-based economy. there's nothing left to exploit really

"I understand your concerns, however you have not upgraded to the ad-free tier for your LG clothes dryer, so unfortunately, yes, you must listen to our 60-second advertisement for the Joe Rogan Experience in order to complete your delicate cycle. For just $15.99 per month, you can experience an uninterrupted drying cycle."

My laundry appliances are ancient, and the repair people always tell us not to replace them, because they still (basically) work and are reparable with widely available parts. Get one of them computer-operated thingies and it takes a team of coders and engineers to fix.

Yup, I deeply, deeply regret buying my LG washer and dryer. Not sure I could have gotten much more life out of the Maytags that came with the house, but I understand there are still some out there that don't have computers (I think Speed Queen?)

"you can't even see the car's engine anymore, all these new-fangled doodads and bells & whistles, harumph"

i bought one of these a couple years ago and it's great (and cost well below $999) https://www.maytag.com/washers-and-dryers/washers/top-load-washers/p.3.5-cu.-ft.-commercial-grade-residential-agitator-washer.mvwp575gw.html

the repair people always tell us not to replace them

I've heard there's a big market for farming tractors of 30 years ago, for this very reason. The news one have subscription-based software systems that add a huge expense to an already outrageously expensive tractor (Caterpillar), and the old ones can be serviced more readily by the farmer himself or his shade-tree buddies

plus a regular old hotpoint dryer. they're still out there. if i ever have to buy one of those computer things i may just go back to the laundromat tbh.