Like coca-cola says, they only need the local trucks to do 150 Miles a day.

'Auto drive' isn't auto drive and it won't be in 10yrs either with roads made for humans that are filled with humans. Make dedicated electrified tracks for the trucks to run on and an operator can control the thing remotely like a ride at Disney.

I doubt it - there are way too many edge cases that cannot be predicted. Miss even one, and people are killed

Not only that. my LGBTQ friends and coworkers don’t need to have bigotry repeated anywhere.

Are all gay jokes now inappropriate and cause for violent retaliation or is your neighbor just a huge homophobe and so sensitive to the point if someone jokes that he may be gay he has to resort to violence - Because to me it seems an odd reason for violence

Less hate speech, more hate EV speech

You're basically describing a train.

There is a concept called Platooning that Tesla showed during the Semi reveal. The lead Semi has a driver but the ones following it don't. That would be easier to implement since the following Semis just need to follow behind the leader.

The REAL issue is the other human drivers, not it's own 'auto drive' (autopilot) software. A human changing lanes into a driverless platooning Semi for instance. Or a human cutting off one of the following Semis then slowing down. The issues will almost certainly be other driver's mistakes. But working out those edge cases is far easier than having complete autonomy.

The other thing to consider is that the majority of the Semi's time will be spent on the highway - something that Tesla's Autopilot has been good at for a while. It's that few miles at the start and end of the trip that are tricky, not the 99% in the middle.

The highway stuff, changing lanes, taking on and off ramps, etc, my Model 3 has been able to do that for 4 years now - Navigate On Autopilot (NOA) was released in Oct 2018 and has improved over time. It automatically changes into the passing lane to go around slower traffic then merges back. Changes out of lanes that are ending even before I see the signs that it is ending. Moves me to the right most lane, takes the offramp, then the onramp of the next highway, merges into traffic flow. I gotta say NOA is quite solid at this point.

My only complaint with NOA used to be when the timing is horrible like when a car is on an onramp and wants to merge into my lane and we both show up at the same spot at the same time. In those instances NOA used to struggle as it would just persist in the lane at the same speed basically blocking out those cars trying to merge onto the highway. But now it acts more conservative. It sees the merging traffic well ahead of time and starts to decelerate to make a gap.

Imagine trying to pass that conglomeration on the freeway.

How about these?
https://wonderfulengineering.com/these-mammoth-land-trains-of-the-us-army-were-too-big-to-be-true/
https://blogunity.net/vehicles/record-longest-road-train/

Worse yet, it was not even a gay joke. It was a proclamation of triumph

Us LBGTQ brothers and sisters have made huge inroads into occupations that at one time were very homophobic.

(and we are making more money than straights while doing it https://www.financialplannerla.com/gay-married-couples/ )

Tesla's market share has dropped from 80% to 65%....a trend we all hope to see continue

https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/competitors-chip-teslas-us-electric-vehicle-share-94160159

I was a big believer in Tesla - bought my wife one - but I cannot support them further unless Elon is out.

Maybe this guy will take over?

Or maybe a pod from deep in his family's emerald mines in South Africa already took over
th-2456262068 (resized).jpg

If I only bought products based on how I felt about it's leadership, I couldn't buy 1/2 the shit I do .. same with my entertainment consumption

Voting with our wallets is the only power we have to effect change.

What change are you trying to effect and what other products are you not buying to effect such change?

And who has time research every CEO's stance on issues I care about before making purchases or actor's stance before I watch shows ... sounds exhausting

Not going to go into it as it would be too political for pinside.

It just depends on your relationship with the particular medium. Lots of people don't know pinball designers, as an example. But lots of pinball people are aware of them, and some people just don't want to be reminded of some designers and their criminal activities. Same kind of thing with music, companies, movies, CEOs, books, etc.
Sometimes ignorance is bliss. And some times confronting the awful actions of people involved will matter to you. It's an individual response, with awareness mediated by the tides of our shared culture.

Understood 100%
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Joking about someone's sexual orientation is never funny. Ever. Fuck around and find out, I guess.

My neighbor's daughter and her wife would probably pound on you after he was done too. And then my lesbian daughter would probably kick you in the groin.

Find something else to make fun of.

A lot of violence in your bubble.

Let's try to move humanity forward, if possible

I could not get a picture of it, because it was oncoming, but the Lucid Air looks very sweet in person. First one I ever saw.

500 mile range

12 minute charge for 200 miles

0 to 60 in 3.0 seconds

1020 hp

Very non-EV look.

Lucid-Air-EV-1145388932 (resized).jpg

I see people in my area complaining about how Shell bought up all the fast chargers in Minneapolis/St. Paul last year and then stopped servicing them...

I leased a Nissan Leaf in 2013. The car only had 90 miles of range (on a good day). However, the AAA office within a mile of my house had a free Level 2 charging station. I would take my car up there and run home, then run back to pick it up about 4 hours later. It was a great ritual. I got some exercise in and my car charged for free. We had a minivan at home too for longer trips, but that Leaf was great for tooling around town or running the kids around. In addition, the state of Michigan hadn't yet added the EV penalty onto vehicle registrations. Now, they tack $140 (I believe) on top of the regular registration, which is based on MSRP. This is to make up for the lack of gas tax from EV owners. A modest fee would be fair, but I've seen studies that show that this fee is more than many ICE drivers pay in gas taxes each year. And now, the free charging station is gone. Those were a great, 3 cheap years of car ownership.

It's a short term gain that makes for a long term loss, as others will step in and make a better charger that is serviced. Makes no sense to me, since they could embrace the change and make money doing it, instead of going the way of the oil dinosaur (pun intended).

You'd think they'd start adding EV charging stations to their gas stations, too, and utilize the locations they already have.

Shell has already admitted that Net Zero is the only way the earth will survive.

Their stated Net Zero deadline is 2050

Shell is the 16th largest producer of solar panels

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/This-Oil-Major-Says-Net-Zero-Emissions-Is-The-Only-Way-To-Go.html

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checking in, do we still hate EV's

Let me fix that story for you . . .

Shell is concerned that government regulation and mass hysteria will impact their bottom line if they don't fully swallow the global activist line and if governments succeed in significantly reducing internal combustion engines (i.e. the primary driver of their business), so they have decided to take advantage of the opportunity by producing solar panels in order to stay viable as a company.

Seriously, if anyone thinks oil companies have gone woke out of some sense of moral conviction to "save the planet" (sarc), then you can be convinced of anything.

So much I won’t drive anything else!

27 years is a long time.
I don't think it's an admission, but more of following opportunity.
Gov't regulations are going to continue to clamp down on emissions and if you are in the oil business and want to survive ... you look for opportunity.

Myself ... I would love to see a net zero emissions environment and hope we make some huge leaps in the next 27 years becuase we will need better tech to get there.

Wrong, all jokes are funny, the best ones are almost always going to offend someone.
I doubt your daughter will kick some dude in the groin, from your description she is not into getting in contact with male groins.

Shell is a Dutch company, so if you've ever been to the Netherlands, you know that they already use a ton of Wind and Solar.

Shell has been making solar panels for decades.

Shell started by selling Seashells, so they are a good example of diversifying your business model...

I was cruisin the hood today and saw this truck in front of me. I thought, how convenient for ICE drivers - don't even have to go to a gas station! I had never seen that before, I looked it up and the Shell TapUp is a whole thing which is aimed at businesses and fleets. Why they can't just go to a gas station I don't know.

shell tapup (resized).jpg

Then I got to thinking, there should be something like that for EVs also. That would come in handy when the route has gone bad for whatever reason (bad planning, waited too long, chargers out of service, etc). You could call in a truck with a diesel generator and get your juice delivered right to you wherever you are.

I looked that up also, and it turns out, its a thing already I guess. Not sure it exactly will help save the environment and the world, but it sure is convenient!

realpower ev (resized).jpg

https://insideevs.com/news/322079/meet-the-real-power-95000-mobile-quick-charge-truck/

^ yep, Miller, the welding company makes super high amperage portable EV chargers that goes on the back of any tow truck/service truck.

Since they already make 900 amp portable welders, It was probably a walk in the park to do the chargers.

... And of course most garages already use Miller welding equipment, so the dealer support network is already in place

That Shell Tap-Up is a great idea, because that means when your drivers start their workday, all their vehicle fuel tanks are topped off...

... Just like electric vehicles.

Tesla has a sale running through the month of December.

$3,750 off the model 3 or the model Y

This just in: Ford adds $3750 sales tax to all Tesla customers in the month of December.

Its a thing is many urban areas. Just like you have places that will wash your car while you are at work, etc.

Saw this in San Jose 10+ years ago.

Also useful to gas up equipment at a work or construction site.

Depending on where you are it may just be more convenient to tow charge the EV. If you tow a Model 3 for 1 mile at 20mph you'll regenerate 12-15 miles of range at 20mph. That will get most cars to power somewhere - even if just a 110v outlet. Try that with a gas car...
EDIT fast forward to 11:35 for the outcome.

It looks like in most cities, Shell Tap-up fills business fleets, campuses and worksites for a $2 per vehicle (+ the normal, very expensive Shell fuel)

I could not find any city where Shell would come fill a single vehicle in your driveway.

It would be a great service when you run out of gas, to have Shell come out and top you off for a $2 service fee

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11494991/Switzerland-BAN-electric-cars-roads-power-shortages.html

Also headlined on DailyMail "New owner of Playboy Mansion has sex grotto removed"

I mean, why would you buy the Playboy Mansion if you didn't need a sex grotto?