One of the oldest electric cars, the Nissan Leaf, shows around 3% battery degradation per year, but the 2016-2017 models with a 30 kWh battery pack are reportedly losing 11% of their capacity per year. In my opinion, the only major difference between the Leaf and the Volt/Tesla is that the Leaf uses forced air to cool…

That’s why you should make your dwarves fireproof before it becomes an issue!

With the added bonus that gasoline leaks will drip down away from the passenger compartment and CNG leaks will float up away from the passenger compartment.  Putting a CNG tank under the floor of the bus makes as much sense as putting fuel on the roof of the bus from a safety perspective since CNG is lighter than air.

Since Jaguar still owned the car, it was probably covered under some sort of fleet insurance paid for by Jaguar. I can’t imagine they’d make every press car recipient responsible for arranging 1 week of insurance for a car they don’t own.

I just had a glance and the Google Maps 3D experience makes it look like the pits will be under a roof. The indoor section appears to be a second floor parking structure so the pits will be closer to an open outside wall, but still protected from anything except strong winds. The most interesting part of the track may…

I figured that the roads surrounding the venue was curved in a weird way and that the track was following an existing road, but no. It’s an artificial curve made in the middle of a car park. I think it would be better replaced by a couple of square 90º corners or a series of smooth corners like the first section of…

Ah, you’re correct. I just did a quick glance at the CHAdeMO wikipedia page to identify what connector it was and the first photo has a CHAdeMO plug next to an IEC 62196-2 plug.  I assumed it was a plug that conformed to the CHAdeMO spec.

Manufacturers would also need to be careful about body flex. I’m sure that window seals and adhesives provide a lot of give so that the glass isn’t stressed while the rest of the body flexes and bends when there’s a sharp shock.

Chrysler builds a PHEV, and they chose a CHAdeMO instead of a SAE J1772 or CCS plug. I sure hope this is the Euro standard and the US version gets the J1772 plug, because good luck finding a CHAdeMO plug stateside. I’ve only ever found SAE chargers and Tesla Superchargers.

Ha!  Grookey -> Australogrookecus -> Grookosapien

I’ve noticed a couple of authors are sporting the GMG Union tag and today you’re posting a unionization song. Is there any particular reason or job action occurring or just a regular show of appreciation?

I’m more concerned about the arms. I can’t figure out how both arms get into those rigid, close set openings without breaking the humerus or dislocating the elbows and shoulders. I would feel more comfortable with this animation if the shoulders pivoted forward so that the arms were straight when entering the suit and…

I would think ships would be nice to have as a way to project force far from friendly borders. Yes, the age of flinging 16" shells back and forth across the horizon are over, but with a strong navy you can park an aircraft carrier close to any theater and give yourself air support. With enough ships to screen your…

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, supercar manufacturers need to invest in weather deflecting technology if they’re going to insist on top-exit exhausts, otherwise they’ll just collect snow and rain.

I would imagine its purpose is just to intercept any debris heading straight for the driver and deflect it just enough so that it glances along the side of the helmet and rollcage instead of impacting the driver straight in the visor and compressing the helmet against the seatback. I can’t see it providing any protecti…

I can’t understand who the target market is for this train. People who are willing to spend over $1000 per day to ride a sparsely filled train? Is there some secret society of rich rail fans in Japan just itching to ride an elite train (presumably to a destination they could reach on a regular train) in luxury?

That’s an ok solution if the game spawns a couple of soldiers on foot, but as you completed missions the ‘heat’ level of a zone would increase and the game would spawn more and more enemies in vehicles. It was hard to ignore enemies in vehicles, especially the pickups with machine gun turrets, as they’d chase you down…

The only reason I clear outposts in FC is so that I can take over a zone and stop enemies from spawning while I do the stuff I actually want to do. I hated driving in roads in FC5 because there was always some random enemy vehicle that would spawn and drag me into combat while I was just trying to go collect a comic…

I’ve ranted a few times about how F1 needs to reduce their reliance on downforce if they want to have more exciting races. Let the drivers race instead of determining the outcome based on engineering budgets and who can get the cleanest air over their aero parts.

Yeah, the story reduced Epona to ‘just a horse’ whereas most games with Epona involve her in the story in some capacity. It just felt like an insult that we could have any horse except the most iconic horse in the Zelda universe unless we had been collecting Amiibos when Smash was released. If anything I think Epona…