Looking at the parts catalog, that’s the case. The pumps, chiller, valve, and valve seals are all listed as spare parts. 

No the valve is available as a spare part. 

The motor(s) is(are) used to heat the battery when it’s cold. So they have to be on the same loop. Plus it means fewer radiators up front.

Coolant does not have to flow through the radiator. When using the chiller, the car will valve off the radiator. It can then get the coolant below ambient temp.
The radiator is also in front of the condenser - unlike an ICE car. So the condenser won’t dump heat into the coolant. 

My ELR has that, and a power operated cupholder cover.
It’s broken twice in the 10,000 miles I’ve had the car.

“These lights serve a specific purpose: they’re a government-mandated mark of shame for vehicles that are so huge.”

If you watch Big Bang theory, you’ll see they replace them all with smaller versions. It makes people in the back seat easier to see. 

I always thought the hero car could have been an old diesel Mercedes, not a 90s Chrysler, with EFI and electronic transmission controls. 

Every modern EV phones home, from Fiat to GM. 

If you’re paying any sort of attention, you will “catch” AP getting confused way before you’d hit something. It’s like walking a dog. You don’t have for force the dog to move, but you have to pay attention to where it’s going and where it’s looking, so you can stop it from getting into trouble. 

A Model 3 will do 4 Mi/Kwh easily.

Mercedes did the same thing with the tint on their glass sunroofs in the late 90s. Some are black, some are bronze, some are more silver. 

I agree. I also think that by the end of the 5mph bumper requirement they didn’t look like an afterthought - because they weren’t! By that point the requirement existed when the cars were styled / designed.
For example, look at the W126 Mercedes. Released in the US in 1981, it had 5mph bumpers here for its entire run…

^^ this. Having bad efficiency makes destination charging much less effective.
 

Tesla’s don’t auto-install updates. They download the update and save a copy to the car, then you get a prompt asking when you’d like to install it. 

Ya, I imagine the Tesla will handily beat the MB and BMW on insurance costs. Our 2018 Model 3 costs less to insure than my 2014 ELR, and is about the same as our 2013 Fiat 500e!

Every EV doesn’t let you go “into gear” if the charge cord is plugged in.

Those aren’t superchargers, they’re just wall connectors. Max of 80a at 240v. You can also gange up to 4 together to share a single breaker, and the cars will share the 80a. 

VW uses the same tech to this day (on cars that still have a key). My W126 Mercedes does the same thing. The radio even has a feature where it stays on for 3 seconds after turning off the key - enough time to go from ON, to Off, then back to accessory without interrupting the tunes. 

I don’t see this as that different than a computer users group from the 80s. The people running the event didn’t work for commodore, but they liked the product so much they wanted to tell other owners how to use it better. What’s wrong with that?