I was in Abilene TX with a rental and got caught in a huge storm that started spitting hail. Kept trying to find a covered gas station to no avail (well, I was actually on Buffalo Gap). Eventually just drove as fast as I could away from where the radar was angry. It was an overall unpleasant experience. But my point…

Apologies! Definitely replied to the wrong post.

Around Massachusetts, Treehouse and Trillium have become huge craft breweries with national reputation on the strength of the NEIPA that are hop bombs you hate so much. People like the hazy IPAs my friend.

I hate the controls, but it turns out my wife finds nothing annoying about the vehicle at all. She absolutely loves it. I wouldn’t want to daily it though as the controls drive me a little bonkers. Maybe that’s a me problem?

I love the idea of the van, but the cost is going to be astronomical in the US at first.

I think the prices are down as indicated in this article, so we’ll see if they are able to move some metal now. But the car mania is probably cooling down due to interest rates and a lot of people getting new cars when inventory for everything was strained? I was surprised how much mark up a lot of people were willing…

Sure, but the solar roof nonsense was really about using Tesla to bail out Solar City to make sure nobody got burned in it’s bankruptcy. It was also good to bilk the state of NY out of a cool $1 billion dollars to set up a facility that now pays people to train Tesla’s stupid AI instead of making solar panels. Fraud…

Sure, but normal types that want to project a salt-of-the-earth persona will also not buy a Cybertruck. That F150 marketing has only recently aimed at the elusive urban yuppie type. It’s main marketing edge is I’m a workin’ dude.

Right, but it’s marketing. It helps you identify as a salt-of-the-earth type when you drive and F150. You could haul a load of lumber or tow a boat up to the lodage. Will you? Probably not. But you project your identity with your car. The Cybertruck definitely sends a message as well.

There is something to be said for a real world test case to gauge capabilities and learn. The Coast Guard is a service that the US Government fully funds. Sending them on this mission detracts from other things they could do surely, but I don’t really see it as some crazy cost burden. 

Congrats on bringing the morning shift back to a single post. Much better! 

I love the jersey transit system. It makes a lot of smaller jersey cities so accessible for rail travel. I used to do routine trips from Boston all by rail ending in Newark, Trenton, Brunswick. So much nicer than dealing with flights or traffic. 

I’ve used them a few times in scenarios where I’m driving to a place and staying for a while. One example, wife and I took a long trip for a cousin’s baby shower, which I wasn’t able to attend. I drove the car into town and hooked up to a Chargepoint L2 charger. Got 3.5 hour charging that prevented needing to stop on…

You have to read the source material. The switcheroo that Tesla played so well with the battery swap play was to get more ZEV credits per vehicle sold by selling vaporware battery swap technology. 

Lol, Tesla has taken plenty of government money for it’s network and other developmental ideas. California gave them a bunch of money for a battery swap idea (in the form of ZEV credits) that they probably just ate to do things like invest in their supercharger network:

The fact that their CEO has become an open bigot and anti-semite right wing nut jobber, it’s pretty easy to take a pass on the brand. I’m sure other CEOs hold vile views, but they don’t broadcast those views out to the world or have cool sit downs with Meatball Ron to launch his campaign of hate. I can’t tell if…

Seems like Tesla should fully utilize existing and new plants before building more. Perhaps all the news about new factories is to help a growth narrative despite what sales numbers might say over the next few quarters.

That jumped out. I’m guessing they meant 1 million per year? But who knows.

We’ll see if I am one of the lucky ones to get the letter from Ford regarding my 2023 Hybrid Maverick. The free CarFax alerts I get tell me I’ve got the recall with no remedy currently while the NHTSA Safecar app says I’m all in the clear based on VIN entry. So who knows at this point. 

And he’s received all that from the Obama and Biden administrations and yet it’s not enough.