I’m guessing by the time you import it to the US, it won’t be cost effective any more, especially for a small car which are typically much cheaper than even the low end of this vehicle. So EV shoppers would look, but most other will skip it. I’m guessing they also aren’t going to have the capacity for a while.

I’m guessing this is two birds with one stone. Bentley and potentially a few of the other owners of the original four need parts. These twelve will probably end up mostly paying for the work required to develop and build those replacement parts, since a production run of 15 or 20 is likely not much more expensive…

I not sure Tesla won’t in the future, they offer adapters that let their cars work on other networks, there’s money to be made in offering charging services to other EVs, and there’s no reason an adapter allowing other fast charging standards to work isn’t possible. However there’s little reason for them to do so…

I used mine for years after I had a smart phone because it was just more convenient, I had a good dash mount for it that was more convenient and effective than my phone, even in a mount in the same place, plus no additional distractions with notifications from other sources. Plus for years my TomTom had features like…

There are opportunities in cities that the US is just not embracing yet. When I was in London they had started adding charging ports to light poles. There was a special plug you bought/rented from the city (or whatever company ran if for them) that handled charging and billing.

In the early days of 90-mile “compliance” EVs maybe, but I’m not sure that’s true any more. With most modern EVs having 200+ mile ranges I think EVs could easily become the new “second car” of the suburban world.

So don’t change it, just use the DRLs, they just have to be marker lights for identification. People do it by accident all the time today and we adaptable humans adapt.

Sigh, if all I need is visibility to other drivers/pedestrians the DRLs that all cars are using today would be more than sufficient for visibility without any chance of blinding anyone else. It’s not like people don’t drive around at night with only those on now.

But you can easily just keep the eyebrow style DRLs that are on every car today as marker lights and drop the headlights.  You’ll be plenty visible and no chance of blinding anyone.

I’m taking a wild stab here, but I have a feeling there’s a ton of regulation that doesn’t fit AVs. For instance does a vehicle with radar, lidar, and IR cameras need conventional headlights? That space could be used for other sensors or IR headlights.

True, engineering is about compromises and nothing is really ever perfect, but my point was that automakers have created criteria like graded bolts, and the “automotive grade” electronics testing and validation criteria for exactly these reasons. Throwing out the rules in some cases makes sense, EVs are very different…

They could produce a REALLY good EV if they were motivated to, but they aren’t.

Competition is certainly good, but so far every automaker attempt (Audi, Jaguar, Nissan, BMW, GM) has been something of a dud. Part of the reasoning for that is those companies put out half-assed attempts.

Great write-up, horrible idea for her, but great write-up, have a star.

Oh and don’t forget the foreign interference help that Trump has all but asked for.

It’s like none of them learned anything from the last election where basically the same thing happened.

I think often it’s been a wash. Diesels usually require less maintenance, but what is required is often more expensive, but two things have been changing that:

I think the next major shift is probably back to minivans, but in the form of self-driving “pods”. Once you take people out of the driver’s seat do they really care about sight lines or performance? Having the roof height and freedom of layout when you’re not driving means interior space and comfort will be king, and…

Well I think the amount of time and money being poured into battery R&D is increasing dramatically, so I think those rates are likely to increase in the future, but to call it a failure due to a performance prediction from a completely different field like transistor fabrication isn’t fair. Engine output hasn’t…

Energy density is the never-ending goal of battery technology. You have to remember that it is/was no different with ICEs. The Ford Model T used a 2.9L 4-cylinder motor that made 20 hp. Today Ford will sell you a 2.7L V6 ecoboost that makes 325 hp and gets better gas mileage and is cleaner, and probably lasts longer…