The dealership model exists because selling franchises is great for the company selling the franchises (at least initially). And the dealership laws were created primarily to prevent companies from undercutting the franchisees (which would otherwise be tempting).

I’m not sure I’d trust them for my road bike, but for my recumbent trike they could be quite nice. Though I suspect retrofitting them would be so expensive I’d be better off just buying a new one equipped with them from the start if such a thing ever becomes available.

When I did it, the dealer was willing to take the car to an independent shop near their lot and drop it there. I paid for the inspection over the phone, and got the results that way as well.

Sad to see the anti-vaxxers hanging out, but it doesn’t mean we should photoshop them out.

I had a guy try to use his 1st gen xbox 360 with a headset visor on a transatlantic flight. Luckily, the onboard outlet couldn’t supply enough power for it to run, which is good because I’m pretty sure that even compared to nearby jet engines, a launch 360 is loud.

Wait, who is against this? The only time it’s a problem is with angled spaces going into a one way parking aisle. Any other time, go for it. It’s a super common practice, and I’ve certainly never met anyone who thought it was even slightly problematic.

Ford has experience with this:

You say this like there’s not already an electric Hummer...

Which of course is not 4k. I would certainly prefer to have the resolution than the refresh rate, especially at 32". Granted it’s hard to drive that many pixels for gaming, but all the more reason why having variable refresh rate would be nice. There are some 4k options at 27" and even one at 43", but the former…

Problem of course if that you can’t get buy a screen that’s good at everything. For example on 32" monitors, you are basically choosing between 4k or higher refresh rates. There’s not a single Freesync compatible 32" monitor with a refresh rate higher than 60Hz according to AMD’s page.

The thing I don’t get is why variable refresh rate displays seem mostly to available combined with high refresh rate displays (this is a requirement for Freesync 2 for example). I mean granted they are both “gaming” features, but it seems like variable refresh rate becomes more important on lower refresh rate screens,…

That is of course one reason why there aren’t more bare bones cars sold in the US today. While we can talk about mandatory safety features (probably worth the premium), there aren’t many people interested in foregoing features like engines that make more than 50 HP, A/C, power windows, cruise control, etc. Some, sure,…

Yeah, Uber has their own tech, but everything I’ve read says they are way behind Waymo, and probably other players as well. And while having a ubiquitous app is worth something, Google Maps is also ubiquitous, so there’s really no reason to use Uber once Waymo rolls out and IIRC Waymo is currently testing fully…

He doesn’t need to disappear. He just needs to not go anywhere that would sell him out to Japan, and maybe France. He’s not looking for a fair trail in another country, he’s going to be avoiding this for the rest of his life, unless he slips up somewhere. The most he might do is make his case in the media, but that’s…

The US also uses them to pay lots of people who aren’t in need. And clearly we are not doing enough for our people. 

Yes, there as here, the ultra-wealthy are using their influence to cut social programs so they can take an ever larger share of wealth. The fact that Europeans are aghast at even these small cuts tells you how shitty things are over here on our side of the pond.

Those car costs would be less than they are paying now, since obviously they all exist today.

The poor don’t pay much in taxes because they have very little income. A few tax credits don’t help much when you earn next to nothing. The top 10% pays closer to 70% of income taxes based on what I’ve seen, but they also control 85+% of the wealth in the US.

Those tax breaks and tax refunds tend not to go to the people who need it most though. They are mechanisms for helping out the wealthy and middle class.

Note that for a developed nation, the US does not spend a lot as a percentage of GDP: