Probably not as much as you think. Most of the tech involved is relatively light weight. Between the sensors and extra powerful CPU, we’re talking about an extra 25lbs max. The older vehicles were lighter, sure, but that extra weight we have now is because of more sound deadening and heavier structure for crash…

So, instead of just banning phones while driving and making sure those laws are enforced, you suggest removing modern features from cars that have nothing to do with distracted driving?

Those are brilliant. It does make me wonder though if Jason has been replaced by an AI trained on tire names.

Yeah, that weight is just insane. Weighs more than my huge 4-door E90 M3. What did BMW do, make it out of cast iron? Heavy, ugly, small turbo engine, no manual. Perfect modern BMW? Why, because everything else they make is even more crappy?

Yeah, this whole trend (or I guess requirement) of small turbo engines sucks. 1.5L engine? Only makes sense if the car is tiny and weighs like 2,200 lbs.

Modern: that E-class Mercedes, and hope that it’s an AMG. Might as well be comfortable (and hopefully fast). Unless there is a WRX STi in that photo that I can’t see, then I’d choose that, especially for the gravel road stage (fun over comfort, you know).

Ah, that makes sense. They’d release the projectile and at the same time release an equal weight of liquid from the counterweight, keeping things balanced. The liquid will be moving very fast, but that’s easier to handle and slow down than a solid counterweight.

Probably release both the projectile (it’s not a rocket) and the counterweight at the same time? And find some way to catch and slow down the counterweight so it doesn’t destroy the thing.

Yeah, a railgun would seem to be a better and safer way to launch things than flinging them around. Not sure about the power consumption, but the G-forces would be much lower, since you’d be accelerating over a much longer distance than 1/4 the diameter of a circle.

The urgent timeline for mass EV adoption are necessary due to transportation’s outside effect on global emissions. In the U.S. alone in 2019, transportation accounted for 29% of all greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Globally, transportation accounted for 24% of carbon dioxide…

With a road trip, you can generally spend a few extra minutes while charging...once or twice a year? Is that really such a bear that it would make you turn down the benefits the other 360+ days a year because you had to spend 5 extra minutes at a charging station watching Tom & Jerry cartoons in your car?

Battery EVs are a fundamentally bad idea and a dead end. Instead of pushing EVs, we should be investing in technologies that can capture CO2 from the air and use it to produce synthetic fuel that’s a direct replacement for gasoline (ideally the process would be powered by nuclear power). This would be a MUCH better…

Right, the iPhone 5 is 8+ years old - and it’s junk because Apple doesn’t support it anymore. And when the iPhone 13 is 8+ years old (or perhaps even less) it will be junk too. The point of this article is that manufacturers - especially electronics manufacturers - build things that turn into useless junk after a few…

Why would you run to a rental car counter? No cars left?

The iPhone 13 will be junk in a few years, just as an iPhone 5 or whatever is junk now. You can’t install the latest iOS on it, which means that you can’t run most apps on it, and that you’re vulnerable to various unpatched security holes. In a few years, the same thing will happen to the iPhone 13 as well.

On one hand I empathize with homeless people, but on the other hand I’m not sure that building more housing would be a good thing. Is there a limit to growth? Everyone wants to live in a beautiful place close to the ocean, but clearly not everyone can. At some point, can a city decide to NOT grow anymore? Maybe…

This article nicely shows the fallacy of high-tech early adopters. All those people congregate in a few large cities, drink their own Kool-Aid, and delude themselves into thinking that because things are a certain way where they live, it’s the same way for everybody everywhere. It’s a bubble.

isn’t focusing on his reelection the right thing?

Governing is campaigning but by different means. His constituents elected him to represent their interests and their policy wishes in the United States Senate. That’s exactly what he’s doing. Get the F over it.

If a bicycle lane can be added, or a shoulder can be widened, without negative impact to drivers, I’m all for it. But in practice that’s not what happens. Bike lanes seem to always take over driving lanes and parking spots. This is making life worse for thousands of people, to the advantage of just a few. A good…