I’m not surprised, some rail signal systems are even older. The Victoria line in London ran automatically on analog hardware from the late 60s until 2011 when they were retired and digital signaling was introduced. Building something on 5.25" floppies was surprising but DOS wasn’t a bad choice in 1998 since it was…

I have been coding for over 40 years now, and I can all but guarantee that some of my COBOL or FOCUS code is still in use somewhere.

There’s also a pay off. Companies won’t spend a dime if they can’t make it back.

This happens in my industry (real estate and construction) all the time. When large office and apartment buildings are constructed, decisions are often made by the development and construction team with the intent of keeping the building in decent, low maintenance condition for about a decade. That way, they can sell…

Electronics and software have been the boon and bane of a lot of industries.

For the Scout cars to be eligible for the full $7,500 tax credit, the batteries will have to be sourced and assembled in the U.S. I think the switchgear being VW isn’t terrible, as long as they really do stick with actual buttons and knobs. I’d be more worried about the software UI, which VW hasn’t done a fantastic…

Excellent point, and if the ID Buzz is any indication of what we can expect from Scout, then the pricing will be problematic too.

Bumpers? A non-dreary black interior? A gas booster? Sheesh, they may have something there.

that’s pretty much what went wrong with the VW ID.Buzz launch. when they revealed it five years ago the specs it has now would have been class leading, but now... it’s a bit disappointing, especially at the price point.

Good point, a lot can change in the next 3 years. We still don’t know where they are sourcing the batteries but given their investment in Rivian, I’m betting they will be US built. I expect a lot of VW/VAG parts bin components under the skin too - not sure if that will be a good or bad thing. Then there’s the whole…

I think these are both compelling offerings, but I also think the real issue here is that they are still 3 years away from being on the market. For most buyers Scout might as well be a completely new and unknown brand.

They couldn't go after that market anymore. The cyber dumpster already took that spot. 

This could be the sweet spot that gets me into an EV. Relatively cheap to recharge, great for running around locally doing errands, and not embarrassing at all to drive. Good job, VW.

The more I look at it, the more I love it. Instant fanboy.

Current Gen 1 R1T owner and this looks like they took some of the complaints and fixed them. My R1T is the best vehicle I’ve ever owned, and the Scout looks even better. I know what i want next. . .

Yeah I’m a pretty big Rivian fanboy and was probably going to pull the trigger on the Gen 2 R1T next year, but... dang. This is good enough to have me wondering if I should wait even though that would mean limping my current car to 15 years and >200k miles.

They nailed it, and we’ll save some money as well, take that Elon and your Cybertruck.

Cool, but do they have frequently failing nylon fasteners holding the wiring harness together at the firewall and do they start to rust within minutes of purchase?

Nobody likes cheaters:

And make it a three strike rule. First strike, you get sent to the back of the line to board last, second strike you get added to the no fly list, there technically is no third strike but you will be taking Greyhound after that which is a kind of strike all on its own.