Technically, glue can be stronger than spot welds - but it depends on how many spots you can weld vs. how much glue area you can utilize (among other factors)

I’ve had friends who were willing to drive 10 miles each way in a vehicle that got 14 mpg to save 4 cents per gallon, back when gas was ~$1.30 a gallon. So they would blow 1.43 gallons of gas to save that 4 cents. On a fill up from running on fumes, that 4 cents per gallon equalled about 75 cents. But they would…

They truly do have a niche that they’ve pinned down nicely.

The problem for them is that historically they’ve been lousy at translating that niche into profits, perhaps because they do invest so heavily into r&d and are a small firm to begin with. The complete lack of ability to break even is what brought Ford into a…

Fun fact: Mazda used to have the second largest marketshare of any Asian maker in the US. It’s marketshare back then was also about 2%. They haven’t grown share in decades.

Any city where the cost is near or above $10 billion should be required to have a well-designed mass transit system that offers commute times no more than a small amount longer than driving for the majority of its citizens before it gets a cent to push road expansion to relieve congestion. $10B will buy you one heck…

I’ve driven many cars without power brakes or steering. Loss of these at any speed is pretty much a non-issue. You won’t really notice the lack of power steering until you’re going slowly. Brakes would be more noticeable, but unless you’re in a panic stop (not likely, as this defect would hit randomly), you’ve got…

Fines aren’t based on severity, but largely limited to a max per defect. Toyota had more distinct problems and combined with the coverup, that allowed the higher fines.

We could arguably shrink roads, too - the majority of 4 lane roads could probably go to 2. Most cities probably wouldn’t need any more than 3 lanes in one direction on an interstate. That means some significant savings on road maintenance and construction.

And if cars can communicate with each other to some extent, you can set appropriate following distances (ie, use the braking profile of the car to determine how much space it should leave)... and if you communicate with signals/traffic management, waiting at lights could be virtually eliminated.

Odds are that if you have a fleet of autonomous cars all doing the speed limit, you’d get to work faster than trying to do 10 mph over the limit with a bunch of meatbags behind the wheel mucking things up with unnecessary braking, not timing lights, unanticipated moves, etc...

They did admit to sticking gas pedals as well, recalling 2.3 million vehicles for that. Part of the fine was for not disclosing this fault in a timely manner.

In the GM cars, you could also shift to neutral, restart the car, and shift back into drive. Or you could steer to the side of the road and brake to a stop. …

No one said they aren’t trying to build in the US. But like everything in life, it isn’t that simple. Their target for domestic content % is where Ford had 9 different vehicles a few years ago (their max is now below that mark). They’ll be near or at the top in domestic content %, but because of the way those…

Fact:

You aren’t reclining your seat when I’m sitting behind you on most airlines.

It’s not that I want you to be uncomfortable or anything. It’s a simple matter of physics - there physically isn’t enough room for you to be able to do it. They’ve cut out so much space that my knees are already jammed up against the…

certainly - but its a small %. I’m with you on your overall argument. I just think its more effective to people to point out how much cars are recycled in general. Just like lead acid batteries which would be devastating to the environment are highly recycled, so will EV batteries - likely even more, because of the…

Actually, nearly the entire annual demand for lead in the US is supplied by lead from recycled car batteries....

The argument that not keeping a vehicle to the end of its life instead of buying an EV is bad for the environment is beyond stupid.

Why?

Because if I buy an EV to replace my 7 year old car, my 7 year old car isn’t thrown in the scrap heap. It is sold to someone else, likely replacing a 12 year old vehicle. That 12…

Keep in mind that those reports count nearly all the materials for a BEV as “virgin” materials being mined for the first time and give no credit for recycling (ie, the second generation will have much lower impact).

ICE vehicles are the most recycled consumer product out there. We don’t have massive environmental…

Teslas have components from all over the world, too.

75 year old coal plant? Those things are generally designed with 40-45 year lifespans and are lucky to make it to 60 before being closed because they’re so grossly inefficient compared to modern technology by then. If you have an old coal plant, its arguably about to be replaced anyway.

Someone’s clearly never seen how fast a rail company is at replacing lines.

Hell, I got stuck in the Rockies once on Amtrak when a landslide took out the track ahead of us. Took the rail company about 8 hours to clear and rebuild that section of line so we could travel over it (albeit slowly and not at speed). Show…