OT: Tesla Model 3

[livingminimal]

Originally Posted by terry

The horror of it all-a car that doesn't make noise. One of life's little pleasures is the sound of a flat 6 Porsche, V12 Ferrati or big American V8 muscle. What's next-self driving cars? Not in my lifetime.

We should keep relying on a diminishing, earth-destroying resource which makes us dependent on foreign governments, often authoritarian, war-torn and full of strife with questionable human rights practices, all so you can hear a noise.

[terry]

Glad someone agrees with me.

[soulspinner]

Originally Posted by mistermo

^^ Sometimes you do things that cost a little more, because they are the right things to do. I pay extra for my electric bill to ensure that it's sourced from clean, renewable sources. My religious bro in law, who pays 10% of his income to his church, once mocked me. I told him that it was my tithing, and that the environment is my equivalent of his church. Funny how nobody ever calcs a payback for those types of things.

And one of my primary reasons is to give the middle finger solute to oil producing nations that aren't the US. Someone please calc the value of less dependence on Mid East oil.

Mock away...

No Mock at all. Im with ya.

[dancinkozmo]

Originally Posted by livingminimal

We should keep relying on a diminishing, earth-destroying resource which makes us dependent on foreign governments, often authoritarian, war-torn and full of strife with questionable human rights practices, all so you can hear a noise.

i agree wrt the environmental stuff, but the US is pretty much oil independent due to shale oil/fracking.

[velomonkey]

Originally Posted by terry

The horror of it all-a car that doesn't make noise. One of life's little pleasures is the sound of a flat 6 Porsche, V12 Ferrati or big American V8 muscle. What's next-self driving cars? Not in my lifetime.

Having driven those cars I can tell you, with certitude, that one one of life's little pleasures is also stomping on the accelorator of a tesla in ludicrous mode.

[palincss]

Originally Posted by terry

The horror of it all-a car that doesn't make noise. One of life's little pleasures is the sound of a flat 6 Porsche, V12 Ferrati or big American V8 muscle. What's next-self driving cars? Not in my lifetime.

Unless you're already suffering from a terminal illness or are planning to pull the pin when it happens, you're certain to be wrong about not seeing autonomous vehicles in your lifetime. I too harbour grave doubts about them -- for one thing, they depend on super accurate maps, and in my experience there are far too many errors in maps to make this universally practical.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...in-your-brain/

However, to some limited extent they are here already, and their use will only spread. How quickly? Probably faster than I'd like and not nearly as fast as the enthusiasts believe. (Flying cars, anyone?)

As for lack of noise, that's no joke, especially not for us.

[velomonkey]

Originally Posted by poff

I am pretty happy with my 3 series sportswagon. 37 mi/gal and less than $50K price tag.

I have a 530 and in the next 2 or 3 years it's either an old 535 wagon (but those now and getting old at 2011 being the last year) or the 328d wagon. The 3.0 inline 6 was BMWs best engine - I get 31 on the highway with plenty of pep. I'm 6'3" so I like the 5 series, but given I probably really won't put anyone in the back the 3 series should work. My parents and a buddy have the X5d and gotta say that is a really great car - the milage does considerably better than my wife's XC90.

[AJM100]

Originally Posted by terry

The horror of it all-a car that doesn't make noise. One of life's little pleasures is the sound of a flat 6 Porsche, V12 Ferrati or big American V8 muscle. What's next-self driving cars? Not in my lifetime.

Actually there is an "app" for that as they say . . . I believe there are companies/software that will create a "growl" to your liking for an otherwise silent car . . . oh the humanity of it all . . .

[fkelly]

The real game changer will be when somebody – are you listening, Tesla? – comes up with a standardized replaceable battery pack that can be swapped in a minute at a battery service station, like on electric power tools.
Pull out discharged and and push in charged.

Yeah, I wonder about this too. It obviously won't work with the Tesla design and batteries built into the floor of the car. And it would take standardization of batteries. but ...

How about having the battery recharge center located out at a solar park so they could be recharged directly from solar power. Then trucked in (by an electric truck of course) to gas stations doubling as battery swap stations. Have the exchange of batteries be automated ... you just pull in to an exchange point and a machine swaps the old one out and puts the recharged one in. Have the cost be equivalent to a tank of gas and have it take < 5 minutes. Have the recharge stations (those located at gas stations) be modular so that virtually any gas stations could install one without requiring construction or taking much space.

From what I'm reading, those waiting for the next generation of battery technology are whistling into the wind. It's at least 10 years out. And recharging batteries from electricity generated by coal powered plants is defeating a good part of the purpose of having electric cars in the first place. The recharge station solution would resolve a lot of these issues.

[Gsinill]

Originally Posted by Steve in SLO

The real game changer will be when somebody – are you listening, Tesla? – comes up with a standardized replaceable battery pack that can be swapped in a minute at a battery service station, like on electric power tools.
Pull out discharged and and push in charged.

Tried and failed miserably, i.e. burning almost B1$:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place

[OtayBW]

Originally Posted by palincss

Unless you're already suffering from a terminal illness or are planning to pull the pin when it happens, you're certain to be wrong about not seeing autonomous vehicles in your lifetime. I too harbour grave doubts about them -- for one thing, they depend on super accurate maps, and in my experience there are far too many errors in maps to make this universally practical.

Hell - I don't even like anti-lock brakes!

[fkelly]

"Tried and failed miserably, i.e. burning almost B1$:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Better_Place"

Just an idea before its time and poorly implemented. Sounds like they should have focused on one location (say Israel) and made a success of that before branching out to China, Australia, U.S. and elsewhere. Or even a couple of carefully chosen locations (add in Silicon valley for instance).

5 minutes to replace a battery at a cost competitive with gas sounds very attractive. One other attractive aspect the Wikipedia article points out is that batteries can be recharged during off-peak hours, which might make the concept feasible and "green" even where energy is generated from fossil fuels.

[pjm]

Originally Posted by livingminimal

We should keep relying on a diminishing, earth-destroying resource which makes us dependent on foreign governments, often authoritarian, war-torn and full of strife with questionable human rights practices, all so you can hear a noise.

It's the main draw of the Harley Davidson.

[Ken Robb]

Originally Posted by pjm

It's the main draw of the Harley Davidson.

Well, that and the smell of leakin engine oil burning on the exhaust system.

[palincss]

Originally Posted by velomonkey

I have a 530 and in the next 2 or 3 years it's either an old 535 wagon (but those now and getting old at 2011 being the last year) or the 328d wagon. The 3.0 inline 6 was BMWs best engine - I get 31 on the highway with plenty of pep. I'm 6'3" so I like the 5 series, but given I probably really won't put anyone in the back the 3 series should work. My parents and a buddy have the X5d and gotta say that is a really great car - the milage does considerably better than my wife's XC90.

A current 3 series wagon definitely fits a bike (59-60cm, full fenders) with both wheels on. I did have a bit of trouble with the idea of a $50,000 car that did worse on the small overlap crash test than the Chevrolet Spark, though. I mean, really.