Toyota has only ever used hydrogen tech as spoiler and FUD to counter the uptake of battery electric vehicles. It never stood a chance of taking off for a variety of reasons and was never intended to. Same for their other efforts of late - liquid hydrogen power (not merely compressed but liquid), ammonia power, solid state batteries (which they've been claiming could come any day for the last 10 years) etc. All intended to dampen enthusiasm for BEVs and spread the illusion of viable alternatives. And yeah solid state batteries will come at some point but it will be no thanks to Toyota.

I wouldn't be surprised if in addition to the above that some parties, e.g. automakers or oil companies are responsible amplifying disinfo about EVs. There is certainly a lot of lies going around and somebody is putting them out there.

Hello context callling. This is an article about Amazon delivering shit in the US, not about some other thing in Rwanda or whatever else you want to conjure up.

Drone delivery would only work in locations in perfect weather, with no nearby hazards, no flight paths / air restrictions, where the item is light enough, and in stock and close enough to a recipient who will pay stupid money to receive it fast. In other words, a diminishingly small set of customers.

If that were to happen, then most people could install solar & a household battery. Either charge the car at night from the battery, or during the day/weekend. I expect ultimately most EVs will be charged through solar hooked up to parking. After all most cars spend their lives stationary, parked at home or the office.

I hope Rivian does profit and can expand on this. I think it's an incredibly innovative design that would work for any company that needs to deliver stuff in an optimal fashion. To me it's a sleeper hit too. While Tesla is stealing oxygen about cybertrucks etc., here is a competitor that puts out an incredible commercial vehicle. It speaks well of Rivian and their design teams to put function over form.

Outlawing of competition? The US, Europe, Asia et al are free to compete on battery technology, auto manufacturing, renewables and all the rest. The problem is they're NOT competing. Traditional automakers (e.g. GM, Toyota etc.) are spreading plenty of FUD about EVs and nonsense about hydrogen / ammonia powered cars. But compete? Not so much. Perhaps if they did, they'd wouldn't be in such a precarious situation.

China stole a march because they went all in on EV technology while other regions dithered. That doesn't prevent other countries from catching up, and innovating in their own way. There are countless companies looking to improve battery technology, range, motor efficiency etc. so that I think batteries in 10 years from now will be nothing like the ones of today - they'll be lighter, more energy dense and probably solid or semi-solid state batteries. Many of these innovations will come from Western companies. Competition is the answer.

Protectionism is certainly not the answer. Either by slapping tariffs on Chinese products or extending shitty ICE tech because the West is so backwards it can't compete. That's "outlawing of the competition". We should not tolerate ICE vehicles a second longer than necessary, at least where EVs are viable replacements. China probably has most to lose from the West pulling its finger out of its ass and actually competing and that's what needs to happen. And any company that can't keep up even with 15-20 years warning deserves its fate.

Oh it's fuel savings too. US prices might differ but in Europe it costs about 1/2 to 1/3 to charge an electric vehicle on a night rate as to fill it with petrol / diesel at the pump. I'm sure that's true for businesses too, especially ones like Amazon who might see the upfront cost of moving to an electric fleet paying for itself over a number of years. And other forms of servicing should be cheaper too like you say.

Go and watch Doug DeMuro's video about it. It's not just a delivery van, it's fantastically well thought out electric van terms of efficiency, ergonomics, safety, visibility, route planning and driver comfort. Amazon probably do have crappy regular vans in their fleet spray (as well as contractors) painted with their livery. This is an entirely separate thing to those. And as you say other couriers have similar needs which is why I think if Rivian has rights to the design there would be a lot of companies very interested in buying their own versions.

I've watched YouTube videos about them and they have an excellent industrial design that fits their purpose. Just the way the driver sits, the visibility, the way packages are stored, the overall capacity. Everything is so well thought out. I wonder if Rivian has rights to sell the same basic vehicle to other courier firms because I could see it being a very profitable side business for them.

I use IRC!

Still doesn't make sense to do this. If the IRS is some lumbering behemoth (as I'm sure it is), then the way to shrink it is to automate and normalize tax collection so less staff are required for submissions, auditing, late filings, prosecution etc.

I read only this morning that some tax preparer in New York nicknamed the "The Magician" filed 90,000 fraudulent claims potentially losing $100 million in revenue. Imagine the effort of prosecuting that one guy and telling 90,000 people to re-file. That guy got caught but for every one of him, there are others flying under the radar. If tax collection was streamlined (automated software is a good start, but deduction at source is better) the scope for fraud and need for such a large IRS would diminish.

You didn't look very far then.

Wealthy people can afford accountants to find loopholes. Makes no sense to make tax filing complicated by default. It just encourages people to not file at all or to misfile / defraud, with the knock on impact it has on taxes, revenues and spending.

And America doesn't have much excuse in this regard. Satellite views of any city in the US will show acres of potential solar sites - warehouses, dwellings, car parks. Obviously makes more sense in states that have good weather, but it seems like a no-brainer to utilise it.

I doubt it will be gravity with the exception of hydro. More likely if it's not conventional batteries then energy will be stored as heat.