north korea is the westboro baptist church of countries

they want to offend

like an internet troll, every negative reaction is positive reinforcement

came here to say this

that pipeline is going to be shut off once a year in march or april, until running capitalist dogs pay attention to the psychotic state and pay a ransom

The sad thing is that there's an easy way to save weight on wiring. It's called moving to a higher voltage. Audi is already unafraid to make your battery expensive. A simple regulator provides 12V power to systems that require it, and moving literally all of the lighting to LED solves the lamp availability problem and is long overdue in any case, on any vehicle where it is not present.

Another way would be to distribute networked controllers more throughout the car. This just doesn't have to be expensive any more. It does complicate repairs, but Audi is unafraid to complicate repairs, as well.

Wait, what?

But we're talking about this in the context of Heartbleed, where pre-patch mitigation involved disabling critical services... A patch is what was needed here, and nothing else would suit.

I have found a shitpot of broken COPPER wires on my 1997 A8, in places like the wiring leading to the left side knock sensor which doesn't even flex much since it's attached to the fuel rail. I guarantee you that it will go badly.

Well, as I've stated above, the problem is selling them. The kind of people who buy their cars aren't buying the arguments about electrics, it doesn't matter if they're right or wrong. They're the ones with the money.

If Mercedes became convinced tomorrow that they could sell more EVs than dino drinkers, that's the direction they'd head. If they can make balls-out concept EVs, then they can make an actual car.

I just (yesterday) found a module with a bright sticker that says PROTOTYPEN in the E-Box of my A8... egads!

But most of them in fact are in that situation. If you want to make no real sysadmin comments, I may well agree, but it doesn't change much.

I don't find it to be ugly, it just looks like another car to me. If you compare it only to the insipid selection of blandmobiles that we get here in the USA, I suppose it looks a little fruity. However, it is definitely better kitted than a base econobox. You can get all the same features on your shitpile, but it will cost more than 10k.

Actually, a lot of people buy an S Class (or the equivalent Audi, a well-kitted A8L) and then put many, many miles on them. It's not a coincidence that there's a bunch of 80's S-Classes with over 300k on them, and 90's S-Classes and A8s with over 200k. These are being driven by businessmen who will be able to write off much of the significant recurring expense of putting many miles on a german car.

In short, these cars are not made worth a fuck. They use components guaranteed to degrade when components which would hold up just fine are available. Rubber bushings (not sure of the material) and EPDM vac hoses when they could be made of polyurethane and silicone respectively and last the life of the vehicle. And everything is crammed into as small a space as possible, because that's how it is today. I have big fat meaty hands, a lot of these cars require me to take some stuff off so that I can take some other stuff off before I can get at a third thing. Even if you have a lift you're best off removing the engine in many cases because you still can't get access otherwise. But sadly, they don't have an engine harness, so you have to disconnect forty things to pull the motor. Perhaps literally; just the coil packs and injectors account for sixteen connectors on a V8.

S-Class and similar are for people with lots of money, and/or people who are playing games with taxes. Not for the plebes. You can own one only if you are a mechanic. The saying is that there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes. The same applies to VAG cars. You can't afford to own an old Audi if you don't turn your own wrenches.

For the money that Mercedes will cost you over its lifetime with major mechanical failures, nickel-and-diming you with electrical problems, et cetera, you could buy a Model S for the weekdays, and a used roadster for the weekend.

I suppose you could also buy a land rover or range rover to go next to the Mercedes. I see that a lot. If you get really lucky they won't both shit themselves at once.

All the automakers are working on making EVs, including Mercedes. But they have to sell more cars, and they have to make their customers feel good about the money they've already spent. What do you expect they to say when they produce a bunch of petrosuckers?

In my country, you may or may not actually be able to even get three phase in the city. But you can get it in the country... where EVs don't work for most people yet, due to range issues.

Actually, where I live I could almost use a GEM car for trips to the store. It's hard to justify spending 5k on a discontinued deathtrap and then another 5k+ on battery upgrades, though

The best way is probably battery-swapping. Right now battery tech is moving too quickly for it to make sense to come up with a cross-platform standard for batteries. But when that happens, I suspect that EV battery ownership will largely be a thing of the past, and that the majority of EV owners will join a battery co-op.

You don't need this if you have quick charge/swap. And even if you had it, you would need significant charging and infrastructure improvements to make use of it. "Normal" cars generally have less than 400 miles of range, so if you can solve the charging problem you've solved the whole problem.

I think you will find that batteries are still required.

Subaru built a prototype where they replaced the torque converter between the engine and a tiptronic slushbox with an electric motor. Because the engine is not run by fluid, it's much more responsive and basically eliminates the problems with a slushbox, and it also provides motive starting force and performs regenerative braking for all four wheels. Presumably they'll need to use 2-way limited slip in all differentials for that to work properly. The Germans seem to have largely gone to using Torsen differentials (which are generally two-way) and solving their problems with ABS. Sadly, the ABS modules are made by Bosch...