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Comment Re:So. This isn't the longest. (Score 1) 38

Oh, and the Guinness record only specifies "electric vehicle" - you'd think the World Solar Challenge folks would have this handily, as they go 3000 km+ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

And yet again, it doesn't specify electric _GROUND_ vehicle. Solar Impulse 2's 4,819 nmi (8,924 km) stretch from Japan to Hawaii would be tops: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Comment So. This isn't the longest. (Score 1) 38

It may be the longest by a "stock production vehicle", but we don't even know that for certain. And it clearly used a major downhill amount to achieve it.

By contrast, a battery technology company put a prototype 200 kWh battery in an older Tesla Model S in 2022 and got 752 miles in one charge (4 miles more), on flat terrain: https://web.archive.org/web/20...

Comment Re:That's ridiculous (Score 1) 38

Except it isn't a strawman astroturfing. It's a real sticking point that we need to solve. Many (US) apartment complexes/buildings don't have parking that has reasonable ability to charge an EV. And relying on public charging infrastructure - while absolutely doable today - negates one of the main "usability" and financial advantages of an EV - spending a few seconds plugging in when you get home and paying low home electricity rates, to start each day "with a full tank" inexpensively.

If you have to do the ICE-like "plan a stop to refuel" that costs just as much per mile as refilling an equivalent gasoline car, you're losing the "mainstream advantage."

Yes, to people for whom "trying to minimize their own personal carbon footprint," it may be worth it.

As for the other claims on towing? I've had zero problem towing travel trailers over 10,000 miles in my Rivian R1T over the last 3 years. Including a 4500 mile round trip throughout the Western US. The GMC Sierra EV / Chevy Silverado EV is even better for towing (much more range, much faster charging.) And while the CT may be an absolute joke of a vehicle, it can actually tow at least as well as the F-150 Lightning. (And I know Lightning owners who have towed significant distances, including a trip from Oregon to Colorado and back.)

Pointing out that as it stands now there are inequalities does not make someone a Russian shill.

The solution for bringing equality to EVs is to promote even cheaper EVs, keeping the used EV tax credit (which was just nixed starting September,) and promoting multifamily housing EV charging access. Maybe require new-construction to add EV charging, incentivize retrofitting EV charging to existing multifamily housing, promoting low-power residential streetside charging (as is happening in parts of Portland and Seattle,) enforcing "resident can pay to have EV charging installed" laws (that already exist in many states, but have onerous hoops to jump through.)

They also have a point that if we had better designed dense cities, with good public transit, then personal cars wouldn't be as necessary. See New York City, where only 45% of households own a car at all thanks to the good subway system! A dense city with good clean public transit is far cleaner than a sprawling car-required hellscape like Los Angeles or Phoenix, even if all vehicles were EVs.

Comment Never, but they'll keep moving the goalposts. (Score 2) 49

Some company/organization/"AI influencer" will declare that AGI has been achieved in 3-10 years. But it won't. They'll just be redefining what "AGI" means to be something less than they mean now; and come up with some new term "Universal Artificial Intelligence" or something to mean "true Sci-Fi style AI." (Like when they said "we have AI, what you're talking about is A*G*I")

Comment I hope they make it, still dubious. (Score 4, Informative) 94

Disclaimer: I am an "EV enthusiast". I currently own another electric trike, an Arcimoto FUV. I also own a Rivian R1T electric pickup and a Ford Mach-E.

I've had a deposit in for an Aptera for years, and I'm one of the "small investors" who has stock in them.

At this point, I'm assuming that my deposit and my investment won't ever produce anything for me.

I hope they succeed, even if I wasn't an investor and deposit-holder. The idea may be kind of silly, and absolutely not for everyone (neither are motorcycles.) But they're always begging for more money to actually start production, and always failing to raise as much as they say they need.

At this point, I imagine the first few dozen vehicles will be delivered to the "high value investors", but that true large-scale production won't happen.

On the technical front - yes, the solar panels are largely a gimmick. Maybe if you always park outside in somewhere terminally sunny like SoCal, Arizona, or Florida, it might make it so that you never have to plug it in; but in most areas, it will make a small dent on your charging needs. The big "selling point" is the extreme efficiency. There are a few ways to measure EV efficiency. The EPA uses "Miles Per Gallon equivalent" or MPGe to rate EVs. By their measure, the most efficient vehicle is the Lucid Air Pure, at 146 MPGe. My Rivian is rated at 73 MPGe.

Most EVs measure efficiency in either "miles per kWh" (one gallon of gasoline contains 33.7 kWh of energy, so an easy conversion is to take this number and multiply by 33.7 to get the "MPGe") or "Watt-hours per mile" (inverted, so a lower number is better, this is similar to what many metric countries use for gas vehicles - liters per 100 km where a lower number is better.) That Lucid Air Pure gets about 4.3 miles per kWh of energy, or about 230 Wh/mi.

Aptera claims 10 miles/kWh / 100 Wh/mi. That is more than double the efficiency of the most efficient "full size" vehicle. My Arcimoto FUV, a similar "two seater three wheel EV" gets about 5 mi/kWh in mixed city/non-interstate-highway driving. The Arcimoto is great for city driving, and while it is absolutely capable of highway driving, it isn't very aerodynamic so its efficiency drops like a brick on the freeway. The Aptera _IS_ aerodynamic, so should be much more efficient on the highway.

Comment The Solution (Score 1) 73

The solution to Windows turning into a marketing device and personal information vacuum: Linux Desktop.

Let the flame wars commence. My personal preference is Linux Mint. I've been using it on my desktop workstation and my laptop for the last 6 years with zero complaints. I have Windows VMs (VMWare and KVM) that I use for software development, but when one of them goes stupid thanks to Windows updates or general Windows OS stupidity, I just roll it back to the last weekly snapshot. But all my personal computing and the running of my business happens on Linux.

Comment Units are wrong. (Score 1) 155

So of 11600 MW of newly installed renewables, 10000 or 86% is in those batteries. That's absurd.

Why the F*** when a scientist says he's found a nearly complete bellusaurus skeleton, the reporter says: "A what-o-saurus??, let me get my pencil and write this down". But when it is about batteries and energy, they simply get it wrong. There is probably about 2000 MW, 10000 MWh of battery capacity installed.

Submission + - Hospital Network Admin Arrested for 30 year Identity Theft (thegazette.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Could you imagine discovering that your identity had been used to take out fraudulent loans and when you tried to resolve the issue by providing your state ID and Social Security card you were instead arrested, charged with multiple felonies, jailed for over a year, incarcerated in a mental hospital and given psychotropic drugs, eventually to be released with a criminal record and a judges order that you could no longer use your real name?

As dystopian as this might sound, it actually happened. And it was only after the victim learned his oppressor worked for The University of Iowa Hospital and contacted their security department was the investigation taken seriously leading to the perpetrator's arrest.

Comment Paying more and more for less and less (Score 1) 53

Apple sucks compared to Android. The hardware is antiquated before Apple can get it onto the shelves, and yet they charge a premium for the little Apple logo. And then there's the app store, with a smaller audience, less choice, and Apple robbing both the creators and the consumers.

From the outside, all I can do is order another bag of popcorn and watch Apple users pay a tax for being stupid.

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