The shift toward massive trucks and SUVs in the U.S. is not a conspiracy as you stated, but it's not purely consumer preference either. It's a direct, documented, and mathematically verifiable consequence of how the U.S. government rewrote fuel efficiency regulations in 2011.

Prior to 2011, CAFE standards were simple: a car company’s entire fleet of "light trucks" had to average a certain MPG number (e.g., 24 mpg). It didn't matter how big or small the individual trucks were. The Obama administration reformed these rules to close loopholes... but they inadvertently created a new one. They switched to a "footprint-based" standard.

And the curve is very steep. If you build a truck or SUV with a small footprint (like the old Ford Ranger or Chevy S-10), the government mandates an incredibly high MPG target, often close to what a high efficiency sedan would get. As the vehicle gets bigger, the MPG target drops significantly.

This means that if a manufacturer tries to build a small pickup or SUV today (about the size of a 1990s Ranger), the CAFE formula might mandate a target of ~40-50 MPG. Achieving such a high MPG requires expensive hybrid technology and advanced lightweight materials. This adds at least $10k to the cost which makes those vehicles virtually unsellable.

Why the U.S. government didn't fix this issue 10+ years ago is a mystery to me. The result has actually been hugely increased gas consumption and CO2 emissions, rather than the desired effect of lower gas consumption and CO2 emissions.

Signed, someone who would love a small AWD SUV, but they're just not economically justifiable (in the U.S.)

Of the dozens and dozens of anti-consumer and terribly damaging mega-mergers over the last 40+ years, this is the one that people absolutely lose their shit over.

I'm not sure if I should laugh or cry.

Really shitty. I'm arrogant so I do want to point out the obvious: Trump won the primaries and became the candidate for the Republican team because the Republican party is shitty.

Both parties are really shitty.

That's an example of why they have really bad messaging, because they are more interested in politics than in science/reality. That leaves room for someone like Trump (the reality TV star) to do better messaging.

Biden/Harris were going around saying they wouldn't trust the vaccine. Governor Newsom was throwing large dinner parties after telling everyone to socially isolate. That's a strong indicator of people who don't care about science, and that's why they can't do better messaging than Trump.

The problem with free form worlds is they invariably turn into some kind of crappy reality TV show. That's the only way most people know how to interact with each other.

A clear example is the messaging on vaccines and masks. These aren't a matter of scientific debate: if everyone wears a mask and gets vaccinated, the pandemic will be slowed.

But, somehow it turned into "Biden is forcing us to do ..." whereas with a little better messaging, only crazy people would have minded. The problem wasn't the message, it was the way the message was delivered.

You should probably put more effort into winning the election next time.

Trump is what you get when your party sucks at communicating.

Yeah, it's not personal, I just feel like you've been caught up too much in the AI hype and that clouded your vision. You are definitely a net positive in the conversation: with interesting ideas and a (unfortunately not more common) ability to actually look things up and learn.

The AI problem will resolve itself automatically in the next few years (either the AI hype will die out or strong AI will be invented; one way or another.)

I'm thinking very very stupid. No sprues for casting.

Agreed. This is all stuff that at MOST should be accessible over the LAN. The ESP32 is cheap and provides the WiFi and enough power to run a simple RESTful web app. If I actually need/want to access it remotely, it'll be through a well protected integrated web servie on a jump box.

A cheaper manufacturer could probably make the ESP32 do double duty as the primary micro-controller with a suitable interrupt routine.

One of the other products in this vein that works well is Konnected's "Blaq"

With RATGDO (or the one or two other things that do the same thing), you can:
- View status of door
- Open/Close door (this includes positioning it to some position, like 5% up, or 50%, etc)
- 'Lock/Unlock' the RF side. RF stuff is relatively insecure, so being able to 'lock' it is helpful

And you can do all of this without cloud, without paying subscriptions, and without worrying about the vendor going "poof" (open source is cool that way) and leaving you stranded, and without requiring an app (the device serves a basic webpage that you can access from your LAN (or IoT lan)).

You can use it with (local!) home automation like Home Assistant too.,

The situation was worse than I thought. According to the AAIB report, they tested the material and found the glass transition temperature to be about 53C, so the jackass printed it in PLA.

Also, since it's Poly Lactic Acid, our metabolism is already well equipped to deal with the breakdown product.

It's great for things that will be indoors at room temperature. I made a snap-on camera mount for my monitor that has held up great. But if it was a dash mount, it would need to be PETG or CF-PA6 to not sag in the summer.