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Comment Re:Tesla's Order Times and Relative Prices (Score 1) 83

Thanks for sharing your attempted Rav4 purchase experience - I think you confirmed my thinking. I'm glad I didn't waste more time on it because I don't even like the look of the car.

Once Toyota announced they were cutting production the dealerships around here all changed their tune and started saying it will be MSRP + $10k, putting the car closer to $60k if you could find one.

That makes sense - if dealers aren't able to get their usual volume of product they need to sell in order to stay in business, then they obviously have to make more on each car they sell (in order for the stealership to stay in business.)

The process of attempting to purchase a car from a dealer put such a bad taste in my mouth that I'm never going to buy from a dealer.

The last car I bought new was in 1999 - it was such a bad experience I've avoided doing it again for 23 years!

About two months ago, I briefly considered getting a new Subaru, mainly because it was one of the few new cars I could buy with a standard transmission. A local dealership emailed me a quote and the price was actually lower than a 2-year old version of the same car at Carmax. I assumed the dealership figured they would make their profit on financing costs. I decided to pass on that car after I saw a reddit thread about how that particular Subaru dealership is horrible at servicing cars.

Comment No - WHO *ignored* airborne transmission (Score 3, Informative) 203

by McGruber (#61856689) Attached to: Is the Coronavirus Just Getting Better at Airborne Transmission?

Coronavirus has always been airborne.

A March 5, 2020 --nineteen months ago! -- tweet from Virginia Tech Engineering Professor Linsey Marr: Let's talk about #airborne transmission of #SARSCOV2 and other viruses.

What happened is that the World Health Organization squandered 18 months downplaying the possibility of Coronavirus being airborne. Here's a July 4, 2020 NY Time article about that:

239 Experts With One Big Claim: The Coronavirus Is Airborne The W.H.O. has resisted mounting evidence that viral particles floating indoors are infectious, some scientists say. The agency maintains the research is still inconclusive.

The World Health Organization and the public health officials who listened to WHO are now all trying to save face, hence their new claim that coronavirus evolved.

Comment Tesla's Order Times and Relative Prices (Score 4, Informative) 83

I have been sort of shopping for a new car for about a year now - my current SUV is 17 years old and has 170,000 miles on it. It's overdue for replacement, but I don't really want to sink a lot of my savings into a brand-new gas car in the year 2021. I was considering buying a used gas car, but their prices have gone crazy - Carmax seems to be selling 2 year old cars for more than what brand new cars (same models, just 2 years newer) are selling for new. I really want to go electric, but I am not at all enamored by any of the vehicles in Tesla's line of cars - the Model 3 reminds me of the Chrysler Neon. So I find myself stuck in an analysis/paralysis loop and that's why I keep driving my current vehicle.

Anyway, while car shopping, I was surprised to see that Tesla has 6+ month long backlogs for its S, X and Y models. Here's Tesla's estimated delivery times right now for Atlanta, as of today October 3:

Model S: April-May Model 3: December Model X: May-June Model Y: April

I was also surprised by how Tesla's prices aren't that much more than equivalent gas cars. I was just pricing hybrid Toyotas -- the plug-in hybrid RAV4 has a starting MSRP of $41,675. Toyota's website says it is extremely limited in my area and the website won't give me any information about its option packages. I assume that adding the options I would want will bring its price up to $45,000+. Meanwhile Tesla's website tells me the cash price for a dual-motor Model Y is $53,990

Submission + - Tesla vehicle deliveries hit another record in Q3, beats analysts' estimates (yahoo.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Tesla Inc said on Saturday it had delivered a record electric cars in the third quarter, beating Wall Street estimates after Chief Executive Elon Musk asked staff to "go super hardcore" to make a quarter-end delivery push.

Tesla delivered 241,300 vehicles globally in the July to September quarter, up 73% from a year earlier. Analysts had expected the electric-car maker to deliver 229,242 vehicles, according to Refinitiv data.

General Motors, Honda and some of its bigger rivals posted declines in U.S. sales in the third quarter, hit by a prolonged chip shortage. GM's third-quarter U.S. sales fell nearly 33% to its lowest level in more than a decade.

Submission + - Chip Shortage stops production of GM's Super Cruise hands free driving system (cnet.com) 2

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The shortage of semiconductor chips has hit General Motors, causing it to stop production of its Super Cruise driver assistance system. A Cadillac spokesperson said "Super Cruise is an important feature for the Cadillac Escalade program. Although it's temporarily unavailable at the start of regular production due to the industry-wide shortage of semiconductors, we're confident in our team's ability to find creative solutions to mitigate the supply chain situation and resume offering the feature for our customers as soon as possible."

Super Cruise is unavailable across GM's entire lineup of cars.

Submission + - Tesla end runs New Mexico's dealership laws by opening store on Tribal Land (abqjournal.com) 2

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Tesla has opened a new Sales and Service Center in an old casino north of Santa Fe, New Mexico as part of a first-of-its-kind project between Tesla and Nambé Pueblo, a federally recognized tribe of Native American Pueblo people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namb%C3%A9_Pueblo,_New_Mexico). It is the first Tesla facility, officials said, on Native American land in the United States.

The pueblo location is critical.

New Mexico law prohibits vehicle manufacturers from selling directly to consumers rather than through a franchise dealership, and efforts to allow Tesla storefronts and service centers have repeatedly failed in the Legislature, often amid tense debate.

But the Tesla store sits within the boundaries of a tribal nation, not subject to the state law.

Submission + - 6th Grader Expelled for 3 Months after Zoom provided inaccurate IP address info (ajc.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: On one day in February, 11-year-old Malachi Battle was not feeling well, so he stayed home sick and attended his 6th grade classes virtually via Zoom. Strange things started happening. In one class, Malachi said he heard an unknown person yell a racial slur. Teachers said other unidentified people were trying to get into their virtual classrooms. Two days later, Malachi was suspended, accused of repeatedly trying to log into Zoom classes with threatening phrases and racial slurs in lieu of his name

Malachi’s lawyers say Gwinnett County Public Schools accused him based on an inaccurate list of students’ Internet Protocol addresses from Zoom, a problem that could repeat elsewhere since the company’s online sessions are replacing classrooms for millions of students amid the coronavirus pandemic. Chris Gilliard, a fellow with the Technology and Social Change Project of the Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, had not heard of a situation similar to Malachi’s but said “it’s hugely unlikely that this is the first time” a student had been disciplined based on questionable data from Zoom.

During the “Zoom bombing” attempts, Malachi had already logged into the classes under his regular name, according to his appeal.

The school district retrieved from Zoom a list of the names and IP addresses in each waiting room, Malachi’s legal team said. The Zoom bombers’ public IP addresses matched Malachi’s — but four other students who did not appear to be Zoom bombers were also listed as having Malachi’s public IP address, an impossibility since they were not in the same house, said Scott Moulton, a Woodstock-based forensics expert hired by the attorney working on Malachi’s case.

Moulton said the school district’s technology employee who investigated should have been able to tell that many of the IP addresses in the Zoom report were wrong.

“I would have at least picked up the phone and called Zoom before hanging the life of an 11-year-old kid based on a log that looks like an error,” Moulton said.

The Zoom bombers’ local IP addresses, which identify the exact device being used, did not match Malachi’s, according to the log his attorneys provided. Nor did the local IP addresses match any of the possible sequences available under the configuration of the router in Malachi’s house, Moulton said. There were no other routers or devices in the house that could have used those local IP addresses, Moulton said.

Submission + - "No one was driving the car": 2 men killed when driverless Tesla crashs & bu (click2houston.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Two men were killed when a driver-less Tesla crashed into a tree and burned. Harris County, Texas Constable Mark Herman said that the investigation showed “no one was driving” the 2019 Tesla when the crash occurred. There was a person in the passenger seat of the front of the car and a person in the rear passenger seat of the car.

KPRC 2 reporter Deven Clarke spoke to one victim's brother-in-law who said the victim was taking the car out for a spin with his best friend, so there were just two in the vehicle. The owner backed out of the driveway and then may have hopped in the back seat only to crash a few hundred yards down the road. He said the owner was found in the back seat upright.

Authorities said they used 32,000 gallons of water to extinguish the flames because the vehicle’s batteries kept reigniting. At one point, Herman said, deputies had to call Tesla to ask them how to put out the fire in the battery.

Submission + - Cyberware Attack Shuts Down Vehicle Emissions Testing in Seven States (wsbtv.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Georgia is waiving vehicle emissions checks because a cyberware attack has halted all emission testing across Georgia and seven other states. The CEO of Applus Technologies, whose software runs the system, apologized during the emergency meeting Monday.

The outages are delivering a huge blow to small business owners. “All of the sudden, we were doing emissions testing just like normal and the system just kind of shut down,” said James Baxter, who owns BP Car Care Tire Pros. “We haven’t been able to do emissions since.” Baxter said before the cyberattack, his full service automobile shop conducted more than 100 vehicle emissions tests per day. “Emissions is $25. You can imagine the revenue loss. We have employees that are out of work because of this,” he said.

Georgia's Department of Revenue issued a Press Release that omitted mention of the attack:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
March 31, 2021

ATLANTA – Due to a system outage with the Vehicle Emissions Inspection and Maintenance Program, the Georgia Department of Revenue (DOR) is notifying motor vehicle owners that they are currently unable to obtain vehicle emissions tests. As such, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has issued an emissions test waiver for motorists who need to register or renew their vehicle registrations until further notice.

Motorists granted this emissions test waiver must still provide all other necessary registration documentation, meet insurance requirements, and comply with all other state rules and regulations regarding the vehicle other than timely emissions testing. As soon as the Vehicle Emissions Inspection and Maintenance Program’s functionality has been restored, emissions testing will be required as normal.

Motor vehicle owners with a valid emissions test can renew their registration online at dor.georgia.gov/motor-vehicles, at their county tag office, or at a kiosk location.

https://dor.georgia.gov/press-...
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Article:
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/loc...

Submission + - Oh Ship: Suez Canal blocked after 400-m long vessel turned sideways, ran aground (theguardian.com) 1

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: A giant container ship has run aground in the Suez canal, causing a traffic jam of vessels at either end of the vital international trade artery.

The 220,000-tonne, 400m-long Ever Given became stuck in the canal on Tuesday and several attempts to refloat it failed.

The Ever Given, which is carrying hundreds of containers bound for Rotterdam from China, is owned by the Taiwanese shipping company Evergreen and registered in Panama.

The shipping monitoring site Vesselfinder (https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9811000) shows the stricken ship and the traffic jam of other vessels at either end of the canal. The trade site Tanker Trackers reported that there were “a lot of fully-laden” tankers stuck at either end of the canal carrying Saudi, Russian, Omani and US oil.

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