Actually, I'm in the same situation. From what I found, the situation varies drastically from state to state - if you're willing to move, you should really consider that.

In California (and a handful of other states), Kaiser Permanente offers pretty reasonable rates if you and your family are young, healthy and have always been healthy. Even something like childhood asthma can make you ineligible.. I'm insuring my family of 4 for about $600 per month with a maximum annual deductible of $7000 and no lifetime cap. Rates are higher if you can't risk that high of an annual deductible.

If you have a prior condition, it's nearly impossible to get insurance on your own. I have friends trying to set up a group plan and it's taken over a year to get going.

Also, keep in mind that if you or anyone in your family does get sick, you may not be able to leave the state and keep your plan, so pick a state that has good insurance rates available, will not drop you if you get sick and that you are willing to live in long term if you do get sick.

If you or any family member are or has been sick, you may want to look for states that have implemented some form of community rating. You may want to look for states that have guaranteed issue.

Good luck.

I'd love to here if anyone has done any serious research into Medical Tourism options. It may be cheaper to drive to Mexico for antibiotics when you think you need them and pay out of pocket or use a free clinic for basic things and then have some cash in the bank in case you get really sick - but I don't know of anyone whose actually done that.

In most states, residency is not a requirement for paying income taxes.

If you work in California for 1 minute, you owe state income taxes. And yes, California will come after you. For example, sports stars have to pay California tax when they play a game in California. Likewise, consultants who fly into the state to meet a client have to pay even if their paycheck is coming from an out of state company.

I know this is true for New York as well.

Maybe John Travolta lives in Florida because he likes it there.

I wonder if making parts of out compostable plastic (http://worldcentric.org/biocompostables/bioplastics) makes even more sense. I'm curious how far you could go with that. For example - could the cooling fan blades and body be made out of that stuff too?

The segway I rode did not stay still when you hopped off. It would slowly move forward until it hit something. Then it would "panic" as the wall tilted it back.

Have they improved or were you just assuming that they would stand still when you got off?

Why do people always worry about optimizing the wrong things?!?!

Seriously... I'm 36 years old and I've never run out of gas. Never. Am I really that much of an anomoly? Even for someone like yourself, it's got to be more rare than having your car break down with a flat tire or a busted hose or a water pump failure or an alternator.

So yes... running out of juice would require that you call AAA and get yourself towed home. It would suck.

But seriously. I think I'd rather worry about optimizing the other 99.9% of the time. My guess is that with the electric car you'd have a net decrease in the number of times you'd need a tow.

Please - just because this is useless to you, doesn't mean it's useless.

Americans on average have 2.28 cars per household. The majority have a garage and can easily plug the thing in.

The average driver drives 15,000 per year. Most days have a predictable amount of driving that will be well under the 100 mile range.

At $30,000, this car will be cheap to operate over the life of the vehicle. No oil change, simple transmission, no coolant. Inexpensive energy.

Having friends who already own electric cars - I can tell you that the joy of having your car "full" every morning is wonderful. No more unplanned trips to the gas station. It's hard to state how fantastic this is.

Imagine if you had to take your cellphone to the mobile phone store a couple times per week to "fill" it up. We tolerate that with cars because that's what we're used to.

As a 5 seater hatchback, I can drive the kids to school, commute and get groceries. With 100 mile range, I can drive up to wine country for the weekend. Sure, I'll have another vehicle to tow my boat and drive into the mountains. But this car sounds fantastic and will handle 95% of my trips. If they build it, I will definitely buy one.

But I guess I'll be the only one, since it's "useless"