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Comment Re:I have to say by now I approve (Score 1) 47

It seems that it would just be easier to learn what not to do in c than to learn a whole other language.

Literally no one has ever managed to learn what not to do in C to a level that prevents security problems. That's one of the fundamental problems with humans, they make mistakes. That is evident in literally every level of programmer on the planet.

See also: The reason we put airbags in cars rather than trying to teach better driving.

Every day I'm a little more convinced you are either a robot or an alien.

Comment Re:It's all fun now, but ... (Score 1) 88

An ICE doesn't come with a huge price tag after 8 years.

An ICE definitely comes with a huge price tag at the range you can ride a typical EV. The data is in, a typical EV battery will outlast the entire car engine requiring either engine replacement or ground up re-build. That from experience costs thousands of dollars which is why the reason so many people scrap their cars at 200000 miles (my last ICE car got turned into a small cube at 190000miles, ok I was being facetous, it was actually broken down into components and sold for scrap and spares). 200000 miles is nothing for an EV battery pack even a few generations old.

Comment Re:Why should I subsidize EVs? (Score 1) 88

From what I understand electric cars don't substantially reduce the demand for gasoline. I thought they did but someone had corrected me.

Yes because when I replace a gasoline vehicle with an electric one I just go down to the station to fill up gasoline into a barrel and then roll it off in the ocean or some shit like that?

Maybe you should think when someone is "correcting" you. Literally every EV on the road is a substitute for a different vehicle with similar modal properties. No one is saying "I was riding a bicycle, but now that EVs don't use gas I'll go by a car" they are substituting one gasoline car for an EV. The former runs on ... gasoline ... the latter runs on ... not gasoline. Even if gasoline consumption isn't going down, it's because car use and ownership is going up, and in that scenario having EV still means less gasoline than not having EV.

Seriously you argue so much on Slashdot, direct a bit of that energy to whomever fed you that logically incoherent psychobabble.

Comment Re:Charging at home (Score 1) 88

Talking about Hotels anywhere related to cost is massively skew compared to literally any other business. I honestly was floored by simply the cost of parking at a hotel in the USA, to say nothing of them nickel and diming every tiny fucking thing.

The difference isn't that big in Europe. Using a L2 charger at the Marriott in Frankfurt is almost similar in cost to a L3 DC fast charger in Huenxe on the highway reststop. But hotels seem to be virtually the only ones who price themselves insanely out of the market. My battery was approaching empty on my EV last time I was there, and even then I STILL didn't charge in the hotel, I ended up charging at the vendor's offices instead also on a L2 charger but one which is similar in cost to retail electricity.

Comment Re:Charging at home (Score 1) 88

But the real issues are rentals, condos, and work. The lack of charging at these sites is an issue.

Not all charging is equal. Those people who say charging on "on the road" is more expensive are almost universally talking DC Fast Chargers. The point isn't one or the other. There's over 100,000 L2 chargers in the USA mostly in cities, and they are only a smidgen more expensive than charging at home. It would be great if condo's provided charging at cost, but they don't have to in order to be competitive. There very much is an ability to make profit (which encourages the placement of chargers) while still being cheaper than gasoline / diesel.

Disclosure: I drive an EV, and no I don't have the ability to charge at home.

Comment Re:Why should I subsidize EVs? (Score 1) 88

Yeah but isn't that because you're bringing in a ton of cheap Chinese EVs? America isn't going to do that for a variety of reasons.

Also isn't a Volkswagen t-roc or t-ceoss around 30,000 euros versus 43,000 for an equivalent Tesla?

Again though I think you've got more choices because Europe is allowing those cheap Chinese electric cars into their markets.

Comment I contribute to society (Score 1) 88

Because society benefits me. Electric cars aren't benefiting me.

So yeah you have a right to demand that I chip in for things that benefit me but you have no right to demand I subsidize your personal choices.

That's the argument you're going to get. And honestly if we're talking about cars it's right. We shouldn't have a car based transportation system to begin with it's ludicrously inefficient and only exists because we externalize the costs from it.

So you're going to have a tough time convincing me or anyone else that I should pay more of those externalized costs so that you can putz around in your electric car which is probably a luxury vehicle anyway because the high cost of the batteries means that nobody is going to sell a cheap electric car to a broke ass loser like me.

And that's the answer from a very politically aware standpoint. Your average voter is going to hear what you just said and react violently and get even more dug in against electric cars. There are certainly not going to question the car based transportation system in the first place or the trillions and subsidies we give automotive companies. So all they're going to really question is why the fuck they have to pay for an electric charging station they're never going to use.

It's especially galling because for a lot of them the reason they'll never use it is because they couldn't possibly afford an electric car. If you become aware that you are subsidizing somebody who's better off than you financially then that is extremely infuriating. It's why the billionaires spend so much time and effort making sure you don't realize how much of your taxpayer money let alone how many months out of the year you spend working to make them rich

Comment So you can do the math (Score 1) 88

There's only 11 million electric cars on the road. That includes plug-in hybrids. That's out of 300 million vehicles. So yeah it's a drop in the bucket.

Honestly if we're going to get mad at oil companies we should get mad at car companies too. Go watch Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

A automobile based transportation system is horrible for everyone except car companies and people who like cars because they grew up with them. But those same feelings of love for your car could just as easily be redirected to trains. The Japanese do it just fine. Look at all the train toys including some cool transformers.

But love of cars is so deeply ingrained in us that even suggesting that they are bad news gets you in all kinds of trouble especially with nerds.

Comment So the batteries aren't much of a problem (Score 1) 88

It was on the older cars but on the newer ones they do seem to Outlast the rest of the vehicle.

The real problem is that everything else on the vehicle ends up being very expensive to fix so it ends up being like a BMW where it ends up in the junkyard and rotting there because it needs $20,000 worth of repairs. Also you typically need specialized tools and computer systems to do those repairs. So besides the occasional hobbyist that resurrects one most of the electric cars on the market today are destined to be turned into scrap as soon as the first owner runs them down. Maybe the second.

The problem is I used to drive a 20 year old Honda Accord. You're not going to have those kind of vehicles available for poor losers like me. Because just about everything being sold is a expensive luxury car.

I guess just added to the pile of crises that our economy is facing along with the fact that baby boomers represent 80% of consumer spending and they're going to die without leaving much if any inheritance, climate change, the collapse of democracy, the automation a job apocalypse and 100 other things I wish I had died before living to see...

Comment Too many old people (Score 0) 88

We have had birth rates below sustainability since the late 1990s. Old people are always going to look to yesterday because when you are old your best years are passed you and you're starting to hurt all the goddamn time. Not that old people will admit it. But I think the amount of opioids being sold speaks for itself.

It is very difficult to have a country that looks forward when you have so many old farts. America is especially bad about that because we have largely disconnected anyone over 50 from the economy by giving them the benefits of the new deal and the Great society and then letting them take those benefits away from their children and grandchildren...

So politically you have a shitload of old people who are prone to nostalgia that can be easily exploited by corrupt politicians combined with a social welfare system that continues to benefit them but doesn't benefit anyone else.

It's not a surprise that the American capitalist system is rapidly breaking down. But those old people aren't going to let us do socialism. There is way too much resentment associated with socialism and wealth redistribution.

We need a third way but damned if I can think of one. I think we're gradually going to sink into a rather nasty techno feudal dystopia and eventually world war III is going to take off and a bunch of religious lunatics are going to get their hands on the nuclear launch codes...

I would love to be proven wrong and I would love someone to give me that third option I was talking about but honestly when I bring all this up people get so angry and depressed they just either yell at me or mod me down. Occasionally a lefty will tell me we're going to do socialism but they have no answer for that resentment

Comment Why should I subsidize EVs? (Score 2, Interesting) 88

If I'm driving a gas car then why should I have to subsidize anyone in my apartment let's driving an electric car? The electricity still has to be paid for and the privately owned electric companies aren't going to give it away for free. Also who is going to pay to install those electric vehicle charging stations?

From what I understand electric cars don't substantially reduce the demand for gasoline. I thought they did but someone had corrected me.

If the entire fleet of American cars changed to electric that might be the case but I think the oil companies would have something to say about that. So that's not going to happen. Never mind the fact that the increased cost of an EV puts it out of the price range of a lot of people especially now that the subsidies are gone.

That's Kind of the problem. At the end of the day has someone stuck driving old gas cars why should I be required to subsidize electric cars? Either with my tax dollars or with my rent.

Don't just mod me down give me an answer.

Comment Re:US Tesla sales are down 25% (Score 1) 88

I don't think it's really any more expensive for the sort of person buying a Tesla since that person is probably going to buy a big honking SUV with a big honking gas tank.

But it does still mean that if you don't have your own house with a charging setup you don't get the savings.

I guess there are people who can charge for free at work.

For Tesla I think the real problem is going to be that losing 20% of their sales after paying their CEO $100 billion dollars in salary means they aren't really going to be functional as a company for much longer. But also explains why SpaceX is going public. It's time to cash out before the crash

Comment US Tesla sales are down 25% (Score 1) 88

Which is almost exactly the number of people who are buying them with the tax credits. This is a few months after the end of the tax credits though. There is still probably a bit of the drop tied up with people who already bought their car right before the credits went away but they are probably looking at a permanent drop of about 20%.

Other car companies are having a hard time too with their electrics. Tesla obviously takes the biggest hit cuz electric is all they do.

It probably also doesn't help that charging an electric without at home charging is very expensive and housing is prohibitively expensive right now. So a lot of people are stuck in apartments and not going to be considering an electric for savings.

Comment This rubbish again? (Score 2) 102

A reminder that the Energiewende was a general policy and not at all focused on the grid. Here's some of the things that the Energiewende funded:
- Gas boilers in homes.
- New pipelines oil and gas pipelines.
- Local charging points for cars.
- Railway electrification
- Subsidies for window replacements and insulation.
- University grants for battery and hydrogen research.

Only a small portion of the Energiewende was actually spent on anything related to the grid. And among the grid related things the Energiewende funded:
- New Gas powerplants.
- New HV transmission links.

The idea that Germany spent that money on greening the grid and failed is simply outright bullshit pushed out of ignorance or because you want to push some kind of failure narrative.

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