That's interesting about the chargers. In the UK we usually don't need a service upgrade, and if changes are needed they are usually free and the responsibility of the supplier. Because the UK is supposed to reach net zero, some work is expected to be done by the electricity supplier, such as "unlooping" (it's a UK thing, was done to save money when copper was scarce after WW2), and fuse/cable upgrades.

Typically an install is in the region of â1,200 here, but you can get it for less with various schemes, sometimes "free" with the car. I had my first one installed on a government scheme that I don't think is running now, but it was free back then, and when I replaced it last year I did the work myself. A bit naughty but if it ever becomes an issue I can get it signed off by an electrician.

Hmm, I was under the impression that the US regulator wasn't entirely useless, and in fact did force car companies to do recalls at great expense. Has that changed or was it never the case?

Surely if they had such a serious flaw they would have been replaced already. As I recall, there was a recall programme in place for affected packs.

15 minutes?!? I'm going to miss the flight to my dying aunt if I have to stand around waiting 15 minutes for my oil to be changed! And what if there is a queue and I have to wait longer???

Also, come on, just oil changes? Do you think most of us haven't owned a fossil and know that isn't true?

You are getting shafted if someone is charging you $3k to have a charger installed.

It's an older chemistry that the market has already moved away from. I think the Koreans only keep producing it to ensure continuity of supply for existing buyers.

I think there was a recall on them, yes. I don't remember the details but some people got new packs. Like a lot of manufacturers, they had some early issues that needed to be resolved.

I think these are their iPace taxis, so they will be LG Chem batteries. They have proven to be quite reliable in other vehicles, with similar packs in Kia cars holding up well at 350k miles. For comparison, petrol engines typically last 150-200k miles, but need extensive maintenance to get that far. Regular oil changes, spark plugs, coolant, fuel and air filters, all sort of stuff.

Anyway, assuming that Waymo has been pushing them hard, rapid DC charging regularly, they are probably somewhere in the 250-300k mile range, at least. The load on them might actually be worse than a typical EV, because they need power for all the sensors and computer hardware, and probably keep the AC on even when not occupied.

Sometimes I feel like my TV shows different versions of shows to the ones other people watch.

Universe was a mostly civilian crew, because it was supposed to be a science mission. That was a different dynamic, but we already had two military shows by that point. Well, one and a half maybe, but Atlantis was mostly military in reality.

It had some interesting ideas and some good group dynamics. I don't really care for "competence porn", which I know a lot of Trek fans seem like for some reason. If anything, all it tends to do is make the writer's personal flaws become an issue, e.g. Geordi being a creep on TNG.

That's what Stargate Universe was.

Studios are not keen on new things. Look at the backlash against the new Star Trek series. Despite what some people claim, most of it was good Trek, and very enjoyable. Some of it is the best we have ever had from the franchise.

A small but very vocal group of fans made it clear that they just want more bland, Voyager style shows, lots of filler episodes, nothing particularly challenging. Nothing like what Trek should be, or what Trek has been at its best. They attacked everyone who liked it, and of course all the actors and the production staff. You should see the Alex Kurtzman memes.

Same thing happened with The Acolyte. It wasn't bad. Not amazing, but better than most of the Star Wars TV shows. Some fans heard a rumour (untrue) that it was going to make The Force "female", whatever that means, and they started a campaign to make sure it failed.

Then you have the grifters posing as reviewers on YouTube, who pan everything good to get those controversy clicks.

In the era of streaming this stuff matters, because you have to get people to subscribe before they can even see your show. They try to work around it by releasing episodes onto YouTube for free, but it's difficult.

Andor shows that you can take a tired franchise and do something new and really interesting with it. I wish they would have at least tried.

I like to buy European products, but often they either don't make what I want, or the price is 10-100x what I can get it from China for. There are limits to how far I will go to support local businesses.

Europe is moving against China too. There is going to be a per-package fee of 3 Euro, to make it harder for sites like AliExpress and Temu to sell into the EU. I don't like that, it's just propping up middle-men who do nothing by add an extra zero to the price of things. Even with it, buying direct from China will still be cheaper.

They haven't gone as dumb as banning DJI drones and non-EU routers yet.

European and Chinese companies have electric tractors. Very simple to operate, very easy to maintain. Yes, even the battery packs.

And import bans to stop people buying Chinese electric tractors that have zero emissions and are easy to repair. For lighter duty work people have been importing them for a few years now.

They had big ideas for it, but as time went on the budget got squeezed while needing more CGI on screen to represent the advanced technology and galactic stage they were portraying.

The actors started to cost more too. One of the reasons why many shows are limited to 5 seasons is that the standard contract is 5 seasons and then a re-negotiation for more money. Amazon has another trick that they used with Bosch - can the show, and start an identical one with the same characters and actors, but a slightly different name and a big reset of everyone's salaries.

It's a real shame that Universe was cancelled. Lots of potential and an interesting idea.

Maybe Amazon isn't the right place for it though. Look at the final season of The Boys. Massive budget cuts were very apparent.