The stupidest thing about pickups is the actual load bed is almost vestigial in a lot of models - it's so short it's useless for anything. People buy them to drive their kids to school and buy shopping imagining they're going to offroad or go camping when most of them never leave tarmac.

It could be an issue if vans were being used for purposes they weren't designed for. But these "last mile" type vans have a planned route which isn't enormous - they travel the route, they go back to the depot and they recharge for the next day. It should be very easy for operators to maintain a fleet of vehicles suitable for different tasks and they don't all have to be electric, but where it makes sense then they should be.

Solar, renewables, electrification, battery tech are the next industrial revolution so what better way to foster a growth and development than to pull the rug from underneath companies. I'm sure it will work out great and definitely won't end with China commanding an insurmountable lead.

The amount of AI slop on YouTube these days is something to behold. I swear the site uses people to weed this shit out because on an average visit I will be recommended at least 2 or 3 channels which are obvious slop and my "don't recommend" must weigh down the content. But how did it get as far as me?

If they can transcribe audio, look for copyright strikes, look for copycat channels and all the rest then how hard is it really to scan content for obvious signs of AI generation? I bet there are a whole bunch of scoring markers that could indicate AI - analysis of the audio / transcript / video, watermark detection, metadata in the uploaded video, IP address of uploader, frequency of uploads, similarity of title / content to other recent uploads, account engagement by a human, payment details, tax registration etc. etc.

It would be peak irony if that was the only thing to survive the implosion completely intact and functional

If you're trying to make a point it's hard to know what it is. Contributions is a widely used term and doesn't need nitpicking because you've never heard of it.

I think unions are a good thing in general, however particular unions aren't exactly paragons of virtue either. Closed shops can be a shakedown racket and union contributions can and have been used for corrupt & fraudulent purposes.

Most of the populated parts of Norway are still subzero over Dec/Jan. And the eastern parts of Norway which have sizable populations are MUCH colder. It can be -15C sometimes. Sweden & Finland aren't aggressively pursuing EV adoption but they still have EV sales of 35%. Even Iceland has EV sales at 65%.

I think as we see sodium ion batteries become more prevalent that they'll become very popular in colder climates because of their better performance in lower temperatures. As you say, most cars need heat pumps to warm up the battery for charging otherwise.

Biggest impediment in America was the way consumers were used as pawns in a charging format war. The market was thrown into confusion by such stupidity when they could have just mandated a standard like Europe did.

Then you have the MAGA brain-damaged, conspiratorial, & protectionist view of the world that EVs are evil, China is evil, WEF 15 minute cities etc so therefore let's all buy 15mpg pickup trucks.

Norway demonstrates the benefit of joined up thinking. I think a lot of developed countries, the US being the worst, just let market forces fight it out with consumers being used as pawns. Others recognize ICE vehicles suck (air pollution, noise, health, global warming, fuel fluctuations) and since there is a viable alternative they work to shift consumers onto the alternative.

It reminds me of incandescent light bulbs a few decades ago. Idiots were screaming they'd never use CFL or LED bulbs and spouting a bunch of stupid arguments. But saner governments simply banned the sale of incandescents or incentivized the sale of alternatives and now they're basically history outside of some niches.

That's what Norway has done - imposed disincentives on owning an ICE vehicle (higher parking, tolls, ferry, purchase taxes) while simultaneously creating incentives for owning an EV (infrastructure grants, subsidized parking, tolls, grants). And lo and behold they achieved their aims of shifting from ICE to EV with some joined up thinking.

Of course this isn't the end of it because there are still plenty of petrol / diesel cars on the road, and large vehicles like trucks but attrition will mean in 10 years nearly all small passenger vehicles are going to be electric and infrastructure will have move to that future. And electric may be better than ICE but public transport / cycling & better infrastructural planning is better again so it's not the end by any means.

I guarantee the wear off your shoes (or bicycles) doesn't even remotely compare to the wear off vehicle tyres for obvious reasons. It's an absurd comparison.

This isn't the first time somebody has tried to make a not-android open source phone OS. Firefox OS for example got some initial traction and even sold in some markets. But it died on its ass because the reality is that phone buyers want a phone that runs apps and runs the apps they want - games, banking, streaming etc.

It doesn't matter if some other phone OS is built on open source principles or not, or even if it functionally usable in a limited way. If it doesn't have the apps it sucks.

Because FSF seems to have a knack for sucking all momentum out of projects and miring them in politics. No doubt the first release will be powered by Hurd and take 5 minutes to boot to a bash prompt.

Solid state batteries are still batteries. Charging infrastructure is the same. Cars are the same. Solid state means a more energy dense battery. It doesn't negate or cancel out the battery another EV has. There are already a variety of battery types coexisting right now with different properties. And even if solid state batteries manufacturing started tomorrow (they won't) it would be years before production capacity, yields and cost allows them to they show up in ordinary vehicles.

As for your Norway comment, ffs. Many Norwegian cities have average temperatures which are below freezing in winter let alone the country as a whole. You proclaimed EVs only work somewhere small and warm which Norway is not by any measure and this seems to a pattern in your argumentation - say something very silly about EVs which you clearly don't know much about and then double down.