I'd say we passed that bar at Dr. Sbaitso.

It's obviously protectionism, because we're fine with inexpensive Chinese EVs so long as they happen to look like this.

Anecdotally, I've actually noticed an uptick in people riding e-scooters. I guess that's what you get when the least expensive new car in the US starts at over $20k.

Looking at Polestar's sales numbers, I don't think Tesla really had anything to worry about. It's mostly BYD (who has been eating Tesla's lunch in the rest of the world) that Tesla fears, and Polestar likely just became a casualty of the protectionism designed to keep BYD out.

Except that they're positioned as luxury vehicles and those kind of features are expected at those price points. The Polestar 3's MSRP is $68,900 and the Polestar 4 is $57,800. This isn't a BYD Seagull.

Except for those pesky times when motorists become distracted or impatient and ignore the traffic signals, but we know that never happens.

Many homes have 30A 240v clothes dryer circuits that can be repurposed for EV charging with a smart splitter or by upgrading to a heat pump clothes dryer that plugs into a standard 120v outlet. That'd provide enough capacity to recharge the Slate from completely flat (which you really shouldn't be doing regularly in an EV anyway) in about 12 hours.

A big screen with proper vehicle integration. That means:

Not likely to fall off after baking in the Florida sun for months and going down a rough patch of dirt road (it is a truck, after all).
Actual CarPlay/Android Auto support.
Turns on/off automatically with the vehicle ignition state, and dims the display when the headlights are on.
No stray wires dangling about all over the place.
Physical controls for volume, handset functions and playback navigation on the steering wheel.

If you really don't mind the Craigslist beater vibes from having tablet wedged in a flimsy mount in your brand new $26k EV truck, more power to you I guess. I couldn't even tolerate that sort of jankiness in my old work van and ultimately upgraded to an aftermarket head unit that fit in place of the original stock radio.

Tell me you don't understand how viruses reproduce naturally without telling me you don't understand how viruses reproduce naturally.

The difference between leaving a double DIN slot empty and putting some generic Chinese Android head unit in is like $100 at retail prices. Honestly, I think the cost savings actually comes from omitting the factory labor/tooling necessary for the installation of an antenna, speakers, and all the associated wiring.

So, at best you end up with a place to physically mount the radio, but it'll be a real throwback of a DIY job to get everything hooked up. If they do offer a configurable option to make the vehicle "radio ready", it actually seems downright silly not to just seal the deal by including the radio, since the cost is negligible (in the grand scheme of car accessory pricing).

Even with gas prices being what they currently are, the truck buying demographic tends to heavily lean towards having an ICE as a feature. Plus, it really only makes sense to have an EV if you can charge at home. DCFC is incredibly expensive, and with data centers sucking up all the electricity on the grid, it's probably going to get worse.

I say this as someone who has two EVs in his household. You really, really don't want an EV unless you're able to do the bulk of your charging while plugged in at home.

No infotainment at all seems like an overcorrection. The entire raison d'etre for CarPlay and Android auto was because trying to futz around with a tiny phone screen while you're supposed to be paying attention to the road, was never ideal in the first place. Things really didn't start going south until auto manufacturers decided to move the HVAC controls and God-knows-what-else to the infotainment, which absolutely is a trend that needs to die.

If everyone can afford a car, who will ride around in Musk's Cybercabs?

My folks always owned Fords when I was growing up. They were actually nice cars when they ran properly, which was rarely.

I was thinking Duran Duran.

Her truck’s a RIO
It gets stuck in the sand
She shoulda bought that Cyber thing
But it was seventy-five grand

I actually know someone who is kinda like this and the reason the Slate truck is a non-starter for them is because it's still cheaper to keep buying gas for and maintaining their existing ICE vehicle than having to make car payments.

That also kind of leans a bit into the reason why low-end cars just don't sell well in general in the USA - everybody finances their purchase, and then the difference between being stuck in some crappy penalty box or something that's actually comfy with luxury features just boils down to coughing up a few extra bucks every week.