In this context I have no idea, but there are a lot of hobby laser engravers / cutters that use diodes (which I think are LEDs) in a certain system to generate a laser beam. I wonder if AI got confused writing that part of the article or something?

And why can you no longer see when backing up? The backup lights are now super dim.

I really never thought NY would have worse inspections than CA, but yea - we have emissions testing, all sorts of physical inspections - you can fail on torn wiper blades. In fact, I think it's a bit of a scam of the inspection garages to force you to buy cheap wiper blades at jacked up prices to pass you. Oh, and no CEL for any reason I think.

The emissions testing is the worst though - we're way out in a rural area, and I think the number of cars junked cause fixing emissions (otherwise run fine) may well be worse for the environment.

Is this a Europe only thing? At least in the US DLR are mostly useful for the people who will not turn on their headlights till they need to see as dusk occurs. Un-disablable auto low beams would do the same thing. IDK why there are so many people who insist on driving almost in the dark with their lights off, but there are a noticeable amount. They also help (and auto lights would help) with people driving in cities with overhead lights and apparently again not realizing their lights are off when they drive out of the coverage of the streetlights. I see this a lot on super highways etc leaving an urban area.

The second useful place is people who ignore weather conditions like strong overcast, rain, fog etc making it hard to see as well.

I've never found weak lights being on or off affecting my ability to see a motorcycle or other vehicle outside of twilight or weather conditions generally.

The other thing is plenty of people who were console gamers in their childhood through college maybe find that as they get older, they have different interests or different things taking time. Games always took a LOT of time, and as everything got more multiplayer they got less and less "fun" if you didn't have a LOT of time to get decent at them, because you're going to be compared to teenagers who make them a full time job.

I hung on through the PS3 and got a PS4 because I still wanted to be "a gamer", but after I hadn't turned on my PS4 for 3 years, I just... didn't get a PS5.

Maybe that's what you mean by aging out - though I question if console games are something that are that driven by age in the way some competitive sports might be.

Probably not in the US though, or only in limited circumstances. Otherwise the timeshare sales from major companies wouldn't keep doing what they do. Almost no one knows what they bought, and thinks they bought something else, yet they can't get a court to void the written contract.

No one is asking for this AI bullshit, except for the rich.

This just isn't true - if it was, each chatbot wouldn't have millions of monthly users. You know what happens to stuff no one is asking for? No one uses it and it tends to disappear.

I think lots of people have been asking for AI (as it is now) to replace search for instance, because search has gotten so bad. We can debate how well suited each model is for that, but it's clear there's a search problem.

Yea, I always wonder - like do people just completely forget what their life was like when they were 22 (or pick an age)? How they thought? Heck, just think back to before you were a manager or high level individual contributor or whatever.

Yea, you never rolled your eyes at your superiors (and you're surely not doing it now re the C-Suite right?)... You never talked about how to "game the system" (I imagined all the change jobs every 3 years memes for the aughts through 2020ish).

These people really do need to get over themselves or IDK ask their old bosses how they *really* were.

In the US I absolutely bet that. Or more specifically, there are people who can't even remember to keep their cars fueled. They can make it a couple miles with the light on to the gas station, take 5 minutes, and go on whatever else they needed to do that day. IDK, many have untreated or not sufficiently treated ADHD. But people have trouble keeping their phones charged still. I know a bunch. However, they currently can plug their phones in and still use them.

In the worst case scenario they can have some gas cans around or a battery bank for their phone that covers some of their mishaps, especially if someone else makes sure to refill the cans or force them to do so - which is more realistic when it's a once a month or every few months thing than a every day sort of thing.

And if everyone has a vehicle, you now need as many charge plugs as you have vehicles, which is less and less realistic in more places. Or you have a new complicated scheduling system, especially when people don't actually tell the scheduler person what charge level the vehicles are at.

Now, the above is probably limited to people with ADHD or other issues and those dealing with them, but whats worse is the extra hassle on the longer trips. A full gas station is a 10-15 minute wait for a pump to get freed up in most situations, assuming 3 cars deep waiting and not a bunch of assholes. A full charger means an hour+ wait to start and 20 minutes to charge in the same load. This is a big deal, especially if on popular routes (interstates) during busy times (lots of people take road trips at the same time in the summer because of kids schedules). I could see this easily adding a day and an overnight if you have to charge 2x on the trip and both places are busy. I've certainly had multiple waits for a pump with gas cars.

Wait, I have always been told the way to use an EV was to charge it overnight like my cellphone. Doesn't once every 10 days cause a lot of issues with range? Or time? Like, I get it, I don't get gas every day, but that's because I can get down to 30% or so of range and spend 5-10 minutes filling up. If I knew it would take me hours before I could do things, I would absolutely want to do that every night so I am prepared in case something comes up.

I think the argument is more around rural areas, where there aren't a bunch of banks where there are currently post offices. I still don't really see the appeal, but I go by probably 4 post offices in small towns that don't have a bank, or maybe have one bank on a trip to my "local" Sam's Club.

However, for "reasons" many government tasks still need us to mail things in to them, as do a bunch of small businesses (still only take physical checks, or charge a fee to take a digital payment). Maybe this is just a NY issue, but I don't think so - I recall you have to mail in and get in the mail a new passport for instance.

Now, maybe we'll some go digital with IDs, but I have my doubts about that being well done currently for the US. I also can see the arguments that the government should not be allowed to force us to buy some companies services to undertake government required steps. And could you imagine a full open competition for digital IDs like we have to tax software or online shopping? How would that ever be actually secure? Our governments don't really seem to understand digital stuff much yet anyway.

I guess we might get a digital currency under Trump, though until it's treated the same as cash, i.e. your banks can issue it from a paycheck/direct deposit with no extra fees, and all businesses must take it with no extra fees, I see quite a few people likely to be resistant.

Not so much excuses as most people can't afford multiple vehicles per person so have less interest in a "does 80%" sort of solution when they can get a "does 100%" option. Even if that extra 20% costs them a lot of money, and realistically may only be needed infrequently, it's a lot of mental worry they'd like to avoid. It's also usually the case that getting that extra 20% capability is cheaper than two or more vehicles.

Also, I don't think the goalposts have moved in the ~10 years I've been paying attention. The ones I've seen is

1) Go around 300 miles without needing refueling.
2) Cost around the average new car price.
3) Used options around the average used car price.
4) Have equivalent vehicles (some want/need trucks, some want sports cars, some want minivans, some want off roading SUVs etc)
5) Ease of refueling similar to existing. Most will accept 20ish minutes as long as they're not in a line so they end up "stranded" for 1-3 cars ahead of them so they're there for 40min to 2 hours.

That's really it. Americans want a direct replacement. Or something better that lets them do the same things. I.e. Smart Phones didn't replace flip phones because they only did part of what flip phones did, no they do many times what flip phones did. Smartphones didn't eat into computers at the beginning because they only did a subset. Once they got more powerful and ubiquitous because they replaced flip phones they also started doing ever more and now many things are mobile first because it's more convenient. I don't run to my PC do do Amazon anymore - I can do it on my phone wherever I happen to be.

Many many of us would like the less maintenance of EVs. I don't like paying for oil changes, or brake changes, or spark plugs etc. They just don't make an affordable to me EV that does what I mainly use my vehicle for. And in a lot of ways they don't make an EV that does it yet - because I mostly use my vehicle for long road trips with several adults where we're going 1-3 days away and need to get gas ~ 2 times a day while driving hundreds of miles. In places I don't know the area. I also need some off road capability and limited towing can be a convenience when not on a trip. We take a lot of luggage on these multi week trips, including hobby stuff like camera gear. We also take a battery and portable fridge/freezer combo so we can take food with us - less waste that way. I don't have a garage, I just park outside, but I could pay a bunch (maybe) to run a new line from our pole out to where we park (the house panel is full and small sadly). IDK what that would cost, when I had someone run a similar distance for a generator hook up it cost me $2,500 years ago. But it could be done.

The main limit is the driving that EVs are good at is getting me to and from an office in good weather. But I do that maybe 24 times a year now, maybe twice a month. That's the "unusual" use.

This is just true of any complex jargon. You can do it with theoretical physics, with advanced mathematics and with medicine to name some more STEMy versions. Some people make a lot of money bloviating jargon at some mass of people who don't really understand what they're saying so can't notice the gibberish.

Have you considered not letting your kids use the Internet then?

Are you also harping on Amazon for selling sex toys, Netflix for having anything but G rated movies on it, and maybe HBO should just be shut down completely. It's not like HBO "checks the age" of whoever walks into the room while the cable is tuned to the channel.

And why should everyone else on earth be limited in what they could otherwise legally consume because you can't parent your kids? We didn't ask you to have kids you know.