It is OK Americans are suckers for novelty. But here is serious, as a tech who commutes on an china imported electric bike, front wheel drive for bikes in any sort of slippery conditions is dangerous because of the amount of acceleration from electric motors. Top speed of 20 miles per hour is OK but with standard brakes etc it is quite fast enough thanks. For the motorcyclists who think these electric bikes are as dangerous, this is not so. I have even personally found they are less dangerous than a standard bike as they are more able to join traffic with their excellent acceleration. I have ridden motorcycles, bikes and own a car which now rests at home. Costs per kilometer are very low, about 2c US taking into account changing the battery every five years. Still initial cost should be about $500 to make them viable.

I have been using an upright electric bike to comute for nearly one and a half years. It is more like a heavy aluminium commercial frame so will not win any beauty prizes, but with a half kilowatt battery and a three hundred watt motor, it has a range of 30 km (20miles) with no pedalling and about 60km with. I find it comfottable and practical for normal commuting in rain or shine, and try to stand out with hiviz gear. Personally practical beats style anyday. Cost about U$1000 new in New Zealand as a Chinese import.

Some time ago after moving my reading to a tablet I had beta /. foisted on me. I know I like /. as I have been reading the news & COMMENTS here since 2K. I did not enjoy the new site, in fact it put me off. Then HAPPY DAY I found that on googoo play there is a stripped text only version where I can have a chosen font size and selected comment level. So I have been cruising along getting my fix and facts while the other poor schmoes got shafted. But this was the easy way out. I MISS CLASSIC...

Here is the crunch; Robots and their links do not pay tax. Not the way employees do. This is accelerating the trend to the corporations having more money / power than governments. If governments want to stay relavent and not go out of business they are going to have to solve these problems of where their income is gong to come from. The the other side of this coin is that Robots do not vote.