Electric and Hybrid Car Thread

[snowball]

Originally Posted by underscore

Drivers Ed might be a better investment than a new vehicle. If she's bad now imagine how bad she'd be if the system can't do it and she has to take over after not having done it for months.

or.. racing school! hit the apex and use those curbs

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by SumAznGuy

Serious answer, no. They use camera and radar technology and in bad weather or low light, the cameras cannot pickup the lines, thus has trouble staying within the lines.

I have both AP and FSD, but from my own experience, the car never had problem keeping the lanes. The only thing that gets disabled in bad weather is navigate on autopilot.

Nevertheless, the lane/speed keeping (basically just the AP) has always worked for me.

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by Hehe

I have both AP and FSD, but from my own experience, the car never had problem keeping the lanes. The only thing that gets disabled in bad weather is navigate on autopilot.

Nevertheless, the lane/speed keeping (basically just the AP) has always worked for me.

Impressive. Sorry, but I am going to assume this is on a Model 3?

[twitchyzero]

this Model X failed to pick up the well-defined double-solid yellow on a good day

[!LittleDragon]

Originally Posted by Koflach

It's a good thing that our electricity comes from hyrdo electric dams then.

Actually, we have a number of waste to energy plants in BC. We burn garbage and recyclable materials for energy.

https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/e...aste-to-energy

There's one in Burnaby... https://www.covanta.com/Our-Facilities/Covanta-Burnaby

The plastics that came back from the Philippines... we burned it for energy..

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/waste-...ines-1.4436639

[!LittleDragon]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

Question for all the guys here with autopilot. Can it drive itself in the city ? Or twisty roads or in the rain ? I’m asking because the wife is interested in getting it IF it’s able to automatically drive itself on west Vancouver’s marine drive. That street going to horseshoe bay is twisty and narrow and she hates driving it.

If what she's driving now is compatible with OpenPilot, I suggest checking it out. I installed it on my Genesis a few months ago and I use it daily.

[Badhobz]

Thanks little dragon !! I’ll take a look.

[bcedhk]

anyone here has or knows of someone with an early model e-golf (2015-2016)?

Looking to get an urban commuter and I've been seeing a few for sale from dealerships at an affordable price.

Also, any tips to get the strata to approve installing EV chargers in the residential lot? Or is it an uphill process?

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by bcedhk

any tips to get the strata to approve installing EV chargers in the residential lot? Or is it an uphill process?

A lot has to do with your building and the people on the strata.

Some strata's are more forward thinking and are willing to work with owners while other strata's are bullish with the idea of using common electricity to charge an owner's car.

I assume you own, in which case, your best bet is to attend a strata meeting and bring up the idea. Be prepared to pay some monthly fee if they are willing to let you charge your car.

My last strata and current strata put up signs saying no EV car charging in the common area and were completely against EV car charging.

[hud 91gt]

The best way to get through to them would be to put together a proposal with all the associated data. Your going to have to take into account electricity costs, average battery capacity etc. A strata filled with elderly people won’t like change, especially if it’s going to cost them money without benefit.

[68style]

Mine recently put in 2-3 spots for charging but you have to pay a nominal fee... it was a pretty simple process and they were all onboard with it, I think they looked at it as generating a profit in the future.

[Hondaracer]

I’m all for building improvements but if I still lived in a strata building there’s no way in hell I would vote for more than a handful of pay-per-use stalls.

Adding dozens of chargers would require so much infastrucurre work to benefit the few that could afford an EV, you would never see your return on investment. I really don’t think it would have much bearing at all on resale value etc. And I’m sure people would be ingnorant af with their charging etiquette

[68style]

Yah I guess our complex was fortunate in that we had a tonne of visitor spots so putting a couple charging things in to 2 of them didn't really matter, but a DT Vancouver place would be cutting already limited resources to make this happen.

Also I believe 2 out of 5 people on my council actually have electric cars, so that's another reason they did this so quickly. I know one of them actually appropriated a standard outlet on a pole next to their spot putting a plastic case and lock on it so no one else could pull their charger thing out... not sure how they were able to get away with that.

[SumAznGuy]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

I’m all for building improvements but if I still lived in a strata building there’s no way in hell I would vote for more than a handful of pay-per-use stalls.

Adding dozens of chargers would require so much infastrucurre work to benefit the few that could afford an EV, you would never see your return on investment. I really don’t think it would have much bearing at all on resale value etc. And I’m sure people would be ingnorant af with their charging etiquette

Honestly, I don't see how they would recoup the cost of putting in the chargers unless city by-laws mandate them being built as part of new builds.

The last part is the most important. You are going to have ppl leaving their cars plugged in over night and that means the other ppl who have EV's can't charge their cars or other owners will be pissed cause ppl with EV's are parked in visitors.

I've heard of some of the newer builds that have 240V plugs built into every parking stall (mounted in the ceiling)

[bcedhk]

Thanks for the input. One of my suggestions was to ask the commercial tenants to cost-share the installation of an EV charger in their commercial parking stalls. I hope if they will be more receptive of these "green initiatives"

[BIC_BAWS]

Originally Posted by Badhobz

I’m asking because the wife is interested in getting it IF it’s able to automatically drive itself on west Vancouver’s marine drive. That street going to horseshoe bay is twisty and narrow and she hates driving it.

That road is a great drive tho!

[Koflach]

I'm surprised nobody has posted about the Sony Playstation Car.

YouTube

[Hehe]

It wouldn't surprise me if Sony partners with some manufacturers to actually bring the Vision S to fruition.

Sony has pretty much all the know-hows that are considered crucial to an EV.

But I think the bigger point in the grand scheme of things is the very point why Dyson called it quit on the EV: too little of a barrier of entry.

EVs really ARE computers on wheels. We already have the Apple equivalent in the field: Tesla. Firstmover and the "cool kid" on the block. Now we'd just wait and see who will become the Android.

If any major car or electronic giant step up and bring a GREAT skateboard template, we might see a major shift of the car industry where a lot of small firms would design cars while using a common platform... not all that different to what cellphone industry is today.

And don't be surprised that the current major players in the field cease to matter in the future. Think about it... the major phone players from the late 90s to mid 00s: Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Blackberry, Motorola... etc. They are all in the "others" now when it comes to phone marketshare.

[Traum]

Not negating any of what Hehe has said above, and I like the iPhone vs Android analogy that you are drawing, but I'd say one crucial aspect that has not been taken into account is how much more complex and process-intensive the automotive manufacturing sector is compared to almost pretty much anything else.

Existing auto manufacturers are exceedingly efficient in their manufacturing operations -- they have to be, or they'll be out of business. By comparison, you can see how completely inadequate Tesla is in this regard. Building cars in an outdoor tent that is hastily set up?

And this isn't about building something that retails for $1000. I don't know what the manufacturing cost of building a car is, but it is definitely way higher than making phones. If you screw up something, you are losing big $$$ with each and every vehicle you build, so that adds up fast.

The way I see it is, EVs really need a thorough marrying of 2 entities -- the electronics / computer aspect, as well as the traditional auto manufacturing aspect. It's gonna take too long for just 1 side to figure it out on their own. IMO, the traditional manufacturing sector has a slight advantage because they already have the expertise that costs significantly more to develop, hone, and perfect. VWAG and Toyota, in particular, seem like they are far ahead of the rest of the pack in coming out with viable EVs.

The Taycan does not suck because VW didn't know how to build a proper EV. IMO, Porsche just chose to spec the Taycan that way because they have certain priorities in mind regarding long term support of their vehicles -- ie. the Taycan is only doing maybe 70 - 80% of what it is really totally capable of because it wants to guarantee a certain level of performance. Tesla is taking a different approach by opening everything up so you get access to nearly 100% of what the car is able to do now, but it is offering less guarantees on other aspects that support the vehicle's on-going operations.

[Hehe]

I get what you are saying.

Of course... not that any Joe6packs can start an EV company.

But what I'm referring is, building EV that can move actually has a closer relationship to building a Mini4WD (this was for my childhood... I learned crapload of basic electrical/mechanical knowledge modding that shit at the age of 6/7... yeah, I'm old now) vs. building a car. A regular car, even just a very basic one that can barely move, needs expertise in many many engineering fields because there are a lot of consideration that goes into an ICE car.

Thus, assuming an electronic giant build a decent platform, it's not hard for a startup to get into the game. Much like how companies like Xiaomi, or many Chinese phone startups were able to make their own phone. They took a reference design from Mediatek or Qualcomm, added their own touches... and voila. New phone!

[twitchyzero]

that sony on wheels is useless without miniDisc/Betamax player in the centre console, dualshock in the wheel and zeiss glass for the LED projectors

[dark0821]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

that sony on wheels is useless without miniDisc/Betamax player in the centre console, dualshock in the wheel and zeiss glass for the LED projectors

Don't forget the cybershot for the rear and side mirror cameras....

Thanks for that statement man... shit everything came back... with the highschool memory of W810i then finally moving onto the ultimate w900i...

was never baller enough to afford the Sharp SH903....

[MG1]

I keep disinfectant wipes in the car. I wipe the plug, touch screen, and cable at each location I charge at. Man, those touch screens are filthy as fuck.

[underscore]

Make sure the wipes are actually disinfecting wipes, and follow the directions on them to make sure they're effective. It seems like most of them either don't actually clean things or you'll need to use a bunch of them because you have to keep the surface wet for 10mins.

[MG1]

The Lysol ones are soaking wet like a horny toad.

Two of them. I leave it on the nozzle for putting it back into the holster when done.