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Another issue negated by electric cars. No burning fossil fuels, no carbon monoxide in my garage. Ironic that the only mention of EVs in this thread was about

by 205guy 8y ago

Another issue negated by electric cars. No burning fossil fuels, no carbon monoxide in my garage. Ironic that the only mention of EVs in this thread was about how Teslas turn themselves off and lock automatically. It's like everyone is complaining about having to do wiring at colos and some techs getting accidentally electrocuted, while I spin up another instance on AWS. BTW, my two Nissan Leaf EVs have the a keyless fob thing, and like the ICE cars, they beep if you leave with the car on. It seems like manufacturers just can't come up with a sensible and intuitive way for the keyless fob and car state to interact. Maybe the idea of putting a physical key into the ignition was a better paradigm.

Shivetya 8y ago
and here with GM (I own a Chevy Volt) they have decided the phone app provided to remote unlock/lock the car and start it will now be a paid service to the tune of 14.99 a month via Onstar. Used to be free to use the phone app to do these things. Better yet GM now will collect data from usage and send it to affiliates. Now I know other manufactures charge for navigation and such after a trial period but GM is going to charge just to use a phone app to unlock/lock/start your car. They have plans with data that go up to 60 a month
- organsnyder 8y ago
  Chrysler is the same way (we have a Pacifica PHEV). Our one-year free trial just ended, and there's no way I'm going to spend that much money for such a small amount of convenience.
monkeynotes 8y ago
I'm still unsure how a country could switch from gas to EV. Could a city keep up with the power demands when everyone plugs in their EVs at night? I am assuming we'd have to build more power generation capacity, and what is the source? How do you transmit all the high capacity power to quick charge stations on the highway when you have 200+ cars an hour needing to quick charge? It all sounds like an enormous infrastructure upgrade. Europe is already committing to EV and outlawing gas engines in the next 10-20 years so it will be interesting to learn how they plan to accommodate the huge electricity generation and transmission demands that go with that.
- 3pt14159 8y ago
  Ironically it is going to be easiest for places with the cleanest power (hydro, nuclear, geothermal, wind) because clean power tends to be non-burstable while fossil fuels are. So in places like France or Ontario what will happen is that the cars will automatically charge when rates are low (at night) and may even help the grid by acting as remote batteries. For example, you could keep your car at a 70% minimum charge as a configuration then allow the power grid to pull from you as needed. This would passively reduce your overall power bill as you're selling at peak demand and buying at peak supply.
  - y4mi 8y ago
    while also depleting the battery's lifespan. sounds like a perfect opportunity to get careless car owners to destroy their own property for a company's revenue. especially hilarious if the car owner doesn't use an expensive UPS between the grid and the car. I'm sure the next lightning storm isn't too far off - and some of the plugged in cars won't survive it. I'm not against EV though. There'll however be a lot of growing pains as they take over the cities. (though thats still far off)
    - NeutronStar 8y ago
      Look at the batteries lifespan, it's like 25 years. Go look at data before spewing nonsense.
      - y4mi 8y ago
        li-ion battery lifespans are generally calculated in power cycles. They don't really age with years... Generally, power cells have about 300-500 power cycles until there is a significant drop in performance. This is one of the major faults of EV that is often quoted, as some parts of the batteries aren't recycled. So, you're essentially trading the co2 pollution to toxic waste. maybe you should check the facts before you spout nonsense yourself?
        8y ago
amluto 8y ago
Tesla has it exactly right. Put the car in park and take the key out to turn it off. This extends easily to ICE cars, especially newer ones that can auto-restart from 0 RPM idle. When the car is in Park for more than a few seconds, turn off the engine. When the key goes away, turn the rest of the way off. And get rid of the on/off button: it’s unnecessary and annoying.

by 205guy 8y ago

Shivetya 8y ago

and here with GM (I own a Chevy Volt) they have decided the phone app provided to remote unlock/lock the car and start it will now be a paid service to the tune of 14.99 a month via Onstar. Used to be free to use the phone app to do these things. Better yet GM now will collect data from usage and send it to affiliates. Now I know other manufactures charge for navigation and such after a trial period but GM is going to charge just to use a phone app to unlock/lock/start your car. They have plans with data that go up to 60 a month

organsnyder 8y ago
Chrysler is the same way (we have a Pacifica PHEV). Our one-year free trial just ended, and there's no way I'm going to spend that much money for such a small amount of convenience.

monkeynotes 8y ago

I'm still unsure how a country could switch from gas to EV. Could a city keep up with the power demands when everyone plugs in their EVs at night? I am assuming we'd have to build more power generation capacity, and what is the source? How do you transmit all the high capacity power to quick charge stations on the highway when you have 200+ cars an hour needing to quick charge? It all sounds like an enormous infrastructure upgrade. Europe is already committing to EV and outlawing gas engines in the next 10-20 years so it will be interesting to learn how they plan to accommodate the huge electricity generation and transmission demands that go with that.

3pt14159 8y ago
Ironically it is going to be easiest for places with the cleanest power (hydro, nuclear, geothermal, wind) because clean power tends to be non-burstable while fossil fuels are. So in places like France or Ontario what will happen is that the cars will automatically charge when rates are low (at night) and may even help the grid by acting as remote batteries. For example, you could keep your car at a 70% minimum charge as a configuration then allow the power grid to pull from you as needed. This would passively reduce your overall power bill as you're selling at peak demand and buying at peak supply.
- y4mi 8y ago
  while also depleting the battery's lifespan. sounds like a perfect opportunity to get careless car owners to destroy their own property for a company's revenue. especially hilarious if the car owner doesn't use an expensive UPS between the grid and the car. I'm sure the next lightning storm isn't too far off - and some of the plugged in cars won't survive it. I'm not against EV though. There'll however be a lot of growing pains as they take over the cities. (though thats still far off)
  - NeutronStar 8y ago
    Look at the batteries lifespan, it's like 25 years. Go look at data before spewing nonsense.
    - y4mi 8y ago
      li-ion battery lifespans are generally calculated in power cycles. They don't really age with years... Generally, power cells have about 300-500 power cycles until there is a significant drop in performance. This is one of the major faults of EV that is often quoted, as some parts of the batteries aren't recycled. So, you're essentially trading the co2 pollution to toxic waste. maybe you should check the facts before you spout nonsense yourself?
      - 8y ago

amluto 8y ago

Tesla has it exactly right. Put the car in park and take the key out to turn it off. This extends easily to ICE cars, especially newer ones that can auto-restart from 0 RPM idle. When the car is in Park for more than a few seconds, turn off the engine. When the key goes away, turn the rest of the way off. And get rid of the on/off button: it’s unnecessary and annoying.