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I just bought an electric car and it doesn't come with a spare tyre - the battery takes up too much room. If you get a flat you just have to call roadside assis
by mprovost 6y ago
I just bought an electric car and it doesn't come with a spare tyre - the battery takes up too much room. If you get a flat you just have to call roadside assistance. So there are already good networks set up to handle these edge cases without having to build in a remote driving system that hardly gets used.
- yardie 6y agoI recently bought a Hybrid SUV. No spare tire because of the battery. But it comes with run flats, fix-a-flat, and a portable air compressor. Once the warranty expires I plan on mounting a real spare on the roof. We go camping and I just can't see roadside assistance covering the countryside.
- mprovost 6y agoTrue but with an AV they would presumably be geofenced to areas where they can be supported. I don't think it's likely that a remote operator would take control to drive an AV when it's outside a defined ODD (Operational Design Domain).
- alistairSH 6y agoHaha. Run-flats aren't just a problem in the countryside. My wife's BMW doesn't have a spare. Run-flats are only good to ~50mph and 50 miles when flat. So what happens when you blow out the sidewall on a Friday evening on an interstate in suburban NY? You call AAA, wait 3 hours in the pouring rain, and get towed the nearest tire dealer (that's already closed for the day), check into the hotel across the street, and then miss out on the Saturday activities you had planned while you wait for the tire shop to open and get your tire replaced. I'll never buy a car without a spare again. Run-flats are nearly useless unless you just happen to be near a tire shop during open hours.
- rootusrootus 6y agoThat's not particular to EVs. Many cars (could be most, I don't have anything aside from a lot of anecdata however) no longer come with an actual spare. Just a can of fix-a-flat and an electric pump.