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I genuinely don't like this, in part because it is so good. Society continues cramming unnecessary, yet surprisingly useful features into bigger and bigger car
by screye 4y ago
I genuinely don't like this, in part because it is so good.
Society continues cramming unnecessary, yet surprisingly useful features into bigger and bigger cars. With each feature, it brings people 1 step closer to thinking that they actually need what is effectively a murder tank in their house.
In the US, power outages are a once every few years kind of thing. Most truck uses are similarly once a year sort of uses. These trucks are by and large purchased by rich people in suburbs, who never so much as use 1% of the features they offer. Yet, people end up solo-driving these same over-bloated tanks for their commute and ferrying around a couple of people.
It makes the roads riskier (already biggest contributor of youth death), increases road wear by 4x (weight squared) and leads to the general inefficiencies that come with car-centric design.
Note: This doesn't apply to those in rural areas.
- sn9 4y agoYou've clearly never lived along the Gulf coast. During natural disasters like hurricanes, this kinda thing can be a life saver. Many people buy diesel generators for these kinds of situations. This is a marked improvement.
- pornel 4y agoHow does Japan survive regular Tsunami with their tiny Kei cars?
- hunterb123 4y agoAre you asserting that Japanese people do not die by tsunamis, that lack of electricity doesn't attribute to deaths, or that tsunamis don't knock out the grid? Or a combination of those three? I'd affirm that lives would be saved with more backup power options. Whether Ford's solution is effective is TBD, but more power options overall is a good thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_and_tsunami#Damage_and_effects https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_T%C5%8Dhoku_earthquake_an...
- aaronbeekay 4y agoI live in a major US city and my power goes out at least once every couple of months, sometimes for hours at a time. I have installed several UPSes on important electrical things (servers, routers, modem) to avoid the hassles that come with regular power failures. (Not that the Lightning would be a big help here - these outages very rarely last a day or more - but it’s not the case that outages are rare events.)