3 ms·

There were numerous occasions when hundreds or thousands of cars were stranded on highways during blizzard and exhausted their fuel reserves. It is easy to deli

by FpUser 4y ago

There were numerous occasions when hundreds or thousands of cars were stranded on highways during blizzard and exhausted their fuel reserves. It is easy to deliver some fuel when conditions clear. I am curious what it would look like with electric vehicles.

darkerside 4y ago
I wonder if we could chain cars together to the nearest power plant, so using the traffic jam itself as the grid.
alistairSH 4y ago
If they aren’t moving, just running the heater, how long do the batteries last? Regardless, that’s such an edge case, I’m not sure it needs to be a major part of EV vs ICE calculus. Here in DC, it’s a 1x/decade event, give or take - basically takes a ton of wet snow falling mid-morning, the Fed closing offices early PM, and the entire city tryin to get home that afternoon in one giant mob.
- FpUser 4y ago
  >"Here in DC" There are many populated places that are not "Here in DC" but still have lot of highways and are further north of DC.
  - danaris 4y ago
    I live in NYS. A blizzard that's bad enough that it strands cars here for any length of time is incredibly rare—because we have the infrastructure to deal with snow. I would be willing to bet the DC area actually has that happen more often than anywhere else in the US, because it's among the post populated places far enough north that it gets big blizzards from time to time, but far enough south that its snow-removal (and snow-prevention—eg, salting the roads) infrastructure is fairly minimal compared to places that get lots of snow all the time.
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    True, but DC has a fairly unique mix of… - daytime temperatures that hover around freezing, leading to lots of black ice. - A major employer (US government) with a disdain for WFH arrangements prior to COVID - rare major winter events, so not enough snow removal equipment - crap public transit options (the subway gets stuck in a few inches of snow) Anybody who works private sector in the area stays home (if they can) when the forecast is for snow. This wasn’t an option for most of the government (including 10s of thousands of .gov contractors). With .gov wide early release when weather hits, icy mix, and crap public transit options, it’s a combination that leads to insane gridlock on the rare occasion we get a true winter storm. I’m sure there are regions that have one-off traffic. DC gets city-wide gridlock that lasts 8 hours or so if we get more than 8” of snow during a work day.
- bryanlarsen 4y ago
  An electric car with a full charge can run the seat heaters for about a month.
  - jeffbee 4y ago
    I wish more people understood how much energy it takes to move a car. It's a completely astonishing amount of energy.
  - effingwewt 4y ago
    He was asking about heaters, not seat warmers. LThey are two different things entirely. Heated seats aren't going to be nearly enough if stuck in a blizzard or whatever. I'm all for EVs but think hybrids are far more practical for anything other than simple work commutes. Also, why does everyone assume charging and electricity prices won't surge as soon as the utility companies have enough of the population under their thumb? Electricity prices will become the new gas prices. We need to stop this shit at the source and start capping profits.
    - bryanlarsen 4y ago
      I said heated seats deliberately. They are much more energy efficient than cabin heaters and will keep you alive during a blizzard. If you're not appropriately dressed they won't keep you comfortable. And if electricity prices surge then regulators aren't doing their job. The costs of renewable energy have been dropping dramatically and are expected to keep dropping. I do expect the price delta between peak and trough electricity prices to widen dramatically, but mostly due to the price of trough dropping.
      - effingwewt 4y ago
        I got you. If you think government regulations will help reign in prices I invite you to look at the Texas power grid price structure it's highway robbery already. And if the government can't keep current electricity and gas prices under control why should we for a second think they'd do better if we were all driving electric vehicles. The only pattern I see is to build a moat and use their regulatory capture to raise prices while ignoring infrastructure to the detriment of everyone.
supportlocal4h 4y ago
You send the battery truck out. It looks kinda like a tow truck towing a huge battery. It can charge 8 cars at a time. It takes 30 minutes to get 8 cars up to 3kWh. So a 30 vehicle stack up would take 2 hours to clear with just one battery truck. After being stranded for 24 hours, a 2 hour charge delay doesn't seem like a big deal.
- erik_seaberg 4y ago
  Pretty good idea, does that exist yet?

by FpUser 4y ago

darkerside 4y ago

I wonder if we could chain cars together to the nearest power plant, so using the traffic jam itself as the grid.

alistairSH 4y ago

If they aren’t moving, just running the heater, how long do the batteries last? Regardless, that’s such an edge case, I’m not sure it needs to be a major part of EV vs ICE calculus. Here in DC, it’s a 1x/decade event, give or take - basically takes a ton of wet snow falling mid-morning, the Fed closing offices early PM, and the entire city tryin to get home that afternoon in one giant mob.

FpUser 4y ago
>"Here in DC" There are many populated places that are not "Here in DC" but still have lot of highways and are further north of DC.
- danaris 4y ago
  I live in NYS. A blizzard that's bad enough that it strands cars here for any length of time is incredibly rare—because we have the infrastructure to deal with snow. I would be willing to bet the DC area actually has that happen more often than anywhere else in the US, because it's among the post populated places far enough north that it gets big blizzards from time to time, but far enough south that its snow-removal (and snow-prevention—eg, salting the roads) infrastructure is fairly minimal compared to places that get lots of snow all the time.
- alistairSH 4y ago
  True, but DC has a fairly unique mix of… - daytime temperatures that hover around freezing, leading to lots of black ice. - A major employer (US government) with a disdain for WFH arrangements prior to COVID - rare major winter events, so not enough snow removal equipment - crap public transit options (the subway gets stuck in a few inches of snow) Anybody who works private sector in the area stays home (if they can) when the forecast is for snow. This wasn’t an option for most of the government (including 10s of thousands of .gov contractors). With .gov wide early release when weather hits, icy mix, and crap public transit options, it’s a combination that leads to insane gridlock on the rare occasion we get a true winter storm. I’m sure there are regions that have one-off traffic. DC gets city-wide gridlock that lasts 8 hours or so if we get more than 8” of snow during a work day.
bryanlarsen 4y ago
An electric car with a full charge can run the seat heaters for about a month.
- jeffbee 4y ago
  I wish more people understood how much energy it takes to move a car. It's a completely astonishing amount of energy.
- effingwewt 4y ago
  He was asking about heaters, not seat warmers. LThey are two different things entirely. Heated seats aren't going to be nearly enough if stuck in a blizzard or whatever. I'm all for EVs but think hybrids are far more practical for anything other than simple work commutes. Also, why does everyone assume charging and electricity prices won't surge as soon as the utility companies have enough of the population under their thumb? Electricity prices will become the new gas prices. We need to stop this shit at the source and start capping profits.
  - bryanlarsen 4y ago
    I said heated seats deliberately. They are much more energy efficient than cabin heaters and will keep you alive during a blizzard. If you're not appropriately dressed they won't keep you comfortable. And if electricity prices surge then regulators aren't doing their job. The costs of renewable energy have been dropping dramatically and are expected to keep dropping. I do expect the price delta between peak and trough electricity prices to widen dramatically, but mostly due to the price of trough dropping.
    - effingwewt 4y ago
      I got you. If you think government regulations will help reign in prices I invite you to look at the Texas power grid price structure it's highway robbery already. And if the government can't keep current electricity and gas prices under control why should we for a second think they'd do better if we were all driving electric vehicles. The only pattern I see is to build a moat and use their regulatory capture to raise prices while ignoring infrastructure to the detriment of everyone.

supportlocal4h 4y ago

You send the battery truck out. It looks kinda like a tow truck towing a huge battery. It can charge 8 cars at a time. It takes 30 minutes to get 8 cars up to 3kWh. So a 30 vehicle stack up would take 2 hours to clear with just one battery truck. After being stranded for 24 hours, a 2 hour charge delay doesn't seem like a big deal.

erik_seaberg 4y ago
Pretty good idea, does that exist yet?