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Some folks are excellent drivers. I find the ability to understand the concept of a car's "soul" to a very reliable way to separate them out. Why? Because "so

Some folks are excellent drivers. I find the ability to understand the concept of a car's "soul" to a very reliable way to separate them out. Why? Because "soul" doesn't mean the immortal soul endowed by our Creator. It refers to the feel and responsiveness of a car. The car's personality, if you will. It refers to every unique behavioral trait that the car has acquired through its design and life been driven. On my old truck the clutch would feel different after my wife drove it. It took a few miles to get the feel back. It drove better with a couple hundred lb on the bed. On my '13 golf I can feel a slight "give" on the steering from wear. I can feel the car and drive it through a corner with the wheels slightly squealing [1]. Thats the edge grip. On the KIA I can feel the difference in the engine and transmission (especially) behavior before and after the oil has warmed up. On the Golf, the shifter is "lazy" until she warms up. Within 10 miles of getting a new set of tires I know if I hate them or love them. I get a feel for their limits. I hate renting cars. Despite the low millage, they feel worn and lose. I also feel like a fish out of the water in a car that is not mine. As you add mechanical/electrical complexity these various feedbacks from the car are washed away. Professional drivers hate these aids. This is widely known in the aviation industry and many planes add artificial feel to give pilots feedback on the fly-by-wire systems. So ya, a good driver feels as if his car has a "soul" just like a good pilot can feel his plane's "soul". There's no immortal soul in a car, no consciousness, but there is a whole lotta love. [1] obviously on track days

svnt 3y ago
It sounds like your assessment of the complexity of a vehicle is specifically tuned to mechanical features of cheap gasoline cars. I would suggest it might be more accurate to describe this as personality instead of soul. Unsurprisingly electric vehicles, which do not have clutches or transmissions at all, or temperamental engines with inconsistent power curves, will exhibit little signal in the areas you have tuned yourself to perceive. This does not indicate anything about them in a universal way. Your response indicates that you are perhaps incurious about the nuances of driving an EV. Since it sounds like you have invested a lot in sensing personality specifics of gasoline vehicles, this makes sense. Perhaps early EV attempts were muted in their expression of activity personality. Entry level Teslas certainly are not fun to drive in the same way as an old Golf. Have you tried the Ioniq 5?
- thsksbd 3y ago
  You extrapolated a lot about myself from an explanation of what constitutes a machine's personality. For starters, I wouldn't call the Golf cheap. As to my "old" truck, if had 30k miles when I traded it in. I used "old" as in "previous". As to the Golf, it has <60k miles on it. As far as Im aware, EVs still have steering columns that loosen overtime. EV do have their own characteristics, namely low end torque and insane amount of engine braking. They're also heavy hogs. I am not the poster who said EVs lack a "soul", I just explained what "soul" meant to someone who snickered at the idea of a machine having a "soul"; I introduced the idea that the "personality" is better suited and explained why. I have no bias against heavy, torquey, rear wheel drive sedans - my first car was a crown vic, and I loved it for what it was. As to my interest in EVs, you're right, I don't like them. I think they are unconscionably immoral in their impact on the environment (by taking precious batteries from hybrids that have a greater impact on CO2) and the labor (ie Congo) market. But I am not a tech-dinosaur for in transportation. The manual tranny is long dead, having lost any advantage twenty years ago. I believe that hybrids should be highly promoted, no matter how insipid Toyotas are. Infact, if I'm being completely honest, I dont even like cars. If much rather ride a motorcycle, and I believe that, for environmental reasons, the wider the vehicle the lower its speed limit should be. Cars should be limited to 40 mph by the factory. Trucks to 30, motorbikes 90 :D Toyotas are boring. BMW and Honda (the cars too) were fun. Cars are expensive appliances, and most people are terrible drivers distracted by their phones. /rant

svnt 3y ago

It sounds like your assessment of the complexity of a vehicle is specifically tuned to mechanical features of cheap gasoline cars. I would suggest it might be more accurate to describe this as personality instead of soul. Unsurprisingly electric vehicles, which do not have clutches or transmissions at all, or temperamental engines with inconsistent power curves, will exhibit little signal in the areas you have tuned yourself to perceive. This does not indicate anything about them in a universal way. Your response indicates that you are perhaps incurious about the nuances of driving an EV. Since it sounds like you have invested a lot in sensing personality specifics of gasoline vehicles, this makes sense. Perhaps early EV attempts were muted in their expression of activity personality. Entry level Teslas certainly are not fun to drive in the same way as an old Golf. Have you tried the Ioniq 5?

thsksbd 3y ago
You extrapolated a lot about myself from an explanation of what constitutes a machine's personality. For starters, I wouldn't call the Golf cheap. As to my "old" truck, if had 30k miles when I traded it in. I used "old" as in "previous". As to the Golf, it has <60k miles on it. As far as Im aware, EVs still have steering columns that loosen overtime. EV do have their own characteristics, namely low end torque and insane amount of engine braking. They're also heavy hogs. I am not the poster who said EVs lack a "soul", I just explained what "soul" meant to someone who snickered at the idea of a machine having a "soul"; I introduced the idea that the "personality" is better suited and explained why. I have no bias against heavy, torquey, rear wheel drive sedans - my first car was a crown vic, and I loved it for what it was. As to my interest in EVs, you're right, I don't like them. I think they are unconscionably immoral in their impact on the environment (by taking precious batteries from hybrids that have a greater impact on CO2) and the labor (ie Congo) market. But I am not a tech-dinosaur for in transportation. The manual tranny is long dead, having lost any advantage twenty years ago. I believe that hybrids should be highly promoted, no matter how insipid Toyotas are. Infact, if I'm being completely honest, I dont even like cars. If much rather ride a motorcycle, and I believe that, for environmental reasons, the wider the vehicle the lower its speed limit should be. Cars should be limited to 40 mph by the factory. Trucks to 30, motorbikes 90 :D Toyotas are boring. BMW and Honda (the cars too) were fun. Cars are expensive appliances, and most people are terrible drivers distracted by their phones. /rant