5 ms·

Mentioning the pedal assist bikes is important, for the amount of battery a cybertruck ships with, you could ship 400 of the ebike I use for 90% of my trips.

4g 2y ago
This isn't zero sum. You can do both
- rvense 2y ago
  It sorts of is, actually? If our capacity to make batteries is limited (or make batteries within some fixed, acceptable, level of environmental impact.)
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - ithkuil 2y ago
    Unfortunately that's now how humanity builds stuff. It's rarely the case that "we all decide that we have this very important thing to do for humanity" and focus on doing just that. More often the benefits for humanity flow down as side effects from other more basic incentives like making money selling fast sport electric vehicles used to signal that you're rich or whatever
  - LUmBULtERA 2y ago
    I think I read in Walter Isaacson's Musk biography that when the Model S came out, it was using something like 10% of the worlds supply of Lithium ion batteries. And that was a pretty small number of Model Ss. EVs have scaled up massively since that time and battery quantity has kept up -- my point being, as long as the price of the ebike is able to pay market prices for the batteries, it seems like supply will scale.
bdamm 2y ago
And I can create an infinite number of "real" bicycles since they don't use a battery at all, plus they're even better for your health than an e-bike! Snark aside, e-bikes are great, I don't have one but that's because between my nice road bike that can crank out 100 miles no problem, and my battery car, I don't need one. But they do work for lots of people. I wish I could get one for my kid, but it is illegal for anyone under 14 to ride one, where I live.
- _ph_ 2y ago
  That a non-electric bike is better for your health is often wrong. If you are very sporty, you are fine. But there are plenty of people who would get better exercise with an e-bike, as they are more likely to use it or just use the electric assist to bike more often or longer distances. Also, there are a lot of regions where there are steep roads which could be obstacles without assist.
  - ljf 2y ago
    This - an e-tricycle kept my dad active until the day he died - he loved it. There is no way he could have ridden entirely under his own steam, but the e-trike was a life-changer for him, and us as a family.
  - rvense 2y ago
    It's a stupid thing, but I wish I could hack the cargo bike I use to bring my kids to school so it wasn't at the second highest level of assist when it turns on. I often forget to turn it down and miss out on a lot of exercise that way...
  - _lvbh 2y ago
    Might be a dumb question but I’ll ask anyways. One of the main factors preventing me from owning a bike is the lack of a permanent residence. I’m forced to move every few months/years, sometimes to a different country. What’s the best way to bring such a large object with me? So far I’ve been forcing myself to own as little as possible such that I can bring everything with me in a single luggage and backpack

4g 2y ago

This isn't zero sum. You can do both

rvense 2y ago
It sorts of is, actually? If our capacity to make batteries is limited (or make batteries within some fixed, acceptable, level of environmental impact.)
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- ithkuil 2y ago
  Unfortunately that's now how humanity builds stuff. It's rarely the case that "we all decide that we have this very important thing to do for humanity" and focus on doing just that. More often the benefits for humanity flow down as side effects from other more basic incentives like making money selling fast sport electric vehicles used to signal that you're rich or whatever
- LUmBULtERA 2y ago
  I think I read in Walter Isaacson's Musk biography that when the Model S came out, it was using something like 10% of the worlds supply of Lithium ion batteries. And that was a pretty small number of Model Ss. EVs have scaled up massively since that time and battery quantity has kept up -- my point being, as long as the price of the ebike is able to pay market prices for the batteries, it seems like supply will scale.

bdamm 2y ago

And I can create an infinite number of "real" bicycles since they don't use a battery at all, plus they're even better for your health than an e-bike! Snark aside, e-bikes are great, I don't have one but that's because between my nice road bike that can crank out 100 miles no problem, and my battery car, I don't need one. But they do work for lots of people. I wish I could get one for my kid, but it is illegal for anyone under 14 to ride one, where I live.

_ph_ 2y ago
That a non-electric bike is better for your health is often wrong. If you are very sporty, you are fine. But there are plenty of people who would get better exercise with an e-bike, as they are more likely to use it or just use the electric assist to bike more often or longer distances. Also, there are a lot of regions where there are steep roads which could be obstacles without assist.
- ljf 2y ago
  This - an e-tricycle kept my dad active until the day he died - he loved it. There is no way he could have ridden entirely under his own steam, but the e-trike was a life-changer for him, and us as a family.
- rvense 2y ago
  It's a stupid thing, but I wish I could hack the cargo bike I use to bring my kids to school so it wasn't at the second highest level of assist when it turns on. I often forget to turn it down and miss out on a lot of exercise that way...
- _lvbh 2y ago
  Might be a dumb question but I’ll ask anyways. One of the main factors preventing me from owning a bike is the lack of a permanent residence. I’m forced to move every few months/years, sometimes to a different country. What’s the best way to bring such a large object with me? So far I’ve been forcing myself to own as little as possible such that I can bring everything with me in a single luggage and backpack