4 ms·

Peapod Comes Live Today.

4 points by nav 18y ago

teilo 18y ago
30 mile range on an 8 hour charge, 25mph max, no roads posted above 35mph. What a fracking waste of money. Sorry, but I just cannot see this being useful. It will work for a small number of people, no doubt, but not enough to make this a viable product. Honestly, how far can you go when you have to avoid all roads posted above 35mph?
- anigbrowl 18y ago
  Um, around town? I don't know if this would cope with the hills of San Francisco, but the reason I don't own a car is that I rarely go past the city limit. Of course this is useless if you live in the country or some sleeper town where you face a long commute to work. Fine, it's not aimed at those markets, any more than city dwellers are the prime market for full-size pickup trucks. Sheesh - they even call it a 'neighborhood electric vehicle'. I do think the graphic design of the thing is sheer genius. If the price is right and things are sufficiently maneuverable, then great. Not so smart, however, was choosing the same name as a poorly-perceived grocery delivery service: http://www.peapod.com/ http://www.peapod.com/
  - teilo 18y ago
    Granted. Yet not once has the concept of "neighborhood vehicles" succeeded. This has been tried before. Working against them is the perception that a car is supposed to be driven on roads, any roads. Now they are trying to sell you a car that can only be driven on some roads. Part of the appeal of high economy vehicles, even those that one would traditionally consider "local" vehicles, is that they could be used for longer distance travel when necessary. Example: The Vespa-style scooters. Take away even the possibility of using this vehicle to travel, say, to the town down the road, or even the other side of the metro area, and it becomes much less appealing. It's a lot of money to spend on a vehicle that is hard-limited (legally speaking) to local travel. I could see in certain densely populated areas, this could become more useful. My judgment may be totally flawed. Yet if I had to put money on it, I'd say this thing is going to flop.
    - anigbrowl 18y ago
      Agreed, a lot depends on the price. However, you can't take a 50cc scooter on the freeway. If the price/TCO is right, I could see these selling as fleet vehicles for, say, mail delivery. Those little 'smart cars' from Mercedes and others seem to be doing OK. I don't own a car, so to me a car fit for a road trip and a little runaround-town vehicle are two completely different products. I'd rather own the latter and rent the former once or twice a year. edit: the proposed $20k isn't a winner, though. I think this kind of vehicle needs to be shooting for $5-7,500.
  - rdouble 18y ago
    If it did cope with SF hills it could be a great fleet car for a neighborhood rental service like Zipcar or City Car Share.

4 points by nav 18y ago

teilo 18y ago

30 mile range on an 8 hour charge, 25mph max, no roads posted above 35mph. What a fracking waste of money. Sorry, but I just cannot see this being useful. It will work for a small number of people, no doubt, but not enough to make this a viable product. Honestly, how far can you go when you have to avoid all roads posted above 35mph?

anigbrowl 18y ago
Um, around town? I don't know if this would cope with the hills of San Francisco, but the reason I don't own a car is that I rarely go past the city limit. Of course this is useless if you live in the country or some sleeper town where you face a long commute to work. Fine, it's not aimed at those markets, any more than city dwellers are the prime market for full-size pickup trucks. Sheesh - they even call it a 'neighborhood electric vehicle'. I do think the graphic design of the thing is sheer genius. If the price is right and things are sufficiently maneuverable, then great. Not so smart, however, was choosing the same name as a poorly-perceived grocery delivery service: http://www.peapod.com/ http://www.peapod.com/
- teilo 18y ago
  Granted. Yet not once has the concept of "neighborhood vehicles" succeeded. This has been tried before. Working against them is the perception that a car is supposed to be driven on roads, any roads. Now they are trying to sell you a car that can only be driven on some roads. Part of the appeal of high economy vehicles, even those that one would traditionally consider "local" vehicles, is that they could be used for longer distance travel when necessary. Example: The Vespa-style scooters. Take away even the possibility of using this vehicle to travel, say, to the town down the road, or even the other side of the metro area, and it becomes much less appealing. It's a lot of money to spend on a vehicle that is hard-limited (legally speaking) to local travel. I could see in certain densely populated areas, this could become more useful. My judgment may be totally flawed. Yet if I had to put money on it, I'd say this thing is going to flop.
  - anigbrowl 18y ago
    Agreed, a lot depends on the price. However, you can't take a 50cc scooter on the freeway. If the price/TCO is right, I could see these selling as fleet vehicles for, say, mail delivery. Those little 'smart cars' from Mercedes and others seem to be doing OK. I don't own a car, so to me a car fit for a road trip and a little runaround-town vehicle are two completely different products. I'd rather own the latter and rent the former once or twice a year. edit: the proposed $20k isn't a winner, though. I think this kind of vehicle needs to be shooting for $5-7,500.
- rdouble 18y ago
  If it did cope with SF hills it could be a great fleet car for a neighborhood rental service like Zipcar or City Car Share.