The right to repair

[catcitrus]

Electric milk floats worked back in the day--and were simple. I hear that if a Tesla has a significant crash then the fire brigade have special hydraulic "scissors" to sever the battery cables. The vehicle has then to be left in an open space for a couple of days just to make sure it doesn't suddenly burst into flames. Lets face it the western economies rely on "moving forward" with new designs and for the car manufacturers its a great way to sell a new product on the back of a green credential when in reality (taking the whole process into account) they are nothing of the sort and require battery replacement after a few miles(relative to 200k) due to the charge/discharge cycle limit--just like a phone failing after a few years--its basic chemistry! I agree that we should make stuff simple, smaller, lighter--and slower--and keep it for 10, 15, 20 years. Try averaging more than 50 mph on a long cross country journey--whats the point of having all that power available and no opportunity to use it--55 bhp for a bike and 70 bhp for a car!

[daveuprite]

OK, got to bow out of this discussion for a couple of days. Got lots of other stuff to be getting on with and a backlog of yoghurt to knit...

[garyboy]

I think electric vehicles are an exciting and clever invention that many people look forward to. .. but I dont believe it will happen, not totally, for many decades. .. if ever.
lets not forget the powerful petro-chemical industries .. their power, their lobbying power, their wealth, etc … they will have something to say about the demise of their wealth??? their source of income.


Also .. as county by country development on our planet is unequal .. why would it all suudenly co-ordinate ... why buy an expensive electic car when an oil fueled one from china or mongolia or africa etc will be much much cheaper, due to lower labour costs and continuation of oil drilling ??

As for global warming .. it is not so much `emissions` that are causing a slight increase in temperature of 1 degree .. it is loss of habitat, the green bits of the planet, that are causing the loss of ability of the planet to regenerate as it has done for billions of years.

[garyboy]

like everyone, I hate emissions form vehicles, especially diesel lorries and buses. and it would be a good thing to drive in traffic that is electric driven, or to be a pedestrian along the pavement ..

present engineering abilities would mean a channel dug outside every house that has not got a garage, or other access, and probably a small upstand for the cable, say near the curb. .. this are vulnerable to attack and vandalism, tho a trip switch inside the house would be a fail safe for the electric. the cost would be astronomic overall … billions .. though achievable, especially with govt grants?

remote charging is already here .. I saw a small device last week where u can place u phone on a plate and it gets charged (microwaves?) .. future models could be used to charge the car outside u door. .. another thing being tested is remote charging on the highway, from under the tarmac? .. but does anyone else have worries about these technologies? … legs lazered off as u walk up the street?

[HedgeHopper]

A huge efficiency gain could be got by people not consuming huge amounts of food that take much resources to produce and turn them into fat unhealthy bastiges that need huge bikes to transport them, burden the health service, take more fuel to zoom em off to Majorca and get then get help to reproduce loads of little fat balls that they teach to behave the same.
But y'know humans being humans it's not gonna happen.

We have to try all things though and every little helps, I'm not optimistic, you only have to look at the ever growing trend for any young mum who can afford the lease contract to go back and forth to Aldi one up in their range rover to see how ridiculous we are.
I just hope we (or someone/thing else) destroys us before we destroy the rest of the planet and it's inhabitants