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Electric cars?

Would you buy an electric car?

  • Already own one

    Votes: 10 5.0%

  • Yes - would definitely buy

    Votes: 43 21.5%

  • Yes - preferred over petrol car if price/power/convenience similar

    Votes: 80 40.0%

  • Maybe - preference for neither, only concerned with costs etc

    Votes: 38 19.0%

  • No - prefer petrol car even if electric car has same price, power and convenience

    Votes: 25 12.5%

  • No - would never buy one

    Votes: 14 7.0%
  • Total voters
    200
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divs4ever said:
that makes little sense , sure , trim the excess , but surely SOME EVs will fill a useful role in the government business
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I know nothing of how the US government operates but if it's anything like Australian governments then certainly there's a use for a modest number of passenger vehicles that aren't being driven all that far, they're just going across town from one office to another department's office or they're going to meet with someone (individuals, business) off site.

EV's are perfect for that, better than petrol, for a very practical reason and that comes down to putting fuel in them. From first hand experience the problem with petrol tends to be that nobody using the car wants to put fuel in it because they've only driven it a relatively short distance. Ends up being one of those nuisance issues of staff conduct.

An EV should fix that if there's a charger for each vehicle. Just plug them in when they're parked in the garage and it's dead easy for a manager or other person to walk past and see that they're all plugged in.
 
Smurf1976 said:
From first hand experience the problem with petrol tends to be that nobody using the car wants to put fuel in it because they've only driven it a relatively short distance. Ends up being one of those nuisance issues of staff conduct.
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ah yes , i remember that problem as well

but i have a dark sense of humor , and made some pointed ( but eventually accurate jokes ) about that issue ... including putting a beacon on the company van so we could track where it ran out of petrol this time ( and it had to use selected fuel outlets to fill the vehicle .. which did NOT include the three closest outlets to the office )

epic fun ( if YOU don't have to use that vehicle )
 
My somewhat not ao limited workplace experience tells me the "just plug them" will not be so simple, and lead to a whole set of memos, post-its...
When you remove self interest, the care factor just vanishes..and we all know that.."it is better to cycle the battery "...
Even without knowing anything about such situations in first hand experience, the cynic in me us already ROL.
Age and experiences are such bastards
 
qldfrog said:
My somewhat not ao limited workplace experience tells me the "just plug them" will not be so simple, and lead to a whole set of memos, post-its...
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It very likely would but it's still a lot easier to manage. It's easier to check that all parked cars are plugged in every time the manager walks past than it is to check the fuel gauge in them all.
 
Tesla class action in Australia.


The class action alleges the brand over promised on the capabilities of its vehicles and some functions didn’t work properly.

The three main issues were for phantom braking, which the lawsuit alleges occurs when the auto emergency braking tech brakes at inappropriate circumstances that could lead to an increased risk of an accident.

It calls out the vehicles’ driving range, too. The lawsuit alleges owners can not achieve or come close to the advertised range or the range displayed on the vehicle’s dashboard when the battery level is greater than 50 per cent.

The final point of the class action surrounds the vehicle's Autopilot claims. It said the hardware on Tesla vehicles is incapable of supporting fully autonomous or close to autonomous driving despite claims to the contrary.

The firm is looking for aggrieved owners to take part in the action against Tesla, which will be argued in the Federal Court of Australia.
 
At last common sense might be returning to the car industry, now all we have to do is convince Tesla, then I might buy one.


Manufacturers are slowly starting to listen to what car journalists and owners have been complaining about for almost a decade: Cramming all the car’s functions into a touchscreen is an inferior solution to having dedicated physical controls for key tasks.

Among the manufacturers known to be switching back to buttons is Volkswagen, whose latest vehicles have gone touch-control-crazy with functions either buried inside a touchscreen menu or relocated to an annoying haptic feedback panel.

We’ve known for a while that Volkswagen was considering putting back some buttons in its cars, but the manufacturer never officially acknowledged this. Now VW’s design boss, Andreas Mindt, has admitted to Autocar that this approach was a mistake and that the automaker is backtracking on this trend.

“From the ID.2all onwards, we will have physical buttons for the five most important functions—the volume, the heating on each side of the car, the fans and the hazard light—below the screen,” Mindt told Autocar. He added, “They will be in every car that we make from now on. We will never, ever make this mistake anymore. On the steering wheel, we will have physical buttons. No guessing anymore. There's feedback, it's real, and people love this. Honestly, it's a car. It's not a phone.”
 

I find it easier with one screen, especially noticeable when swapping different brands and not being able to operate the radio or cruise controls because different designers have different differing styles.

However, the voice command is pretty good these days, almost no need to touch a screen or button.
 
Isn't autopilot switched off in Australia?
 
My other half hates touch screens, even her phone doesn't work, to her touch.lol
I think it is a static resistance issue, but it is funny as hell, she stabs the screen like crazy, then I just touch it and it works. Lol

It drives her crazy, a Tesla centre screen would be ripped off the dash and thrown out the window.
 
the biggest problem that both my wife and I find is he screens are almost unreadable when wearing polarised sunglasses, or when the sun is in direct reflective direction to the screen.
I can fumble for a knob or button without having to look at it.
Mick
 
if ifs against the law to operate / hold a phone when driving, surely these distractions are as bad?
 
mullokintyre said:
the biggest problem that both my wife and I find is he screens are almost unreadable when wearing polarised sunglasses, or when the sun is in direct reflective direction to the screen.
I can fumble for a knob or button without having to look at it.
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Yep, I've never seen any vehicle with conventional (non-screen) controls that someone couldn't silence the music or adjust the air-conditioning without taking their eyes off the road.

Tech for a purpose I'm fine with but in a car well physical buttons and knobs are universally understood and fit for purpose. They don't create the driver distraction that a screen does.
 

I know what you mean, but that is governed by the quality of the screen and its resolution. My wife and I both have prescription sunglasses, mine are Ray Bans, and we have no problem seeing the screen in the Tesla.
 
have a similar issue with touch screens i can understand her frustration ,

i will watch of for discarded touchscreens when next travelling on the highways ( and roads )

BTW i see Volkswagen are STARTING to return to buttons on new vehicles ( but because of the clutter/complexity on touchscreen displays )
 
Bridgestone and Michelin plan to introduce a puncture proof tyre particularly aimed at the autonomous vehicle market.

The main problem is designing a tyre that can take the weight of a vehicle at speed. Thus one can get punctureless tyres for scooters but not for b doubles. They will have flexible ribs and a light rubber compound to promote speed and rebound over minor bumps.

Autonomous shares with moi the inability to take any joy out of changing a tyre so this should accelerate the wakeup of such EVs.

gg
 

Those tyres have been in the pipeline since the late 80’s. Every decade they resurface with new promises. The problem is that the tyres don’t have the same flexibility of conventional tyres, don’t absorb bumps and road irregularities as well as air pressure tyres, and don’t give the same handling efficiency. They are also more expensive.

The money people have tried so many times to get enough interest that know one is bothered looking anymore. And now they have found a new audience to try and convince, EV owners.

My Tesla has the original tyres and 62,000km, I have had 2 punctures in that time, but neither have gone so flat that I couldn’t drive to a tyre repair shop.
 
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