Title text:
‘They really shouldn’t let those small cars drive in traffic. I worry I’m going to kill someone if I hit one! They should have to drive on the sidewalk, safely out of the way.’
Transcript:
Transcript will show once it’s been added to explainxkcd.com
Source: https://xkcd.com/3167/
The number of massive trucks I see without a speck of dirt in the bed that are used mainly for commuting and groceries is pathetic.
And with the short box option, so you can’t fit 4x8 sheets of stuff in there anyway. Better off with a minivan.
I think there have been occasions where I have passed a truck stopped at a red light on my bike, while carrying more groceries or other materials than they have in their entire backseat and bed.
So much this. I can somewhat forgive a stupid sized truck if it was used for work or some kind of off roading.
If I could have a Fully electric mid 90s chevy S10 style pickup with modern safety features and no surveillance I would be sooooo happy. But no, if I want a truck I can buy old as fuck or get a wanktank. Closest option to what I want in the US currently is a Ford Maverick (which is literally just a rebadged explorer sport trac for the modern age) but that would mean supporting Ford, and like, fuck Ford.
Same, I recently looked for vehicles and this was an option we desperately wanted. We have a great ev now that’s tiny and efficient, but a small truck would have been great
What’s crazy (and sucks) is they DID have an EV S10 from the mid 90’s (hence why it sucks: it’s exactly what you want, but they killed it)
Of course it doesn’t have the modern safety features, but I bet you could still find one if you’re determined enough! Although it’s possible you already knew this 😉
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_S-10_EV
Interesting to read that and see how far we’ve come with EVs and charging.
Even crazier to think how far we could’ve been if they didn’t kill all of these projects as soon as they could!
I had no idea, I’ll have a to keep an eye out for those 👀
Glad I could open your eyes! I have no idea how rare they are so it’s possible you’ll never see one (or you’ll have to build one yourself maybe?)
I only heard about them a day or two before commenting because of the recent EV1 auction! Turns out Jared from The Questionable Garage (formerly Wrench Every Day) got one driving again, which he brought up in his video talking about the EV1 auction
You’re basically asking for what slate promises to be.
Also, you totally didn’t say it, but I feel like whining about it so: A lot of people think that the infotainment in cars could be stripped out to lower the price, but a big touch screen is actually very cheap and it might even be more expensive to have a bunch of bespoke buttons per model, so really, the idea of a gutted out vehicle wouldn’t save any money. The only actual money savers would be in areas like the suspension, build quality, engine size, that sort of thing.
Perhaps, but having tactile options like buttons and dials is considerably safer as the ui can’t change and you can keep your eyes on the road
Correct me if I’m wrong, is Slate not Amazon backed? No judgement either way, I just know that rubs some lemmings the wrong way
My understanding that the “Amazon backed” was a comparatively small portion of the funding, and largely to generate an air of legitimacy for the normies.
Absolutely fair, the more I know. Thanks for the clarification!
Oh don’t worry, it isn’t! Its just backed by Jeff Bezos himself…
Yeah…
This world sucks, and sometimes you gotta make some shitty pragmatic choices. I would judge someone harshly for a Tesla but less so for Slate given that 1. Jeff isn’t so openly racist so much as being a greedy bastard of a human being, and 2. Slate is backed by him but not fully owned by him.
Ah the fun of the world we live in…
Yeah 100%, I’m fully on board with your reasoning. I’m continuously arguing with myself over a Bronco or a Tacoma (only modern backcontry capable vehicles with manuals I’m aware of), so I do NOT have a moral high ground here haha
You don’t need software developers for a button
While you do not need software devs for a button, once you have enough buttons doing enough things controlling them with a computer becomes much easier than controlling them using mechanical circuitry. This is the whole reason for SBCs like the Arduino, so people can make the transitionary step between “my project is simple enough to have physical logic built into it” and “my project is so complex it no longer makes sense for me to hand build the logic”
If you haven’t messed with physical logic gates before, I recommend it! If you don’t have a physical workspace to do it in, Minecraft actually Makes a ‘great’ sandbox for playing with logic circuits. Superflat Creative worlds are the bomb for that.
Start with a simple yes gate, then learn a not gate, then an And, then an Or, and build up from there!
You’ll find very quickly that once you need persistence involved, projects with physical logic can scale massively with each additional bit of storage added. Doing something with that storage? Good luck! As a result, nowadays we pay someone for a tiny computer they already made, and program it to make our buttons do stuff, instead of just having the buttons do stuff directly.
Edit: removed a word, analog does not mean mechanical, mea culpa.
Depends on how the button works
You need someone to figure out how to get the car to interpret that button press. Whether it’s an electrical engineer or a dev doesn’t make too much difference to the argument.
the software route actually makes a bit more sense at scale, as you can abstract all the same functions into the car’s computer regardless of what human interface device is activating that function.
I think Toyota just teased an EV Hilux
Someone pointed out the shape is very Tacoma-esque, so maybe an EV Toyota quarter ton is on the way
It’s become a wealth/status symbol for people who don’t like the more traditional bougie shit. Lets them still delude themselves into thinking they’re salt of the earth types.
I can afford for 2/3 of my vehicle to be functionally useless! Dohohohoho!
A wealth symbol you can finance for 84 months 🤣
It’s because they are actual luxury vehicles. Get inside one of the new ones, and it’s basically what you would imagine a lexus or lincoln would be like. All the fanciness, all the nifty little features… Finding one that is actually made to ‘work’ is hard.
Lucky! I’d love to live somewhere where that was a SMALL number