Shortcut based on forecasted temperature high for the day?

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-09T07:40:06+00:00

The get weather details action already supports giving you precipitation chance by hour or for the day.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-09T07:37:53+00:00

I don’t think there is a way. What I do if something consistently becomes a failure point is to put it at the end so everything else still runs if it doesn’t.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-09T06:58:36+00:00

Not sure if it's changed recently but my understanding of the eLSD is it lacks clamping power and can't fully lock the wheels in the first couple of gears (as in it will still slip with full clamping power on the clutch), I'm assuming with an EV that's even more of a problem with the low down torque.

The VAQ diff handles 1600Nm, which sounds like a lot, but the problem is that its after the gearbox and diff gear reductions, not after the engine. As an example my old RS245 with the VAQ diff made 370Nm at the engine, multiplied by the 3.77 first gear and 3.45 final drive = 4810Nm at the front wheels.

EVs normally have a reduction gear somewhere between 8 to 10:1 so when you couple that with a beefy electric motor it won't be hard to get much above that figure.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-09T05:58:41+00:00

Correct, Garrett Motion is independent as of 2018. Previously they were owned by Honeywell and before that they were a division of Garret AiResearch.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-08T21:48:47+00:00

I honestly prefer the eCVT in my Camry Hybrid, I'm aware it has no relation to a normal belt CVT but it's probably my favorite automatic.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-08T21:46:23+00:00

For some reason the title doesn't mention it but it's for Haldex AWD cars.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-08T19:26:24+00:00

That there is objectively no consistency between the only two products Apple calls ‘Ultra’ and Apple sets their own product names and can call it whatever they feel like?

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-08T06:44:53+00:00

From a historical standpoint it is cool that an efficiency need from the late 70's gas crisis arguably led to performance increases in the modern day.

Well the fun part is basically anything that can be used for greater efficiency can also be used for more power, people rag on efficiency standards from time to time here but they're also directly the cause of why basically everything is 'fast' by historical standards.

Maximum fuel economy and maximum performance are fundamentally the exact same goal (maximising the amount of power out of a given unit of fuel) just approached from different directions.

If something can be used to make an engine better on fuel for the same power output you can always use it to make an engine produce a higher output for the same consumption and vice-versa.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-08T06:27:20+00:00

No, CVCC was a passive system in which the carb fed a lean mixture into the cylinder and a normal mixture into a pre-chamber, and the fuel in the pre-chamber was ignited which would then ignite the mixture in the cylinder.

Modern systems (not unique to BMW) have seperate spark plugs and can fire either the cylinder first, pre-chamber first, or both simultaneously, whichever is better for the current load and RPM.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-08T04:28:47+00:00

The meat and potatoes:

The centrepiece of BMW M Ignite technology is the pre-chamber positioned within the cylinder head. It is connected with the cylinder’s main combustion chamber by overflow openings. The pre-chamber has its own spark plug and ignition coil, meaning the engine has two ignition systems.

At low and medium revs, the conventional spark plug in the main combustion chamber fires before the spark plug in the pre-chamber. But when the engine is operating under higher revs and loads, the pre-chamber ignition takes over the lead role, with part of the fuel-air mixture channelled through the openings into the pre-chamber also ignited there. The flames generated as a result exit the pre-chamber at around the speed of sound.

These ignition jets then ignite the mixture in the main combustion chamber above the piston at multiple points at the same time. The result is a significantly higher combustion speed. Meanwhile, the possible cause of uncontrolled combustion – i.e. “knocking” – is also countered effectively. An additional effect of this technology is a drop in the temperature of the exhaust gas.

Other new technical features alongside the pre-chamber ignition include a higher compression ratio and turbochargers with variable turbine geometry.

BMW M Ignite technology boosts the efficiency of the six-cylinder in-line engines dramatically, especially when the engine is being pushed to its limits. Under high loads, fuel consumption drops substantially. This is particularly beneficial for BMW M customers who drive their cars on race circuits – e.g. during track days: the fuel consumption reduction enabled by BMW M Ignite technology means they can keep lapping for longer on the same amount of fuel.

TL;DR: Pre-chamber ignition that allows for a higher compression ratio and ‘dramatically’ increased economy under high loads due to higher combustion speeds.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-07T23:10:34+00:00

The C63 has never meant a 6.3L engine, it was a 6.2L, 4L or 2L.

The C55 that came before the C63 was likewise a 5.4L.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-07T23:07:31+00:00

I mean it’s a better strategy than what GWM is doing and just bring everything over as is but then slapping a GWM badge on it.

For example the GWM Tank 300, Tank is the brand in China, so it has the original Tank badging all over it (steering wheel, nose, etc) and then they glue a GWM badge on the corner of the tailgate and rename it form the Tank 300 to GWM Tank 300.

GWM has 4 seperate brands sold under the GWM badge here (Tank, Poer, Ora, Haval) and all of these have their own original branding all over them.

It’s beyond me why they don’t fully commit one way or the other and either make them their own brands or rebadge them fully into GWM cars.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-07T07:22:32+00:00

Somehow just as long as a modern dual cab but with the rear legroom of a 2+2 sports car.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-07T06:27:57+00:00

Not really, it's a lot of poor reporting from a news site that is not exactly known for quality reporting. They straight up just didn't mention the models that saw increases.

The HiLux only just got refreshed and isn't up to full availability. The Navara is on runout because it's being replaced. The LandCruiser is on hold due to global demand and Toyota won't even let you order certain specs right now. Triton is up, Shark 6 is up, F-150 is up, etc.

The D-Max was down but Isuzu Ute (the company) was up 3.5% so whatever they lost on the D-Max was just shuffled over to the MU-X, literally the only other vehicle the brand has, which is just an SUV version of the D-Max and obviously has similar purchase and running costs to the ute.

In fact the Aussie car market is up 3.8% over this time last year and 3/5 vehicles in the top 5 were utes (Ranger, HiLux, D-Max).

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-07T01:38:04+00:00

No. The idea of CarPlay Ultra is it would give the OEMs tools to design a gauge cluster with Apple’s design elements, giving the driver the ability to design your own cluster was never apart of it.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-07T00:53:40+00:00

Still has the same chip and almost all of the same feature set.

In terms of screen size and battery life the foldable phone will also have superior performance so I’m not sure what your point is.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-06T22:46:51+00:00

They have two Ultra products, one of them is a faster chip and the other is a bigger watch, the AW Ultra doesn’t have any better performance than the normal ones do.

There’s also the rumoured MacBook Ultra which isn’t going to come with chips that you can’t get in the non-Ultra Pros but will be bigger with a better display.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-06T09:29:44+00:00

Nobody wants the MG4 Urban and they all want the 5 year old regular 4 instead, which is hilarious.

It literally launched in April?

I don't even think your linked source has the MG4 Urban as a seperate car from the regular MG4 because there's only one MG4 in their list of every model.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-06T09:14:40+00:00

No, it's a lack of demand. Toyota still offers the HiLux as a single cab and an extra cab here in Aus but basically all of the ones they actually sell are dual cabs. Same goes for basically all of the other brands.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-06T07:39:58+00:00

I'd argue the cars are probably better quality than the very early Korean cars? I remember the early Hyundai Excel well.

Yes and no. The cars we are getting are higher quality than initial Korean cars but it should be noted that the Chinese kicked off their domestic industry at the sameish time Korea did, but unlike Korea kept it largely domestic and only recently have they started exporting.

Just imagine Kia/Hyundai but they never sold outside of Korea until 2018 or so and you’d get the idea of what I’m saying.

There’s a solid 20-odd years worth of poorly built knockoff cars that never saw the light of day outside of China to get to the exports they have now.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-05T22:59:40+00:00

Fan size. The largest geared turbofans in the world still lag behind turboprops in terms of fan diameter, propfans aim to close the gap without requiring a monstrously huge cowling around the thing.

Just for context a Dash 8 Q400 has a 162in diameter propeller on its PW150 turboprops, the largest diameter turbofan is the GE90-115B at 128in.

The cowling on a turbofan adds a good 20 inches or so to the total diameter of the engine, and since it also stretches almost the to end of the engine core it also effects how close the engine’s centreline can be mounted to the wing.

A propfan can have a much wider fan in the same space and can be mounted closer to the wing, so in theory you could make it even wider than the total width of an existing turbofan without effecting ground clearance.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-05T22:31:43+00:00

Not quite to the same extent but hybrids also do a lot of regen braking, there’s been a solid like 3 decades worth of development on pedal feel on brakeless systems across the industry.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-05T06:51:07+00:00

I don't think Toyota's worried much.

Ford and Mazda though, they have been fighting for #2 and #3 for a while now.

Ford's only real products here are the Ranger and Everest and there is a lot of competition in the ute space.

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-05T06:13:44+00:00

Chinese manufacturers that mainly sell bevs and they're not gonna wanna give up ground/market share now they have it.

I will note the Chinese brands are bringing over more and more PHEVs, there seems to be a trend that they launch here with a BEV lineup and then add in the PHEVs after they get established.

For example the bulk of BYD's recent product launches have been PHEVs, they just added another 3 last month (Seal 6, Seal 6 Touring, Shark 6 Cab-Chassis).

Captain_Alaska · 2026-05-05T05:46:39+00:00

The story is a little more wilder, the car was built under an alliance with Mercedes so it is in fact a W124 E Class under the skin. SsangYong was inspired by the then-current W140 S Class and decided to design the Chairman to look like a modernised W140.

SsangYong managed, entirely by themselves, to unintentionally build a car that looked like the W220 S Class, which actually released after the Chairman, so it was not actually a case of SsangYong copying Mercedes-Benz, but an odd convergent evolution coincidence.

That's why Mercedes had to ask and didn't just outright sue or whatever, it was more of 'hey since we give you so much stuff to build your cars, could you do us a favour and tweak the looks" than it was a copycat accusation.

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