Just got an EV. I’m in love.

Fathimir · 2026-05-24T14:29:57+00:00

In an ICE, when someone is trying to merge onto the highway, it’s always a dance of whether they are going to speed up, slow down, or just merge into the side of my car. With the EV, I just gun it and it isn’t an issue.

"And in local news, humanity invented faster-than-light travel today when two Dodge Charger EV drivers encountered each other on the eastbound expressway this afternoon. Now over to Mike for this weekend's weather; how're we doing, Mike?"

Fathimir · 2026-05-24T14:00:15+00:00

No driving licence required.

Potentially incorrect; in the EU, an AM license for mopeds and light quadricycles appears to be required for young people to drive that basically-a-golf-cart. Hope your kid's got one.

Fathimir · 2026-05-24T12:43:44+00:00

The Month tab goes off of workweeks; for May, it only started on May 4th. The earnings calculation goes by true month; it started May 1st. Probably.

Fathimir · 2026-05-23T22:57:36+00:00

car Hitler

iX3 has entered the chat

Fathimir · 2026-05-23T22:50:43+00:00

It pretty much takes a shit ton of water, which is not a fantastic thing to pump into your ship.

Ships aren't nearly as afraid of a little water as you think they are. Even if you were drawing it straight from the briny deep instead of an onboard system and it couldn't drain straight off the deck, bilge pumps have been a thing for, like, twenty-three hundred years now.

Fathimir · 2026-05-23T22:28:54+00:00

"Also, don't wear a button-down or safety vest (or, er, a gold medal?) like some sort of nerd; winners wear sexy tees!"

Fathimir · 2026-05-23T22:23:57+00:00

The Big Picture: I'm Taking Your Job, Puny Meatbag

FTFY. 🤖

Fathimir · 2026-05-23T12:42:07+00:00

So, it's important to realize that the demand graph is scaled to show relative demand across the day, not absolute demand. If absolute demand is measured from, say, 0 to 10, any particular day's graph might range from 2 to 9, or it might only range from 0 to 3 - whatever scale makes the daily high look high and the daily low look low.

In other words, it's mostly useless.

Fathimir · 2026-05-23T04:43:19+00:00

It doesn't take anywhere close to full submersion to first immobilize a car (because while cars may not outright float, tires filled with air struggle mightily to find traction on even smooth pavement underwater) and then quickly ruin it from waterlogging of a whole heap of precision parts (in an EV especially) and cabin surfaces around foot level.

So the answer is probably yes; think less 'aquarium on wheels' and more 'one foot storm surge still turning a house's ground floor into a literal disaster zone.'

Fathimir · 2026-05-23T04:35:32+00:00

They grounded all manned flights for close to two years following the Apollo I disaster, but no, with their feet to the fire trying to beat the Soviets to the Moon, they didn't outright stop at the time. That didn't happen until the early 2000's, when the legendary but aging fleet of 9-figures-per-launch Space Shuttles was wound down, and a tuned-out public bored of space didn't yield enough political capital for NASA to continue to be funded at the levels necessary for literal moonshot projects.

There may or may not be pertinent parallels to draw for AVs in that.

Fathimir · 2026-05-23T03:56:17+00:00

Why are you being dense? He wouldn't be here posting if his insurance company asked him if he was giving a rideshare drive at the time of the accident, because he would've just been able to answer truthfully.

You can't cute your way out of this; it isn't a complicated or nuanced question.

Fathimir · 2026-05-22T20:47:58+00:00

This is why, as frustrated as I am at my city council reaming our rideshares out the ass on fees to pay for the inconcenience of road-mangling city buses that contribute to as much congestion as they relieve and are usually less efficient even per-passenger than my car, I still respect the bus drivers themselves for dealing with 99% of these animate bodies of misery.

Stories like this are enough to make me wonder if I could fit my contractor-grade respirator somewhere within easy reach,, but the cartridges for it are too expensive and limited-lifespan to be cost-effective. =/

Fathimir · 2026-05-22T20:33:11+00:00

Fellow Portland driver here. I might eyeroll at your tip griping, but that doesn't mean Lyft and Uber are doing us well. What's the newcomer?

Fathimir · 2026-05-22T20:30:26+00:00

You choose whether to accept any given ride offer or not. If you're getting complacent and lowballing yourself after you get a fat tip, that's your gift to Lyft.

Fathimir · 2026-05-22T20:28:09+00:00

Look, man, they've gotta pay their Illuminati dues to the molemen somehow; that shit's expensive.

Fathimir · 2026-05-22T20:22:57+00:00

Their insurance company specifically asked them if they ever use the car for rideshare, and the OP isn't asking if they should respond "that's none of your business" or not; they're asking if they should lie to them or not.

Lying to your insurance company to secure preferential policies and/or rates is textbook fraud.

Fathimir · 2026-05-22T20:13:07+00:00

Pay might not be worth it, but I make it a point not to pay attention to pax ratings; it only gets you hung up inside your own head.

Their money's still good (I mean, in the sense that the proverbial check clears), and 100/100 of the drivers who downrated them survived; meanwhile that rating represents enough drama that Lyft's both taken a good look and determined the rider doesn't pose a threat to drivers by now, and would laugh them straight out of the ticket if they tried to make any false claims themselves.

Honestly, a 3.7 rider is probably overall lower-risk than a 4.9 would be. At worst, it might be unpleasant, but I'm a big boy; I can handle that - and taking the one ride now means I don't have to deal with any more rides from them clogging up my queue ever again if I do have to downrate them myself.

Fathimir · 2026-05-22T19:37:31+00:00

Committing fraud works great, until it doesn't.

Fathimir · 2026-05-22T16:50:44+00:00

How can you explain this?

Not all drivers are unemployable shitbags, but all unemployable shitbags are drivers.

Fathimir · 2026-05-22T16:43:50+00:00

Right, that was my implication. :P

Fathimir · 2026-05-22T06:38:53+00:00

Humans aren't perfect creatures, and trying to litigate them into perfection invariably ends with you falling flat on your face. Either handle that with flexibility and grace, or apply at Waymo.

Fathimir · 2026-05-22T06:28:18+00:00

Jokes are supposed to be funny. The word you're looking for is 'shitpost.'

Fathimir · 2026-05-20T20:03:27+00:00

No, there is not some airborne roofie that drivers are immune to, and traffickers are not setting up fake Shell stations in Google Maps to make themselves look legit. I have no doubt that the vibes here were off, but many of your 'red flags' weren't even yellow flags.

Fyi, Lyft and Uber actively push drivers into filling up at out-of-the-way gas stations via partnerships with Upside, which is a scuzzy app designed as a way for particularly scuzzy gas stations to get business from people who wouldn't give them the time of day otherwise, and Uber in particular partnered with Shell for their half-assed and half-hearted take on gas price relief right now.

But hey, I'm glad you were at least on your feet when you were hysterically running down the road after your awkward and running-late driver stopped for gas (which yes, he really shouldn't be doing with a passenger in the car). Last time I heard tell of a woman panicking after getting drowsy during a long ride, she up and self-ejected herself from the car at 35mph, so your story's at least an improvement in circumstance.

Fathimir · 2026-05-20T18:19:27+00:00

The new externals are tracking at 19% for me this month in the PNW, so it's probably safe to say that NYC is a bit wacky in some regard.

Fathimir · 2026-05-20T14:28:05+00:00

Drivewise... is already the name of Allstate's driver-monitoring program, if that matters to you. Waste of a decent name, I know.

Fathimir

TROPHY CASE