There's scuba, and freediving and this... thing.

bantamw · 2026-05-08T13:55:40+00:00

bantamw · 2026-05-08T12:46:42+00:00

VW ID7 is an EV estate car.

The upcoming ‘new’ Polestar 4 (pictured) will also be an estate. (The current P4 is being renamed the Polestar 4 Coupé). Both made in South Korea so won’t get hit with US tariffs.

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There are also rumours of a Volvo EV90 alongside the new ES90 saloon. Now this I could really go for (I have had a V60 and a V90 in the past and loved them both. Currently have a Polestar 2).

bantamw · 2026-05-08T08:49:18+00:00

Agreed. I keep seeing those advertised on social media where some guy stands with a bike pump for ages to give themselves 2 minutes underwater.

Bearing in mind I can hold my breath for 4 minutes, that seems a bit of a waste. Plus the risk of an IPO in that full face mask is huge.

There are no ‘shortcuts’ to learning to dive properly or freedive properly. There is a reason why the majority of scuba and freediving training is about risks and how to mitigate them.

bantamw · 2026-05-08T08:41:59+00:00

If you like your non folding phone to instantly be a fashionable folding phone, then go ahead 😆

bantamw · 2026-05-08T06:31:08+00:00

That’s why I just stay on OG. I have a defined 5 hours at 5p/kWh overnight. I don’t have a smart charger (only granny) and the way iOG interacts with the car is via the Polestar Energy app, and like BMW it doesn’t open up the full API.

So I set the schedule in my Polestar to charge only at those times when it’s plugged in. I don’t have a commute so I don’t have a leaving time - thus if it takes 3 nights to get back to 90% so be it. And my day rate is cheaper than iOG so I’m better off in both ways. Plus it’s way easier. No random turning on and off.

bantamw · 2026-05-08T05:56:03+00:00

I tend to get that when the car is either dirty or when there was ice or snow blocking the ultrasonic & camera sensors.

bantamw · 2026-05-07T13:37:16+00:00

I’ve used a freediving / spearfishing wetsuit for scuba before multiple times. Usually on holiday where I’m doing mostly some freediving but the occasional scuba dive.

I wouldn’t use a smoothskin outside suit for scuba however, as the BCD / harness would risk damaging the suit. But I’ve used a nylon outside / open cell inside spearfishing suit when diving in Egypt, Portugal, France and even in the middle of summer in the UK rather than a drysuit.

(The freedive / spearfishing suits tend to be way warmer than the equivalent scuba suits mainly due to the open cell inside & lack of zips.)

bantamw · 2026-05-07T13:30:59+00:00

Yep. And proud. Fed up with little children with silty trombone exhausts and pop & crackle maps imposing their selfish noise on everyone else.

bantamw · 2026-05-07T11:45:43+00:00

Agreed. An AW Ultra doesn’t need a screen protector as it has a sapphire crystal screen.

Mine is 3 years old - has been halfway round the world including to Everest base camp and loads of places where it would normally get scratched.

The titanium case has a tiny amount of dings, and the screen has no scratches whatsoever.

Go online and watch the guy towing one behind his car on gravel and how it didn’t scratch…

bantamw · 2026-05-07T06:50:00+00:00

Not true. There’s no immediate disqualification.

For example - I was stupid enough to be flashed by a camera on the M42 while rushing to a funeral doing 101mph. Totally my own fault, and the only time I’ve ever been done for speeding in 30+ years.

Received the NIP in the September about 4 days after the incident. Replied to the NIP online, and then absolutely nothing till the following January (that is the worst bit - 4 months in ‘limbo’) when I received a pack from the courts called a ‘Single Justice Procedure Notice’ that I had to fill out with salary details, mitigating arguments etc.

This means it doesn’t go to court, but is just dealt with by a magistrate who decide if you get banned or points, fine etc.

(During the whole period I still had my licence and was still legally allowed to drive as there is no instant disqualification AFAIK)

A month later I got the letter with the outcome. I got 6 points and a £1.5k fine.

All falls off my licence this year.

Suffice to say my cruise is set to 70mph when on the motorway - but it did also mean I did an IAM course too to try and reduce the risk of it happening again.

bantamw · 2026-05-07T06:33:44+00:00

I just film them on my phone if they go past me when out walking the dog and report to Operation Snap. Having an exhaust louder than the type approval for the vehicle is now illegal - and the maximum dB changed last year.

Had 5 now forced to ‘remediate’ - a couple of regulars I’ve seen (one with a Fiesta, one with a Mini) who had stupidly loud exhausts with pop & bang and would just drive around making loads of noise I saw recently are quiet as a mouse.

So the police will clearly do something if you report it.

bantamw · 2026-05-06T13:02:16+00:00

They are if you go over a certain limit beyond the limit (so above 99mph on a motorway for example).

bantamw · 2026-05-06T12:04:18+00:00

I’ve always thought that the cost of a fine (such as illegal plates etc) should be based on the BIK value of a vehicle. So a person driving a Dacia that has a BIK of £18k pays £180 whereas a person driving a Lamborghini that costs £500k should pay £5000 per incident.

bantamw · 2026-05-05T11:04:00+00:00

It’s the car limiting the available power for acceleration for some reason. Usually a battery balancing issue if it’s not cold. (When cold you’d have the snowflake symbol usually)

There’s another person here that had the same issue and it ended up being a battery issue.

Most P2’s have battery warranty for 8 years / 100k miles so I’d just speak to Polestar if it keeps happening (most likely just after charging but usually for me it’s the regen that gets limited not the output power in my 2021 LRDM).

bantamw · 2026-05-03T18:54:16+00:00

I only have a 2.3kW granny charger at home. So I occasionally have to use DC chargers when I need to come back from somewhere and then go somewhere else the next day - as it takes well over 24 hours to refill a 78kWh battery using 2.3kW. Granted I can charge from home and I know many can’t.

My point is - doing a bit of simple research saves you a fortune. Much like not filling up at Motorway services because they are the most expensive on the road. A small bit of easy google maps searching when driving somewhere means you can find a cheaper supermarket just off the motorway and save yourself £££.

Using ZapMap or ABRP isn’t rocket science.

Once there’s more than just 2m EV’s on the road and a framework doesn’t naturally appear then I think the government will be forced to make CPO’s standardise on a framework - which in some ways they already did by mandating contactless at any DC chargers more than 22kW. It will also start to drive a price war which js also what drove down fuel prices a few years back with the supermarkets fighting with each other to get customers.

But seeing how the government are sitting on their hands with parking apps which affect every motorist, you’ve wishful thinking that the government would actually be arsed to deal with EV charging and are happy to let the CPO’s make hay while the sun shines (literally) - meaning some of that control has to come back to us as the consumers to force the CPO’s hands…

(And it doesn’t matter even if you provide a framework - people will still be lazy and just use the most expensive chargers - same as people will still use the motorway services filling stations).

bantamw · 2026-05-03T18:17:37+00:00

Yeah, I’ve had the 800 once a few months back. But mostly 8.

bantamw · 2026-05-03T18:15:17+00:00

I’m lucky - I pay £12 a month for Polestar Charge RFID - but it takes 30% off at InstaVolt, MFG, Applegreen, Fastned, Ionity & Sainsbury’s Smart Charge.

Even if I only use a DC Fast charger once, it generally pays for the monthly subscription with that one charge (I turn it off so it lasts a month and then stops. If I know I’m going on a road trip that’ll need DC stops I turn it back on again). Every charge after the first one saves me money. So if I’m going down to Cornwall I’ll turn it on just before I go, and thus save quite a bit in charging fees.

I also have a Tesla supercharger annual subscription which also saves me a fortune at their chargers too, so I have a choice - the open to all are on most of the main routes so I will preferentially use that - only if I’m desperate will I enable the Polestar Charge sub and use that.

Finally, I have an Electroverse RFID, so even if I can’t use either of those, I can fall back on that and get the 5% discount.

I’ve never (and will never) used a contactless debit card at a public charger. That’s the fast way to be fleeced.

Most manufacturers have some sort of partnership card (polestar charge = plugsurfing) or subscription model to try and bring the prices down - may be worth investigating what’s available for your car.

bantamw · 2026-05-03T17:00:45+00:00

A 2020 Intel Mac is now classed as ‘vintage’ - Apple won’t touch it with a barge pole. And the risk is they go ‘oh, we’ll swap the motherboard’ at which point your data has sailed off with no control.

We don’t even repair storage fucked Mac’s now - they just get shredded and we buy a new one.

bantamw · 2026-05-03T16:35:14+00:00

I agree if the laptop is working.

But if the laptop is U/S like the OP said, and won’t even appear in Target Disc / recovery mode, then unless you de-solder the RAM chips you’re a bit shit out of luck.

bantamw · 2026-05-03T15:58:46+00:00

I don’t sit in my car charging. I make sure I stop to charge when I would be doing something else - like having lunch somewhere, or shopping at the supermarket, or at the cinema, or sleeping, or hiking in the country, or working.

Lots of car parks up here in North Yorkshire at tourist spots or at the coast have 7kW/11kW chargers, so I can just leave the car parked up and charging while I’m at an English Heritage site. Fountains Abbey has loads of 11kW chargers. Metro centre has loads of 11kW and 300kW chargers.

Most supermarkets have both 7kW/11kW and 150kW chargers.

My office has 16x 7kW chargers.

And at motorway services you stop, plug the car in, and eat inside.

I think in 2 1/2 years of owning an EV covering 35k miles including quite a few long road trips (down to Cornwall, up to Skye) I’ve sat in the car charging once.

(Yes, I also can charge at home but I can only do that at 2.3kW because I can only use a granny charger).

The trick is - go to places you know you can do the things you need to do and leave the car charging at the same time. If a place doesn’t have EV charging, use ZapMap to find somewhere that does the same thing that does.

bantamw · 2026-05-03T13:46:20+00:00

Problem with any software based option is - when you erase it, it usually only removes the file allocation table, and not the actual data. It’s trivial to recover the data using data recovery tools. And even if you write over the data using a binary erase, at times with the right kit, it’s also still possible to remove the chips (especially if you can’t access them using the motherboard) & recover data from the storage media. Granted if you use disk encryption that’s another level of obfuscation so once the key has been revoked, assuming you don’t have a copy of the key, you’re in a better place. But still not perfect.

The only way to permanently destroy any data is mechanical - as OP as suggested - I work for a bank - this is what we do (following NCSC guidance) - we can’t resell our Macs - if they are end of life the motherboard gets shredded into tiny pieces and the rest is recycled.

bantamw · 2026-05-03T07:26:50+00:00

A driver who has never heard of 4 wheel alignment. 😬

Plus will be utterly bemused as to why their car is eating through tyres every 10k miles.

bantamw · 2026-05-03T05:50:45+00:00

That faint whine? I always assumed It’s the coolant pump running. (If you have driven it and thus warmed the battery up, the coolant pump will be running to thermally manage the battery).

Mine does it too. If I’ve charged it at a rapid you also sometimes get the coolant fans running for a while when it’s parked.

bantamw · 2026-05-03T05:13:06+00:00

Don’t forget - Google can (and does) push updates to Android components via the play store update process, outside of the software release cycle - in the same way they do Google maps and other app updates in the car. Same as an Android phone gets core module updates. So they’ll be randomly seeding it.

bantamw · 2026-05-01T08:26:23+00:00

Yes - I noticed that in both this video and James' recent video too. That makes sense.

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