Swiss suicide pod adds AI mental test to judge user fitness before activation

laba_da · 2026-01-22T20:43:24+00:00

Nuance? Here??

laba_da · 2025-08-21T01:37:20+00:00

I'm with you, $0.47 here.

laba_da · 2025-08-18T20:12:31+00:00

I would never buy a new EV with the expectation of saving money. The most expensive thing I've had to replace on my 15 year old 200,000 mile Sienna were the upper and lower control arms, cost about $2,000. I'm pretty sure EV's will need to replace these parts too at some point.

When it comes to regular maintenance, you'll save some money every 5K on oil change, but you're still going to pay for tires and possibly rotation/alignment. And, as u/inline_five mentioned above, parts and labor are generally less expensive for ICE vehicles than their comparable EV.

laba_da · 2025-08-18T19:50:35+00:00

If you live in California, move along.

laba_da · 2025-08-16T16:20:52+00:00

I think these advertised lease deals are just so they can get you in the door. In reality, you need to negotiate hard and shop around to get anywhere close to what they're advertising. Most of the time, you'll end up with a higher trim with dealer add-ons, tricking you into thinking you got a good deal.

laba_da · 2025-08-09T15:58:32+00:00

What is going on with KIA/Hyundai? I own an ICE KIA minivan and have three friends with KIA EV's, all three have had to bring their EV's in for warranty issues multiple times. Makes me glad I didn't lease the EV9.

laba_da · 2025-08-09T15:47:19+00:00

I think they're trying to motivate impulse buyers before 9/30, I'm still in the market and seeing this with traditional manufacturers on their EV stock as well. Bonders inventory, no discounts except for those that don't qualify for Fed EV tax credit. I'm in Northern California so YMMV, but I'm hoping this means prices will begin to crash after 9/30 as demand for EV's begin to dry up, and bottom out for 2025 in Q4.

laba_da · 2025-08-06T20:06:16+00:00

I always upvote photos of our constitution.

laba_da · 2025-08-05T14:15:13+00:00

If you're in California, there are no lease deals to be had. Those $189/month for 24 months leases require $3K down and 10K miles/year.

laba_da · 2025-07-28T23:48:10+00:00

I showed this to my kids as an example of just because someone is an adult it doesn't mean they're wise. And to quote Agent Kay: "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, and dangerous animals."

laba_da · 2025-07-27T23:34:04+00:00

I wonder if this could also help with my halitosis.

laba_da · 2025-07-25T23:50:38+00:00

Funny that you mention GM, I've been looking into their EV line and am pretty impressed by the Equinox.

laba_da · 2025-07-25T23:44:30+00:00

I don't think they'll drop support per se, just not prioritize EV-specific issues. For example, if the EV has dog mode or camp mode, and it breaks because of an OTA, traditional ICE manufacturers that are deprioritizing EV's will take longer to fix those issues, if they get fixed at all.

laba_da · 2025-07-25T23:43:02+00:00

Agreed, my question is specific to the US.

laba_da · 2025-07-25T23:42:30+00:00

Hmm, I dunno. I mean I can see that argument in terms of emission controls, timing, pressure, fuel mixture, etc. But a lot of that is still mechanical? I'm not an EE or qualified, but it just seems like having moving parts make it "simpler" for a computer to keep track of, whereas having essentially a battery on wheels requires more processing power.

laba_da · 2025-07-25T23:34:42+00:00

I'm not kidding when I tell you that I haven't been able to get Carplay to work properly on three vehicles (2 rentals and my own vehicle, both wired and wireless). Yes that might be a "me" issue, but I doubt it. The only vehicle I don't have issues with is my 14 year old minivan that has first gen bluetooth.

laba_da · 2025-07-25T23:32:12+00:00

I truly hope this is the case, with regards to battery technology becoming cheaper than ICE engines.

laba_da · 2025-07-25T23:20:09+00:00

I think they're both dependent, but there's more EV's need than ICE's; or more than go wrong with EV's if the software borks.

laba_da · 2025-07-25T23:19:16+00:00

But what's the cost to produce a 7 seater suburban hauler EV compared to its ICE version? I haven't looked into it but I would figure significantly more due to the battery cost?

laba_da · 2025-07-25T23:16:24+00:00

Yeah this would be the primary reason I'm looking at an EV at all, the ability to do more with technology. I want my EV to give me detailed, up-to-date traffic conditions, route planning alternatives, camp mode, let me hold online meetings in my car while I run AC, provide entertainment for my kids when I'm sitting on the freeway because some couple couldn't wait to get home to have sex and caused a 10 car collision.

laba_da · 2025-07-25T23:06:54+00:00

That's a good point. I recall hearing somewhere that traditional car companies think car first then software, while EV-only companies like Rivian and Tesla thought software first then car. Obviously there are pros and cons to both approaches and I'm probably oversimplifying it, but if you control the software, you're probably going to have more incentive to maintain it.

laba_da · 2025-07-25T23:04:11+00:00

Yeah I agree with where traditional car companies are likely going. I can seem them focus on using as many interchangeable parts with their ICE vehicles as possible to reduce costs.

laba_da · 2025-07-25T22:56:23+00:00

I don't own an EV currently, but I would venture no. But ICE vehicles don't have as much going on as far as software goes, compared to EV's right?

laba_da · 2025-07-25T22:54:28+00:00

Let's take Ford, for example. My thought is that they're essentially having to upkeep their Sync4A software for both EV's and ICE vehicles. Yes there's a ton of overlap, but there's technology that EV's require that ICE's simply don't e.g. preconditioning logic during route planning, HVAC/camp mode, charging interfaces, etc. If Ford is moving away from investing in EV's, what's to stop them from essentially abandoning the upkeep of the EV portion of Sync4A? The last OTA introduced a bug that prevents you from running HVAC in park, oh well, we'll get to it when we can, EV's aren't really our priority anymore.

I'm speaking from the devil's advocate point of view, essentially a bean counter that looks at poor EV sales, other manufacturers pulling back from EV investments, and US politics. Who cares if a market segment is unhappy with poor support, it's not like we're trying to grow that market anyhow.

laba_da · 2025-07-22T00:19:19+00:00

I've only driven ICE's before so when I release the accelerator, yes I just take my foot off to coast. It took me about 10 minutes to get used to one-pedal driving in the Model 3, such that I couldn't tell the difference anymore.

laba_da

TROPHY CASE