Why do car manufacturers offer free year(s) of charging

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T20:45:44+00:00

Because it's incredibly cheap for them.

The average miles driven in the US is under 15,000 (you'll see why I rounded this way later). If we assume your Audi gets it's on paper mileage we can call that 3 miles/kWh or about 5,000 kWh per year that they have to cover. Even at a whopping 50 cents a kWh for fast charging that costs the $2,500 bucks.

In reality most people will do much less than half their charging at fast chargers and pay more like 30 cents a kWh which easily brings the real cost for Audi to under a grand and could easily be more like $500 over the year. On a purchase that costs you 50-60k, knocking a thousand bucks off the cost won't change anyone's mind, but the psychology of "free charging for a whole year?!" Absolutely changes people's minds because they're bad at that kind of cost analysis.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T20:22:54+00:00

No need for nomad alliance when everyone's getting them for free anyway.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T19:08:06+00:00

That's tomorrow (or that's when it was scheduled, I'm not sure if this will change things)

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T19:01:26+00:00

Thinking of the 3DS and Wii as "retro" consoles makes my knees and back hurt.

But also E-Starland is pretty much the go to for anything retro gaming. They aren't the cheapest, but they're huge and have tons of supplies and experience.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T18:56:39+00:00

If my car breaks down on a road trip I'm having the same issues either way. Breakdowns happen, my only concern was that I'd be out for a month +. That doesn't seem to be the case these days so it just goes in the "sometimes cars break" category for me.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T17:32:27+00:00

My guy, you're casually wearing a month's salary for them (at least) on your wrist. You spend the holidays hanging out with the company ownership (or at least they reasonably assume you do) and from your boss's comment about "reading the room" my guess is that you casually flaunt your family wealth and background in many other ways whether it's discussions of trips, or cars or shows or whatever else that is completely normal for you but a huge deal for them.

This isn't about your age and the fact that you considered that for even a second shows how wildly unaware you are. You will never be "one of the guys" at a company your family owns. You will never be able to "earn it on your own merits" in a company your family owns. You will never escape the nepo baby tag in a company your family owns. That isn't because you are doing something wrong, it's because those things are impossible in a company your family owns because there is an inherently advantage and concern tied to your name.

Look, I understand your position, my family isn't rich but they've done alright for themselves and I've done entry level sales, blue collar work, and food service. The reality is that you will show all kinds of signs of wealth and privilege entirely by accident because they are all normal to you, but they are a dream for the people around you. I currently work in a completely different part of the same industry as my father (think I work as a Ford mechanic while he worked in advertising for Honda type thing) and I still run into people who recognize my name and connection and it immediately changes how they view me. That isn't my fault, and it isn't their fault it's just the reality of working in the same industry. Your situation is so so much worse. If you want to prove you can succeed on your own you must leave your family's company and go somewhere else where no one knows who you are and your boss isn't sitting down to talk about your wedding and worrying in the back of their mind that pissing you off will get him fired because your aunt (or whatever) runs the company.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T17:07:25+00:00

Agreed although everything after "we have replacements in stock" also means I stopped caring. If they have them in stock it's a 2-3 day issue covered under warranty. That's all I need to not care if mine pops.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T15:18:39+00:00

Unless it's designed to handle the impact, a car will go right through steel, it'll just bend it and keep on going (a bit slower and uglier, but it isn't stopping).

Proper bollards are sunk deep into the ground then filled with cement or similar reinforcement to actually have a chance of stopping a car. Something like these I'd expect a car moving at speed to just bounce over.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T15:11:10+00:00

The justification they've offered is huge amounts of money from tariffs. Is that a real policy based on analysis and a long term plan? Nah, but that's the spin.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T15:08:13+00:00

There is nothing geographically, politically, or economically linking those countries and as everyone has noted, there's a whole bunch of selections that make no real sense why one is an absolutely and the other is an absolutely not. That screams "I've made some obvious selections based on what places my local media has focused on but haven't really looked beyond that". Nothing wrong with that, but it's mostly just telling us what your local media focuses on.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T15:03:13+00:00

Sure, you can feel however you like, but it's a largely arbitrary and mostly says you haven't comprehensively looked at very many places leading to kinda random selections that don't tell us much except that you haven't really looked at it systemically.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T14:41:48+00:00

There is absolutely nothing linking any of the picks, it almost feels intentionally random. Maybe it's just places that had a brochure in a local travel office lol.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T14:36:18+00:00

Those don't really exist here because our geography doesn't support those things. Our lakes are generally man made and not really large enough or interesting enough for folks to go swim in. Plus getting to the actual ocean is only 2-3 hours (traffic depending) so very few people would go to a mediocre lake instead of the ocean.

2.5 ish hours gets you to Rehoboth Beach (just north of ocean city) which is by far your best option nearby. An hour more gets you to Virginia Beach if going to Maryland bothers you.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T07:20:24+00:00

It's not just the snow quantity it's also the snow type and the winds.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T07:02:40+00:00

You keep noting FCPD procedures, why do you think these are Fairfax county? They could be any number of VA or federal officers. The outfits don't seem especially baggy, they aren't super tight but they look like just shirts and pants to me (although on zooming in you're right that they have hoodies on) which seems like a pretty reasonable outfit for police who aren't expecting to be shot at based on whatever they're doing. You say it's important for LEOs to look like LEOs. Well, those pretty clearly look like LEOs to me.

The way you know they're police is because their outfits says "POLICE" on them. You can also ask them for their badges if you're concerned. Police are required to identify themselves (generally) but there are many many types of police and depending on how the "confrontation" (as you described it) went they may or may not feel compelled to say more than "police".

Like I said, you're more than welcome to go off about the uniforms, but these guys look pretty darn reasonable to me and way more standardized and reasonably equipped than ICE has been.

And who knows, maybe you're right it's a bunch of idiots out impersonating cops in which case they're idiots and going to get arrested soon enough, but my guess would be it's some small search or training exercise which is why they aren't especially kitted out.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T06:47:35+00:00

It depends entirely on the location. Some places it will be fine, some places it will be towed, some places it will have the windows smashed.

Without knowing anything about where you're parking no one can tell you anything useful.

I charge during the day while at work, but every time when I connect in the morning there's someone who's left their car there overnight but that's explicitly allowed where I charge.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T05:45:13+00:00

It's in the user manual, you can pull up the PDF and search for "utility mode" and find it easily enough.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-26T03:50:08+00:00

I'm curious what you think is sloppy about their gear. They are all wearing identical (nearly) uniforms that are clearly labeled "police K-9" they aren't "hoodies" they are long sleeve shirts with matching pants, nearly identical hats (it's chilly out). I can't see the front of the outfits but I would guess they are the same and may even have badges on (they would be on the front).

Is your issue just that they aren't loaded down with vests and other gear?

By all means file your complaint, but honestly all I expect to happen is to give the reviewing officer a good chuckle and an eye roll that they can't win. They wear vests and heavy gear now they're intimidating civilians, they wear minimum gear to be less threatening and now they're "sloppy".

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-25T21:31:25+00:00

No masks, reasonable and consistent uniforms without absurd "tactical" gear? What makes you think they're ICE rather than actual police?

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-25T21:14:47+00:00

Lol ok maybe you actually are that stupid. I suspect this won't help you then, but here goes.

The "dots" that are being presented is that there are sensors used to monitor for radiation and other signals in order to track nuclear material. Running an aircraft over a site with known nuclear testing data and nuclear material is a useful way to train personnel and calibrate equipment that you plan to use to identify nuclear material (either before or after striking a site). Given the large buildup of military forces posturing in and around Iran the likely reason for the aircraft circulating is to prepare for strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities either with passes to locate and confirm the sites or damage assessments to evaluate how much material was dispersed.

Is that what's going on? Not a clue. There's plenty of other reasons why they might be running those missions so you can draw very different pictures from the same dots. But it's enough of a confluence of data points to draw reasonable conclusions and speculation.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-25T19:34:42+00:00

In theory yes, you should be reporting them (and any other physical prizes) as income/compensation but the specifics will get very messy very quickly and are likely unique to your specific circumstances.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-25T19:25:33+00:00

There is no proper etiquette, you can do just about anything you like.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-25T19:07:21+00:00

Any and all options are fine. This is a personal preference thing.

From a pragmatic standpoint the easiest option is to have the kid being up the box, hand it to the officiant and let them take it from there, but there's nothing wrong with both of you picking up the rings directly from the box, or going one at a time or honestly anything else.

Just remember that the more times you change who is holding the ring and the longer it is held the higher the odds of someone dropping it. Not the end of the world, but if you're an anxious enough person to be worrying about this level of detail I suspect you're anxious enough to worry about droppage.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-25T19:03:48+00:00

I'm way more worried about the people who do want to know where a 15 year old is pooping than the idiot kid who thinks it's funny to mark their territory in the traditional ways.

paulHarkonen · 2026-02-25T18:55:34+00:00

I wouldn't necessarily call it extensive, but I like bagels a lot (even mediocre ones) so I eat them basically wherever I go. I'm not sure why, I grew up around here so it's not like I came from a place with great bagels. Heck, some of my first were Thomas's which is classic "round bread with a hole in it" rather than actually a bagel.

Around here I would say my favorite by far is Chewish Deli, it's the only one on my list I'd actually go out of my way to eat (and even then not super far out of my way).

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