Possible new tow truck ( Tesla )

[BlkGS]

Ever seen Wall-E......that's where we're headed right there.

So true. All the advancements in transportation are probably moot with as lazy as people are getting. They want everything BROUGHT TO THEM. Target by me has the "lazy lane" where you can order things online then not even have to leave your car to get them. You sit your fat ass in your car and someone brings your stuff out to you and loads it in your car.

 

[2kwik4u]

I see your point. I'm actually bullish on zero emission vehicles but just don't think the infrastructure is in place yet to support it. At this point I would be more in favor of bringing more hybrids to the market so economies of scale would bring the prices down and allow time for battery technology and infrastructure to catch up. Although hybrids have been around for 15 years or so they are still not in the mainstream so jumping to pure electric seems to be skipping a step not just technology but socially.

I've known a couple people that have had the hybrid pickups/suvs that GM made a few years back. Most are not traded/sold away. The only real complaints they had were finding parts and learning the systems. Most commented positively on acceleration, towing, braking, and fuel efficiency. Sadly the take rate on them was very low, so GM discontinued them. Same fate as the Avalanche (which I almost bought instead of the pickup). If GM had offered a viable hybrid when I bought my 2015 I would have considered it heavily.

People vote on what they want with their money, and corporate america is motivated by both dollars and regulations. Will take a big swing in one or the other to get a change implemented. We'll ignore the chicken and egg problems of offering an EV before demand exists, and that whole mess for now

 

[2kwik4u]

So true. All the advancements in transportation are probably moot with as lazy as people are getting. They want everything BROUGHT TO THEM. Target by me has the "lazy lane" where you can order things online then not even have to leave your car to get them. You sit your fat ass in your car and someone brings your stuff out to you and loads it in your car.

It's funny you mention that. I used it for the first time the other day to see what it was all about. It felt like the least "rewarding" shopping experience I've ever had. I lost some money and got some things, but beyond that i felt very unfulfilled by the whole experience. The only good part about it was that I was quickly running out of time to get the 7yr old to soccer practice, and we were completely out of milk in the house. So I didn't have to unpack both boys, drag them through the store to get 10 commodity items.

I'm the same way in the grocery store. I don't want someone else picking out my food. I'll go in, spend an hour, walk around and pick out what I think I might want that week. Motivated by quality, value, price, and any other reason I might have to buy a thing. Then I'm going through the regular check out lane with a person there I can chat with as he/she scan's my items and such. I don't like the lazy lanes, or the self checkouts. No thanks.

I see both sides, but we're on the precipice of a very slippery slope I think!

 

[afsigma21]

I still think the initial cost of the vehicle outweighs the savings. Not long ago I was looking at a Model 3 to be my daily driver. I found a Youtube video of a person with 60k+ miles on their Model 3. This person gave a good review and and listed ALL their costs to get to 60k miles.

I did the math. If you bought a top of the line Toyota Camry and paid for all the oil changes and gas to get to 60k miles, it was still cheaper.

I am all for electric and i would be a good candidate to own one based on my usage, but I am not ready to pay MORE for one over a 3-5 year period. Just my 2 cents.

I would love an electric truck! I could use it as daily and towing, where now I have to have 2 vehicles

 

[Peelz]

Ever seen Wall-E......that's where we're headed right there.

that movie, though supposedly a kids flick, scared and depressed the crap outta me. because its Not too fictional sci fi. Fat people on their ipads... blind to the wrecked environment because profit is the only thing that matters. Machines keep us functional and subservient. lol.

Not a fan of full self drive really. but... augmenting the driving experience by taking away work load. love it.

I see your point. I'm actually bullish on zero emission vehicles but just don't think the infrastructure is in place yet to support it. At this point I would be more in favor of bringing more hybrids to the market so economies of scale would bring the prices down and allow time for battery technology and infrastructure to catch up. Although hybrids have been around for 15 years or so they are still not in the mainstream so jumping to pure electric seems to be skipping a step not just technology but socially.

disagree with part of that. hybrids are absolutely everywhere. lol!! Sometimes you have to squint at their badges...because its now just options on regular cars, and some people I'm not even sure care they have it or know how it works, they just see the MPG sticker and are sold...... coworkeer has a malibu hybrid. I didnt even know they made those. I asked her, she shrugged. "I just like the car. its quiet gets good gas mileage" lol Also, everyone and their dog has a damned prius hahahahah

Infrastructure definitely not there yet. But, there weren't gas stations or paved roads everywhere when Henry Ford started cranking out his rattleboxes either. That came later. As Humans, we will tailor infrastructure to our needs. Not as often vice-versa. I think we are watching a similar change happen.

Again if I was in a city area, I would already own one. But we are rural, and have to drive farther to do everything we need.... but, its improving all the time. Every new store, building.. or whatever puts in a bank EV Chargers.... it wont be long until the difference is blurry.

 

[Peelz]

So true. All the advancements in transportation are probably moot with as lazy as people are getting. They want everything BROUGHT TO THEM. Target by me has the "lazy lane" where you can order things online then not even have to leave your car to get them. You sit your fat ass in your car and someone brings your stuff out to you and loads it in your car.

Ummm, have you used that service? I thought that it was nonsense too but its freaking GOLD!. hahahah! We had a party for my sons bday last week.... 10 people coming over. Didn't have time to shop after work, wifey ordered online from local grocery store, I pull up to the door, BAM! done, get home and already grilling in 30 minutes.. (just dont get fresh fruit this way they dont look at it lol))

Also, we used to have self service gas stations. then went away from that....whats the diff?

Im biased though. wife is a target exec. so really, I'm for whatever it takes to keep stores open and folks off amazon, so our local people have a place to work.

 

[Ancient canoe]

I've never heard it called the lazy lane. I don't think that's a very good term. Grocery shopping doesn't take a lot of energy it takes a lot of time. Grocery pickups and self checkouts save time. Saving time isn't itself lazy. Now using that time so you can sit on your couch longer is lazy.

 

[seanmclean]

I don't think its lazy either. Who the heck wants to spend an hour and a half inside a walmart on a sunday afternoon when you can just select your items ahead of time and be in and out in 5 minutes with everything you need. One of these days I'm going to do it on way back from the river with a boat in tow, lol. Conversely to the lazy fatass shtick, I find it actually saves money and results in healthier choices. Intentionally selecting what you need as staples or for meals and that's it - no wandering around hungry and grabbing everything that looks like it tastes good.

 

[Trevor Shipman]

Not to start the global warming discussion and heck I have no idea if it’s real or not, nor do I care. What I do know what we’re doing to the earth cannot be good and habits need to change fast.

(I am leaving out that I’m not an expert, I know there are environmental costs to lithium batteries too, but from what I understand it doesn’t compare to oil/emissions)

That’s why I’m such a fan of Musk. He’s the modern day Tony Stark if you ask me. Rather than going the route of creating a small Nissan Leaf all electric car (that no one wants to be caught in) he made a BAD ASS all electric car that people are talking about and even more buying. He made it the safest car on the road (hands down), made it fast as shit, and reduces our footprint on this earth. Oh and did I mention looks bad ass? (The model S that is)

I applaud him for not going from gas, to hybrid, to all electric. Why do we have to go from A to B to get to C? We are doing real damage here digging in the ground for oil. We are capable to jumping right to C, so why bother with B? It’s like townships banning plastic bags by the year 2028, so you’re saying it’s ok to throw that stuff in the ocean for another 9 years? Cmon, right is right it should have been done yesterday, not 10 years from let alone tomorrow.

Will it take some inconvenience? Yes. Will it cost a lite bit more in the beginning? Yes. Has it opened our eyes to what is possible? Yes. Has he changed the way (fat) manufacturers have started thinking about their future? Yes.

I honestly do not see a downside. Of course, the technology won’t fit all lifestyles and pockets but you gotta start somewhere. He has my attention and if he creates a bad ass truck that breaks the norm he’ll have my attention and cash!

Like I said I’ve become a lot greener in my later years and I directly attribute it to doing the Dangerous Water jetski trip in Alaska (seeing wild orca’s within feet of my ski), starting to scuba, and just being out camping and boating. Whenever I see trash, I always pick it up. No exceptions. I’ll be doing 40 cruising in the boat and if I see a can floating, we turn around and grab it. When I’m diving, I carry a small mesh bag and grab whatever I can.

I don’t make my own soap and I still love some good old loud American muscle, but we gotta start making some drastic steps for this earth.

Now I gotta go fill up my AR210 with some good ol 87! Lol Hey, I’m not perfect!

 

[the MfM]

The curmudgeon is strong in this thread.

You can pry my two stroke carbs out of my cold dead hands!!

I see your point. I'm actually bullish on zero emission vehicles

Electric may be zero emissions at point of use but they still aren’t zero emission.

)

That’s why I’m such a fan of Musk. He’s the modern day Tony Stark

I don’t care what fuel it uses but I’m all for self driving tech. (Because I’m lazy)

 

[Dixie Highway]

Unfortunately Musk is not the Messiah, he’s a prudent business Eastman that decided to try and cash in on current political conditions a few years back. His business plan has done better due to a better product, but if you really look at what they do it’s not a great way to sell cars. Do you know they will not sell body panels or many other parts to 3rd party non Tesla affiliates? Same with many other parts. They have loosened the grip slightly this year, but Tesla so far has not operated as the rest. I agree I’m all for progress and I do believe we can be responsible with the environment, however, I do not believe we should become “more like Europe” to do it.

 

[BlkGS]

Not to start the global warming discussion and heck I have no idea if it’s real or not, nor do I care. What I do know what we’re doing to the earth cannot be good and habits need to change fast.

(I am leaving out that I’m not an expert, I know there are environmental costs to lithium batteries too, but from what I understand it doesn’t compare to oil/emissions)

That’s why I’m such a fan of Musk. He’s the modern day Tony Stark if you ask me. Rather than going the route of creating a small Nissan Leaf all electric car (that no one wants to be caught in) he made a BAD ASS all electric car that people are talking about and even more buying. He made it the safest car on the road (hands down), made it fast as shit, and reduces our footprint on this earth. Oh and did I mention looks bad ass? (The model S that is)

I applaud him for not going from gas, to hybrid, to all electric. Why do we have to go from A to B to get to C? We are doing real damage here digging in the ground for oil. We are capable to jumping right to C, so why bother with B? It’s like townships banning plastic bags by the year 2028, so you’re saying it’s ok to throw that stuff in the ocean for another 9 years? Cmon, right is right it should have been done yesterday, not 10 years from let alone tomorrow.

Will it take some inconvenience? Yes. Will it cost a lite bit more in the beginning? Yes. Has it opened our eyes to what is possible? Yes. Has he changed the way (fat) manufacturers have started thinking about their future? Yes.

I honestly do not see a downside. Of course, the technology won’t fit all lifestyles and pockets but you gotta start somewhere. He has my attention and if he creates a bad ass truck that breaks the norm he’ll have my attention and cash!

Like I said I’ve become a lot greener in my later years and I directly attribute it to doing the Dangerous Water jetski trip in Alaska (seeing wild orca’s within feet of my ski), starting to scuba, and just being out camping and boating. Whenever I see trash, I always pick it up. No exceptions. I’ll be doing 40 cruising in the boat and if I see a can floating, we turn around and grab it. When I’m diving, I carry a small mesh bag and grab whatever I can.

I don’t make my own soap and I still love some good old loud American muscle, but we gotta start making some drastic steps for this earth.

Now I gotta go fill up my AR210 with some good ol 87! Lol Hey, I’m not perfect!

Here's the thing. Say we ban ICE in the USA and magically get totally clean energy. That wont change what happens in China, India, Russia, Brazil, all the developing world. They made it very clear that they don't give a crap, and feel its their right to pollute relentlessly to "develop". We would still end up with the worsening of climate change, nothing would be any better.

Its the ultimate hubris of man to think we can change or halt the course for the vlimate. We know the planet was warming before the industrial age. Did we speed it up? Most certainly. Can we stop it? Hell no. We as a species need to learn how to adapt to the changes coming. We need to accept cities and farmlandcwill have to move. The world as we change it will have to change. We focus so much energy on worrying about it and making ourselves feel better about it, when reality is we have to focus on how to adapt and survive.

 

[Peelz]

Here's the thing. Say we ban ICE in the USA and magically get totally clean energy. That wont change what happens in China, India, Russia, Brazil, all the developing world. They made it very clear that they don't give a crap, and feel its their right to pollute relentlessly to "develop". We would still end up with the worsening of climate change, nothing would be any better.

Its the ultimate hubris of man to think we can change or halt the course for the vlimate. We know the planet was warming before the industrial age. Did we speed it up? Most certainly. Can we stop it? Hell no. We as a species need to learn how to adapt to the changes coming. We need to accept cities and farmlandcwill have to move. The world as we change it will have to change. We focus so much energy on worrying about it and making ourselves feel better about it, when reality is we have to focus on how to adapt and survive.

i sadly mostly agree with this.

but doing nothing isnt acceptable.

secondly china only doesn't give a $hit because we dont give a $hit where our stuff comes from, we want it cheap and they want our money. (not you or me, but WE)

definitely agree on adapting.... yet humans still keep having a hundred babies.. and building houses in dumb places like floodplains, and fire zones lol

Personally, I more worry about breathable air and potable water than I do "warming" But...just maybe fixing those two things on smaller local scales(metro areas), could spread and cause a global change on the warming thing.. who knows. its better than nothing.

Note: I can tell you, i fully agreed with you a few years ago. I only started thinking this (micro-level) way in Chicago on my bike a couple years back. stuck on 94 on my way up to Michigan. Wreck or something...traffic wall to wall. Temp on my thermo was showing 9 degrees warmer then before i rode into town, and i could barely breathe. It was menacingly bad. Had to keep killing the bike to cool it. (air cooled boxer) That's really not good for anyone/anywhere.. funny part was, as i was thinking of this, I noticed 9 of the trucks just in my direct line of sight at one point were fuel trucks bringing fuel into the city.... no point to that just...I guess id rather see more wind turbines.

 

[Dixie Highway]

@Peelz i don’t think you really want more wind turbines. Current manufacturing of those is a new loss of energy for several years before they pay. Don’t forget, it takes thousands of gallons or diesel and thousands of man hours to erect one of those. The “heat island” effect of cities is mainly due to concrete, asphalt, and steel holding heat. I wouldn’t worry about potable water btw, I got you covered

 

[bronze_10]

A few days ago I took my youngest on a school field trip to a fun park here in town. They had electric go carts on a track. I saw a stack of battery chargers on a rack on the inside of the track where the cars line up on (pit road). I didn't see any charging cables and wondered how they recharged the carts and kept them going all day. Then when the cars came in and stopped the charges came on one at a time as the cars came to a stop. I realized the parking spots had a metal plate in the floor and either wirelessly charged them or maybe something was hanging down from under the carts and made contact.

Now we all agree people as a whole are lazy. But imagine if the ev were wirelessly charged like an android phone. If you drive an ev car to the grocery store and when you park, it charges automatically. Or the bank or wall mart or where ever so when u come out 45 min later there was 45 min of charge added. This would take a lot of the worry out of the average person about range of an ev vehicle. Yes I know for every parking lot to be changed into a wireless charging lot is a huge infrastructure reassignment but the tech is out there if even on a rudimentary level. Maybe in another 10 years or so something like this will be reasonable for the masses to start taking ev seriously.

Just my two cents. Before I go out side and mess with my twin engine gasoline powered boat parked next to my diesel truck as I look past my wife's SUV at my son drinking away in his full size SUV with a large v8 in it! All while thinking I need to cut the grass with my gas powered lawn mower! Oh! But the blower for the drive way is electric! Yup.... saving the planet!

 

[Dean P]

A few days ago I took my youngest on a school field trip to a fun park here in town. They had electric go carts on a track. I saw a stack of battery chargers on a rack on the inside of the track where the cars line up on (pit road). I didn't see any charging cables and wondered how they recharged the carts and kept them going all day. Then when the cars came in and stopped the charges came on one at a time as the cars came to a stop. I realized the parking spots had a metal plate in the floor and either wirelessly charged them or maybe something was hanging down from under the carts and made contact.

Now we all agree people as a whole are lazy. But imagine if the ev were wirelessly charged like an android phone. If you drive an ev car to the grocery store and when you park, it charges automatically. Or the bank or wall mart or where ever so when u come out 45 min later there was 45 min of charge added. This would take a lot of the worry out of the average person about range of an ev vehicle. Yes I know for every parking lot to be changed into a wireless charging lot is a huge infrastructure reassignment but the tech is out there if even on a rudimentary level. Maybe in another 10 years or so something like this will be reasonable for the masses to start taking ev seriously.

Just my two cents. Before I go our side and mess with my twin engine gasoline powered boat parked next to my diesel truck as I look past my wife's SUV at my son drinking away in his full size SUV with a large v8 in it! All while thinking I need to cut the grass with my gas powered lawn mower! Oh! But the blower for the drive way is electric! Yup.... saving the planet!

I moved into my new home about 4 years ago. I considered this for my car. They do make them. But, they're not cheap. I installed a 240v on the wall instead (the plug into the wall option at 110v is just too slow).

 

[bronze_10]

I moved into my new home about 4 years ago. I considered this for my car. They do make them. But, they're not cheap. I installed a 240v on the wall instead (the plug into the wall option at 110v is just too slow).

Yes but I think for the general public if say all Walmart parking lots had these two of chargers people wouldn't be as hesitant about ev... and if that ever happens then the over all price of those types of charging systems would come down over time. It would be a massive project though..

 

[Dean P]

Yes but I think for the general public if say all Walmart parking lots had these two of chargers people wouldn't be as hesitant about ev... and if that ever happens then the over all price of those types of charging systems would come down over time. It would be a massive project though..

Love the idea. IMO this would help push people into EV cause they would have to do anything. Brilliant!

Could we take this even further and (somehow) place them on roads similar to street trolleys to continuously charge? Just thinking out loud...

 

[bronze_10]

@patendpending. Broze10 development corp!

 

[BlkGS]

Neat idea... but who pays?

We can debate this all day, but it's hard to imagine a situation where it doesnt fall on taxpayers to pay for all this to be put in, let alone the electricity.

I would rather my tax dollars go to working on fusion energy production.