I haven't seen that, but I did see someone using VR to sweep their room. Was showing in real time the areas that were swept/unswept, which was pretty cool. Totally unnecessary, but anything to help us zombie our way through tasks!
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- Thread starter captaincaed
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The necessary/unnecessary thing is legit in my view. Could be fun, but I don't want to become a robot myself, anyway.
The idea of people learning skills solely via VR and then being unable to properly perform those tasks without the VR is pretty scary.
I welcome VR. Like a Prius, it’s a signal to tell me “this isn’t someone you want to hang out with.” Easy.
What’s wrong with a Prius?!?!? They are well built with phenomenal gas mileage (assuming you don’t need extra space)
TheDza
Well-Known Member
The new ones especially look nice with the 2024 redesign. If I didn't already have an EV I'd strongly consider the prius as my next car. The 2010s models though...not very sexy
I could see apple-style VR (displays layered over real world view) being super useful for mechanics, particularly airplane mechanics. Given how complex those systems are it would probably be really useful to have diagrams and specs visible while they have both hands full with a multi-step repair in an awkward position and location. And maybe also jobs like building inspectors with AI highlighting problem areas in real time while pulling up relevant codes.
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Speaking of cars: designing a car to look like a Star Wars stormtrooper helmet is stupid, and produces ugly cars. I keep seeing more of these helmet cars with their aggressively ugly pointless pointy parts.
I have really mixed feelings about nickel and lithium mining as carbon offsets, looking at the very big picture. Also the drivers are notoriously bad (at least in the PNW).
They’re good as a car, people love them!
We can still hang out. I have room in my heart for the odd exception.
hahahahaha.. <3.
I 100% agree with the the nickel and lithium mining points. I (and I think like you) have a problem with how it is being sold. I am curious what the true net result is. Is it really net positive or net negative? Mining it self is highly water intensive AND has pollutants in the process. It is not a benign affair. BUT, is it better or worse? Problem is, only time will tell.
What I'm taking from this is Car good, people bad. which is fair.
I 100% agree with the the nickel and lithium mining points. I (and I think like you) have a problem with how it is being sold. I am curious what the true net result is. Is it really net positive or net negative? Mining it self is highly water intensive AND has pollutants in the process. It is not a benign affair. BUT, is it better or worse? Problem is, only time will tell.
What I'm taking from this is Car good, people bad. which is fair.
+1 THIS
People should stop thinking about the choice of electric cars as being "green". Consider the choice of going electric as budget. I bought electric sheerly on the fact that I expect the running cost (electricity) to be 1/7 of what gas was in the car I drove. Sure they are greener than gas, but still not as green as we need to be worldwide.
Cannot fathom why anyone would buy a Tesla. I’ve ridden in 4 of them and all had more squeaks and rattles after a couple years or less than my 20 year old Toyota. One of those things that looks great from 50ft away but as soon as you start looking at all the details under close inspection just falls apart for me. Also laughable panel gap.
The cost of new cars these days is generally absurd though. I’ll keep mine alive until it becomes impossible to do so
The cost of new cars these days is generally absurd though. I’ll keep mine alive until it becomes impossible to do so
Corradobrit1
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I beg to differ....Check out Comet Honyaki. His hamons compete with the best, even most Japanese makers. Although Trey is no longer active his blades can be found.
Hamons are a medium especially suited to creative expression. On nihonto they're respected as such; they're a creative expression of the swordsmith. Most swords do not have symmetrical hamons, they're layed out by hand. On kitchen knives however the hamons are layed out with a jig, for repeatability, facility, and overall efficiency. I appreciate that aesthetic, but it just doesn't speak to me
HolyDiverScallop
Not too smart, but at least I’m ugly.
I firmly believe that going all electric for everything (including heat) is a long term win. It's the only form of energy we have that can be economically generated and stored at the point of use OR generated and distributed centrally with optional storage at the point of use.
Battery technology continues to improve in substantial ways, with safer chemistries, fewer rare earth metals required, and higher energy densities. This will have a huge impact on how residential power is managed.
It will not be long before electric cars are not just viable, but actually better (more convenient, lower maintenance, lower cost of operation) for the average person than ICE cars. We're nearly there now.
Battery technology continues to improve in substantial ways, with safer chemistries, fewer rare earth metals required, and higher energy densities. This will have a huge impact on how residential power is managed.
It will not be long before electric cars are not just viable, but actually better (more convenient, lower maintenance, lower cost of operation) for the average person than ICE cars. We're nearly there now.
It's decided. I'm driving the wife's SUV to the store.
aporigine
The slow blade penetrates the winter squash
I have an eleven-year-old Fit (manny tranny) that I chose over a Prius. Reason is that the Fit was $16k out the door, and a Prius (obligate slushbox transmission) was twice that. At $4 a gallon, I figured I’d break even at the 500k mile mark, not counting registration fees. That’s at the car’s EPA highway mileage of 35mpg, since most of my driving is rural.
However here in the desert, I’m getting just over 50mpg. My unhurried driving style helps. It makes me wonder how I’d do with a Prius.
As for electrics, the one that makes my nerd gland rhythmically contract is the Aptera. Way I drive, the solar panels would probably keep up with my usage!
Big problem with current (!) electrics (after the elephant in the room: crap range per kWh) is the price of replacing the battery and especially the motor(s): five figures for either, and the motors generally don’t last a hundred thousand miles. Jmo
(add) 50mpg at $5/gal is 10¢/mi fuel cost. A “very efficient” EV uses 12.5 kWh in that time, which here in ‘Fornia costs almost as much as gas, assuming I stay away from the Supercharger pirates.
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I agree on your big picture point about electric being the future. But I think the tech required to get electric cars to a point where they’re equally convenient to ICE is at least a decade, probably two away.
HolyDiverScallop
Not too smart, but at least I’m ugly.
I think the inflection point is much closer than that, but agree that 100% ubiquity and 100% parity is likely a decade or so out.
I think that it's largely a support and infrastructure issue at this juncture. Ubiquitous charging infrastructure, some kind of battery replacement process that scales and is economically reasonable, and range improvements (which are largely a battery tech issue)
To clarify. I’m not saying let’s throw out electric all together. I just want to know more, and impartial, information about the impact of going electric. I think people can be overly enthusiastic about it without knowing what the impacts of creating batteries.
Also @ethompson. I actually loved the Tesla I rented for a few days. The the. Is amazing and it felt good to drive especially in the city and with traffic. But…. As a long term owner I cannot say
Also @ethompson. I actually loved the Tesla I rented for a few days. The the. Is amazing and it felt good to drive especially in the city and with traffic. But…. As a long term owner I cannot say
I know my next car will be electric, but holding out as long as possible. Should be a few more years. My wife's car is 12 years old with 130K on it, but her commute now is only 4 miles so it *should* last a few more years. Trying to wait until the tech and charging infrastructure improves.
I've driven one too. Agree, a lot of potential and lot of things to like. Electric cars have the capacity to be faster, smoother, quieter, more reliable, etc than ICE I think. I just don't think they're there yet. Also as someone who keeps their clothes longer than some people keep their cars, I see enough QC / durability problems on the surface of the Teslas I've been in that I wouldn't be confident staking $40-100k+ on that manufacturer building something I'd be happy living with for a quarter century.
Thankfully I just have 250k on the odometer now and am shooting for 500, so should have another decade at least as long as I can avoid some maniac driver slamming into me. Like @Heckel7302 hoping the next one will be electric (or hydrogen or whatever) and ideally self driving, just need to hold out. Or maybe it'll decide to outlive me and I won't need another vehicle ever, one can hope.
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Not an electric fan?
Jovidah
I'll make you a sponsor offer you can't refuse...
People have done the math on this and while it's true that the initial environment impact of electric vehicles is higher (due to the batteries), there's a crossover point that even most conservative estimates put as being within the first 100k km (so far less than the expected total mileage any given vehicle will get).
The production impact is also not that much higher; while batteries add carbon footprint and cost, most of the stuff like drivetrain and engine is far simpler.
Long term I can imagine that alternatives like green fuels and hydrogen might gain some traction though, especially in logistics / transportation; battery trucks are somewhat problematic.
Jovidah
I'll make you a sponsor offer you can't refuse...
It's unfortunate though that many people someone feel threatened by technological progress that would allow us to at least lessen our environmental impact and rather just keep going down a destructive path just for the sake of... ???
Similarly it's rather regrettable that almost all increase in aerodynamical and engine efficiency in traditional cars has been offset by most people choosing to just drive bigger cars. An ICE car from today consumes about the same as one from a few decades ago because for some reason massive small-penis-compensator SUVs became the norm... when we could instead be saving a massive amount of oil, money and carbon emissions if we still drove the same size cars that worked just fine for anyone a few decades ago.
Similarly it's rather regrettable that almost all increase in aerodynamical and engine efficiency in traditional cars has been offset by most people choosing to just drive bigger cars. An ICE car from today consumes about the same as one from a few decades ago because for some reason massive small-penis-compensator SUVs became the norm... when we could instead be saving a massive amount of oil, money and carbon emissions if we still drove the same size cars that worked just fine for anyone a few decades ago.
Very interesting thank you for that info! I could probably find stuff but imma be honest I’m lazy and don’t feel like doing it so thanks for the spark notes.
it’s clearly money…. And that money propagates propaganda to convince people it’s bad and we should be scared.
I also can see it shifting work so people in region x will lose jobs and what not. So I can see that as an argument, albeit not a good enough of one to not do it. IMO… I mean it’s like cutting your nose off in spite of your face.
And I LOVE my sienna hybrid. 35 mpg highway vs 20 for a conventional combustion??? Duhh…..
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Jovidah
I'll make you a sponsor offer you can't refuse...
Long term the expectation is that things will only get rosier for electric vehicles since there's so much research being done into battery tech. So there's a lot of effort going into solutions that will lower the amount of lithium required or replace it entirely. I don't expect lithium batteries to dissapear entirely overnight - I don't think anything's been found that can beat it in energy density - but especially in stuff like home batteries and grid buffering systems I expect to see stuff like sodium ion batteries taking over at least a huge chunk of the market.
With the whole electrification of everything / sustainable energy the main obstacle is that energy production does not necessarily line up with consumption. Batteries can even things out throughout a day but they're not really an economical or viable solution for using excess solar energy in the summer to provide electricity for heating in the winter.
HolyDiverScallop
Not too smart, but at least I’m ugly.
Sodium ion tech is very promising.
