Battery based vehicles of today and tomorrow pt 2

[Oaktree]

I am not sure GM ever had a serious EV plan. Musk has indicated he would not have invested into Tesla Motors had GM went forward with the EV1 project and beyond. It amazes me he was the only man to put together teams that could build EVs and and more affordable space travels.

And when did Musk start Tesla? 10+ years ago. A lot has changed since then. Few, if any had any interest in EVs back then.
As far as SpaceX goes, the "hard" work was done decades ago by NASA, relatively easy to improve on things as opposed to making it up as you go along. But you knew that.

 

[Oaktree]

FWIW...Anyone that has been to 'Crater Lake National Park'...and made the trek down to the lake knows the only boats (tour) allowed on the lake are electric...this was the case when I was there in '72'...they were likely powered by L/A deep cycle batteries...

Didn't realize they allowed boats on Crater lake. Was there a couple times in the 70s, don't remember seeing any either time. Seems like it would be a real task to get one down there, even more of one getting it back up. Those slopes are steep! Other than maybe a hiking path or two, didn't see any easy way to get down to the water.

 

[Oaktree]

it was amusing to see her arrive at the ranch driving a U-Haul box truck to move some furniture 60 miles with her Prius-owning husband as passenger. He's unapologetically urban, they presently own a fourth-floor nice condo and that's the culture he grew up in. Incomprehensible to me, but he's a real decent guy.

American Graffitti movie, everyone car-crazy, absolutely nailed my youth! But that's irrelevant today. Only a tiny percentage of Americans do their own performance tuning now. That world is incomprehensible to the youth of today. I've read that even the recent era where youth understood computers better than anyone, has been superseded by a generation with their noses in their phones and mostly ignorant about PCs. Times change.

We can 'get off the train', settle into a life representing some past era, and that's fine. But its not where the majority culture is going. Uber never planned to serve rural folks, or their trailers. We - folks who know how to back a trailer - need to sit back and watch the Uber world from a safe distance. It's pointless to complain about it.

I suppose you're right. I personally don't see the appeal of urban life, to me there's "nothing to do" but agree that there are some that thrive on it. Give me fresh air and open space!! I'm sure most here would agree...after all the forum is called "rural living".
Likewise, I find it rather sad the number of young people who live their lives thru their cell phone. I don't think they know or even care how much they're missing.
But then I'm a boomer, what do I know?

 

[/pine]

Didn't realize they allowed boats on Crater lake. Was there a couple times in the 70s, don't remember seeing any either time. Seems like it would be a real task to get one down there, even more of one getting it back up. Those slopes are steep! Other than maybe a hiking path or two, didn't see any easy way to get down to the water.

It was only the park service that operated (or contracted) the tour boats...I think they did rent canoes but not sure...
A couple things I do remember...the drinking fountain was a cup tied to a string (the water was that pure)...and the ranger that was stationed there at the dock heard us commenting about the fish we could see...he said they were 50' down and you could tell the difference between the species...it was that clear...!

 

[ovrszd]

You guys who choose to live rural are a small minority in the American population. Proudly self-reliant, no?

Uber etc don't consider you a target market. You are on your own to figure out how to tow your trailer. As it should be. Not Uber's problem if you want to move your trailer.

Meanwhile Uber etc see an urban target market, that's where their customers are, to make money from. Look at the number of young people who choose to not own a car, some who don't even want a license. That's a totally different culture from my generation and yours who passed our license exams at 16 and may have already owned a car or two in preparation for that. My younger daughter has never owned a car but I taught her well, it was amusing to see her arrive at the ranch driving a U-Haul box truck to move some furniture 60 miles with her Prius-owning husband as passenger. He's unapologetically urban, they presently own a fourth-floor nice condo and that's the culture he grew up in. Incomprehensible to me, but he's a real decent guy.

American Graffitti movie, everyone car-crazy, absolutely nailed my youth! But that's irrelevant today. Only a tiny percentage of Americans do their own performance tuning now. That world is incomprehensible to the youth of today. I've read that even the recent era where youth understood computers better than anyone, has been superseded by a generation with their noses in their phones and mostly ignorant about PCs. Times change.

We can 'get off the train', settle into a life representing some past era, and that's fine. But its not where the majority culture is going. Uber never planned to serve rural folks, or their trailers. We - folks who know how to back a trailer - need to sit back and watch the Uber world from a safe distance. It's pointless to complain about it.

So, are we in the rural minority supposed to fall in line and be quiet? Or what exactly is your point?

 

[MinnesotaEric]

FWIW...Anyone that has been to 'Crater Lake National Park'...and made the trek down to the lake knows the only boats (tour) allowed on the lake are electric...this was the case when I was there in '72'...they were likely powered by L/A deep cycle batteries...

FWIW...IMO Crater Lake is one of the (after Yellowstone park) most awesome and inspiring national parks...

In my neck of the woods, back when all boat motors were 2-strokes, and people carried two different gas cans (one mixed at 30:1 to 50:1 for getting there, and one mixed at 80:1 to 100:1 for trolling), when a wind picked up, the shoreline downwind would get a sheen of two-stoke oil washing up on it. Those were the days. I still run a nearly forty-year-old two-stoke Johnson premixed with red-cap Evenrude two-stroke oil on my fishing boat for the power, the smoke, and the smell.

Come to think about it, I run a two-stroke on my 15' runabout too, a boat that once up on plane, can then be spun around backward while still traveling forward in a violent, and splashy kind of way! Smile.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

.View attachment 778403

Isn't that something? A friend of mine sells and services the huge CNC machines used in making boats and campers all over the country (Other Eric, if you follow my video channel), and I remember him explaining to me years ago that for midsize pleasure boats the industry was moving to multi-engine outboards because it was easier to service, the manufacturer could offer more options, and re-motoring was a no-brainer when compared to pulling and dropping in a pair of big blocks into a tiny, dark hole.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

You guys who choose to live rural are a small minority in the American population. Proudly self-reliant, no?

Uber etc don't consider you a target market. You are on your own to figure out how to tow your trailer. As it should be. Not Uber's problem if you want to move your trailer.

Meanwhile Uber etc see an urban target market, that's where their customers are, to make money from. Look at the number of young people who choose to not own a car, some who don't even want a license. That's a totally different culture from my generation and yours who passed our license exams at 16 and may have already owned a car or two in preparation for that. My younger daughter has never owned a car but I taught her well, it was amusing to see her arrive at the ranch driving a U-Haul box truck to move some furniture 60 miles with her Prius-owning husband as passenger. He's unapologetically urban, they presently own a fourth-floor nice condo and that's the culture he grew up in. Incomprehensible to me, but he's a real decent guy.

American Graffitti movie, everyone car-crazy, absolutely nailed my youth! But that's irrelevant today. Only a tiny percentage of Americans do their own performance tuning now. That world is incomprehensible to the youth of today. I've read that even the recent era where youth understood computers better than anyone, has been superseded by a generation with their noses in their phones and mostly ignorant about PCs. Times change.

We can 'get off the train', settle into a life representing some past era, and that's fine. But its not where the majority culture is going. Uber never planned to serve rural folks, or their trailers. We - folks who know how to back a trailer - need to sit back and watch the Uber world from a safe distance. It's pointless to complain about it.

Rural living makes city life possible but it is also much more energy intensive than high-density urban living.

We are on a tractor forum where most people have the tractors simply for maintenance of their homestead, and the ability to get in and out out of their homestead down to a road. Then, adding insult to injury, I live in the coldest place in the lower 48 (which is also infrequently the coldest place in all of North America because of our distance away from warming oceans) which means our HVAC systems are no joke and smart people build houses with triple-pane windows (I like Anderson 400 series, FWIW).

So these younger people: I don't get it. My brother's kid, a beautiful woman, goes to school and gets a double major: physics and economics, and graduates near the top of her class. Oh my, I think she is heading to Wall Street, to work for ten years and retire a millionaire, but then to everybody's dismay, she gets a job at a local dog shelter, where nobody needs a college education, and continues to this day living at home. My brother wonders why he spent all that money on her college? Oh, she finally got a driver's license at age 27.

Are you talking about those city people that don't drive?

I don't get it. For boomers, Gen X (myself), and my Millennial friends, travel means freedom.

 

[Oaktree]

I don't get it. For boomers, Gen X (myself), and my Millennial friends, travel means freedom.

I don't get it either. I have to wonder if Gen Z cares about privacy and freedom or maybe they think they're over-rated. I shake my head when I hear of people voluntarily installing tracking software on their cellphones so their friends/partners know where they are at all times (all 3 of my stepsons do). Likewise, the over-sharing on social media.

Now maybe this is all a stereotype and only a small but high profile percentage actually think/live this way. I sure hope so.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

I don't get it either. I have to wonder if Gen Z cares about privacy and freedom or maybe they think they're over-rated. I shake my head when I hear of people voluntarily installing tracking software on their cellphones so their friends/partners know where they are at all times (all 3 of my stepsons do). Likewise, the over-sharing on social media.

Now maybe this is all a stereotype and only a small but high profile percentage actually think/live this way. I sure hope so.

Sigh. The over-sharing. Oh why not? LOL

My nephew, a millennial, at the age of 20 in 2003, impressed by my father and myself, joined Army at a time you could get fast-tracked to the tip of the spear (at the time the Army was still recovering from Blackrock and other private companies from decimated our super-trooper ranks beginning in the mid 90s onward and so a kid could join and get fast-tracked through the Jerry's Kids training cycles—'cause they're all special LOL. Everybody still had to pass all the schools and standards, but you stayed in the funnel if you kept passing the go/no-go). After a couple of rotations in country, we were talking and my nephew said many of the (Infantry units) he was assigned to were made up by well-meaning kids who just didn't have the mindset for combat.

My nephew's assessment was that his was a weak generation (said to me in 2009, as I recall).

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