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Electric cars?

Would you buy an electric car?

  • Already own one

    Votes: 10 5.1%

  • Yes - would definitely buy

    Votes: 43 21.7%

  • Yes - preferred over petrol car if price/power/convenience similar

    Votes: 78 39.4%

  • Maybe - preference for neither, only concerned with costs etc

    Votes: 38 19.2%

  • No - prefer petrol car even if electric car has same price, power and convenience

    Votes: 25 12.6%

  • No - would never buy one

    Votes: 14 7.1%
  • Total voters
    198
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From the article in the last post, this is great news also, which we have been discussing for some time:
Mr Washington said the next wave will have vehicle-to-grid charging technology, which his company will introduce this year.

"Vehicle-to-grid charging stations will be available this year from us, so people can theoretically charge at their office then go home and power their house," he said.
As I've said before, I think the transition to an electric economy from a fossil fuel economy, is moving amazingly fast here.
 
sptrawler said:
"Vehicle-to-grid charging stations will be available this year from us, so people can theoretically charge at their office then go home and power their house," he said.
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What this opens up is the administrative can of worms.

I can foresee employers being less than enthusiastic about this idea and not unreasonably so. Many businesses already restrict private use of company vehicles and monitor fuel purchases in case of theft. The idea of taking enough additional "fuel" to literally run the employee's entire house adds an entirely new dimension to that.

There's a lot of things like that of a non-technical nature which will need to be worked out regarding all this. Vehicles and employees can cause a fair bit of grief as it is.
 
These and the other issues like those mentioned, like upgrading the infrastructure on shared accommodation, industrial and commercial buildings, street distribution, substations etc.
It isn't just a matter of waving the magic wand and saying abra cadabra, some people have no idea.
They think if a politician ordains it, it will happen and all will be good in love island Australia.
Absolutely gormless is my opinion.
 
Here is one current solution to fast charging of electric vehicles without straining the grid. Worth reading in full.

AFC Energy launches alkaline fuel cell H-Power EV charger system
31 December 2019
UK-based AFC Energy launched its H-Power electric vehicle (EV) charger based on alkaline hydrogen fuel cell technology. The self-contained charging system overcomes issues associated with poor grid coverage to provide rapid electric vehicle (EV) charging anywhere it is needed.

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2019/12/20191231-afc.html
 
Good article Bas, that sort of idea will work well in remote areas as backup for installed solar?wind fed chargers.
Another interesting part was the amount of money required to spent on the grid infrastructure, to meet the E.V demand, the study was commissioned by Scottish power so is probably a fair assessment.
From the article:
In the UK, a recent study commissioned by Scottish Power found that to meet EV deployment targets, almost £100 billion (US$131 billion) of new investment is required to upgrade the network and deploy dedicated EV charging stations throughout the country.

For fleet operators, commercial vehicles and even private and public car park operators, large scale rapid charging is a corporate necessity, which in instances cannot be met without localized grid upgrades. AFC Energy’s system is designed to meet these needs by delivering an EV charger that can be safely fueled using a variety of hydrogen sources while operating at optimum efficiency to enable rapid charging rates when and where it is required.

It confirms what I have been saying in the Power Generation thread, that the amount of money required will be amazing, and a glib one liner by a politician isn't going to do anything, other than give people false hope this can be achieved overnight.
$200billion Australian, that is for the U.K.
I will post it in the Power Generation thread, it is worth a read IMO.
 
I believe the AFC unit is intended for everywhere. Essentially it transforms relatively low quality hydrogen into electricity. In theory one could have an ammonia tank with a cracker behind the unit supplying the fuel.
 
Value Collector said:
the headline should read,

“Man playing game on phone dies in car crash”
Click to expand...

EV's are going to happen definitely but I'm far less convinced that we'll see autonomous vehicles replace human drivers completely.

In some applications yes, AV's will likely replace low patronage public transport for example, but I'm not convinced when it comes to privately owned vehicles. I suspect it may end up like wood fires and clotheslines - a throwback to the past which rationally seems out of place and has done for years but still common in practice.

I won't be at all surprised if in 2050 the concept of a human driving a car is still considered normal.
 
SirRumpole said:
People will become more reliant on technology, believing it to be faultless. People are naturally lazy, I think this sort of thing will happen a lot more in future.
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I have no doubt people will die while cars are on autopilot.

The important thing though is whether the death rate is higher or lower than vehicles without that function enabled.

So far the crash rate with autopilot enabled is lower than without, two heads are better than one so to speak, but the tech is not ready for you to switch off completely.
 

I agree if we are talking about cars with no steering wheels, that don’t require any driving assistance.

but cars with self driving functions that can do most of the routine stuff for you are not that far away.

I see no reason why a human should be needed for long haul freeway driving for example, I think by 2050 The cars being sold will doing that themselves as a minimum.
 
Value Collector said:
I see no reason why a human should be needed for long haul freeway driving for example, I think by 2050 The cars being sold will doing that themselves as a minimum.
Click to expand...
I expect that we'll have cars that are capable of being fully autonomous in the not too distant future.

What I'm thinking though is that it'll be one of those things where the feature's there but many choose to drive manually because that's their preference.

There's a lot of examples where an automatic technology exists but consumers prefer to not use it or at least to not use it under some circumstances. Lots of things like that - there's still plenty of people using manual toothbrushes, washing dishes by hand and hanging washing out to dry for example.

People who can't drive, for either physical or legal reasons, will use AV's sure and I do think we'll see some big changes there. AV's will compete head on with traditional forms of public transport for lower volume services for example and they enable people who can't drive to become sole occupant vehicle users.

For the rest though, I'm not convinced that we're going to see the average person cease driving (as in actually driving the car) altogether at least not for most who were born early enough such that they've already got a driver's license by the time AV's become common and legal for unlicensed drivers to use.
 
Further to your post smurf, there is already a strong push to go autonomous, with trains and planes, however there is a lot of public resistance.
How long that resistance will last for who knows? I do know that in my previous employment, they tried to retrofit auto controls on old plant, to remove the human factor.
In the end they ran out of money to throw at it, having said that the new machinery that was installed when the old was shutdown, runs well without human intervention. The only reason humans are present, is statutory requirements.
IMO having operated fairly technical equipment and also repaired same, I think there are times where a human is required to intervene, but the outcome is extremely variable and closely related to the ability of the person who intervenes.

So IMO we are quite a way from fully autonomous vehicles running interstate, but we probably aren't far away from autonomous vehicles operating in dedicated operating areas i.e dockyards, car free inner city areas, specially designed retirement villages etc.
Just my thoughts.
 

I don’t know, I use the “navigate on autopilot” feature on pretty much every route it’s available on.

I can’t see many people choosing to drive their daily commute (especially in traffic jams) manually once cars get to the point where they don’t really require your attention.

but then again I use both a dishwasher and an electric toothbrush hahaha
 

we already have autonomous vehicles in dedicated areas, Fmg has over 100 driverless dump trucks, that’s old news.
 
Value Collector said:
but then again I use both a dishwasher and an electric toothbrush hahaha
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Much the same there. I'd repaired the dishwasher that came with this house and permanently installed the clothes dryer well before unpacking most of the stuff in boxes.

Reality is though a lot of people prefer to do things manually. Not everyone's like Smurf and gets excited upon seeing anything with a plug attached....

One thing about autonomous vehicles though is the regulatory impacts and I'll pose a few questions:

Could someone who is disqualified from driving, eg due to traffic offences, ride unaccompanied in an autonomous vehicle driving itself?

Could a child travel by themselves? Or an adult who's never had a drivers license and has no idea how to actually drive a car?

What about a cat? Is there any particular reason why I couldn't put the cat in the car and send it to its appointment at the vet? Vet goes outside, retrieves cat from car, gives vaccinations, puts cat back in car which brings it back home?

And what about totally empty vehicles going to pick something up? Eg is the future model of take away food one where the business places food items into unoccupied cars which then return to their owner? Eg it's after midnight, I'm hungry so I send the unoccupied car to whatever fast food place to bring me some food back?

Etc. The possibilities are exciting but the legislative process is going to struggle with all this I think.
 
Value Collector said:
we already have autonomous vehicles in dedicated areas, Fmg has over 100 driverless dump trucks, that’s old news.
Click to expand...
But they follow a very careful insulation policy with no human interaction allowed
So no algo looking at pedestrian, etc...not comparable to releasing AV in the street..which is being done but much more difficult
 
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