What will it take to make you seriously consider an EV?

Overrated. BYD arrives with your own personal Chinese slave.

 

I bet it's after June 28.

 

2026?

 

another take on Bring Your Own Driving is when their car suddenly stops on the highway and they scrub the data in the workshop. though to be fair the country this happened in byd are not the importers so they may or may not have played a part in the data going missing.

 

"What will it take to make you seriously consider buying an [anything]?"

Sell me.

I'm getting pretty close to a vehicle or two. Couple of solid trade-ins. Would love at least one to be electric.

 

I'm keeping my eye on Slate. I really like the concept and wouldn't need huge range for a daily driver.

 

Can you charge at home? If so, it's a no-brainer to get an EV for at least in-town driving. Cheaper to fuel, next to no maintenance, music sounds better because of lack of engine noise, instant torque, no tailpipe emissions. The extra time you get from just pulling into your garage and plugging in instead of having to go to a gas station is something you notice right away.

 

Very well said.

 

Love me an EV for in-town driving.
Even driving in traffic is so much better...

ICE: 1st to 2nd..no back to 1st...to 2nd...ugh need more torqueeeeeeee
EV: oh look a tiny space i can get into. done.

 

What are your towing experiences?

 

Flatbed needed.

 

Curious, my neighbor has a Tesla and has a charger in his garage, do you get that when you but they car, do they come and install it?? I do think I will make the move to EV eventually...............

 

I don't know anything about Teslas--by choice. I have a Ford Mach-E.

There are three speeds of chargers. High speed chargers are usually commercial installs at places like shopping malls and such. Medium chargers can be found in lots of places and you can install one in your home, but it costs a bit, including the electrician. Depending on how much you drive and the climate, you may need one put in. The Slooow chargers just plug into a regular socket and give you about 4-5 miles of range per hour. Being retired, not regular commuters, and living in a town of 100k, we just do this and still only need to plug it in a couple of times every 10-14 days, usually when we can go 15-20+ hours without driving. It costs us maybe $8 on the electric bill to go from 20% to 90%, but your rates may vary--most people program a charge for night hours when electricity is cheapest, say 11PM-5AM.

This is what came with our car. You can see the two different plugs needed for slow and medium. They connect to the box and then you run the cable to the car. I do wish the plugs had a little bit longer reach, but no biggie. (I think there's now an option where you can buy a home charger that can also be reversed to charge your home for the Ford Lightning pickup that they will come and install for you.) You can also buy after-market chargers that are presumably better than what Ford hands out.

 

Never had it towed. Never towed anything with it.

I could put a hitch on My Mach-E, but I won't. Towing a trailer is one of the problems that needs to be solved because it greatly decreases your range. EV trucks can "tow" a tremendous amount of weight, they just can't go very far with it right now.

 

Tesla did a test drive yesterday. It blew through a school bus stop sign and killed a cardboard kid. Not ready for prime time.

https://bsky.app/profile/carlquintanilla.bsky.social/post/3lridgcwvvc2n

 

I kinda assumed in your line of work you had a truck. I'm anxiously awaiting the day when they're solid and practical for my needs.

But I'm in the market for a "daily driver" SUV of some sort, as soon as we're ready to trade-in her current car

 

If Tesla is an option for you, I strongly suggest test-driving a Model Y.

 

Not gonna happen.

 

A City of Austin Web page.

At this moment, Waymo is the only firm that appears to actually be in deployment mode and serving the paying Public. The rest including Tesla are still working on it.

Passengers in the cars of the companies that are still testing are likely some combination of employees and friends that have signed a NDA.

Once a firm transitions from testing to deployment to carry paying customers, then the City of Austin is probably going to be expecting records to be kept and submitted to track fees - taxes that are owed.


Autonomous Vehicles

Automated or autonomous vehicles (AVs) are defined in the Texas Transportation Code as a motor vehicle that includes an automated driving system, which is hardware and software that, when installed on a motor vehicle and engaged, are collectively capable of performing, without any intervention or supervision by a human operator. That includes all aspects of the entire dynamic driving task for the vehicle on a sustained basis and any fallback maneuvers necessary to respond to a failure of the system.

In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 2205 to amend the Texas Transportation Code with new policies governing the operation of autonomous vehicles (AVs). State law preempts local authority of self-driving vehicles; SB 2205 made rules uniform for AVs across the state, putting regulation and oversight in the hands of the state government rather than local municipalities. Texas passed another law, House Bill 3026, in 2021 related to the operation and regulation of autonomous vehicles.

Although cities in Texas cannot regulate AVs, Austin has worked with autonomous vehicle companies as they enter the market to offer staff's knowledge on the local transportation network to help AVs operate more safely.

Known AV Operators in Austin

ADMT
Phase: Testing
Parent Company: Volkswagen

Contact the team: admobility@vw.com


AVRide
Phase: Testing
Parent Company: AVRide Inc.

Contact rider support: contact@avride.ai


Motional
Phase: Mapping
Parent Company: Hyundai

Media inquiries: press@motional.com


Waymo
Phase: Deployment
Parent Company: Alphabet

File a complaint

Contact rider support

Media inquiries: press@waymo.com


Tesla
Phase: Testing
Media inquiries: press@tesla.com


Zoox
Phase: Testing
Parent Company: Amazon

Contact rider support: community@zoox.com

Submit a media inquiry

 

I understand you're more trusting of videos than I am. This is an elaborate test. I am not denying this wouldn't happen, however a cabin cam would have showed the same results while showing if the car was indeed in FSD or Auto Pilot. Auto Pilot is nothing more than lane assist cruise control. For now, you will have to settle on 'trust me bro'.