Cybertruck...or how NOT to build a vehicle

[Frank S]

I still can't tell one melted Hersey bar car form another
As for Aero designed cars look backwards to the 30s & 40S Their main problem was drive train technology and braking technologies the coops were sleek while the luxury models had just about everything a person would want or need.

[Frank S]

As far as pickups are concerned I haven't accepted or learned to like the sloped low forehead look of any pickup built after 1999 and wont own one of the newer ones unless I buy it to resale That is providing if I buy one I can get enough of the cheesy electronics functioning long enough to sell them.

[old kodger]

Franks said,
"The engine in my 93 F350 is in its 4th truck and has at least half a mill miles on it My 91 F250 has 244K on it both are those noisy diesels and really aren't all that powerful but they will go on forever, Will the Duracell in the Tesla last that long? "

I'm with you frank, I still run an old 1985 Nissan MK 3.3ltr diesel, .....wouldn't pull the skin off of a rice pudding, but it'll still be going when I;m not.

[MeJasonT]

Does anyone see the next green disaster here.
They want us to switch to electric vehicles to save the planet, they want to protect the worlds oceans.

So the best idea they can come up with is to mine a carcinogen off the sea ocean floor to make batteries

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-49759626

The battery enclosure will undoubtedly be made from plastic and the whole unit is going to be non recyclable
coming from an Engineering background i think the whole idea is **** (poop, punji, excrement, turd here we go again trying to overcome the foul language spell checker) - oh thank the heavens for narcissists and millennial's the future is so safe in their hands - NOT

@rallen the sleek aero design has been around for decades and last saw success with Delorean, i some how got a whiff that it was supposed to have an electric variant capable of time travel. I say Whiff as the third generation of time travel vehicle did its own composting for power (in back to the future 3).
Sir Clive Sinclair also tried to produce electric vehicles so unfortunately Elon its not an original idea. Oh where would Microsoft be today without stealing ideas and semiconductor architecture from Sir Clive. It is for this reason i'm actually an avid supporter of Elon Musk's inventions even if they do end up in failure - its not as if other great inventors haven't led the way in some shape or form. Now where did i put my apple star trek tricorder.

[Hoosiersmoker]

So in order to charge the cars and trucks of today, we still use coal or gas fired generators or hydroelectric which requires a major disruption of waterways, and God knows what effect that has already had on the environment and plant / animals. Making the majority of components out of plastic props the fossil fuel industry even more not to mention battery production increases (more plastic). What's the real solution? Is there one? Does anyone have more answers than questions? Obviously not me!

[mklotz]

So in order to charge the cars and trucks of today, we still use coal or gas fired generators or hydroelectric which requires a major disruption of waterways, and God knows what effect that has already had on the environment and plant / animals. Making the majority of components out of plastic props the fossil fuel industry even more not to mention battery production increases (more plastic). What's the real solution? Is there one? Does anyone have more answers than questions? Obviously not me!

Horrendous tax penalties on any children after the first two would be a good step.

[MeJasonT]

The west seems to have a weird way of taxing people.
Child support was intended to stop children being starved and ending up on the street and yet the benefit is now being used by middle class families to pay for Nursery places so that both parents can work so they can save up for 3 holidays a year. The majority of whom are employed in the civil service and are some of the best payed in the country (UK) as servants lets not forget. Meanwhile a single mum on benefit who can barely support herself is having to work 3 jobs to keep from slipping int debt whilst also having her benefits cut.
The same middle classes have good pensions to look forward to and many are able to retire early, The workers in society are expected to work until they drop and wont get much of a pension to speak of.

The NHS is overwhelmed with work (mainly working class sick people). The powers that be are either to stupid or just stupid to realise the failure of society in this day and age. Our election should have an element of using a taser which can be used on those you choose not to like the policies of the one left standing will have deserved to have the leadership position. Loads of talk but no listening - stuck on transmit as we used to say in the mob.

I don't think the greens have a clue either, they mobbed London for a march on climate change. all arriving by car/train (eg. not on foot from Scotland). The thing that was most evident was the number of the protesters with mobile phones, the latest model no doubt. where was their old phone. After the march the London borough council had to clean the streets of all the plastic bottles and food containers they had discarded.

Yep the climate is changing and yes its heating up but more research needs made into the planets life cycle as much as it does listening to head banger bleating on about mans destruction of the planet. Its funny how only organisations looking for evidence of mans impact on the planet are being funded, if you only research one solution you will only find the answer you are trying to predict.

The whole seasonal year has shifted, we used to have harsh weather in November December which is now more like January, February. The spring used to start late march, April which is now more like end of May. didn't the Indonesian tsunami jolt the earth on its axis as they reported at the time.
There has been an ice age every 50,000 years on average and the last one was due 17 years ago. Tell the scientists to shove it up their pipes, its obvious to me whats happening - why don't they try to debunk those facts. Oh that's right they are being funded by governments who have a vested interest as they are taxing us on the effects of climate change.

We could go 100% green tomorrow and gain 100% unemployment into the bargain = this needs managed not disorganised fire fighting.

back to electric cars, working class people tend to buy second hand cars with an average price of between £1000 and £5000. when will electric cars become affordable, when the batteries have expired?

[Frank S]

1963 was the first year the Earth's population increased by over 60 million 1967 the increase was over 70 million 1982 80 million then the highest increase per year happened in 1988 with an increase of over 92.9 million then the increase began to decline slightly with the lowest increase being in 2001 of 79.1 million back up to 79.9 and 80.7 in 2005 reaching an increase of 84.7 again in 2013 and a slight steady decrease in the increase ever since in 2018 the increase was 83 million with 2019 being on par to be slightly less than 83 million.
But that still brings the global population to over 7,7 billion.
Even with all of the wars famine and other carnage through out history there has never been a significant decrease in the global population
It took thousands of years to reach 1 billion in 1804 then 123 years to reach 2 billion 1927, only 33 years to reach 3 billion 1960. 14 years after that 4 billion 1974,n13 years to reach 5 billion 1987. 12 year for 6 billion 1999 the 7 billion by 2011 and most likely 8 billion by 2022. Even though the increase and the population goes up every year the % of increase rate is much lower than ever being only around 1.08% but that is like compounded interest the highest %age increase being back in 1968&69 of 2.09%
However none of this takes away form the fact that the greener everyone tries to do things the browner the world is going to be eventually.
All of these green technologies are still going to contribute to consuming natural resources which may have taken millions of years to produce.
The planet has been around for billions of years life on it as far as we have been able to determine a mere few dozen millions How many times during those few dozen millions has the planet self corrected? or undergone a catastrophic change from outside?
If today tomorrow 10 or 100 years from now another complete make over were to happen and I believe it will. It is going to take place no matter what.
if the human and other life forms population were to be reduced to less than 1% of what it is today in a few 1000 years or less the world will be right back where is now

[MeJasonT]

Completely agree.
when i was at school in the 70s and 80s the population of the UK was 58 million, it now stands at 66 million, 10% of which (6 million live in Scotland and apparently give them the right to decide Brexit - that's if 100% of Scots voted to remain). Makes their argument a little flawed don't you think. I digress.

And to think they wonder why the UK resources are stretched and that we (the Brexiteers) want to control immigration, amongst other things.
a major one being ran by Brussels, paying 18 billion a year to be a member of the Euro club and being starved out of manufacturing in favour of the land locked euro partners. who has ever heard of an island that is restricted on the number of fish it can catch or the number of ships it can build.

Frank we can easily point to the source of the worlds problems - capitalism.
so on that note who benefits from electric cars again. What happens when we get hover cars, our government is already crapping itself over diy Drones.

It may surprise you to know that the EU is looking to bring in legislation on the use of 3D/FDM plastic printers.

[MeJasonT]

Im still gob smacked that no one has thought to retrofit pertrol/derv cars with electric motor and battery packs, wouldn't that get dirty fuel cars off the roads quicker.
Why have Hydrogen cars been shelved in favour of battery ones, no money to be made from the average Joe perhaps