It’s rather shocking that those things (turn signals, windshield wipers, horn) were ever touchscreen only on any car. 
“Elon Musk’s vehicles removed the stalks that were used for turn signals in favor of haptic buttons on the steering wheels, a decision that many people are unhappy about and some claim was only done to save money, not for customer convenience.”
They were not necessarily touchscreen controls.
Oh, close enough, but yes, I misspoke.
That’s an incredibly dumb thing to change.
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I agree it is dumb to change something that has always had a universal physical control, but I’d say replacing it with a “button” on the steering wheel is a much smaller change than moving it “over there” to a screen. I seems more functionally equivalent since you can still rely on the sense of touch to navigate the control.
From a safety perspective, standardization is obviously important to eliminate any learning curve from changing vehicles. I have more than one car that I drive regularly…the blinker is standard, but the wiper controls all have their own implementation that sometimes takes a couple seconds to navigate.
Yeah, and hard to find wiper controls are a safety issue. Maybe less than, say, the horn or the gas & brake pedals, but still a legit problem.
I drove a car - must’ve been a rental - where I legit couldn’t find the horn.
It was on the steering wheel but it was tiny and easy to miss. HUGE glaring safety issue. That is something you definitionally have no time to hunt for.
Fisker is about to drive off a cliff. Not literally, though who knows with self-driving these days…
Do some of these upstart, er, start-up, companies just go into business with the goal of getting bought, at a premium, by some established carmaker?
Cuz, making cars passable to drive seems like a good way to look attractive for takeover.
Otherwise, just a bunch of Tuckers, IMO.
Just figured something out, or maybe I did before: Acceleration of an EV relies on battery size, the availability of all that power, and the ability of the motors to handle said power. ICE engines need only power (both need the infrastructure to handle said power: suspensions and stuff).
Range also relies on battery size. So, an EV with a big battery could have lots of range or lots of acceleration, but not lots of both. A big ICE engine will waste gas most of the time regardless, unless tweaked to sip only drops at a time, which would then limit its ability to accelerate.
There’s definitely a trade-off between power and fuel economy in ICE cars, too. And yes, they are engineered so you don’t have the choice. I mean, you have some choice, but it’s constrained, and your range from “powerful start” to “sips fuel” will vary a lot from car to car.
Would be cool if there were a knob inside that would modify the timing and crankshaft, but I think I’m dreaming.
A hybrid can solve this issue. Need some acceleration? Use the ICE to add some power. Else, cruise. And this is what some hybrids do.
The Lucid Air Sapphire would like a word. 1,234hp, for a 0-60 time of about 1.9s. And 400+ miles of range (EPA rated, it’s bullshit, whatever, whatever).
I think I’ve figured out what you want. Something made ca 1925 or so. Manual transmission (not even synchronized, so you get to Bernstein the clutch to your heart’s content!), no data collection for your insurer and, get this, a lever to adjust the ignition timing manually. No power steering or brakes so you can feel what everything is doing with very little in the way. Fancier cars like Bentley would further allow you to adjust the A/F mixture at the wheel. If you’re looking for maximum involvement in what all your car is doing, this is where it’s at, imo.
Modern cars, of course, do all of this fancy stuff but it’s automated. Every ICE car on the road has variable ignition timing, many have variable valve timing (aka VTEC). A/F ratio is determined by the ECU as well depending on RPM, throttle, etc.
That steering wheel reminds me of the one in our wedding car (also 1920s)
1929 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud
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I believe my pic was either a Bentley or a RR.
Acceleration depends on power and mass. The maximum power output of a battery isn’t as directly tied to mass as the total energy content is. Electric motors are typically rated by power, in the same way ICE motors have (peak) horsepower ratings. Increase in battery capacity for longer range does increase mass, while a larger gas tank not so much since gas is more energy dense than a battery and has a greater amount of mass variability than a battery. My Leaf’s motor is rated at 110 kW, which is about 110/.75 is horsepower. The weight is somewhat heavy for size compared to a similar sized ICE vehicle with same peak hp due to battery. The drag race between the two of them would be interesting, as the power profile is different for an ICE (narrower power band). Would the EV’s higher weight/wider power band outperform the lower weight/lower average power ICE? Who knows, ymmv. I certainly find my Leaf zippy enough.
Mathman’s example of the Lucid Air Sapphire shows an extreme example of EV capabilities.
ICE convert less than 40% of gas energy into motion. EV is north of 80%, iirc.
It can do either one of those, but not both all the time. Every over-acceleration causes range loss. I expect that you see that in your own driving.
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Physics still works, yes.
So, IMO, there should be an “or” instead of an “and”.
IMO. YMMV.
Fair bit of pedantry, but sure. Drag racing lowers range or MPG, yeah.
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Is this different from an ICE vehicle? I am not sure what your point is.