@[email protected] Then you haven’t been paying enough attention.

I’ve mentioned the need for more than just cars several times - have I made a video specifically about mass transit? No. But I don’t really intend do because that’s not my niche.

At this point, I’m ending this conversation.

@[email protected] You better believe this rubs me the wrong way. And I think you know you are being provocative. Deliberately.

If you don’t, god help you.

@[email protected] So.

You came out of nowhere, told me I shouldn’t defend EVs because of how bad cars in general are and that “instead” I should be advocating for better mass transit and bike infrastructure.

“Instead” implies one cannot do both - which I flatly reject.

@[email protected] What, specifically, are you telling me I should be defending against, then?

I’m so fucking confused.

@[email protected] Did I suggest that story’s not true? Is this a Mastodon threading thing?

Or are you really just… extremely anti-EV?

I can’t tell, but either way - your suggestion has been noted but, I should warn you, will be ignored.

@[email protected] … oh right, all you asked was for me to not make content illustrating that so much of the bad press out there isn’t real.

What to you actually want, a reduction in climate emissions as fast as possible? Or should we all just keep buying gas-powered cars while our politicians twiddle their thumbs and NIMBYs do their best to block even the most meager of proposals?

@[email protected] This is quintessential black-and-white thinking at its very worst.

I need a car and will need one for the foreseeable future. Many people are in the same boat.

Getting mad at folks who advocate for harm reduction given the realities of the day as some sort of purity test is not how you win over folks. You’ll probably make some extremists happy, maybe even radicalize a few folks to your position.

But this sort of purity-testing nonsense never leads to great places.

@[email protected] I’m sorry but I don’t have patience for this attitude whatsoever.

Our built world is incredibly car-centric. This is bad! I’m on record as saying that. But we’re not gonna be tearing it down any time soon, and progress on more mass transit and even bike infrastructure is frustratingly slow. Much too slow to have the impacts we need now.

I frankly find it insulting that you presume I don’t also want more mass transit and bike infrastructure.

@[email protected] Absolutely! That’s what I mean by more AC charging everywhere.

@[email protected] @[email protected] Sure, but there are 50kW DC chargers out there. Heck, there’s really no reason you couldn’t have a 25 kW DC charger.

I’d argue it doesn’t make sense to equip every EV with a more expensive onboard charger which can handle large AC inputs - most people truly don’t need that ever.

The need for medium-speed charging is, frankly, rare in the grand scheme. And it’s much more sensible to fill that need with DC chargers in places where they’re appropriate.

@[email protected] That’s an interesting supposition you’ve got there, except in this instance near Chicago multiple chargers have indeed gone down. At least one charging site went entirely offline.

@[email protected] No they absolutely still lock to the car - it would be incredibly dangerous if they didn’t as you could disconnect a several-hundred-amps DC connection.

The dispensers, though, barely retain them when they are put back in the holder. It’s essentially a friction fit.

@[email protected] Yeah, it seems like the only retention mechanism is friction? Which… WTF.

Honestly there’s a lot about their charger design to not like. The connector itself? Great!

The way the dispenser holds it? The location of where it holds it? The cable length? All bad.

@[email protected] I’m still firmly in the camp of “more basic L2 AC charging in more places” but it’s also true that for folks like myself, I just… never need that.

It’s mainly renters and folks who use street parking who need it, which presents quite the chicken-and-egg problem. So honestly, good on the folks making it work without at-home charging. I just hope they understood the experience they’re signing up for and don’t become loudly upset.

@[email protected] Yes, a surprising number of folks are doing this. I frankly don’t understand it but at the same time, it’s a way to make demand happen for more charging in more places I guess.

I essentially don’t use public charging at all unless I have a surprise need to make a longer trip. That has happened three times in two years for me - otherwise I’m only ever plugging in at home.

@[email protected] Well… for cables, sure. For the battery? Absolutely not. Cold temps wreck battery charging performance which is why most EVs have some means to warm up the cells. Nearly all have had this to keep the battery above some minimum threshold, but newer cars work to heat the battery pack to properly warm temps en-route to a fast charger (called battery preconditioning) which greatly reduces charging time.

*I apologize for using that term but it’s true.

More AC charging everywhere is what we need - relying on DC chargers for your daily needs is just not good for lots of reasons.

That said, they need to be designed better so that this isn’t an issue.

This evening I’ll make a quick little Connextras video about this, I think. What exactly the issue is with the Tesla chargers is unclear, though I’m seeing reports that charge handles are plugging with ice - which seems reasonable. The worst aspect of Tesla’s charger design is how poorly they retain the handle - it falls out easily and can end up face-down in snow. That needs improvement, and perhaps a heated connector makes sense in this climate.

Growing pains are real, but this is mostly FUD*

@JWBananas @Rentlar @SilentStorms ask and you shall receive, but maybe next time untag me first

@JWBananas So yeah, honestly I feel like you’re missing most of the context in those videos.

I never said pacs don’t work - I said that I suspect they’ve led to a lot of dishwasher dissatisfaction, made an argument as to why, and backed that up with a demo of the pre-wash and how, with no detergent in there, more stuff was left on the plates. That then was the starting point for the main wash cycle, and I figured that difference would speak for itself.

If it didn’t, then /that/ was my mistake