Wednesday, September 19, 2018

All juiced up? Ready to go?







"And the trade in value on my current truck if I take excellent care of it? Zero. My old truck just might be obsolete by 2025. Total junk, and ready for the scrap yard. Yes, things are moving that fast."



I am a wee bit disgusted with myself this morning. Last night I was reading a very interesting article on cars. Not today's cars - tomorrow's cars. And when I say tomorrow - not a figure of speech. Literally tomorrow. In any event, I usually bookmark interesting articles I read, so I can use them as a foundation for a future article I would write. Light night I did not (it was getting late, and I was tired) - so I forgot the bookmark. This morning I can't find it, so I will have to go by memory.

I know - some of my fellow truck driving aficionados are pleading with me - BIRD! NO MORE ELECTRIC CAR TALK! Well guess what? Please bear with me, as you might find this one interesting. The article I read said there recently some organization conducted a poll (I have no idea if the poll was valid, but for the sake of this article, I will say it was), and the results were interesting. 30% of those polled said they would buy electric for their next car. That is a huge number! Fortunately for this 30%, the car manufacturers are ahead of this developing demand, and have many new models in the pipeline.

How soon is soon? The picture in this article is of a driver-less taxi. Is it just a model? Nope - built and ready to go. In fact, General Motors would like to roll out their driver-less taxis next year! Have them up and running in 2020. Electric and autonomous. That is what we will be seeing more and more of. In fact, this article went on to say that part of the now infamous "Stimulus Bill" (Obama's boondoggle) , many charging station platforms were built. Now they are done and ready to go - just waiting for electric cars to charge. And many more are being built - this year.

Every time I read an article like the one I read last night, I am floored how fast this electric revolution is coming. I have never seen anything like it. In fact, it is coming so fast, with so much inertia from customer demand, car companies who balk and ignore this change, will be looking for something else to do. They will be out of business. 

Next year, we will all be seeing charging stations popping up all over the place. Traditional charging stations and "Quick-charge" stations on highways and freeways. At gas stations - right next to the pumps. They will be at shopping malls. Parking lots. In private garages. They will not be free to use - but the cost to charge an electric car with the equivalent "go-miles" as a tank of gasoline, will cost less than half what gasoline costs. 

My truck is just under six years old. It looks and drives brand new. My goal was to have it last at least 10 - maybe 15 years. It is a great truck, and both my wife and I love it. But it sounds like it could be my last. At least, the last which will look, act, and drive like my current one. What will my next truck look like if I wait until 2025 to buy it? I have no clue, but not like I would buy today.

And the trade in value on my current truck in 2025 if I continue to take excellent care of it? Zero. My old truck just might be obsolete by 2025. Total junk, and ready for the scrap yard. Yes, things are moving that fast.

4 comments:

  1. The frightening reality of AI's future...........
    Would you trust our govt? China? Me either.

    Google decided after an employee backlash this summer that it no longer wanted to help the U.S. military craft artificial intelligence to help analyze drone footage.
    Now, the military is inviting companies and researchers across the country to become more involved in machine learning. The firms should accept the invitation.
    DARPA contractors will probably develop products with nonlethal applications, like improved selfdriving cars for convoys and autopilot programs for aircraft. But the killer robots that have many people worried are not outside the realm of technological possibility.
    The future of AI will require outlining principles that explain how what is possible may differ from what is right. If the best minds refuse to contribute, worse ones will.
    But patriotism is not the only reason companies should want to participate. They know better than most in government the potential these technologies have to help and to harm, and they can leverage that knowledge to maximize the former and minimize the latter.

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  2. Toad's staff shuffled him off to North Carolina to hand out food and make faces vaguely resembling sympathy for hurricane victims. It's not going well.
    Or is his staff purposefully allowing this embarrassing shit?
    Can't they keep him in the WH or on the golf course?
    At least he didn't drag his 3rd wife in her Manolo Blahnik heels and new boobs (kidneys).

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  3. Two more shootings today...........

    Toads's Justice Department, as well as several states that do their own background checks, almost never prosecute what are called "lie and try" felonies.
    This is when someone legally barred from owning a gun — often a convicted felon, a violent spouse abuser or someone with a serious mental illness — lies on a federal background check to make a purchase.

    The FBI, in reviewing instant background checks for firearm purchases, detected 112,000 lie-and-try crimes in fiscal 2017 alone, and federal investigators had names and addresses on the filled-out forms.
    How many were prosecuted?
    Twelve, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.

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    Replies
    1. Maybe, 111,988 falsified their names and addresses?

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