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octave

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Everything posted by octave

  1. Fully Charged is a great YouTube channel to keep up with the latest tech
  2. it is interesting to look at the playlist from this YouTube channel. Certainly seems to have an agenda and judging by the titles of its other videos perhaps a little sensationalist. https://www.youtube.com/@the_best_car_content/videos
  3. There is something pretty weird about that video. The narration seems very oddly written. Why the constant reference to Ford? I think the bottom line is if you don't think EVs are any good then don't buy one. If they are the disaster you believe them to be then sales naturally reduce and EVs will disappear.
  4. Red I would agree that there would be little point for you. I am sort of in the same position although I do have solar. Since retirement, I just don't do enough KMs to justify a new car of any sort. I do get do drive one for a couple of weeks a year when on holiday and it is immensely enjoyable to drive. I may consider it when my present car dies. My son's girlfriend has a BYD Atto 3 and she seems to like it.
  5. Adoption of anything new tends to follow the "adoption curve" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_life_cycle I believe we are most likely well into the early adopters stage. There is a point between early adopters and the early majority known as the chasm. This is where the market from innovators and early adopters has been satisfied but not enough early majorities are ready to buy. We built an off-grid solar house in 1990. The technology was pretty primitive compared to today. In the early 80s we were early adopters of the home PC . This adoption curve can be applied to just about any new tech. The innovators and early adopters are extremely important. I suspect that many people looked at early aircraft and scoffed, but there were enough innovators and early adopters to drive the technology forward. At the moment I would suggest that the EV could still be characterized as an enthusiast's car. I do believe though we are on the cusp of breaking through to the early majority buyers. Whatever the next few years hold I am pretty confident that cars will be driven by electric motors because the efficiency between a reciprocating engine and an electric motor is chalk and cheese (80% vs 20%) The question is how will we power those motors. At the moment we have battery and hydrogen fuel cell. Technology develops fast. The petrol car has come an amazing way since the first cars hit the roads. Whilst the modern petrol or diesel car is a modern marvel it has problems that are hard to solve. The fuel has to go through a costly and complex journey from the other side of the world and through an energy-hungry refining process and what comes out of the exhaust. Electric vehicles are versatile in that there are so many ways to generate electricity. I do sometimes wonder what we are actually arguing about here. It seems to have devolved into "EVs are sh1t" "No they aren't EVs are great" I don't usually post here in an EVangelical way. I nearly always post as a reaction to a statement I know to be suspect such as can/are EV batteries being recycled or reused, yeas they can and are. I would never suggest anyone rush out and buy an EV if it does not suit them. It would suit me except it is not economically viable at this point. This is changing as is the case with pretty much every piece of technology. People will often express concern about bans on the sales of new IC cars I think really they do not have much to worry about. If EVs are the disaster some people suggest then the chickens will come home to roost and cars will be bursting into flames everywhere the grid will be exploding etc. etc. etc. and those restrictions will probably never happen. I do believe that given the falling price of EVs (just look at the price reductions on Teslas) and competition that a ban wont be necessary because EV will be the cheaper choice. people will vote with their wallets.
  6. Onetrack your post was mostly about EVs and batteries. As a car builder, Tesla is a little on the immature side. I am aware of some of the problems. My son owns a Tesla and is a car person. He finds some of the engineering absolutely brilliant and is left scratching his head as to why they made some of the engineering choices they made but he still loves it. This is not evidence that EVs are dumb and piston engines are the way to go for all eternity. Car companies often suck. Why are the anti-EV crowd frothing with excitement if an EV catches fire (often it is not actually an EV - Lutton?) but don't seem to express similar concern when it doesn't fit their culture war narrative? US probes Hyundai, Kia recall into 6.4 million vehicles over fire risks and for the record, these are NOT EVs For the record, if I were to buy an EV now ir would be a BYD or and MG like @kgwilson not a Tesla Now about those EV batteries going to landfill. This is the kind of progressive forward-thinking we need. Australian made second-life EV battery system to be tested on New Zealand grid
  7. Whoah there this bold assertion needs a bit of evidence. Firstly why do you assert that the electronics that EV manufacturers use are cheap and shoddy? Please provide some evidence for this. As for batteries being toast after 10 years this is also a dubious claim. New Study: How Long Do Electric Car Batteries Last? How Long Do EV Batteries Last? New Research Suggests It's Way Longer Than You Might Think Electric Car Batteries Lasting Longer Than Predicted Delays Recycling Programs I could go on. Do you have intimate knowledge of Teslas construction methods? Are Teslas failing at a high rate? Are early Teslaa being scrapped at a great rate? What evidence is that they "do nothing to ensure that their EVs have a long lifespan." It sounds like you could give me some particular examples of inadequate parts etc. A YouTube channel I follow is Sandy Monro who tears down vehicles from many manufacturers and advises on how they can improve, You can watch him tearing down various Teslas. In the early days, he was pretty scathing but is impressed with how they are now manufactured. He will call out things he considers to be poor engineering Should we not recycle anything? Perhaps just dump everything in a landfill. I would not be surprised if landfill disposal was subsidized. There are successful recycling plants such as Redwood in the US. It is a fact that the components of batteries have some value and where there is value there is incentive. The crusty old EV haters will often say that the raw materials for EV and phone batteries etc will become scarce. This is where a circular economy comes in. A company like Tesla or any other EV company is only viable if it can build its own or source batteries from outside. It makes sense to get more recycling up and running or the business will fail due to materials shortages. You have suggested (incorrectly) that EV batteries only last 10 years. Given that EVs have only been sold in Australia for just a little over 10 years and in the early years sales figures were low, there is simply not the volume of clapped-out batteries to sustain the recycling industry. it is somewhat different in Europe the US and China. One of the biggest battery recycling plants in the US is up and running There is immaturity in EV recycling is mostly because of the lack of end-of-life batteries. Then there are second life uses. If you confidently assert that EV batteries are toast after 10 years then why are there examples of second-life projects? Even by your extremely pessimistic estimation of battery life, you must surely admit that there would be few batteries having reached total end of life. I would love to get my hands on one to use as a home battery but extremely hard to find. I suspect that for some of the anti-EV crowd, it has more to do with anxiety about change. Look if EV are just a totally crap idea they will fail to replace IC cars. If EVs are all failing at 10 years (they are not) and if landfill are overflowing with old dead batteries people will reject them. I do not think that will happen but I guess we will just have to revisit this topic every year or so for the next ten years to see what happens.
  8. People of course are entitled to their own opinions. The problem comes when people believe their opinions are facts. Truth is incredibly important. If someone says 100 EVs have caught fire in Australia this is not asserting an opinion but it is presenting a falsehood. As I have said many many times I don't care whether hate EVs and don't ever wish to drive one, that is totally fair enough they don't have to buy one. Red do you have an example of people denying someone's opinion?
  9. Although there are quite a few errors and in fact, some of the assertions were actually changed in subsequent editions (see the video that KG posted) I do actually agree with the above statement. Pretty much the only reason I have not bought an EV is that my present car is old but in good condition for its age and but would probably not fetch much if I sold it. It would be foolhardy I think we could suddenly change the whole fleet in a short time. The change is slow. In 2034 with the present timetable, you will be able to buy a shiny new IC car (although I doubt it will be economical). Atkinson is right on that point. The model of changing a car (of any type) every 3 years is problematic Although of course if someone does change their EV after 3 years, it is not being scrapped but it becomes available on the used car market.
  10. As I understand it the car has an inbuilt inverter. At this stage, Tesla vehicles do not support vehicle to load.
  11. oops my bad https://www.cnet.com/home/energy-and-utilities/solar-panels-that-work-at-night-developed-at-stanford/
  12. octave

    Tax Cuts

    I think mining companies pay royalties to the government. Whether the amount is appropriate is another question (I don't know)
  13. The team from the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering generated electricity from heat radiated as infrared light, in the same way as the Earth cools by radiating into space at night. Solar Panels That Work at Night Developed at Stanford
  14. They don't have to fly in cash every week. The article that Red posted specifically says once a week. Money people withdraw does not necessarily end up back at the post office. Some may be spent out of the area and some may be held onto by some people. Of course some may be deposited back at the post office
  15. Big Battery Storage Map of Australia There are also growing numbers of home batteries with can sell back to the grid. Growing numbers of EVs with the ability take from the grid when power is plentiful and give power when the grid is struggling. Ever-expanding rooftop solar increasing support by battery. The wholesale price of electricity according to AEMO is falling https://aemo.com.au/newsroom/media-release/east-coast-wholesale-electricity-prices-fall I could go on
  16. Onetrack I have previously put the example of the music school I worked at and my wife managed. Huge sums of money coming in every day during the first week of the term. Her sitting there behind the counter at 8PM with few people around. Even if the owner had invested in an expensive safe that doesn't stop someone from coming in and demanding the safe be opened. Why should the owner of this business be compelled to take cash? If people don't like it they can go to a competitor. Cash handling does take time. Tallying up at the end of the day etc. All the money surely can't stay at the business site. At some time some of it is going to end up in the bank and someone has to take it there. Yes, cash was the preferred method in the past but bank robberies were also common. Back when I joined the airforce we were paid in cash. On pay day the duty sergeant and duty corporal would go down to pay section and pick up the unit's pay. They would then spend quite a while working out the breakdown of denominations paid to each person. (getting it wrong was bad). This system changed somewhat in 1984 when there was a huge armed robbery on Holsworthy army base on a payday. After this when the pay was picked up it was accompanied by an armed guard. We were just one unit on the base, this procedure was done for every unit. Eventually, that was scrapped and money went straight into our account. My understanding is that cash transactions have declined to 13% People are voting with their feet. By the way, no one has suggested who should pay the $4000 a week for the post office at Cooper Pedy to fly cash in. I think it is a reasonable question.
  17. Cash also has hidden costs. Money has to be printed or minted transported and protected. It has to be manually counted it has to be securely stored or transported back to the bank. For an extreme example, the post office in Cooper Pedt, $4000 a week to supply enough cash for those who prefer it. I am happy for people to use the method that suits them. A business should not be compelled to take cash if it is too onerous. That is fair enough, isn't it?
  18. True but the most recent figure I can find is that there are around 4200 post offices. This represents a branch network that is phenomenally bigger than any bank has or has ever had. I guess the question is should the government subsidise unprofitable post office branches? Unlike the big banks, I don't think the post office is raking in the billions. By the way, I am not necessarily against the taxpayer subsidizing services. In the article you linked to it stated that the post office in Cooper Pedy pays $4000 a week to fly in cash. My question is who should pay for that and is it a good use of money when there are more efficient ways?
  19. This is increasingly true of several banks. I have never been inside a branch of my bank and I don't think I ever will. I have absolutely no need to. You can transact at your local post office. To me it is well worth banking with a bank that doesn't do all the things that people complain about. You can't have everything The protections around banking online are quite strong. It is pretty safe as long as you take simple precautions such as not sharing your password and using double authentication etc. Successful scams usually involve people being conned into revealing their bank details. Carrying cash or having sums of money in the home poses a risk.
  20. I do suspect that even the most enthusiastic users of cash still do a lot of digital transactions. One thing I have to do is manage my mother's money as she is in aged care. Having power of attorney I have full authority to transact on her account and she does have a reasonably large sum of money. It does feel like quite a responsibility. I could draw it all out and move to a country with no extradition treaty (I am of course joking). We live in a different state paying her bills would be a little challenging with cash. I think cash to some degree will be with us for some time although its use is diminishing.
  21. Perhaps you should change banks. This is where I bank https://www.bankaust.com.au/about-us The thing is people like to complain but seldom take control. Owned by the customers who by having an account are shareholders and get to vote on the bank's direction. No executive bonuses.
  22. Just to reiterate I am not trying to convince anyone to adopt any particular method of payment. For me, operating cash is just too onerous. Having retired a couple of years ago we are living on our super. This super is not in the local bank but an amount goes into our bank account monthly. There has been much talk on this forum about greedy profit-driven banks. My bank is owned by its customers. I have never paid any fee with this bank. The downside (for some) is that it does not have branches everywhere. I could go down and queue up at the post office but I have better things to do with my time. This morning we got our weekly delivery of fruit, veggies, and fish. We started getting these deliveries during the early stages of COVID-19 and liked it so much that we have kept it up. We pay for this digitally. I do not imagine they would want to set the driver up to take cash and to carry enough change for every transaction. Because this is a regular arrangement delivery is free. When I do go to a supermarket I certainly do not want to have to go to a bank. When we buy petrol we usually use an app which means we don't even have to go to the service station. We started doing this during the worst of covid. We fly to Adelaide 4 times a year. We always book online after searching for the cheapest and most convenient flight. For our next trip, we thought we would do something different and go by train. This was organized and paid for online. I suppose I could have driven to the nearest station and handed over the cash. There are items that we want to examine in person but looking at most of my recent purchases we are happy to read and watch online reviews and then use the net to find the best deal. My credit card costs me $50 a year but this is offset by $200 rewards. We have not paid a cent in interest in the last 5 years. Sometimes there is a surcharge but it is miniscule and certainly cheaper than driving to the bank every week. I cant really see that my life would be better if I drew out money every week.
  23. Whilst this can be true for some things it is not true for the majority of what I spend. I have paid cash for an aircon install but it has to be understood that they are no doubt giving you a fraction of what they are saving in creative accounting with regards to paying tax. Day to day most of us are not paying for items like this. I have just been looking through my credit card statement and I can't see anything in this category. Bunnings are not going to give me a discount, the local cafe won't or the supermarket. If I do pay the occasional surcharge from time to time it is no big deal. I pay down my credit card every Friday and review what I have spent so I pay zero interest. My credit card charges a $50 annual fee but I earn points which I use exclusively for Bunnings vouchers ($200 per year) Again I really don't care what others do, I do what I do because for me it is cheaper and more convenient and aids with accounting.
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