octave

Well I didn't mind but OME might😁

I am not OME!!!!! Of course, if an ambulance is not available in a reasonable time then you do whatever you can. My point is there are many people who don't even call an ambulance for whatever reason, perhaps they don't want to define it as an emergency or don't think they can afford it. The point is time is critical not just in terms of getting to the hospital but in terms of being with someone who can resuscitate or defibrillate. I agree that there is a judgment call to be made here. The delays that we hear about on the news do not apply to every call-out, The ambulance is not merely transport, it has crucial equipment and people trained in resuscitation Of course it is everybody's right to make the call as to how to get to hospital in the case of a suspected heart attack. The correct answer can only be discerned with hindsight. Ventricular Fibrillation is often the thing that kills people suffering a heart attack. I would much rather be in a ramped ambulance than someone's car. At least in the ambulance, there is more that can be done. I do have some real-world experience of this.

And possibly would have died in a hospital. If you drive in it does not necessarily mean you would be seen any sooner. The first minutes after a heart attack are critical in saving your life but just as importantly saving heart tissue. If you drove someone to hospital and they went into cardiac arrest could you perform CPR? You certainly could not defibrillate or do anything to clear the blockage. Treatment for a heart-attack commences as soon the ambulance is on the scene. But you do what ever you think is best.

Much better to go in an ambulance rather than drive. The two main reasons are that your car does not have a defibrillator or someone trained in resuscitation and also your car does not carry clot-busting drugs that can save or reduce damage to your heart. Even if the ambulance is ramped at the hospital you are with people trained to resuscitate and the resources needed to treat a heart attack

I have a pacemaker and it was recently replaced. The pacemaker model number is MRI VR DF4 The MRI part denotes MRI-safe https://europe.medtronic.com/xd-en/healthcare-professionals/products/cardiac-rhythm/icd-systems/mirro-mri.html I can also go through airport security.

Accept cashless donations Best payment apps (and card reader) for busking in the UK Donate to a Street Musician? There Are Apps for That Alipay brings QR code or tap-n-go 'digital payments' to Melbourne’s buskers

I had this situation when emptying my mother's place when she went into aged care. Her bank (Bank SA) at her local branch has several auto tellers and one of then is specifically for coins. You just dump them in the hopper and it counts them and deposits into your account. It is actually quite fun watching the total go up as it counts. I imagine this is not unique to Bank SA

In an EV regenerative braking.is quite similar to compression braking. In the Tesla, I found after a couple of days when approaching a red light I could predict how much the car would slow down under the load of regenerative braking. After a while, you find you don't use the brake very often at all. This is known as one-pedal driving The beauty of it is instead of energy being p1ssed away in heat and brake wear it is being harnessed. I don't believe I have posted overly optimistic claims. In fact I usually only chip in when faced with claims that are obviously false. If people on this forum were posting blatantly false optimistic information I would criticize it with the same vigour that I criticize pessimistic but false claims. For example when I read wild claims about battery longevity or how common fires are I dig for the data. If I see a video posted that purports to be 2 EVs colliding and bursting into flames I go digging and in this case find that the video is of a IC truck full of gas bottles.

There are events like "Everything Electrical" held yearly in most cities This is an exhibition of EVs and other new electrical tech. They have test drives and they don't necessarily expect you are buying but they are promoting EVs generally as well as their particular brand.. https://au.everythingelectric.show/watt-drive My local EV conversion group had a display where they were giving test drives. I am fortunate in that my son has had 2 EVs and he has lent me both whilst we have been visiting him. His first EV was a BMW I3 REX. Rex stands for range extender. This vehicle has a BMW motor cycle engine that only kicks in if the battery gets below a certain percentage. When we drove it we never got to that level. It was fun if a little bit quirky. His present EV (he has a couple of IC cars as well) is a Tesla 3 Performance. Apart from that I have driven a first-generation Leaf and been a passenger in an BYD Atto 3 and also a Tesla X After driving an EV for a few weeks whilst on holiday and we pick up our car from the airport carpark I sort of feel like there is something wrong with my car in terms of noise and vibration. OME I don't think you should go out of your way to drive one if you are not interested. My concern is mainly just information being factual. For example, sometime ago someone on this forum claimed that to sound the horn on a Tesla you have to use the screen. I read this kind of comment and I know from direct experience that this is not true I don't really care about people's opinions, we are all entitled to our own opinions but I don't believe we are entitled to our own facts. This does cut both ways, I am equally annoyed by overly optimistic claims by EV evangelists.

AF is atrial fibrillation

Yes indeed.

Once upon a time, GM was a leader in EVs

Car companies are making profits, although not all of them. Some legacy car companies are struggling. One of the problems for a company like Ford is that they are often selling an EV to an existing customer. People who may have bought Ford utility/pickup vehicles who decide to go EV means that they lose an IC sale but gain a less profitable EV sale. Companies that only make EVs are generally doing much better. https://www.notebookcheck.net/Tesla-vs-Toyota-BYD-VW-and-Ford-profit-margins-get-visualized-as-GM-trails-it-four-to-one.691126.0.html Just a few car companies that make profits are Tesla, BYD Stellantis, Volkswagen and quite a few more. Many traditional car manufacturers are struggling and some are not getting into EVs which I think will be a problem for them in the future. Nokia used to be the leader in mobile phone technology but was resistant to the smartphone. The headlines about overproduction and a collapse in sales are wildly exaggerated if you actually look at the figures.

Sure and you are perfectly at liberty to do that. I would argue that progress IS slow. I have often heard the argument that there are not enough EVs to warrant building infrastructure and also that EVs are unviable because there is insufficient infrastructure. During the early years of aviation, governments subsidized aviation and built airports etc. and I think perhaps people may have argued that they shouldn't because it was not developed enough. I would also suggest that pushing forward carefully but purposefully was the hallmark of things like the Apollo program. If car companies are willing to build EVs and people are willing to buy them then what is the problem? mmm not sure about that, they have many pros and some cons. Have you ever driven one? There are targets for ending IC production by the 2030s however this will more than likely happen anyway. There is no reason to believe that EVs have reached their peak technology-wise. The sticker price of the average EV will likely fall below that of internal combustion. Charging times likewise are improving. The infrastructure also continues to improve. I don't actually think that banning IC cars will be necessary anyway. I don't have any problem with anyone saying they don't want to buy one but often the rhetoric amongst many EV haters is they don't want anyone else to buy one either. I am not ready to buy an EV yet either, but this is mainly because I have never bought a new vehicle and at this stage in life I do so few KMs anyway. Having driven many of them though, it is like chalk and cheese. Don't want to buy one? then don't buy one.

. Yep I am aware of that. The dates I used were modern era and mass-produced and still around today. I am not including the EVs such as the one in the video below.

No trade or profession has an inherent right to exist forever. IC cars displaced horse-related businesses and diesel electric displaced the steam industry. Having said that it will be a long time until internal combustion engines disappear. You often say that there is this headlong rush into 100% EV adoption however the change is actually slow. In the case of Hybrids, I think the Toyota Prius first went onto the market in 1997 in Japan. This was 27 years ago. The Nissan Leaf went on sale in 2010, 14 years ago. Globally 14% of sales are EVs and only 4% in Australia. This is hardly a cataclysmic change and surely should not induce anxiety.

Oil is a finite resource. It can be burnt or used to create useful chemicals and products. The oil that makes the fuel we burn in our cars is a once-only product and can not be recycled. The problems of getting to so-called net zero is considered and studied. OME I would suggest exploring Google Scholar for high-quality information.

And too bad if you get killed by a human driver when an autonomous car would have avoided the accident. I say again,IF autonomous cars reduce deaths and injuries then it would be unethical not to go in that direction if it is economically viable. Am I wrong in this assertion?

With regard to autonomous driving, I would argue that if/when it is safer than human driving it would be unethical not to adopt it, subject to the economics of course. I would argue that this may already be the case but to keep the argument simple let's just say that if it can be proven that autonomous is safer then..... There will be a time in the near future I suspect when insurance companies will charge different premiums for those who choose to drive autonomously and those who self-drive and the premiums will be based on the statistical risk and payout amounts. I look forward to autonomous driving, especially as I get older. I well remember my father having his licence pulled at 85 (justifiably) This was quite a blow for him. Living in a place without public transport was not good. The doctor felt so sorry for him that after 6 months he allowed him to drive again. Eventually, it became clear that he was a danger on the road. My mother is now in aged care, and although she is in reasonable shape, it just became too hard for her to get around to shop and visit the doctor. If autonomous cars were a thing right now at a reasonable price she would still be in her own home.

This fire truck is an EV but has a diesel range extender for the rare longer trip. They say that their average journey distance is 5 miles. Some of the benefits are quicker acceleration out of the fire station and at traffic lights etc, Also because diesel fire engines need to have their engine idling to power water pumps and lighting etc. This EV truck means less noise which helps with communication and less breathing in of harmful diesel fumes. The A.C.T. has a firefighting support vehicle that is similar to this, Gilbert Fire's new electric fire truck

Absolutely. It won't be a blanket yes or no though. It will be a case of horses for courses. Is a 4WD vehicle suitable for police work? Well yes in some areas and not in others. The local police in Alice Springs probably need to cover vast areas and speed and acceleration may not be important. Whilst here in Geelong police vehicles travel much shorter distances. With so many Teslas and other performance cars on the road, it will be a bit of a problem if the drivers of these cars know they can easily outrun any police vehicle. The US is well ahead in this and much evaluation has been done World's First 100% EV Police Fleet Saves Taxpayers $300k Westport Police Tesla Model 3 Financial Analysis Here is quite an in-depth video about one of the first Tesla police cars. It is quite long but I found it informative

OME almost every state police force has some pure EVs and many more hybrid vehicles. This is also true of the US and Britain. Did you read all of the articles? NSW Highway Patrol does in fact have an EV NSW Police highway patrol takes delivery of BMW iX electric car Of course there are areas where EVs would not yet be suitable, just as some areas are suited to 4WD vehicles. Queensland Police Kia EV6 electric highway patrol car earns its stripes Blue, red, and green: Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Toyota Mirai police cars trialled Victoria Police add Tesla Model X to highway patrol fleet World's First 100% EV Police Fleet Saves Taxpayers $300k No one is saying that they should do a wholesale replacement of Police cars with EVs. Certainly, experience overseas has been generally good. The average police car in most areas do not travel huge distances each day but I was surprised to read how long police cars spend idling. It is obvious that police vehicles need to keep pace with the cars that are out there. "While Acting Superintendent Flanders is full of praise for the Kia, he admits there may be some police officers who may need to be convinced of the capability of the electric car. "Let me be blunt – I think there'll be some old hard noses who might struggle for the first few minutes of driving the car and say 'why am I in an electric vehicle?'. But like me, after the first couple of minutes, you're sold. It's just so many streets ahead of what our old vehicles used to be," he said." I think most of the pure EVs are still in the evaluation phase so if they are not up to the job they will surely be rejected. This is good, isn't it? You can't just become stuck in time and not be willing to innovate. Many EVs can easily outrun iC police vehicles.

https://www.police1.com/police-products/vehicles/patrol/articles/electric-vehicles-prove-they-can-handle-police-work-kh6xMkZRKTGuuZzF/#:~:text=Can electric vehicles handle police,serve as regular patrol cars. https://thedriven.io/2024/04/16/quicker-and-cheaper-police-departments-add-tesla-model-y-evs-to-fleet/ https://www.drive.com.au/news/nsw-police-highway-patrol-take-delivery-of-bmw-ix-electric-car/ https://www.goauto.com.au/news/general-news/electric-vehicles/evs-of-interest-to-australian-police/2022-03-01/87169.html https://www.carexpert.com.au/car-news/us-police-department-switching-entire-fleet-to-tuned-teslas https://electrek.co/2023/05/09/tesla-model-y-police-dept-go-all-electric/

I think Red's camera analogy is correct. When it comes to the charging infrastructure lagging behind, this is always the case with new tech. We didn't wait for a network of airports before people started to travel by plane. Early aviation was certainly not the most convenient method however early adopters enthusiastically became willing to fly. The infrastructure soon followed. Actually, I would argue that airport infrastructure still lags behind need. How many airports are hampered by being at their full capacity? The early internet was abysmal compared to today. The network's bandwidth could not keep up with the speed of the computers of the day. Early petrol car drivers had difficulties purchasing fuel. Something I find annoying is how the anti-EV crowd presents the worst-case situation to illustrate the so-called fatal flaw in EV tech. "I can't drive through the outback" they will say. If that is what you want to do then certainly EVs are not yet ready to do this easily. In the EV group am in people document their trips around Australia and through the outback. At this stage, I would liken it to cross-country flying in light or rec aviation. You need to do planning. In the case of aircraft it is a question of "where can I get fuel", "What is my backup plan if the airfield unexpectedly can not supply fuel"? At this stage this kind of EV driving is for enthusiasts and early adopters. Regional and city driving is quite a different matter. I do suspect some folks feel that through their lifetime they have built up a good deal of knowledge about internal combustion engines and that this may now be devalued. This occurs in many fields and is unavoidable. It is not all bad, in the future when IC vehicles are more of a rarity those folks with great knowledge will probably be admired like the people who keep steam trains running. I recently had a great conversation with my 90-year father-in-law. He retired about 30 years ago. He used to work at Tesltra in the materials testing branch. This department used to assess and test everything Testra purchased. This could be rubber gloves or shovels or switchboards or generators anything really. When he was still working he took me and my wife on a tour of the laboratory. There were amazing things such as a room full of lead acid batteries whose sole purpose was to test how fuses blew and to photograph with high-speed cameras On a recent visit we were sitting in his loungeroom and he was showing me his new lounge suite that had multiple push button adjustments. He made the point that this would not have been doable a few years ago because the motors would have been too big and heavy. I was impressed with his knowledge both of old electric motor tech and how motors have developed. Sometimes talking to an older person can be a bit of a drag if all they know or care about is the past and they have no interest in the future. There are many things I don't want to discuss with my father in law but discussing technology is always fun and enlightening.