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Your Next Car Will Plug-in. the One After That May Not Exist...

posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday July 26 2017, @05:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the I'm-sorry-Dave,-I-can't-do-that dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

[...] some experts believe as much as 95% of passenger miles could be electric, autonomous by 2030, thanks to some basic economics. Because electric vehicles cost a whole lot less to drive and maintain—but more to buy—and because autonomous vehicles greatly reduce the cost of commercial driving, a combination of the two technologies will make autonomous Transportation as a Service exponentially more cost competitive than either owning a car, or hiring a car and driver. It's also exponentially more profitable for car companies, who have long feared the loss of maintenance and service profits associated with a transition to electric cars.

This question will come up more frequently as self-driving technology advances. Will perfection of that technology make a difference, though, in the face of social behaviors that have been deeply ingrained over the past century?

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  • (Score: 2) by jasassin on Wednesday July 26 2017, @07:43AM (3 children)

    by jasassin (3566) <jasassin@gmail.com> on Wednesday July 26 2017, @07:43AM (#544532) Homepage Journal

    I just don't see electric cars as feasible in the midwest where the temperature is often -40°F. Sometimes a normal car won't even start. I'd hate to see how well an electric car would (wouldn't) work in this climate.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Wednesday July 26 2017, @08:12AM (1 child)

    by zocalo (302) on Wednesday July 26 2017, @08:12AM (#544541)
    Norway seemed to be doing OK with electric car sales until they removed the tax subsidies recently, and while the Norwegian coastal climate is generally not as harsh as winter in the midwest you don't have to go too far inland before you can get down -40°F (or Celcius) on occassion. Whether many Norwegian EV owners actually drive their EV to Sweden on a regular basis in the midst of winter though... Still, for situations like that, the solution is probably going to be a hybrid for quite some time - running the petrol/lpg/diesel side of the vehicle until the vehicle is warm and the battery is good to go - at least until either battery tech catches up, or suitable parking infrastructure to keep pure EVs warm enough to avoid the issue can be constructed. The construction of more underground heated parking garages in towns/cities and at shopping centres etc. could help achieve that (and save space for more useful structures above ground), for instance.
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    • (Score: 3, Informative) by kazzie on Wednesday July 26 2017, @10:06AM

      by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 26 2017, @10:06AM (#544563)

      And, what's more, Norway is to ban sales of new petrol/diesel cars from 2025 onwards [zmescience.com].

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @03:04PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @03:04PM (#544664)

    I just don't see electric cars as feasible in the midwest where the temperature is often -40°F.

    Right... sorry, but this is bullshit. Temperatures haven't dropped to -40F in YEARS. And when they do, it's maybe 1 night a year. More realistically, you may get -20F. Global Warming has "fixed" the -40F problem for decades now. And yes, I lived in area north of your "midwest" (which coldest being North Dakota etc.)

    Secondly, you should really check how batteries are actually put into cars.

    https://electrek.co/2017/01/24/tesla-teardown-100-kwh-battery-pack/ [electrek.co]

    1. it has a heating/cooling system to keep batteries at proper temperature
    2. it's insulated
    3. you mostly have to worry about about charging with low temperatures, and that's been solved (see #1 #2)

    Sometimes a normal car won't even start.

    Yeah, well, what do you really think is the problem here? The lithium battery in your "normal car"?? Maybe don't compare apples and donkeys.