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from the I'm-sorry-Dave,-I-can't-do-that dept.
[...] 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?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 26 2017, @03:04PM
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)
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.