people would rent cars to go do Uber Eats deliveries and such
Uber Eats incentivizes driving recklessly. The faster you can complete a delivery, the more deliveries you can make in a night. Also you’ll be out during bad ice storms and other weather that reasonable people wouldn’t drive in unless necessary. Renting an EV might make the math add up better for doing deliveries, but were it economical to have a fleet of ICE cars doing gig deliveries I suspect they’d have similar issues with damage, although the acceleration and top speed of their EVs might be making the problem worse.
Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Reuters noted that they had to put torque and speed limiters on the fleet EVs. These are cars that have performance stats that you would have found on a Viper or Corvette in the previous decade.
I imagine that the following combo is a recipe for disaster: flagship sports car speed + touchscreen centric car controls + eyeballs on mobile delivery apps
helenslunch@feddit.nl 10 months ago
I drive a Tesla. The same one they bought a whole fleet of. Can confirm: is unnecessarily fast and fun.
phoneymouse@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I find the acceleration quite dangerous. I was trying to pass a truck the other day and move to get in the left lane. As I’m doing so, a Tesla that I couldn’t see pops out from the car behind me and starts trying to pass the truck too. I swerved back into the right lane to avoid being rear ended. With the fast acceleration, Tesla drivers are prone to doing erratic things faster than other cars on the road can react.
Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Anecdotally, people in my area definitely haul ass with their EVs in my part of down. They accelerate quickly, and people very much enjoy punching it.
mean_bean279@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I paid for the whole speedometer and I’m gonna use it.
For real though people should absolutely maximize the capability of EVs to get up to speed with the intention of reducing traffic and keeping flow. That’s the best part about them!
lolcatnip@reddthat.com 10 months ago
Don’t forget people not caring about the car because it’s a rental.
Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Correct, but that’s true for all rentals. ICE and EV.
My guess is that the disproportionate damage costs are due to something that’s more common with EVs.
Crismus@lemmy.world 10 months ago
My guess is that repair costs are higher because they have to be sent out for expensive repairs because the car software is locked down so they cannot repair them in-house.
That’s what the future is coming to with cars. No more fixing with your own parts at home.