exasperation
@exasperation@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- Comment on xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles 1 week ago:
I only really know the U.S. market, but our top two selling new vehicles (Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado) have a full EV options that are similarly priced as their gasoline counterparts. They start at $10k more than the entry level gasoline trim levels, but also have options/features included that are comparable to similarly priced gasoline trim levels. And these trucks are a bit unusual in that options and features can literally more than double the price while still carrying the same model name (cheapest F-150 is $40,000 and the most expensive is about $90,000 with full options).
Our third most popular vehicle is the Toyota RAV4, which is available as a plug in hybrid, but the plug in model doesn’t sell that well. But Toyota has been slow at actually wanting to build and sell EVs. The fourth most popular, the Honda CR-V, is primarily a traditional hybrid.
Skimming past some more pickup trucks, the seventh most popular selling car is the Tesla Y, and the most popular pure EV that isn’t available as any gasoline powered variant.
Looking at the actual EV platforms available in the US, most of the big plays from non-Tesla companies have happened in the last 5 years.
Volkswagen was a bit earlier than most, with a few specialized models launching in 2019-2021, but they didn’t really move that many units.
The Korean manufacturers Kia and Hyundai and their shared EV platform had a bit more success with sales volume, and started with 2021 models, so that their used EVs are becoming available on the used market.
GM’s big EV platform, the BEV3 (which also powers Honda’s EVs) launched with the 2023 model year, and most models started with the 2024 model year.
Ford has their Mustang Mach-E (beginning in 2021) and F-150 Lightning (beginning in 2022), but both of those are one-off platforms while they work to develop a modular platform for building multiple models with shared electric parts.
Skimming through the offerings by other traditional automakers, there’s BMW’s i series, which led to electric options for several of their models beginning in 2022, and Stellantis with a bunch of European models and a handful of American models hitting the market beginning in 2024 or so.
Pure electric manufacturers like Rivian, Lucid, Polestar have also released some models in the U.S., mostly released in the last 5 years as well.
So it really seems like the higher volume sales of new non-Tesla EVs picked up in the last 2-3 years, and there will be plenty of used options in the next 5 years. To me, it looks like an inflection point that can sustain EV as the default pretty soon.
- Comment on xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles 1 week ago:
The economics are basically always shifting. Real world depreciation and maintenance don’t always follow the model projections, and neither do actual fuel/energy price projections. Electricity service has skyrocketed in a lot of places in recent years, while gasoline prices have remained pretty low, which obviously affects the accuracy of the calculations and modeling that were done 5 years ago. Not to mention, both gasoline and electric energy pricing vary heavily between place.
And, of course, the ever changing regulatory landscape might affect pricing and resale value, as well.
Plus the thing with cars is that most people aren’t buying the absolute bare minimum they can afford. People are willing to spend more on things: passenger and cargo space, performance, aesthetics, features/comfort, exterior dimensions that fit their own needs (for example, people who live in a city and want a car that can fit in tiny spaces), etc. For someone who is looking at total cost of ownership of something like mid tier or even luxury model, they should be comparing specific models they’d consider.
Ultimately, people need to do the calculation for their own specific situations. Someone in the market for a minivan in Detroit is gonna have different considerations than the person looking for a pickup truck in Dallas or a luxury sedan in Los Angeles or an economy car in Honolulu.
And as things shift, we’ll likely see more people make the decisions that are right for themselves in that particular moment. Including people who want to pay more for something not directly financially beneficial to themselves, whether it’s the driver who wants a manual transmission and the sounds of a revving internal combustion engine, or the person who would rather spend a little bit of extra money to do something more for climate change. Or the person who wants to boycott Elon Musk and will spend a bit more getting another non-Tesla EV.
At this point, my next car is almost certainly an EV, but I’m not going to prematurely sell my current car to make it happen.
- Comment on xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles 1 week ago:
Depreciation is a massive slice of the pie in all cars, but EVs are hit even harder.
I think that’s a quirk of Tesla trying to preserve market share by aggressively cutting prices of their new models over the past 5 years, which naturally puts pressure on all used models on the road. I don’t think that can last.
If EV manufacturers are racing to compete on price, then the new EVs will get cheaper faster to where EVs are cheaper than ICE vehicles new. And if the EV manufacturers stop cutting prices, then that will alleviate that depreciation pressure.
- Comment on xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles 1 week ago:
Maybe replace dead batteries with used but still somewhat working batteries?
Why not replace them with new batteries?
Also, you’re not engaging with the fact that the typical ICE car lasts an average of 12 years. If there’s a batch of survivors that lasts much longer than average and are accessible to the people of your country, what makes you think the same won’t be true of EVs when they get old enough?
- Comment on xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles 1 week ago:
So if you’re in a country where it’s economically feasible to continue maintaining cars beyond 15 years, why wouldn’t you think that the much cheaper electric cars wouldn’t dominate the market even more?
Compared to the U.S.'s low adoption rates, EVs sell at higher rates in certain rich countries like Norway and Denmark, middle income countries like China and Turkiye, and poor countries like Estonia and Nepal. The cheapest EVs, globally, are cheaper than the cheapest ICE vehicles.
And that’s a problem for ppl who buy 20 year old cars.
The cost of maintaining a car to last 20 years can be applied to EVs and ICE cars alike. I suspect that EVs will be easier to maintain to those ages. In the U.S., that doesn’t really happen in large part because our labor and parts network is expensive enough that buying new is comparably cheaper than repairing, past the 15 year mark, for most vehicles. EVs don’t actually change the equation any.
- Comment on xkcd #3214: Electric Vehicles 1 week ago:
Batteries only last 5 to 10 years max,
Real world studies are showing they last about an average of 12-15 years on average, and every manufacturer has a warranty for at least 8 years, with many up to 10.
A gasoline car can be fueled in 30 seconds
The typical passenger gas station pump flows at 7.9 gallons per minute. For most passenger cars and trucks, with tanks between 15 and 35 gallons, that’s about 2-5 minutes of pumping.
A typical level 3 charger will take a battery from 10% to 80% in about 25 minutes. And chargers can be in places where gasoline pumps can’t be, like ordinary parking lots and garages. So the dual purpose parking where you can charge the car while you shop at the grocery store or work out at the gym or sleep overnight at home is just a completely different paradigm from what we’re used to.
The average car lasts about 12 years, by the way. EVs last basically as long as ICE vehicles. Which also makes sense, because it doesn’t have to mix the fluids that lubricate and cool with combustion residue and foul up the engine that way.
So your data is out of date, and those fears that were commonly cited in 2015 have pretty much proven to be false for the technology that was around in 2015. Now, in 2026, there’s been even more advances in managing battery/charging health and chemistry, with more of an infrastructure for maintenance, repair, and charging.
- Comment on Name this Paper 1 week ago:
The main substance that burns but doesn’t necessarily get metabolized is dietary fiber, which is a category of some different polysaccharides that burn but don’t get (fully) digested.
So high fiber foods would tend to give incorrect results in bomb calorimetry.
- Comment on accused of being a man pretending to be a woman, CCP incel, ragebaiter, let know i've been blocked... but i'll keep going on here🫶 1 week ago:
What’s the trap, though? Is this eventually gonna become a patreon where we can pay $1/month for some shitposts?
- Comment on accused of being a man pretending to be a woman, CCP incel, ragebaiter, let know i've been blocked... but i'll keep going on here🫶 1 week ago:
It is impossible to get to 47 followers without making enemies. Thus, everyone with 47 followers has made enemies. Put another way, if you haven’t made enemies, you haven’t done the bare minimum required to eventually get 47 followers.
- Comment on Game over 1 week ago:
No, but by referencing their childhoods I’m covering their parents and grandparents, too, while avoiding the complications of the discussing food culture during the total war posture of World War II. Of every generation still alive today, each generation generally knows more about food than their parents.
- Comment on Ariana Grande: The Last Racebender 1 week ago:
Isn’t she just…Italian?
- Comment on Game over 1 week ago:
What are you talking about? Every generation in the US knows more about food than the ones before.
Boomers were raised on canned/frozen nonsense and basically had no variety. Their vegetables were underseasoned and overcooked. Their pickiness about cuts of meat left many delicious parts of the animals underappreciated scraps. They knew each fruit as basically one cultivar, like how all apples were the utterly mediocre red delicious. Even their bread was boring.
Their restaurant scene was pathetic, with Italian American food representing the pinnacle of exotic cuisine. Any immigrant opening a restaurant for American diners would have to carefully water down their traditions to fit American tastes and the American supply chain.
No thank you, I’d never travel back in time to eat or cook the way people did 50 years ago. Food is better now, and it’s largely because today’s cooks and diners know way more about food than people did back then.
- Comment on works every time 1 week ago:
Have you A/B tested this before?
- Comment on The script is mysterious and important. 1 week ago:
I honestly think he’s kind of a child or childish.
Becoming rich and famous at a young age is probably terrible for one’s development.
He became a successful recording artist at 18, became a TV star at 22, and had a wildly successful run in both music and acting throughout his entire 20’s and early 30’s.
He never had a normal life, and it probably baked in a lot of things that one would normally outgrow by the age of 25 or 30.
- Comment on The meaning of life? 2 weeks ago:
Yes, there’s that, too.
But even if you don’t like your job and don’t find much meaning out of it, it’s still worth trying to find contentment and happiness in other parts of your life.
I’ve had jobs I hated with coworkers I loved. I’ve had jobs I’ve liked in places I hated. I’ve had jobs I mostly hated that I actually appreciate having taught me important skills I still use today (for example, a 3-year stint in restaurants in my 20’s was miserable in a lot of ways, but it helped me stretch a tight grocery budget and fed me plenty of staff meals, and 20+ years later I’m still a great cook).
Jobs don’t define us. For many people, they’re just a small part of us. And we should go on to build fulfilling lives for ourselves across many domains, not just at work.
I had fun in college. My major didn’t define my actual day to day, or my memories of that time. I had fun in high school. I had fun in elementary school too. I don’t remember everything or even everyone, but I know I had a blast at those stages in my life, and most of the fun was had outside of school.
- Comment on The meaning of life? 2 weeks ago:
You should be having fun during the 20 years that you’re studying. And you should be having fun during the 40 years that you’re working.
- Comment on “Glide Ratio Optimization in the Olympic Ski Jump via Cosmetic Penis Enlargement” 2 weeks ago:
Sure, it’s possible, but the margin of error is pretty narrow for making up for unexpected turbulent wind or slight imperfections in how the person exits the aircraft.
In a normal ski jump, even though they can move more than 250m through the air, they’re never more than 6m above the ground at any given point.
So jumping out of an airplane would require a level of precision that probably couldn’t be safely achieved.
- Comment on Two sides to every story 2 weeks ago:
Go outside, nerd!
- Comment on ```curl -u "lab_tech:olympic_medalist" https://usa-curling.org/podium``` 3 weeks ago:
We don’t fund sports for shit.
That’s wrong. A big part of the reason why the US dominates in women’s sports generally is because our higher education funding system is based on a bedrock legal principle from Title IX that schools must spend as much on women as they do on men, including in extracurricular activities like sports. So as a result, with college football being a men’s only sport that raises a ton of revenue, a majority of our universities robustly fund women’s sports programs in a large number of sports.
Plus the US has a relatively unique culture of youth sports associated with their school, sponsored by the schools and their funding.
So we do fund a lot of youth and amateur (and semi professional) sports, indirectly through schools at various levels, including through whatever government subsidies and policies affect those schools.
- Comment on BIG (like Americans) IF TRUE 3 weeks ago:
51% is the threshold for calling it “process cheese food.” The stuff that is called “process cheese” is only allowed additives off of a particular list: water, salt, milkfat up to 5% of the weight of the total, acidifying agents, spices, artificial coloring, mold inhibitors up to 0.2% or 0.3% of the total weight.
There’s basically not an easy way to make something match the legal definition of American cheese without making it out of at least 90% cheese, because the amount of water and fat you can add to fit within the requirement that the end result be 47% fat, except that only 5% of the total can be from added fat, makes it hard to cut corners.
- Comment on 2 North American 4 you has been created 3 weeks ago:
Every culture takes/mixes foods from other cultures and makes it their own.
Perhaps more importantly, every generation remixes their parents’ and grandparents’ food.
French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Mexican food aren’t the same as they were 50 years ago. Lots of new dishes were invented and remixed, sometimes from imported influence. It’s not like chefs sit around and refuse to do anything different from how they learned. They do invent and innovate and tweak recipes. That’s, like, the job.
- Comment on When did it become normalized to start passing credit card processing fees to the customer? 3 weeks ago:
Cash is riskier, yeah. But it’s also a lot cheaper depending on what the services and machines cost.
No, I don’t think this is true, and most merchants are coming around to this view. Adding an extra 15 minutes to the cashier’s shift counting cash, adding an hour to the manager’s shift driving the cash to the bank, doing all sorts of analog counting processes, maintaining a secure chain of custody so that the cash doesn’t get lost or stolen, the risk of actual violent robbery, it’s all going to cost more than the 3% fee that the processor charges.
but you have to keep the receipts from those as well just like you need to keep cash
No, everyone’s POS systems are totally digitized. There’s a database with all the transactions, not a pile of paper receipts. And the database actually links each transaction to an actual distinct card payment, rather than a digital note that the cashier took that much cash and put it into the register.
- Comment on When did it become normalized to start passing credit card processing fees to the customer? 3 weeks ago:
Even just reconciling the register every day is way easier with just cash.
No, it’s the opposite. Humans make mistakes with cash, and the overall drag on the store’s operations (from needing a safe for large amounts of cash, physically transporting cash to be deposited at the bank, dealing with theft/loss) tends to be higher than credit cards.
That’s why a lot of places have switched to entirely cashless operations, because cash is slow and expensive for them.
- Comment on Veganuary 4 weeks ago:
I eat about 3000 calories per day, but generally limit my meat intake to about 500 calories per day, while trying to hit at least 150g of protein per day. Generally that means I’m eating a vegetarian lunch, where the only animal product is parmesan cheese (gives a great umami kick to salads).
I eat a lot of legumes. Not just beans/lentils, but also a lot of green varieties like green beans, peas, edamame, snap peas, snow peas, and peanuts are like my go-to snack.
When paired up with grains, which you’ll generally already be eating enough of, the protein profile of most legumes complement grains so that you’re getting plenty of every essential amino acid.
And generally, I eat a lot of vegetables and mushrooms. On a per calorie basis, some vegetables are surprisingly high protein.
I eat a decent amount of yogurt or cheese, maybe 3-4 servings per day.
The meat I do eat tends to be the kind that lends a lot of flavor to a dish. 1 oz of bacon in a sandwich sometimes seems meatier than another sandwich with 8 oz of meat. Same with things like fish sauce or anchovy paste. I have a lot of soups and stews where the actual amount of meat involved is kinda low on a per serving basis, where the fresh meat is paired with a cured meat and things like mushrooms and fermented sauces to add lots of umami to a soup without actually consisting of that much meat. I also do stir fries, curries, salads, etc., where any meat is served with a lot of vegetables, as well.
So for example, it’s easy to eat a pound of meat in 2 half pound hamburgers. It’s much harder to eat a pound of meat in the form of burgers made from 3 oz smash patties. And smash burgers taste better to me anyway.
Basically I steer all my eating towards less meat, but I eat a lot and have pretty high caloric needs.
- Comment on If God had wanted us to have nearly unlimited clean energy, He would have placed a fusion reactor into the sky. 4 weeks ago:
It basically doesn’t work out.
Theoretically you could have 2500 square meters of solar arrays above the weather beaming the power down to a dish with only a 500 square meter footprint.
But you’d still have to deal with weather with some kind of a storage solution. And 2500 square meters of area in space seems more expensive to claim than just 500 square meters of area on land, in pretty much any scenario.
- Comment on Me waiting for the cute Texas girls to DM me at 55 Water St. 5 weeks ago:
18 and 24 are worlds apart.
38 and 24 is an eyebrow raiser, 39 and 18 is a bad person who deserves scorn.
Especially when you consider the fact that Claudia Schiffer was a celebrity in her own right and had her own thing going on, whereas Seinfeld’s girlfriend was literally still in high school. The power dynamics of each couple were wildly different.
- Comment on I've Hit The Perfect Weight 5 weeks ago:
I wasn’t aware that there were household scales with that level of precision, to 5 significant figures.
- Comment on Can anyone explain why? 5 weeks ago:
On July 1, 2024, the census estimates of the number of each generation of drinking age, if I’m reading this Excel spreadsheet correctly:
Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012, but as of 2024 the only legal drinking age was those born between 1997 and 2003): 31.3 million
Millennial (born between 1981 and 1996): 74.1 million
Gen X (born between 1965 and 1980): 65.6 million
Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964): 66.9 million
So assuming that 20-somethings have less money to spend on expensive alcohol, and recognizing that Gen Z has less than half the drinking age population as the other generations, it’s not surprising for that generation to spend less on alcohol, even if their habits weren’t different than the older generations.
Now, their habits actually are different, so that might stretch things further. But a better way to present the data would be adjusted per capita. And maybe looking at historical data about when prior generations were the same age.
- Comment on Teach me 1 month ago:
- Comment on Too late 1 month ago:
I think you’re describing beer.
