prdude

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Thank goodness for auto-translated closed captioning. I skipped to the end for the bottom line; key takeaways:
  • Pretty decent range, even when cruising at or above 90 mph
  • German DCFC stations don't have the same problems as ours have in the U.S. Much work needs to be done stateside to catch up.
  • Looking at the state of the autobahn, I'm EXTREMELY jealous of the investment the Germans put into their transportation infrastructure. I guess that's what you get when you put a $3/gallon+ tax on gasoline. Perhaps the U.S. can find a way to address our woefully-inadequate tax of 18.5 CENTS a gallon (which was last raised 28 YEARS ago). This is why our roads are terrible, by the way, but that's a whole other thread.
yep, US roads suck in comparison ..... but as you point out, we get what we pay for. It must be so much easier for the ADAS feature engineers to program for German freeways, where the lane markings are consistent and well-maintained.
 

BadgerGreg

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Thank goodness for auto-translated closed captioning. I skipped to the end for the bottom line; key takeaways:
  • Pretty decent range, even when cruising at or above 90 mph
  • German DCFC stations don't have the same problems as ours have in the U.S. Much work needs to be done stateside to catch up.
  • Looking at the state of the autobahn, I'm EXTREMELY jealous of the investment the Germans put into their transportation infrastructure. I guess that's what you get when you put a $3/gallon+ tax on gasoline. Perhaps the U.S. can find a way to address our woefully-inadequate tax of 18.5 CENTS a gallon (which was last raised 28 YEARS ago). This is why our roads are terrible, by the way, but that's a whole other thread.
 


GoGoGadgetMachE

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Perhaps the U.S. can find a way to address our woefully-inadequate tax of 18.5 CENTS a gallon (which was last raised 28 YEARS ago).
while I agree with this, good luck with it... the political environment is such that anything along these lines would be shouted down as a "socialist tax" and other such complete nonsense. a certain part of the population is perfectly happy with letting a complete failure of shared infrastructure happen as long as they aren't paying anything more and/or they have other ways to do the same thing because "f*ck everyone else, I got mine" and "the government is evil and hopeless and can't do anything right ever, screw them" (until they need something, then it's "hey wait I want something right now").
 

prdude

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yep, geiles Video! I like his channel and Chris is brutally honest when it comes to testing. The Mustang performs well!
I need to check out more of his videos. I appreciated his honest comparisons to the Audi e-Tron.

And although I'm non-native German speaker, I found him quite easy to comprehend.
 

BadgerGreg

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while I agree with this, good luck with it... the political environment is such that anything along these lines would be shouted down as a "socialist tax" and other such complete nonsense. a certain part of the population is perfectly happy with letting a complete failure of shared infrastructure happen as long as they aren't paying anything more and/or they have other ways to do the same thing because "f*ck everyone else, I got mine" and "the government is evil and hopeless and can't do anything right ever, screw them" (until they need something, then it's "hey wait I want something right now").
Yep - I'm a civil engineering consultant, and I've heard this sentiment my entire career. All the while, we keep warning our clients that things are *really* falling apart (most of it underground, by the way) and that more investment is needed. Unfortunately, the engineers aren't making the decisions, but they probably should be.
 

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In software there's the saying "never enough time to do it right the first time, but always enough time to do it over"

I guess the corollary for civil engineering would be:
"there are never enough resources to to prevent a calamity, but there always enough to pick up the pieces afterward"
 

Jim Glass

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while I agree with this, good luck with it... the political environment is such that anything along these lines would be shouted down as a "socialist tax" and other such complete nonsense. a certain part of the population is perfectly happy with letting a complete failure of shared infrastructure happen as long as they aren't paying anything more and/or they have other ways to do the same thing because "f*ck everyone else, I got mine" and "the government is evil and hopeless and can't do anything right ever, screw them" (until they need something, then it's "hey wait I want something right now").
Look to Congress for the answer. Increasing the gas tax while do a number of things other than just improve highways. It will generate thousands of jobs to repair bridges and roads. SUVs that average 12-14 mpg will disappear. EVs will begin to takeover regular transportation and carbon emissions will decline more quickly. The pluses far out way anything else that could done.
 

BadgerGreg

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Look to Congress for the answer. Increasing the gas tax while do a number of things other than just improve highways. It will generate thousands of jobs to repair bridges and roads. SUVs that average 12-14 mpg will disappear. EVs will begin to takeover regular transportation and carbon emissions will decline more quickly. The pluses far out way anything else that could done.
Another positive side effect of higher fuel taxes is that more freight gets shifted from trucks to trains (this actually happened to a measurable degree back when gas was up around $4.00/gallon). Removing trucks (and the pavement-pounding weight they carry) from the highway clears up traffic AND increases the life of the pavement, bridges, etc. Rail transport is VERY cost-efficient, and I'd love for us to rely a bit more on that mode of transportation. Also, that frees up more lanes for EVs to roam without hindrance!
 

Jim Glass

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Another positive side effect of higher fuel taxes is that more freight gets shifted from trucks to trains (this actually happened to a measurable degree back when gas was up around $4.00/gallon). Removing trucks (and the pavement-pounding weight they carry) from the highway clears up traffic AND increases the life of the pavement, bridges, etc. Rail transport is VERY cost-efficient, and I'd love for us to rely a bit more on that mode of transportation. Also, that frees up more lanes for EVs to roam without hindrance!
I spent my career working for the rails. And yes, your are correct to a point. But major truckers, J.B.Hunt, Schneider, Yellow started going to freight railroads when the supply of drivers dwindled. JB Hunt was turning over 200% of his drivers each year. He had two training schools, one in Joliet, IL and the other in Baton Rouge, LA. So, in order to retain new drivers, anything being shipped over 500 miles was turned to TOFC. That put tons of traffic on the rails for long distance hauls. My RR along with UP could make NY to LA in 3 days!
 

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I skimmed through this thread pretty quick - anybody point out the irony of EV drivers advocating for a higher gas tax? If not, I'll just note that.

Not to get political, but I think when a country is routinely running trillion dollar deficits it really doesn't matter whether you add a tax specifically earmarked for infrastructure or not. Money is fungible.
 

silverelan

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I need to check out more of his videos. I appreciated his honest comparisons to the Audi e-Tron.

And although I'm non-native German speaker, I found him quite easy to comprehend.
I skimmed through without any translations and so didn't really catch any e-tron comparisons. He have anything interesting to say between the two?
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