Electric Vehicles: General topics

[Cmaier]

Yeah it’s not so bad once you get used to it. My neighbor drives a Cadillac Harmony (something like that) and it plays a musical sound as it drives normally, beyond ridiculous, wonder if it can be turned off.

I think that can.

I guess we’ll all get used to the annoying sounds soon enough, since it’s apparently mandatory now. It’s a bit silly that electric cars need to be louder than ICE cars.

 

[Cmaier]

Pleased to report that the new charger seems to work fine for both cars. It’s nice having a cord that’s half the diameter. But it does only give me 36 miles per hour of charge instead of around 52.

 

[Cmaier]

If Rivian would add carplay, I’d seriously consider it. Maybe in 3 years I’ll get a Scout instead.

Anyway, looks like a nice software update. I guess Rivian didn’t charge its customers $15,000 for highway self-driving?

Rivian's latest update offers hands-free highway driving

Electric vehicle company Rivian is rolling out new software today, including a feature for driving assistance on highways.

www.engadget.com

 

[swk9]

I wish we got more of the BMW i3 style vehicles or a shorter VW ID Buzz. With the smaller electric motors why can't we have more space efficient vehicle designs in a smaller form factor? I know the answer is that consumers have shown they want larger vehicles but it's so frustrating to me and a dozen other small EV enthusiasts.

 

[Eric]

If Rivian would add carplay, I’d seriously consider it. Maybe in 3 years I’ll get a Scout instead.

Anyway, looks like a nice software update. I guess Rivian didn’t charge its customers $15,000 for highway self-driving?

Rivian's latest update offers hands-free highway driving

Electric vehicle company Rivian is rolling out new software today, including a feature for driving assistance on highways.

www.engadget.com

I'm having an issue with CarPlay (maybe Siri) that I don't recall happening before. When I respond to a text by voice and pause for a second, it automatically breaks and says "ready to send?". It's like I cannot break the wording at all. At least if I use voice to respond on the iPhone it leaves the speaker button up ready to listen until you invoke it to stop.

Anyone know a way around this issue? As stands this feature is unusable.

 

[Cmaier]

I'm having an issue with CarPlay (maybe Siri) that I don't recall happening before. When I respond to a text by voice and pause for a second, it automatically breaks and says "ready to send?". It's like I cannot break the wording at all. At least if I use voice to respond on the iPhone it leaves the speaker button up ready to listen until you invoke it to stop.

Anyone know a way around this issue? As stands this feature is unusable.

Does the car allow you to continuously hold the speech button until you are done talking?

 

[Cmaier]

I wish we got more of the BMW i3 style vehicles or a shorter VW ID Buzz. With the smaller electric motors why can't we have more space efficient vehicle designs in a smaller form factor? I know the answer is that consumers have shown they want larger vehicles but it's so frustrating to me and a dozen other small EV enthusiasts.

I heard volkswagen is coming out with some small EVs. id.2 and id.3, I think?

 

[Eric]

Does the car allow you to continuously hold the speech button until you are done talking?

No, it's all automatic. So it will read a text, and/or I can hit a button to send or reply and then it invokes SIRI who is listening, then if I take a breath in between words it interprets it as I am done.

If just using my iPhone I can hit the speaker button and it will listen until I tap it again to finish, works like a charm and is way easier. SIRI just isn't that smart.

 

[Cmaier]

No, it's all automatic. So it will read a text, and/or I can hit a button to send or reply and then it invokes SIRI who is listening, then if I take a breath in between words it interprets it as I am done.

If just using my iPhone I can hit the speaker button and it will listen until I tap it again to finish, works like a charm and is way easier. SIRI just isn't that smart.

yeah, siri sucks.

I’m researching your issue and seeing other people make the same complaints. No solutions proposed yet.

 

[Yoused]

My neighbor drives a Cadillac Harmony (something like that) and it plays a musical sound as it drives normally, beyond ridiculous

The other night, around 11:30pm, a neighbor decided he needed to go somewhere. In order to do so, he had to start and idle his truck. It was not ready to drive until he had a good 15~20 minutes idling. In musical terms, it was a bit like a drunken drummer, and I could feel every beat. Finally he drove off – I was still awake to hear him come back, including the appropriate 5 minute cool-down idling.

The other neighbor, over the back fence, has 4 or 5 vehicles that he has to idle for twenty minutes each, to keep them fresh for when he actually has to use one to go somewhere, and to make sure I can smell petrochemicals in my living room for a few days.

Annoying music sounds like a blessing compared to this ICE bullshit. I wish I could live long enough to experience a BEV-dominated world, but it seems unlikely that I will.

 

[diamond.g]

If Rivian would add carplay, I’d seriously consider it. Maybe in 3 years I’ll get a Scout instead.

Anyway, looks like a nice software update. I guess Rivian didn’t charge its customers $15,000 for highway self-driving?

Rivian's latest update offers hands-free highway driving

Electric vehicle company Rivian is rolling out new software today, including a feature for driving assistance on highways.

www.engadget.com

Yeah 15k was stupid. Shoot even 8K is dumb, it should be 3K like when it first came out. Though once you buy it (upfront) it is for the life of the vehicle, which is different than how other manufacturers are doing it. As far as I can tell none of them let you buy the feature after vehicle purchase (well Rivian may).

Rivian Autonomy+ Platform is included as a limited trial with pricing to be announced soon. Same with Connect+. Ford charges 800 a year for Bluecruise after the trial period is up. I think GM wants like 50 a month for Supercruise after the 3 year trial (it is tied to having OnStar) on top of having to buy the right trim to even get it. BMW's Highway assistant is only included for 8 years then you gotta renew.

They all want some sort of recurring revenue.

 

[diamond.g]

Yeah it’s not so bad once you get used to it. My neighbor drives a Cadillac Harmony (something like that) and it plays a musical sound as it drives normally, beyond ridiculous, wonder if it can be turned off.

Unplug the PWS is the only way I am aware of getting these cars to not make any noise. Dunno if that throws a CEL though. Maybe there is a coding option for it, but I believe Europe also requires the noise to be emitted for pedestrians.

I heard volkswagen is coming out with some small EVs. id.2 and id.3, I think?

Yeah the ID.3 has been out for a while (came out before the ID.4) VW said they had no plans to bring it here cause reasons (probably because sales of the Golf are not doing that great indicating folks don't want a small hatchback here). No word on if the ID.2 is going to make it stateside but I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[DT]

There's also the R3 coming from Rivian, a lot of folks are saying that's going to be real spiritual successor to the GTI, estimates are around 161" in length so pretty compact (that's like a foot shorter than a BMW X1).