Slangs are fine and dandy to me. It’s the incorrect usage that bugs me.
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I’m gonna (
) add paperwork. In this particular case of pet peeve, paperwork for an insurance company. How many times, on how many forms do I have to fill out the same damned information?
I could add insurance companies in general, but I’m learning to loathe Progressive in particular. Progressive and one other will prolly ( ) never get my business in the future due to poor service.
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My comment about being over engineered, is not in any way an indictment of EVs, nor a comment in support of IC vehicles, but rather a comment about how software centric our EV is, and how over engineered and often unintuitive many/most software products are becoming,
That comment applies to a lessor degree to most newer iC vehicles as well.
As I’m getting used to this new (to me) EV and how dependent many of its functions are on a huge variety of software products, I’ve been thinking a lot about the good engineering principles and software design guidelines I learned in college the better part of 40 years ago, and how rarely any of those are applied in newer products today.
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Didn’t take it that way at all. Having been through the EV learning curve more and longer than most, I’m there and am open to learning more.
I love charging at home. Sure, it takes a bit longer to charge for road-trips, but between needing breaks and off-setting by home-charging, I’m sure I am on the positive side by a good margin. Having solar at home certainly contributes to that.
As far as UX, it’s getting better, but growing pains may still be there.
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I guess, at the root of all my complaints, is the fact that I whole heartedly support the move to EVs, but think the industry needs to do a LOT more to make it as easy as possible for the average consumer to change paradigms. So far my experience is that that regrettably, it is precisely the opposite, and this is from the perspective of someone who has worked with technology for 40+ years and is not afraid of learning new things.
I am in the midst of installing a level 2 charging station in my garage, which will be a piece of cake as I have a 50 amp 220 volt circuit in place that I put there 30 years ago when I built the garage (I was planning at some point to install an arc welder, but never got around to it). I’ll be driving the car 160 miles to my second home in rural southern Idaho this weekend, where I’ll be installing a level 2 charger in the garage (where fortunately there is a 40 AMP 220 circuit in place thanks to the previous owner). At that point, I’ll have gone fairly quickly, easily and inexpensively to the point that I’ll have all the charging I need for anything other than longer road trips. I know enough about installing electrical circuits that I can do all the installation work in my sleep; most people will not find it as easy or inexpensive to do so.
It’s unfortunately not just he UX of the vehicles, but their dependencies on the UX of the charging services upon which these vehicles depend. Since we bought the car, not yet having our own chargers, we have used level 3 charging services at the U campus, behind the Law School. We’ve charged 3 times. None of these experiences was anything to rave about in terms of being simple, straight forward and problem free.
The worst, so far, was this evening. I let my wife take her car by herself to get it charged, while I cooked dinner. She texted me the expected time of the completion of the charge and I prepared to have dinner ready when she would be arriving home. When the 80% charge was complete, the cable would not release from the vehicle. no matter what she did. We spoke on the phone, trying everything we could think of to get the vehicle/charging station to agree that we should be able to release the cable and leave, to no avail. After 20 minutes, I ate my luke-warm dinner, while she got on the phone with the support department from ChargePoint. After about 15 minutes, the support guy said, “OK, try it now.” and the cable released its connection from the car. She came home, most of an hour later than expected, had a cold dinner, and a very nicely chilled glass of white wine while we both bitched about how it needs to not be this difficult. We cannot yet imagine taking a road trip and putting up with this ■■■■■■■■■
Again, I love the idea of EV technology, and am committed to making it work for us long term, but this ■■■■ needs to be way ■■■■■■■ easier if the average consumer, (let alone the 40+ percent of the population that lives in MAGA land) is ever to get on board.
OK, sorry, rant over …
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Especially TPS reports!
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I have a tesla and its charging network and my experience of it have been fantastic. What people have to think about is that our current ICE fueling infrastructure took over 100 years to build – that of EV will be much faster. And, as the battery technology continues to evolve, charge experience will continue to improve. Cobalt, an element that’s in batteries, is already being phased out. I’m hopeful semi-solid state and solid state will be commercialized fairly shortly.
All that said, to me, although EVs are better for the environment than ICE, they are not “good” for the environment – just less bad. In general, though, IMO, people in these United States don’t want to hear this, don’t want to do things to improve our environment, and just don’t want to be better at all. I’m so tired of “people”, I get quite discouraged about the future of humanity. I said this before and will say it again – glad I don’t have children. I try to do my part (e.g. solar, use less water, recycle, drive less, eat less almond, etc), but it just doesn’t seem to matter. People just don’t care.
My rant is over. haha
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The current tech platform for EV is getting better, but still has a way to go. Hopefully it gets there sooner than later.
To be frank about it, if I was the CEO of a major oil company or gasoline retailer/convenience store operator I would be dropping charging stations into all of my stations NOW. Yeah, the recharge pricing isn’t very profitable, but the Big Gulp is (and always will be).
Many of the uses for petroleum aren’t going away - even if we aren’t burning it for fuel anymore.
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Terrible customer service.
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Customer Service has become a lost art form. If this economy is to ever improve in a meaningful way, this needs to change.
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Recently called my life insurance company. Asked to talk to my agent. They gave me two numbers to call. Both were out of service. I called back the main number, they gave me two more numbers. Both out of service. I called the main number again and they told me my agent no longer worked there and I didn’t have a replacement agent. That policy is now cancelled.
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< british accent > Just a moment
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
os·ten·si·bly
/əˈstensəblē/
adverb
- apparently or [purportedly] but perhaps not actually.
“portrayed as a blue-collar type, ostensibly a carpenter”
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“…not actually”. Many don’t use it that way.
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Raw nerve: British English!! - why do the Brits add an “R” where it doesn’t exist - eg, “Vodker and tonic” - and exclude the “R” where it does exist, ala “bettah” instead of “better”.
Context: I worked for a company that had a UK office, I spent a fair amount of time there. One of the managers had a serious hate for Americans and would rake me over the coals for Americanisms, what we’ve done with their precious language, etc.
Me: “Hey! You LOST THE WAR OF 1776! GET OVER IT! Besides that, we have more nukes!!!”
(Yeah, it was an invigorating ongoing debate.)
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I think we should speak it with more of a French flair given France’s role in the creation of this republic.
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I wish I’d have thought of that angle when I was there.
“Oui, oui, monsieur Ramsden. Ohh… you don’t like that? Then SEND A BIGGER STATUE!!!”
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And it is said with an outrageous accent!
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Filthy English ka-nigits!
The English-they chill their baths and warm their beers.
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And fart in their general direction!
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