[Toshi]

Mazda favours smaller batteries for upcoming EVs | Autocar

Japanese firm will use small batteries for less CO2, while developing a rotary-engine range extender

www.autocar.co.uk

The studies I've seen show a CO2 payback time on the order of 60,000 miles for Model 3-ish vehicles that'll go down as production gets more efficient so I don't see the point. The market shall decide whether they favor this approach, in any case…

 

[Toshi]

Last night I unpacked the Concept2 rower that I recently got. Rowing is tough. I am definitely not adapted to using those muscle groups at this point! I did a 30 minute effort at 135 bpm average at a sad 3:04/500 m average pace. Nowhere to go but up!

 

[Pesqueeb]

The studies I've seen show a CO2 payback time on the order of 60,000 miles for Model 3-ish vehicles that'll go down as production gets more efficient so I don't see the point. The market shall decide whether they favor this approach, in any case…

Yeah, I read that as Mazda still desperately clinging to the Wankel in the face of overwhelming market forces and pretty much all scientific evidence.

 

[Toshi]

Parking it like a boss, a la @stevew ‘s brother.

 

[stevew]

View attachment 139967

Parking it like a boss, a la @stevew ‘s brother.

HA!

younger brother no longer has his...

wife got it and the dogs in divorce....

he got the house that has doubled in value....

he does miss the dogs and the landcuiser though...

 

[Toshi]

Well that sucks overall, even if he got the house.

 

[Toshi]

Yeah, I read that as Mazda still desperately clinging to the Wankel in the face of overwhelming market forces and pretty much all scientific evidence.

And now this:

Autocar reported based on interviews with Mazda execs:

“Mazda’s engineers have also tuned the torque delivery of the MX-30’s electric motor to be less frenetic than is often the case with EVs, reasoning that they want the MX-30 to feel less like a dramatic change from a typical internal combustion engine vehicle.”

Yeah, no one wants the immediate response of an electric drivetrain. We want simulated lag.

:facepalm:

 

[Toshi]

Volkswagen’s new autonomous subsidiary

Volkswagen’s new autonomous subsidiary Hitzinger

www.sae.org

VW launches a new subsidiary for autonomous vehicles. They promise ID Buzz test vehicles for Qatar by 2022 and optimistically 2024 sales to the public and corporations wanting fleet vehicles.

The future is always a few years out…

 

[roflbox]

And now this:



Yeah, no one wants the immediate response of an electric drivetrain. We want simulated lag.

:facepalm:

well, if one is used to slamming on the gas in the buick lesabre and not much other than noise happening, then discovering that slamming the gas in a EV results in something far too zesty

 

[Toshi]

well, if one is used to slamming on the gas in the buick lesabre and not much other than noise happening, then discovering that slamming the gas in a EV results in something far too zesty

My Tesla has a Chill mode for this. But why would I do that?

 

[6thElement]

if one is used to slamming on the gas in the buick lesabre and not much other than noise happening

That's the sound of dinosaurs being converted to freedum.

 

[Toshi]

Got a United Economy Plus subscription for the year as I’ve done off and on in past years. Me + 8, North and South America (so including Hawaii in particular).

It’ll pay for ~80% of its cost on our first use of it come March (Hawaii round trip x 5 tickets).

Add in a few more trips using it (likely EUG-SEA and then SEA-DEN this summer as the DEN-OTH leg has no Economy Plus option; and DEN-SEA-DEN over Christmas break) and it’ll save us money, albeit forcing us into United.

 

[johnbryanpeters]

Got a United Economy Plus subscription for the year as I’ve done off and on in past years. Me + 8, North and South America (so including Hawaii in particular).

It’ll pay for ~80% of its cost on our first use of it come March (Hawaii round trip x 5 tickets).

Add in a few more trips using it (likely EUG-SEA and then SEA-DEN this summer as the DEN-OTH leg has no Economy Plus option; and DEN-SEA-DEN over Christmas break) and it’ll save us money, albeit forcing us into United.

Burn them hydrocarbons at the highest possible rate.

 

[Toshi]

Burn them hydrocarbons at the highest possible rate.

Meh.

 

[Toshi]

On a technical note, most (all?) of these rely on hardware and algorithms from the same suppliers. Mobileye in particular promises good things for the future, with "late 2020" agreeing with me just fine:

Above re advanced driver assist systems from a 2018 post of mine. In that light this is relevant:

Intel’s Mobileye has a plan to dominate self-driving—and it might work

Mobileye made a self-driving car that only uses cameras—no lidar or radar.

arstechnica.com

Mobileye has 70% of the level 2 market share! Their claims about their deployed fleet relating data back to the mothership seem overly hyped. Most vehicles have no connectivity in the first place, and most of these installations a la Pilot Assist are of one forward facing camera.

I have much more faith in Tesla’s ability to leverage their multi-camera fleet.

 

[CBJ]

Above re advanced driver assist systems from a 2018 post of mine. In that light this is relevant:

Intel’s Mobileye has a plan to dominate self-driving—and it might work

Mobileye made a self-driving car that only uses cameras—no lidar or radar.

arstechnica.com

Mobileye has 70% of the level 2 market share! Their claims about their deployed fleet relating data back to the mothership seem overly hyped. Most vehicles have no connectivity in the first place, and most of these installations a la Pilot Assist are of one forward facing camera.

I have much more faith in Tesla’s ability to leverage their multi-camera fleet.

That is one garbage article and with little understanding from the side of the journalist who seems to eat up raw PR for all his daily meals.

 

[Toshi]

For those who know Copper:

Mariko's day during her lesson: http://sports.flaik.com/reliveyourday?reliveyourday=1062522 . Got some greens, got some blues. Instructor says she needs to slow down more and work on wedge christie instead of just wedging all over the mountain.

Yuna's day during her lesson: http://sports.flaik.com/reliveyourday?reliveyourday=1062546 . She went up on the lift, got demoted to the magic carpet, showed proficiency there and was promoted back to being on the lift in the afternoon.

 

[Toshi]

A First Try at ROI: Ranking 4,500 Colleges - CEW Georgetown

Ranking ROI Of 4,500 US Colleges And Universities uses data from the expanded College Scorecard and finds that bachelor’s degrees from private colleges, on average, have higher ROI than degrees from public colleges 40 years after enrollment. It also explores the value of liberal arts colleges...

cew.georgetown.edu

Interesting things there re value of education (both type of college and major).

 

[dump]

Volkswagen’s new autonomous subsidiary

Volkswagen’s new autonomous subsidiary Hitzinger

www.sae.org

VW launches a new subsidiary for autonomous vehicles. They promise ID Buzz test vehicles for Qatar by 2022 and optimistically 2024 sales to the public and corporations wanting fleet vehicles.

The future is always a few years out…

The auto industry isn't serious about EV. They're too busy/scared making record money to shake things up.

 

[dan-o]

My Tesla has a Chill mode for this. But why would I do that?

 

[CBJ]

Not scientific but still cool to see so many cars in the same test

I still would love to switch the Volvo with the EQC tomorrow if I could.

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

Yeah, I read that as Mazda still desperately clinging to the Wankel in the face of overwhelming market forces and pretty much all scientific evidence.

I read that as a broke company within a huge keiretsu trying to make do with whatever resources/differentiator they can cobble together.

Sales are down and their profit per unit for the outgoing generation was bad; the new models with the updated prices arent selling, the markets they cater are slow and they have <1% marketshare in key developing markets.

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

View attachment 139457

View attachment 139458


I got a coronary artery calcium score CT today, at South Denver Cardiology Associates. I went into a very large, nice looking building at the address and asked the info counter lady where SDCA was. She replied that the whole building was them.

I guess cardiology reimburses well when everyone has heart disease. Go figure.

The CT scanner was a nice one as well, new in the last year or two per the technologist. 256 slice. The study was prospectively ECG gated and acquired in one likely 0.2 second gantry rotation as a volume (which is the draw of 256 and 320 slice scanners—can get a whole brain or heart as a volume in one or a fraction of one rotation).

I could see my heart rate displayed on the scanner’s display when I wasn’t in the bore, and I jumped around between 45-70 depending on breath holding, usually 50-60 bpm. Thus the scanner’s software had no issues acquiring my images—when the heart rate is too high then it can’t ECG gate reliably.

As expected my coronary artery calcium score was 0. I was 99.9% sure that I’d be a 0 but wanted to be sure. I’ll look over the study on my own tomorrow to see if there’s anything else interesting (like my liver’s attenuation!).



Edit: looked over the actual images last night. My liver remains borderline fatty (attenuation 42-46 HU). My ratio of muscle mass to fat is not where I want it to be, still—more work yet to go! Study was of the heart but still saw a good bit of visceral fat by my spleen. Hmph

My medical exams arent this thorough.
How do you ask for this level of detail?

 

[Pesqueeb]

I read that as a broke company within a huge keiretsu trying to make do with whatever resources/differentiator they can cobble together.

Sales are down and their profit per unit for the outgoing generation was bad; the new models with the updated prices arent selling, the markets they cater are slow and they have <1% marketshare in key developing markets.

Which is sad, because we really like our Mazda. It's a nice car. If they had an electric when I was car shopping I'd have totally bought one.

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

Which is sad, because we really like our Mazda. It's a nice car. If they had an electric when I was car shopping I'd have totally bought one.

Pretty sad too. I worked for Mazda (about 1 year) several years ago; and currently I daily drive a CX-9 (which I found to be head and shoulders about the similarly priced grand cherokee, honda pilot and toyotas I tested).

They make great everyday cars at a superb value... but I have always wondered how will they manage to make money and stay relevant in the long term. I recall a conversation, years ago, with a japanese boss who said several models (the previous gen) were sold at loss in the US.

They are still way below 2 million units per year, at a price point of lower margins. BMW sells about 2.5 mill/year at a higher margin, and even they are squeezed.
Marchionne said something about 6 mill per year to be a sustainable manufacturer.

 

[Toshi]

My medical exams arent this thorough.
How do you ask for this level of detail?

In the US at many places the coronary artery calcium score is a test where you just call up the place and schedule it. No order needed, doesn't go through insurance at all. Self pay $99 and that's it--and that seems fair enough to me.

For the other labwork I have the advantage of being able to order it myself in the electronic medical record. No negotiating with my primary care doc, who is a very nice person but not reading this particular literature as I have been. (For non-docs one can self-order labs through walkinlab.com, which is a self-pay they provide the order kind of workaround.)

 

[dan-o]

Tesla allegedly has an unintended acceleration problem

More than 100 Teslas have been involved in accidents because they accelerated unintentionally, according to a complaint filed with federal safety regulators.

www.cnn.com

 

[Toshi]

Tesla allegedly has an unintended acceleration problem

More than 100 Teslas have been involved in accidents because they accelerated unintentionally, according to a complaint filed with federal safety regulators.

www.cnn.com

I'd love to see a scatterplot of these complainants ages versus that of the general Tesla-driving population...

( @johnbryanpeters trigger warning)

 

[dan-o]

I'd love to see a scatterplot of these complainants ages versus that of the general Tesla-driving population...

( @johnbryanpeters trigger warning)

As I've never driven one of those new-fangled contraptions, how's the throttle response?
I'm guessing it's unfamiliarity with the vehicle that's causing these events versus some soft/hardware issue.

 

[Toshi]

As I've never driven one of those new-fangled contraptions, how's the throttle response?
I'm guessing it's unfamiliarity with the vehicle that's causing these events versus some soft/hardware issue.

The throttle response is without artificial Mazda-esque lag, but it's not like they mapped throttle inputs hamfistedly. It is entirely possible to drive like a non-goon. I just choose to gun it whenever I can, because that's fun.

 

[CBJ]

I had somebody do that in a 3 this evening. It looked amazing just incredible speed off the line.

 

[Toshi]

The Model Y third row looks great for people with no legs and no necks!

 

[rideit]

That’s where you transport the chopped up hookers, duh

 

[Toshi]

In all seriousness that's really not useful (with the 2nd row back on its rails). Rear facing child seats are a complete non-starter there due to access and front-back dimension, and even a dedicated front-facing child seat would be tight.

 

[Toshi]

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

www.bloomberg.com

Without any [global climate change] mitigation, [meteorological researcher] Kawase’s climate models predict Japan’s central mountains will get 10% to 20% less snow by mid-century due to climate change. By the end of the century, his models estimate a 20% to 40% drop.

 

[Pesqueeb]

I'd love to see a scatterplot of these complainants ages versus that of the general Tesla-driving population...

( @johnbryanpeters trigger warning)

I'd guess its very similar to the plot of prius drivers who experienced "unintended" acceleration.

 

[Toshi]

I'd guess its very similar to the plot of prius drivers who experienced "unintended" acceleration.

I'd venture further than Prii and guess that the vehicle in question will no longer be a factor in the equation once one controls for senility (with which age is moderately correlated).

 

[Toshi]

How ‘Trainable’ Is VO2 Max Really? – A Case Study - SimpliFaster

For years we’ve been told that VO2 max is largely fixed, largely genetic, and largely untrainable. To the contrary, exercise physiologist and endurance sports coach Alan Couzens makes a case for the trainability of VO2 max, based on real-world experience.

simplifaster.com

 

[canadmos]

The throttle response is without artificial Mazda-esque lag, but it's not like they mapped throttle inputs hamfistedly. It is entirely possible to drive like a non-goon. I just choose to gun it whenever I can, because that's fun.

Are you tires holding up well? I forget where I read it, but people were saying with the Model S that they'd blow through tires pretty quickly with the amount of instant torque available.

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

Are you tires holding up well? I forget where I read it, but people were saying with the Model S that they'd blow through tires pretty quickly with the amount of instant torque available.

Thats normal for most high-hp cars.
10k miles is the most I get from a set in my AMG.