Red Sage
The Cybernetic Samurai
Because I agree with Elon Musk, and his dedication to first principles.Why do you feel things need to be updated just because?
Not sure what you are talking about here at all.I have noticed its this way with you about everything not just the autonomous car thing but now this?
Because updating things to be better... is BETTER. That's why. There was a time when V8 engines were big, noisy, and smoky... And routinely got less than 8 MPG. They are far better today than they were 40 years ago. Maybe not to those shade tree mechanics who won't touch anything without a carburetor under the hood... But certainly so for everyone else.Why update something when its works perfectly and its what everyone wants?
Also because, long established traditional automobile manufacturers have a habit of sticking a patent on anything and everything they can think of... So, someone who wants to build a new vehicle from the ground up has to design EVERYTHING over again, or risk serious litigious action if not expressly given permission to use patented designs that are not yet in the public domain. Knowing that you have to design EVERYTHING anyway, you'd might as well put your own special spin on it, to determine what works best, what should be retained, what should be abandoned, and what should be changed entirely. That's why.
That's cool. You don't have to. I learned a long time ago, from early childhood, that most people don't think the way I do. I have been challenged, literally since the age of three, by people who claimed I didn't know what I was talking about, who demanded that I explain myself. So I do. That makes some people really angry, because they are surprised that I take them literally. Because most of the time, they are speaking rhetorically instead. I hate rhetoric. I prefer logic. Because logically, if someone asks a question, it is proper to presume they want an answer. So I answer them. Too often, people decide I am making fun of them. I'm not. But I will not stand by and have someone accuse me of being incorrect when I know that I am not.I don't think you realize the not everyone shares you thought process when it come to cars. Actually I would venture to say that quite a few don't, the vast majority actually.
I write what I do, as I do, in an attempt to put forth ideas. Some of them may not be very well communicated, and I apologize for that. But everything I write is well considered before it leaves my keyboard.
Nope. Not this time. Traditional automobile manufacturers have spent the past 40 years fighting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards set forth by the NTSB/NHTSA. They fight, and argue, and complain, and swear to high heaven that the regulations are too restrictive, will cost too much money, will drain power from the drivetrain, will result in vehicles that no one wants to buy... And then, miraculously, just at the eleventeenth hour...? They release vehicles that meet the supposedly 'impossible' regulations. Meanwhile, the Ford F-Series pickup trucks have seen their annual sales soaring higher and higher, year after year, for decades.As as additional point, the regulations are not going to be the end all be all. Its not the regulations that control everything its the buyers and what they want. Take the mpg requirement for future ICE cars for example. Due to people wanting trucks and suv's car companies are having trouble getting their fleet averages up so they are currently in the process of getting the requirements lowered and I am fairly confident that they will be lowered.
The traditional automobile manufacturers have won delays, and postponements, and deferments of regulatory requirements for emissions and fuel economy with trucks many, many times. But the jig is up now. Finally. The music has stopped, there's no more dancing by lobbyists, they have to put up or shut up. Period. And now, with Tesla Motors entering the pickup truck market right at the time that the last of their requested deferment periods ends, and every single vehicle, with no exemptions or exceptions, that is released in the US now counts toward the CAFE total...? It is absolutely imperative that traditional automobile manufacturers pull their heads out of their rear orifices and come to grips with the fact they must now improve the fuel efficiency of their trucks by any means or be forced to pay very heavy fines as a result. And Tesla Motors will be there to show them exactly how to do it, if they wish -- by offering fully electric vehicles -- not hybrids and diesels.
I live in Los Angeles now, but I grew up on a working farm in Mississippi. I know what pickup trucks are really for... because I've used them for that purpose. Hauling feed, bales of hay, and crops. Transporting livestock, lumber, rolls of barbed wire. Going through the deep and nasty muck off the beaten path and down in the woods. And every single one of those jobs can be performed BETTER by a properly engineered fully electric pickup truck.You have got to get out you your utopia world and talk to some people that are not on this site.
What the [HECK] are you talking about? The pictures of the Toyota A-BAT concept I posted? That was in response to a post someone else made of an early drawing of the same vehicle. That truck will NEVER be built, and it isn't what I would suggest for Tesla Motors. I like certain aspects of the design, but realize fully that there are things there that simply cannot work on a real work truck. I posted those photos for the benefit of anyone who had not seen the concept before, so that they might have an idea of what had been considered, and rejected, by Toyota. But that doesn't mean it has no value, or that some aspects of its design could not be used in a more effective fashion.It must have a true bed, not this hatchback with no roof crap. It will never sell if their is no real bed, their are to many things that use beds ranging from the tool boxes to truck campers and everything in between.
What exactly do you mean by 'a true bed' anyway? Just about every F-150 Lariat Crew Cab I have seen has a 6-1/2 foot bed. That's about the same as the much maligned Chevrolet El Camino, which I love, but everyone and their Grandmother's Sister Sarah acts as if was a complete piece of crap. My Brother has such an F-150, and when you fold down the tailgate and use the fold out cargo gate, you have room for 8 feet of gear in the back. I have no idea why a similar arrangement would not be considered useful on a Tesla Motors product. What I said was that it doesn't have to be a DETACHED, SEPARATE BED -- not that there should not be a bed at all.
I'm certain that Tesla Motors would be perfectly happy if no one ever installed a standard issue four-pole over-cab camper on their pickup truck. A big, long, middle finger to the over the shoulder tool box manufacturers too.
My main argument though is against vehicles designed to accommodate the wishes of third party vehicle conversions, where everything behind the factory cabin is replaced in its entirety... Tesla Motors will NOT allow that to happen at all. If a coachbuilder wants a specialized Tesla Motors drivetrain, they will have to play by Tesla's rules.
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