We're Doomed, Part 4 Million

[eddiememphis]

https://reason.com/2021/08/06/the-infrastructure-bill-requires-new-cars-to-come-with-unproven-drunk-driving-detection-technology/#comments

New cars will be required to have drunk driving detection built in.

I'm out of words.

[Erni]

Just means my Suburban will have to make it to 500,000 miles.

[Delfuego]

Oh my god chicken little, everything is the end of the world with you.

[FoxtArt]

By the time it goes into effect all new cars would be level 5 anyway, and that'll probably be mandated.

Meanwhile, I'll still be driving my much-older, much-more reliable vehicles.

With all the new crap they keep throwing into vehicles (including that), even if each component is thoroughly tested and ultra reliable, there's still so many points of failure that they aren't going to be 200k cars in the future.

Now, an electric truck with a bare bones ECU, manual windows and locks, replaceable double DIN radio, I'd buy that. Problem is nobody will ever make it. Every electric vehicle has so much unnecessary proprietary hardware and especially software in it that while there will be examples that are maintained for decades, the cost for an average person to do that will be outrageously high, as the replacement screens will be hard enough, but what about fixing/replacing/patching the original software when they reach "EOS". It'll be like trying to drive a car around today that depends on internet-connected Windows 95, using the original netscape browser to reach websites that ceased to exist 15 years ago.

ETA: I do suspect eventually they will have kits to convert ICE engines into electric in old vehicles. I probably will do that. It will be bare bones and reliable in that capacity.

[FoxtArt]

The other side of me says, much like the ammo serialization, someone already has a patent for this and $2 million in funds to lobby [Beer]

[bradbn4]

odd, I thought some of that hardware had to be re-calibrated quite often...

On a side note; an adapter for small tire pumps will be available

[arbol]

Drunk Driving Detection is what they do to DUI offenders.

Now, we are all DUI offenders?

[Zundfolge]

Now, an electric truck with a bare bones ECU, manual windows and locks, replaceable double DIN radio, I'd buy that. Problem is nobody will ever make it.

I still contend that ICE to EV conversions for older cars is going to become a tremendous growth industry in the coming years. And since you're merely modifying old cars and not building new ones you won't have to meet all the new requirements (this is how hot rod shops avoid having to put ABS and airbags in the cars they restore and sell).



Drunk Driving Detection is what they do to DUI offenders.


Now, we are all DUI offenders?


There are two ways to look at criminal justice, either everyone is innocent until proven guilty or guilty until proven innocent.
There are two ways to look at the law; "everything is allowed except that which is expressly forbidden" and "everything is forbidden except that which is expressly allowed".


Our justice system used to be predicated on the first one of both of those, but there's no power for the elites in that.


These are the same people that say things like "due process is a white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal concept" when someone says "maybe we should wait until all the facts come out" when someone they don't like is accused of a crime.

[FoxtArt]

I still contend that ICE to EV conversions for older cars is going to become a tremendous growth industry in the coming years. And since you're merely modifying old cars and not building new ones you won't have to meet all the new requirements (this is how hot rod shops avoid having to put ABS and airbags in the cars they restore and sell).


I agree 100%. Of course I'm wildly derailing the topic here :D I am banking on that though, so I'll still be driving the same shit when I'm 92. Probably not though, cause my own odometer won't last anywhere near that long, but hey. Maybe my kids will...

So if all the man-bun wearing gender identifying trendsetters want to suck a hose every time they get into a new vehicle to compete with the Jones'... a side effect is the value of all old vehicles will also go way, way up. Maybe eventually it'll be a lesser version of transferrable, where the used vehicles are worth dramatically more than new, because there is so much of them that is legislated away.

[Eric P]

I remember from living in Germany that places that served would take your keys and not return them unless you passed the blow test. As I was a kid I don't recall if it was on base or german.

[eddiememphis]

ETA: I do suspect eventually they will have kits to convert ICE engines into electric in old vehicles. I probably will do that. It will be bare bones and reliable in that capacity.

There are some available now. Mostly for air cooled VW's- Bugs and busses.

I was doing research into swapping an electric motor in place of a 22R in my Dad's '95 Tacoma. There are adapter plates that allow it to be bolted to the stock bellhousing. Fill the bed with batteries and away you go. Plus a lot of other things, but that's the way it goes.

[Irving]

Retro fitting old cars to be electric is already a thing with a market. It's up and coming, so not exactly known in the main stream I guess.

[Zundfolge]

There are some available now. Mostly for air cooled VW's- Bugs and busses.


At the risk of derailing this discussion (don't tell Jer or Justin we're talking about this) There are several "universal kits" out there (plus all the components you need to roll your own from companies like Manzanita Micro and others) along with many people getting Teslas and other EVs from salvage and stripping off all the parts to build some pretty cool EV conversions. Right now its the domain of hobbyists and hot rodders, but that's still a lot of people.

The biggest problem (as with factory made EVs themselves) is the batteries. Finding places for them, making them accessible enough that they can be serviced and cooled and still protected, and getting them at prices that don't make the whole process foolishness.

What I expect will become a big problem is access to "Fast Charging" with home made EVs. Right now if you try to repair a salvage Tesla, it will be locked out of super charging. You won't be able to use any sort of fast charging system with it. I expect the same will be the case for home made EVs eventually. In part because the industry doesn't want you driving EVs you didn't pay them for and in part because a poorly made EV could damage a charging station ... possibly with massive conflagrant results.


Retro fitting old cars to be electric is already a thing with a market. It's up and coming, so not exactly known in the main stream I guess.

That kind of begs an age old question; are hot rodders mainstream or not? Considering the massive amount of resources out there for people doing engine swaps and mods on old cars, I'd say yes.

[Irving]

I'd agree as well, and if we got more particular I'd say there is a dividing line between the custom fab market, and the bolt-on market. Once things reach the bolt-on stage, then it's truly mainstream.

[FoxtArt]

Then if it reaches the strap-on stage, it's truly awkward.

[Great-Kazoo]

Then if it reaches the strap-on stage, it's truly awkward.

Sounds like another project, that eventually, turns in to a pain in the ass.

[TheNash]

Then if it reaches the strap-on stage, it's truly awkward.


Sounds like another project, that eventually, turns in to a pain in the ass.

It all depends on how you face the project, it?s the type where you don?t want to turn your back on it.[facepalm]

[battlemidget]

I used to work with a guy that did EV conversions on junkers. For ~5k he could convert anything to electric with 20-40mi range. If you see a guy that looks like Sideshow Bob driving a ridiculously torquey junker with squealing tires, that's him.

[Eric P]

Did this advance with the weekend vote?

[Gman]

Get your sober passenger to do the blow test.

[Irving]

Who goes out drinking by themselves with other people?

[Gman]

Be the designated car starter instead of the designated driver.

[wctriumph]

Wait outside the bars and offer to blow their pipes for $100..

Wait, wait, that didn’t come out out right …

[O2HeN2]

Once things reach the bolt-on stage, then it's truly mainstream.

Kina like this? Tesla crate motor. (https://www.motortrend.com/news/tesla-crate-motor-ev-conversion-small-block-v-8/)

O2

[Aloha_Shooter]

By the time it goes into effect all new cars would be level 5 anyway, and that'll probably be mandated.

Meanwhile, I'll still be driving my much-older, much-more reliable vehicles.

With all the new crap they keep throwing into vehicles (including that), even if each component is thoroughly tested and ultra reliable, there's still so many points of failure that they aren't going to be 200k cars in the future.

Now, an electric truck with a bare bones ECU, manual windows and locks, replaceable double DIN radio, I'd buy that. Problem is nobody will ever make it. Every electric vehicle has so much unnecessary proprietary hardware and especially software in it that while there will be examples that are maintained for decades, the cost for an average person to do that will be outrageously high, as the replacement screens will be hard enough, but what about fixing/replacing/patching the original software when they reach "EOS". It'll be like trying to drive a car around today that depends on internet-connected Windows 95, using the original netscape browser to reach websites that ceased to exist 15 years ago.

ETA: I do suspect eventually they will have kits to convert ICE engines into electric in old vehicles. I probably will do that. It will be bare bones and reliable in that capacity.


Retro fitting old cars to be electric is already a thing with a market. It's up and coming, so not exactly known in the main stream I guess.


Kina like this? Tesla crate motor. (https://www.motortrend.com/news/tesla-crate-motor-ev-conversion-small-block-v-8/)

O2

Ford is offering a crater motor at SEMA: https://www.roadandtrack.com/news/a37357683/ford-performance-electric-crate-motor-eluminator/


The biggest problem (as with factory made EVs themselves) is the batteries. Finding places for them, making them accessible enough that they can be serviced and cooled and still protected, and getting them at prices that don't make the whole process foolishness.

What I expect will become a big problem is access to "Fast Charging" with home made EVs. Right now if you try to repair a salvage Tesla, it will be locked out of super charging. You won't be able to use any sort of fast charging system with it. I expect the same will be the case for home made EVs eventually. In part because the industry doesn't want you driving EVs you didn't pay them for and in part because a poorly made EV could damage a charging station ... possibly with massive conflagrant results.

I agree access the batteries will be an issue. Those who love government regulation will point not only to the high voltage they're dealing with but the potential for extraordinary fires.

I don't know about access to chargers. Currently, there are private companies like EVGo who don't care who made the car but they do collect information about the car through the information protocol exchanged on the charger. I expect those companies will want to be sure the car they're connected to won't damage their equipment. Some sort of certification program through a third-party could address this but I don't know how that would work and it may be more trouble than the charging companies or the consumers want to deal with.