What need is to push for high speed rail. But before we do we need politicians and policies that will put enough funds to fix our crumbling infrastructure.
It is getting bad out here and electric cars and one more lane will never fix it. We need to abandon the cars and embrace trains and buses. But our current infrastructure and even if we built high speed rail the current politicians would let it crumble too and make it useless.
Time to electric people who feel the way we do.
I worked in the automation industry for the auto industry for about 5-6 years. I was mainly in it for the electrical apprenticeship because getting your foot into the door without networking connections is damn near impossible.
Our workplace focused on high voltage and MIG welding robots for exterior panels and internal framing of the car. With the nature of the job and being an apprentice, you don’t really know what part you’re making and for what vehicle. Being never-endingly curious, I started to figure out what was being made for what.
Over the years there seemed to be a change from sedan parts to SUVs and pickup parts. Then around the 2020 we began making automation lines for electric pickup trucks and even a fucking electric hummer.
It was also around this time that our company decided to get into the battery tray scene for automobiles. These trays were stupid big. In order for the robots to handle these huge battery trays, they had to order even bigger robots. These robots need bigger bases, and bigger “tools” (parts of the automation line that physically handle the car parts to be welded or moved; usually on the end of a robotic arm, conveyor or fixed station). It would be comically absurd if it wasn’t for the fact that it made the job that much more complex and scary dangerous. Not to mention all the waste involved in the entire process before a car is ever released to the public.
When you see the size of these things, you begin to understand just how much battery you need. They are unsustainably huge. You just can’t give everybody in north America a battery-run tank. It’s impossible. There’s not enough resources to allow it. It’s absurd to even dream it and yet they are pushing for it hard with higher quaterly profit targets.
I saw the future through that place and went on a 10 month crusade to get my ass fired. Apprenticeship be damned, but I couldn’t sell my soul like that anymore at the cost of this planet. Fuck that.
I can understand being under-informed about electric vehicles, but those who strongly advocate for an EV future are living in a distant reality. Absurdim used to be my favourite type of comedy until it became reality.
Great summary, I find people tend to have a really superficial understanding of what goes into making electric cars or their entire lifecycle cost in terms of energy needed to mine the materials and do the manufacturing. Once you start looking at the big picture it quickly becomes obvious that EV cars can’t be the solution. We just can’t keep doing what we’re doing in terms of transit going forward.
How do you retrofit anything other than cars onto infrastructure that has been specifically tailored to them?
It’s not like infrastructure designed for cars can’t be replaced. Just look at how quickly China developed rail and subways over the past decade as an example of how quickly you can build new infrastructure. You can also use things like trolleybuses on existing roads by simply putting power lines over the roads.
Add infill developments into surface car parks, replace large stroads & urban highways with multi-use boulevards that have wide pavements, bike lanes, and transit lanes.
