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Comment by hulitu | Hacker News Reader

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hulitu·

Plus DOS when the battery is exhausted after a couple of "turn lights on off, turn wipers on off".

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You could flash headlights probably 500+ times before a healthy battery had even a little trouble starting.

We're considering the entire battery lifecycle. So the correct way to think about this change is:

More energy required to start engine --> Minimum battery health required to start engine increases --> battery lifecycle decreases.

I don't see how this could possibly reduce the battery lifespan. Flashing the lights takes a few watts. The vehicle will then be started and charged and never reach any lower level of discharge where damage would occur.

Yes, if you flashed your lights everytime 500+ times and got your battery to a meaningful low voltage where it barely started every time, sure. But not in the use case presented here.

Consider two cars with fading batteries at the end of their lifecycles. They are on their last start before needing to be replaced. They both have exactly enough energy to start the car with nothing left over, however one car has this system installed so it needs to flash the headlights/wipers/windows first. That car fails to start

That's like saying we should also turn off keyless entry sensors to make our battery last an extra day too, since theyr draining power as your car sits all weekend, and then one Monday morning your car won't start when you need to go to work. Does it really matter if your car starts 3000 times from a battery or 3001 times?

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