Hacker News Reader

Comment by darth_avocado | Hacker News Reader

Strange that Amazon can make Rivian trucks work but not USPS.

Rivians cost ~45% more per-unit than the postal vehicle (86k vs $59k), and doesn’t come in an ice variant, which the Post Office requires.

Why does it require a variant? Why can't the necessary ICE vehicles be one of the countless existing options?

Having a common platform for postal vehicles makes things like maintenance easier.

Seems like ice requirements don’t apply to every state

They don’t, but California essentially dictates them because nobody wants to cut themselves out of the richest state’s car sales

The ice requirement has nothing to do with California standards, which only applies to cars bought in California, which USPS doesn’t do.

Some postal routes are in cold climates with harsh winters where EVs would be impractical.

Amazon only delivers to the easy areas and uses USPS to deliver to all the places where they can't deliver economically

False. I happen to know that Amazon delivers in hilariously bad terrain. But yeah, they probably only use Rivians in easy areas. I've never seen one.

The old USPS trucks have a 150 mile range. That is not a difficult range for electric.

?? Amazon custom designed their vehicle. USPS custom designed their vehicle. What’s the difference here?

amazon has a variety of vehicles that they use, and the rivians are one of many options.

the USPS was trying to find one vehicle that could serve all their routes.

There's different requirements and use cases.

Why is it strange? Isn't it common and expected for the government to lag behind the private sector?