Hacker News Reader

Comment by jegutman | Hacker News Reader

You realize this is such a small part of the overall driving experience? I don't know how people are convinced this is a huge deal. It is possible to rent a car for the 1 or 2 days a year you have to drive 400 miles in a single trip. In fact, if you own an M5 I would also suggest you do it as well.

I've had my car in Austin for a year and a half now and never once been concerned about power, never once been to a charging station (and never been to a gas station). I would suggest that most people aren't regularly taking giant road trips.

The touch screen is not even that awesome (no tactile response), it's less than 1/100th of what makes the car great to own / drive.

View on HN

The problem I have with this argument is that is doesn't eliminate the problem, but merely removes it a step. These are problem EVs need to surmount because other wise we will have lots of of personally owned EVs that get parked so people can rent ICE vehicles every time they leave town for a trip. As an early adopter people expect to have to look past these issues, but for wide mainstream adoption, and dare I say, replacement of ICE vehicles, the problem will need to be solved with a combination of better range, quicker changing, and a wider availability of quick chargers.

Also, there are many people who take long road trips far more frequently and for whom range is a genuine issue (between my vehicles, I clock about 30k miles a year--mostly pleasure as I live only a mile from my job.) I don't begrudge those who can make an EV work for them, but it won't for me.

> Also, there are many people who take long road trips far more frequently and for whom range is a genuine issue

Yes, that is true. People will need different ways of commuting based on what their needs are.

> The problem I have with this argument is that is doesn't eliminate the problem, but merely removes it a step.

Also true, but what is the problem? Again, you need different ways of commuting based on what your needs are.

No one suggests taking cars everywhere. Some people like road trips, but many people fly when the distance is too far and their time too short.

Likewise people in New York take the subway, elsewhere people ride their bikes. No one suggests the fatal flaw with those is that you can't take them to the next state over. You just rent a car or take a bus, or do whatever, or, if you really need it, you pay a decent sum of money (in New York, at least) to keep a car in a parking space for when it is needed.

We're already in a no single size fits all situation, so it's not clear what the problem with that continuing is.

Yes, similarly, nobody says an SUV that get 10 highway MPG are bad for road trips even though clocking 30,000 miles per year will cost an extra 3 thousand (and that's after the fall in gas prices) dollars per year over a 20mpg vehicle (which is still low).

After depreciation and gas, might be cheaper to rent a car for them too.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com