Electrification

Ever since steam power was invented, technology started to rapidly advance. We seriously went from the first plane in 1903, to landing on the damn moon, in 1969. Let me reiterate.

with the introduction of the semiconductor transistor, allowing us to create miniature computers, which only keep getting smaller and smaller to this day. Overall, I think the technological growth from 20 years ago to today has been more or less in the forward direction.

The internal combustion engine is quite a marvelous piece of engineering. As an electronically focused individual, I really appreciate the almost automata-like and irony behind the engine. Think about it. You’re EXPLODING a fuel source in a CONTROLLED manner hundreds of times in an almost perfectly synchronized manner to produce mechanical energy. Explore, and controlled, those two words usually never mix. Somehow, the engineers responsible turned chaos into order.

Now what results from this invention basically transformed society from being trapped in your own town, to being able to cross borders. You can now travel 100km the same distance it used to take only travelling 10km. Fast forward 100 years, and you have the modern car. Fully fledged with nice features, such as power windows, heated seats, backup cameras, a media centre, and more.

The ICE has over 100 years of engineering behind it, making it almost obsolete to continue to innovate. There’s only so much more you can do to it, but you can’t increase its efficiency due to the nature of its torque band. You’re forced to control it with a transmission, making you lose energy in the process. That’s probably why engineers started hyperfocusing on the features, since the basic ICE automobile was already flushed out. A case of “don’t fix it if it ain’t broken” if you ask me.

Now the elephant in the room. Mass burning of fossil fuels are probably not good for the atmosphere… If that was the headline in the 70’s. We’re reaching a tipping point, where even a person who’s been a hermit from the media can probably feel it. It’s hot. And I’m saying that as a Canadian. I can’t imagine how much hotter it is in the southern US states. Automobile manufacturers are doing what I think is the right thing. For the most part. Converting all of your car lineups to electric will probably make a good portion of city air quality better, but probably doesn’t make a big enough dent in what we’ve already done. There’s so much more contributing to greenhouse gas emissions coming from the agricultural, livestock, and supply chain industries. These industries work behind the scenes, and are absolutely ESSENTIAL to the current state of affairs, but because of that, no one wants to talk about it…

Even though creating electric cars is probably a good thing, what’s with it and this society of doing these “all-in-one” solutions? The main contender that I’d like to question is Tesla. A few paragraphs ago I mentioned all these fancy features that modern cars have. Tesla’s cars have all of these features, and more, that’s no doubt. But I can’t wrap my head around why EVERYTHING in the car has to be controlled by this fatass tablet in the middle? Navigation, climate control, multi-media, telecommunication, lights, and the ludicrous amount of apps you can get. You can even adjust all driving parameters of the car itself; handling, suspension mode, security system, all from this 17 inch tablet. What next, in the next software update, can I brake the car by clicking a button? (There’s a chip on my shoulder about this “app” fiasco but that’s a story for another day)

They didn’t make a car. They made a tablet on wheels. Now don’t get me wrong here, the engineering behind their motor drive is amazing, but that doesn’t make up for this 17 inch problem. What happens if the tablet dies suddenly? Or the app on your phone to unlock the damn car decides to crap out on you? Introducing this single mode of failure is a sure-fire way of raking in cash from the “contact our certified technicians” business-model when your stuff eventually breaks. (Looking at you McDonalds & Taylor, I still eat your junior chickens though.)

So why isn’t the title of this post called “My problem with Tesla cars”? Well, because I think they’re going down the same route Apple has. They’ve garnered enough attention over the years as THE electric car company. The media and social media seem to isolate Tesla, even though many other car manufacturers have put our their rendition of the electric car. All the other competitors will for sure follow suit. Whatever Tesla does, other companies will copy, better or worse, time will tell. Remember the 3.5mm audio jack? Yeah I don’t either. How about the chargers? At least Samsung didn’t double down. Still gives me a good laugh though. Not saying Tesla will strip down features like that, and give bs excuses other than corporate greed, but they’ve gained enough public XP points to do whatever they want. The fanboys will always defend them to the grave.

Soon we’ll all be driving tablets on wheels. Just kidding. The tablets on wheels will be driving us.

-ekd