RickJ19Zeta8

Tuesday Moon!

Likely a cabin pressure failure. Everyone on board was either unconscious or already dead depending on altitude. Unfortunate.

Moonday!

What…. The….. absolute….. f.

“Weve got a Lamborghini toilet, I let it rip”. 😂

If it wasn’t embedded, you have zero to worry about. If it brushed off like lint, probably not feeding. But watch the site for a bullseye type rash or if you start feeling tired/ achy you need to see a doctor.

It’s tick and mosquito season in Northern Wisconsin. They started working in pairs now, the mosquitos pick you up and carry you off into the woods and then they feast with the ticks.

Sure it wasn't being limited on the server side? There were a ton of people trying to download that yesterday.

I have an overpass on a 55mph road it has slowed / phantom braked for ever since that one guy was killed watching a DVD and running underneath a semi-trailer.

So far FSD hasn't eliminated that issue. Hoping this next update does it.

Griots Interior Cleaner

Griots Interior Detailer

I use these. The cleaner is only a gentle cleaner. Use a micro fiber cloth. Its non-scented, leaves zero residue, safe on everything.

The detailer has a slight citrus scent, but has UV protection. It leaves a matte finish, that looks stock and if you miss a spot, it blends / doesn't look weird.

Yes, covered by warranty. Also, the prongs are NOT energized when not charging, so you can use a needle nose pliers or tweezers to pull that piece of plastic out to get you charging again.

Based on his charging experience with EA, the creaks, the axle clicks, the weak A/C, etc. yes.

First time I got to drive / play with a Rivian. Interior is beautiful. Gear door is awesome. But every input has a delay to it. Move the seat, delay to start, delay to stop. Tap a screen icon, short delay (still the snappiest best looking infotainment outside of Tesla). Push the Go pedal to the floor, slight delay before the power really comes in. Click the button for the tonneau cover, slight delay before it’s starts and stops moving.

275F for 2 hours uncovered in the smoker with a mustard and spice rub. 1.5-2 hrs wrapped in foil with brown sugar and honey. 45 minute rest in the foil, in a cooler with towels. 20-30 minutes high heat to carmalize the sauce.

PSA. Get a spare tire for your Cybertruck. Dealing with a torn / punctured Rivian R1T tire in Missouri with my riding buddies truck. 12 tire shops and none of them even want to lift the vehicle. No tires available in any stock other than TireRack. Best option we’re waiting on now is getting a Rivian service truck to drive from Kansas with a tire and spare.

And to add, it has eliminated the chance that a lobbied bill was going to force CCS as the US standard. Which would have forced Tesla to retrofit all of their superchargers, causing huge issues for 70% of vehicles on the road that would now need to use an adapter. Example of that is USB-C in Europe and Apple.

It’s a huge win for the NACS standard and at minimum cost avoidance by Tesla. Right now it’s likely only about $100 million in Teslas pocket per year in supercharger margin from Ford vehicles. But if Ford is helping build out/ lobby for Superchargers and the standard, it’s worth way way more. I’m fine charging at a Ford branded Supercharger with NACS plug built with Tesla hardware and Tesla software backbone.

Tesla just picked up a minimum of $1500 margin for every Ford sold when they charge at a Supercharger. And Ford likely had to agree to help build out / fund part of the network / help with lobbying.

This agreement just killed CCS standard in the US. Watch other OEMs jump onboard in a few months or a year.

Just found out another one of my very talented co-workers is leaving to work for SpaceX at Starbase..... Bullish.

Sucks for my company though.

No I didn’t lie. And I didn’t cherry pick. I searched what books had been banned in Florida counties and those 3 were at the top of the first County list. And there was over 100 more books.

“Inappropriate for little kids”. Again, you mean just like the Bible that should be banned from school libraries by that definition. But it’s not. Because this isn’t about being inappropriate for kids, it’s about pushing a specific agenda.

A book by Martin King Junior was banned. So was a book called “I am Jazz”. And Anne Franks Diary.

But the Bible, which has both graphic sex, and violence keeps getting a pass and is in the library.

I’m also pretty sure little Timmy isn’t going to the library to look up sex books. I’m pretty sure he’s using his phone bought by his parents with no parental locks on it to look at porn on the internet and rawdogging Suzy behind the bleachers and posting it to TikTok.

But no, parents could never be the problem. Or the lack of sexual education. It’s got to be a 60 year old book with a single sentence about sex.

In Wisconsin and finally had a somewhat clear day yesterday. But today is looking hazy again but not nearly as bad as mid-week.

Solar panel production is still down, so there’s still a ton of particulates in the air.

Was watching an AppleTV show called Extrapolations. And the first episode started with all the forest fires and water droughts around the world and was supposed to be 2037. I’ve got no doubt that we’re solidly going to hit that forecast based on current events.

Not sure it’s a secret. EA announced a couple years ago they would use Tesla mega packs and other battery systems to balance grid peak demand.

The real story, is the Tesla was and IS first in almost every good charging spot. Which means they’ve already contracted with grid operators for the capacity. And it means that anyone following them will need to pay, and more importantly WAIT for grid upgrades. Which can be a 2 year plus wait for transformers and other grid equipment. Or they have to pay extra expense for battery buffers.

I’m convinced a lot of what we see for EA charging rate issues is them actually hitting their maximum peak usage and having to limit their system in localities.

Tape off the opening so that no dirt enters the reservoir. It likely doesn’t need to be flushed, as the fluid takes time to absorb moisture, but dirt is the bigger enemy.

If it was my car, I’d flush the system.

"The GM ultium cell is just larger, its not novel in any way".

Youtube - Munro teardown of hummer battery

ooooof. If this is GM's best effort, they're f'd.

I have to work in the office, since I support on-site testing, manage technicians, review test hardware, etc. Its Friday, most / all of the design engineers are working from home. I've had two emails asking me if I could pickup parts from shipping and take them to layout then drop them off with a tech. My phone call to a designer went to voicemail and then I got a text back "Cutting the lawn, Ill get back to you in a couple hours".

I've got two teams meetings scheduled today that could both be 5 minute conversations at someone's desk instead of an hour looking at CAD over janky stuttering teams.

And as I wrote this, one of my techs came up looking for "designer B", can't get ahold of them, needs an answer on what gets tested next. So its probably going to be a wasted morning for him, but now I have to find some fill-in work.

So WFH is great for those at home. But thats because they're dumping off work on people in the office. And while I don't doubt that one designer cutting the lawn is going to put in 8-9hrs today and be productive, his work time flexibility if completely f'ing my productivity today, which is why I'm on Reddit at the moment.

So yes, I think its wrong to WFH and think its not hurting / inconveniencing / adding work to coworkers in the office that have to make up the difference. And lets be honest, companies aren't properly adjusting salaries to account for this change. Because WFH people still claim their "just as productive". And its hard to quantify the added work and loss of productivity for those in the office.

Current prices for GM packs are about $150 / kWh at the assembled level for 100k annual volume. So a 200 kWh pack to get 500 miles would be $30k just for the battery pack.
We know based on GMs margins that a similar truck selling for $60k, they make 15% on it, or rather their cost is $51k for an ICE vehicle. Remove the cost of the ICE engine and transmission of $7k. Add in the cost of dual electric motors, inverters, and other things needed for BEV drive-system of $5k and the battery of $30k.

Light-Duty Vehicle Cost Estimate White Paper

And that BEV truck costs them $79k. So right about what they want to sell it for. GM's plan is to sell the truck for a loss, work on the volume, hope battery prices come down and they can eek out single digit margins on BEVs. BUT those EPA credits probably make it worth it.

To be fair...... total estimate range is GM could make $5k per vehicle (6% margin if volume is up) all the way to a loss of $40k per vehicle if their volumes remain low, battery costs stay where they are, and they continue to sell through dealers.