• Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Paywalled.

      On a different subject, why would someone downvote a one-word comment that accurately describes what the content is behind?

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        There are people who are pathologically contrarian. I’ve had to end a friendship over it—the endless need to say something negative about literally everything that ever happens and an unwillingness to be charitable to others.

      • moonpiedumplings@programming.dev
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        2 months ago

        Because some of us have fat fingers and accidentally downvote when we scroll on mobile.

        One of the things I liked about reddit was that, since it saved downvoted posts, I could go through the list every once in a while and undownvote the accidents.

        Can’t do that here though, and I sometimes notice posts or comments I’ve accidentally downvoted.

        Anyway, people shouldn’t care so much, we don’t have a karma system or the like here anyways, so why does it matter?

        • Grippler@feddit.dk
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          2 months ago

          Can’t do that here though

          What client are you using? I can browse both upvoted and downvoted comments in Voyager

          • moonpiedumplings@programming.dev
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            2 months ago

            I’m using eternity, which hasn’t received any updates, on my phone, and the default lemmy web interface on my computer.

            Maybe I need to try some other options.

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          Anyway, people shouldn’t care so much, we don’t have a karma system or the like here anyways, so why does it matter?

          Well, only speaking for myself, I don’t care, it just seemed so weird since it was an accurate single word, so I was curious.

          I also wonder sometimes if it’s a bot system purposely trying to force engagement.

          Lol trust me, I get downvotes all the time for things I say here on Lemmy. If I let them bother me I’d be in the psychiatric system by now.

          Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

      • AWildMimicAppears@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 months ago

        I have the theory that archive.is, waybackmachine and 12ft.io are no secret anymore, and that just posting “paywalled” comes across as too lazy to copy/paste or (a lot easier) to use this addon to reduce the work to a click. i dont mind, but i can understand why others might see it that way

        • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          and that just posting “paywalled” comes across as too lazy to copy/paste

          Blaming the victim, and justifying paywalls.

          or (a lot easier) to use this addon to reduce the work to a click.

          My phone browser doesn’t use add-ons.

          i dont mind

          And yet, you took the time out to reply, to chastise me for saying it.

          Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

          • AWildMimicAppears@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 months ago

            sheesh, you are quite aggressive, i did not want to offend. and as i said, i don’t mind it, i even posted the archivelink, for which you thanked me. check your target before firing, mate :-)

            (also, theres always firefox mobile. can apple users use it with addons/firefox browser engine now? i don’t follow apple development actively)

  • merthyr1831@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Love how companies can decide who has to supervise their car’s automated driving and not an actual safety authority. Absolutely nuts.

        • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          You can’t have a babysitter following every human to make sure they don’t do something dangerous. Except for high risk areas, liability is the most practical option.

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              So you want to read 50 page regulation about how to boil water in your home because boiling water can hurt people?

              And how do you regulate AI when you have no idea how it works or what could go wrong. Not as if politicians are AI experts. Driving itself is already heavily regulated, the AI has to follow traffic rules just like anyone else, if that is what you are thinking.

              • DrinkMonkey@lemmy.ca
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                2 months ago

                Why do you believe that judges (or even juries made of lay people) can make sense of the very things that you’re so confident legislators or regulators cannot?

                I’m not saying regulation is perfect, and as a result, certainly there is a role for judicial review. But come on, man…lots of non sequiturs and straw dogs in your argument.

                • DreamlandLividity@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  Quite often, juries don’t have to rule on technical matters. Juries will have available internal communications of the company, testimonies of the engineers working on the project etc. If safety concerns were being ignored, you can usually find enough witnesses and documents proving so.

                  On the other hand, how do you even begin to regulate something that is only in the process of being invented? What would the regulation look like?

    • Trollception@lemmy.world
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      Who said there was no safety authority involved? I thought it was part of the 4 level system the government decided on for assisted driving.

  • daikiki@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    According to who? Did the NTSB clear this? Are they even allowed to clear this? If this thing fucks up and kills somebody, will the judge let the driver off the hook 'cuz the manufacturer told them everything’s cool?

    • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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      According to who? Did the NTSB clear this?

      Yes.

      If this thing fucks up and kills somebody, will the judge let the driver off the hook 'cuz the manufacturer told them everything’s cool?

      Yes, the judge will let the driver off the hook, because Mercedes told them it will assume the liability instead.

    • Trollception@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      You do realize humans kill hundreds of other humans a day in cars, right? Is it possible that autonomous vehicles may actually be safer than a human driver?

      • KredeSeraf@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Sure. But no system is 100% effective and all of their questions are legit and important to answer. If I got hit by one of these tomorrow I want to know the process for fault, compensation and pathway to improvement are all already done not something my accident is going to landmark.

        But that being said, I was a licensing examiner for 2 years and quit because they kept making it easier to pass and I was forced to pass so many people who should not be on the road.

        I think this idea is sound, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things to address around it.

        • Trollception@lemmy.world
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          Honestly I’m sure there will be a lot of unfortunate mistakes until computers and self driving systems can be relied upon. However there needs to be an entry point for manufacturers and this is it. Technology will get better over time, it always has. Eventually self driving autos will be the norm.

          • KredeSeraf@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            That still doesn’t address all the issues surrounding it. I am unsure if you are just young and not aware how these things work or terribly naive. But companies will always cut corners to keep profits. Regulation forces a certain level of quality control (ideally). Just letting them do their thing because “it’ll eventually get better” is a gateway to absurd amounts of damage. Also, not all technology always gets better. Plenty just get abandoned.

            But to circle back, if I get hit by a car tomorrow and all these thinga you think are unimportant are unanswered does that mean I might mot get legal justice or compensation? If there isn’t clearly codified law I might not, and you might be callous enough to say you don’t care about me. But what about you? What if you got hit by a unmonitored self driving car tomorrow and then told you’d have to go through a long, expensive court battle to determine fault because no one had done it it. So you’re in and out of a hospital recovering and draining all of your money on bills both legal and medical to eventually hopefully get compensated for something that wasn’t your fault.

            That is why people here are asking these questions. Few people actually oppose progress. They just need to know that reasonable precautions are taken for predictable failures.

            • Llewellyn@lemm.ee
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              But then it’s good that the manufacturer states the driver isn’t obliged to watch the road. Because it shifts responsibility towards the manufacturer and thus - it’s a great incentive to make technology as safe as possible.

            • Trollception@lemmy.world
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              To be clear I never said that I didn’t care about an individual’s safety, you inferred that somehow from my post and quite frankly are quite disrespectful. I simply stated that autonomous vehicles are here to stay and that the technology will improve more with time.

              The legal implications of self driving cars are still being determined and as this is literally one of the first approved technologies available. Tesla doesn’t count as it’s not a SAE level 3 autonomous driving vehicle. There are some references in the liability section of the wiki.

              https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_self-driving_cars

          • MeDuViNoX@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            Can’t the entry point just be that you have to pay attention while it’s driving for you until they figure it out?

          • stoly@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            You’re deciding to prioritize economic development over human safety.

      • Adanisi@lemmy.zip
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        *at 40mph on a clear straight road on a sunny day in a constant stream of traffic with no unexpected happenings, Ts&Cs apply.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Only on closed courses. The best AI lacks the basic heuristics of a child and you simply can’t account for all possible outcomes.

  • deafboy@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    And they managed to do it without us obsessing about their CEO several times a day? I refuse to believe that!

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    As of April 11, there were 65 Mercedes autonomous vehicles available for sale in California, Fortune has learned through an open records request submitted to the state’s DMV. One of those has since been sold, which marks the first sale of an autonomous Mercedes in California, according to the DMV. Mercedes would not confirm sales numbers. Select Mercedes dealerships in Nevada are also offering the cars with the new technology, known as “level 3” autonomous driving.

    Drivers can activate Mercedes’s technology, called Drive Pilot, when certain conditions are met, including in heavy traffic jams, during the daytime, on spec ific California and Nevada freeways, and when the car is traveling less than 40 mph. Drivers can focus on other activities until the vehicle alerts them to resume control. The technology does not work on roads that haven’t been pre-approved by Mercedes, including on freeways in other states.

    U.S. customers can buy a yearly subscription of Drive Pilot in 2024 EQS sedans and S-Class car models for $2,500.

    Mercedes is also working on developing level 4 capabilities. The automaker’s chief technology officer Markus Schäfer expects that level 4 autonomous technology will be available to consumers by 2030, Automotive News reported.

    • Ilovethebomb@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      Hmm, so only on a very small number of predetermined routes, and at very slow speeds for those roads.

      Still impressive, but not as impressive as the headline makes out.

        • Cryan24@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Chances are, If you can afford the car, then that amount is nothing to you.

          • ours@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Having known one, some of their customers love their feature loaded cars to brag about and feel extra special. Some will definitely pay the 2.5k gladly.

        • Veraxus@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          If they assume full liability for any collisions while the feature is active (and it looks like they do), then I can see that being fair.

      • Turun@feddit.de
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        2 months ago

        Yes, but it’s actually level 3.

        Not the Tesla “full self driving - no wait we actually lied to you, you need to be alert at all times” bullshit.

    • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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      3 months ago

      I’ve seen this headline a few times and the details are laughably bad. The only reason this can be getting any press is because the headline is good clickbait. But 40 mph top speed on approved roads in 2 states only if a car is in front of you in the daytime is entirely useless. I guess it’s a good first step maybe? But trying to write headlines like this is big news is sad.

      • lemmyvore@feddit.nl
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        3 months ago

        40 mph top speed on approved roads in 2 states only if a car is in front of you in the daytime is entirely useless.

        It’s specifically designed to navigate traffic congestion, which happens under 30 mph. It can keep up with the lane, deal with lane changes, honk if someone backs into you, let ambulances through, things like that. Not sure why the article presents it as generic driving.

      • Turun@feddit.de
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        2 months ago

        The reason this gets attention is because it’s the first level 3 sold to consumers.

        The tech is hard, of course it’s gonna start out with laughingly limited capabilities. But it’s the first step towards more automation.

      • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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        It’s starting in California where there are a meaningful number of high earners who are spending hours per day in 4 lane bumper to bumper traffic.

        Having actual autonomy during those hours is still shit. But it’s a hell of a lot less shit than the tedium of the high attention requirements of sitting in traffic at a crawl.

  • eee@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    U.S. customers can buy a yearly subscription of Drive Pilot in 2024 EQS sedans and S-Class car models for $2,500

    yeah, fuck that.

      • MeatsOfRage@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        They’re also accepting full liability if anything happens while using this feature so it’s actually a type of insurance

        • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          I wonder how much cheaper it will make auto insurance. I also wonder if this will open transportation options those who have lost a license.

          • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            Not this. It’s limited to specific scenarios on specific roads. So you’re going to need a licensed driver.

            Eventually with actually full self driving? I’d hope so, though it’s going to take legislation first.

        • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          I kinda like that system because eventually people will put their own OSes on the car, which the manufacturer obviously can’t cover. Having separate insurance/service eliminates having to pay for it if you’re accepting the liability yourself.

        • jj4211@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          The conditions for the system to work are such that if you could find a policy to cover only those conditions, it’d probably just be like a couple dollars a month. Even behaving “badly” you would be unlikely to have an accident and even if you caused an accident, it’s probably just going to be a couple thousand in property damage with no medical implication.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Have you seen Tesla’s price for full self driving? And they don’t take liability

  • Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    if it can drive a car why wouldn’t it be able to drive a truck?

    I’m surprised companies don’t just build their own special highway for automated trucking and use people for last mile stuff.

    • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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      Because it’s an extremely narrowly defined set of requirements in order to use it. It’s “approved freeways with clear markings and moderate to heavy traffic under 40MPH during daytime hours and clear conditions” meaning it will inch forward for you in bumper to bumper traffic provided you’re in an approved area and that’s it.

      https://www.mbusa.com/en/owners/manuals/drive-pilot

          • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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            2 months ago

            In theory. In practice, it just beeps at you if your sandwich hand is steering.

          • jj4211@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Well, not always hands on wheel. I have spent over an hour straight on an interstate with hands off. Ford’s system watches your eyes and lets your hands stay off if it’s decent conditions and on a LIDAR-mapped freeway. Note I wouldn’t trust it at night (there have been two crashes, both at night with stopped vehicles on freeway), but then I wouldn’t really trust myself at night either too much (there are many many more human caused crashes at night, I’m not sure a human at freeway speed could avoid a crash with a surprise stationary vehicle in middle of the road).

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        2 months ago

        Still seems not legal to not pay attention to the road. Wouldn’t fly over here at least.

    • KISSmyOSFeddit@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      They got certification from the authorities, and in the event of an accident, the manufacturer takes on responsibility.

      • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        lol, ‘manufacturer takes on responsibility’ so… I’m just fucked if one of these hits me?

        see a mercedes, shoot a mercedes. destroy it in whatever way you can.

        • KISSmyOSFeddit@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          No you’re guaranteed that the Mercedes that hit you is better insured for paying out your damages than pretty much anyone else on the road that could hit you.

          • melpomenesclevage@lemm.ee
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            lol corporations don’t have responsibility though. that’s the whole point of them. they’re machines for avoiding responsibility.

            • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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              2 months ago

              In this case the responsibility to pay will ultimately fall on everyone, not just on the pedestrian getting hit. Still not good, but you won’t be SOL.

              • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                If these have lidar (unlike teslas) then they might be better at detecting obstructions but I feel like real world road conditions are not kind to cameras and sensors.

                • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  Fixed lidar sensors are not as reliable as it’s made out to be, unfortunately. Dome lidar systems like those found on Waymo vehicles are pretty good, but way more advanced (and expensive) than anything you’d find in consumer vehicles at the moment. The shadows of trees are enough to render basic lidar sensors useless, as they effectively produce an aperiodic square wave of infrared light (from the sun) that is frequently inseparable from the ToF emission signal. Sunsets are also sometimes enough to completely blind lidar sensors.

                  None of this is to say that Tesla’s previous camera-only approach was a good idea, like at all. More data is always a good thing, so long as the system doesn’t rely on the data more than the data’s reliability permits. After all, cameras can be blinded by sunlight too. IMO radar is the best economical complementary sensor to cameras at the moment. Despite the comparatively low accuracy, they are very reliable in adverse conditions.

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            2 months ago

            The sad part of this is somehow thinking that payment solves any problem. Like, idk what they would pay me, just bring back my dead wife/child/father whatever. You can’t fix everything with money.

            • QuaternionsRock@lemmy.world
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              It only works on a small handful of freeways (read: no pedestrians) in California/Nevada, and only under 40 MPH. The odds of a crash within those parameters resulting in a fatality are quite low.

            • Llewellyn@lemm.ee
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              Human drivers are far more dangerous on the road, and you should be applauding assisted driving development.

              • jj4211@lemmy.world
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                2 months ago

                This presumes the options are only:

                • Human and no autonomous system watching
                • Autonomous system, with no meaningful human attention

                Key word is ‘assisted’ driving. ADAS should roughly be a nice add, so long as human attention is policed. Ultimately, the ADAS systems are better able to react to some situations, but may utterly make some stupid calls in exceptional scenarios.

                Here, the bar of ‘no human paying attention at all’ is one I’m not entirely excited about celebrating. Of course the conditions are “daytime traffic jam only”, where risk is pretty small, you might have a fender bender, pedestrians are almost certainly not a possibility, and the conditions are supremely monotonous, which is a great area for ADAS but not a great area for bored humans.

  • blackn1ght@feddit.uk
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    3 months ago

    On a slightly unrelated note, the Mercedes EQ class are really ugly, both internally and externally.

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      I think most German cars have had a bad generation.

      Mercedes: recent designs have been divisive, sometimes I see one and think they look ok and other times they elicit a yikes. More importantly, Mercedes don’t have a single car in their lineup right now that outshines their rivals. Usually there’d be at least one. There is no reason to have a Mercedes right now.

      BMW: does it even need to be said? BMW has designs and recognisability that others would kill to have, yet they destroy that design language and pump out absolutely hideous cars. This is not a Chris Bangle moment. People aren’t initially reeling at these designs but coming around to them and seeing them as being amazing and ahead of the curve like those of the late 90s and into the 2000s. BMWs are ugly now. I’ve even seen car reviewers such as Johnny Smith literally censor the grilles in their videos lol.

      VW: the drivetrains are still completely fine, but my god the cabin quality has suffered. The penny-pinching is insane. Touch controls galore, with no backlight for night time driving? Two window controls and a touch toggle to switch between controlling the front/rear windows? Are you fucking serious, VW? VW used to be the king of affordable priced car with an interior that was closer to the likes of Audi/BMW/Mercedes/Volvo than it was to Renault/Citroen/Honda/Toyota/etc. but they’ve thrown that away to save pennies.

      Audi: ok their general design still holds up well. But their interior is being cheapened just like VW’s. No doubt a decision from the top. Also the e-Tron’s camera mirrors are unbelievably shit. The Honda e (fuck you Honda for discontinueing, btw) had a much better implementation. And it was fucking dumb to sell the e-Tron GT for £2k less than its Porsche equivalent. Who would buy an Audi when for £2k more you can buy a Porsche?

      Porsche: ok Porsche is still mostly excellent, but the first gen Taycan has a little more screen than I’d like. The 2nd generation Taycan is genuinely an engineering masterpiece, though. It feels like the car has finally had as much love poured into it as they do their 911s. People should watch Engineering Explained’s technical overview of it, it’s staggering how much they’ve improved it. But Porsche is somewhat niche anyway, they’re not enough to make the overall German car market look better.

      The most frustrating one is VW. They’re supposed to be the mass-market, default, bread-and-butter European brand. And of all times to fuck up, doing it in a time when people are still forming their opinions on EVs is such a massive fuck up. People will look at the ID.3, then look at the likes of the MG4 or upcoming Renault 5 and think “oh, so VW can’t make good EVs”, and that will stick to them for a long time. Look at how long people thought Skoda was a crappy brand for! It was only around 2010 when “huhu crappy communist 80s car” meme truly died. Perceptions last and they’re choosing to trash theirs to recoup some money lost to dieselgate.

      Rant over. I’m pretty fed up with the car market right now. I’m gonna keep my MX-5 until the rust claims it.

      German brands right now are engaging in stupid “premium theatre”, by which they make their cars seem premium by using stuff like fancy headlights or doors that sound good, but are completely cheaping out on other stuff to an extent that’s gotten ridiculous. They’re being lazy and just resting on their built-up brand image. And that image will collapse if they don’t pull their finger out.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        It feels like the car has finally had as much love poured into it as they do their 911s. People should watch Engineering Explained’s technical overview of it, it’s staggering how much they’ve improved it.

        This one?

        But Porsche is somewhat niche anyway, they’re not enough to make the overall German car market look better.

        I wouldn’t mind the dominant VAG-internal top-down trickle moving from Audi->VW to Porsche->VW.

        Also for the record Porsches are about as common in Germany as Teslas. More common than Mazda or Mitsubishi. Granted, about 50% of those are Cayennes and Macans so that Bildungsbürger mums can drive Anne-Luisa to the farmer’s market.

        Look at how long people thought Skoda was a crappy brand for!

        Because it was, until the Czech moved from “VW but with less fuss, a proper Slav doesn’t need no fancy stuff but a workhorse” to “Eh the Wolfsburg guys are getting too crappy let’s get Bohemian”. It’s all VAG in the end but the brands do have their pride and independence.

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Because it was

          Yeah, until the mid 90s where VAG started throwing money at them, preparing for the takeover a few years later, not 2010-2015.

          That’s my point, perceptions last a long time. Skodas were good long before the market caught on to that fact.