It is the topic. The oil companies fund the politicians, the politicians stay in power by any means necessary. Cronyism pays the bills. We've gone from being one of the least corrupt political systems (not THE least corrupt, but 22nd from the best CPI in 2010, to 69th now) to this. And the voting system and the gerrymandering is the only thing keeping them in. They are doing everything they can to milk the last few bucks out of this situation before they get booted.

A white penis. That needs to be included.

I heard any number of excuses about why to not vote for Kamala. None of them stood up to any mild rebuttal very well. But very few of those people then said "and so I'm voting for Trump." They knew he was crap. But they voted for him quietly just the same.

It would have helped if Kamala was a wonk who voiced her positions rather than pointed to the online documents her people put out. But then, I suspect a good number of these people would have said she was not worthy of the office because she was a wonk.

Vacuum Wars.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fvacuumwars.com%2Fvacuum-...

They test the various robots and some are reasonably good at the pet hair situation.

That said, the huge innovation in robot vacuums came out of countries where they have few carpets, and they like their floors really, really clean: Japan and Korea. China has taken it over, but the cultural influence from those two countries where you sit and sleep on the floor is huge on these devices.

You can get a highly rated one which mops, avoid objects fairly well, can find your pet, maps your house, cleans just particular rooms, etc. for less than $150 now.

They don't generate the same kind of suction. They're a different beast, but they work great.

The reason these are good is that they are smart. They vacuum every day. They roll over the same spot multiple times if the spot is really dirty. They yes, blow their whole, battery doing half your house, but then they go back to the charger, recharge, then start from right where they left off and finish the job. They have built-in mops now that work better than your powerful vacuum because whooshing air power just cannot compete with electron attraction (water on a pad which actually rubs on the dust, that is).

And they may not do a great job of vacuuming up when you spill a bag of flour on the floor, but they blow you away in terms of keeping your whole environment a LOT less dusty and your floor, generally speaking, completely free of hair, dust, fibers, bits of plastic, etc.

I recently suggested that my exercise place get one. One day I came in and was using a machine where you face down -- I knew right away they'd gotten a robot. The floor no longer had that dull look of a very thin layer of dust. The owner was really happy with it. Modern vacuums don't get snagged on cords, scoot around machine legs, under machines, and don't get bored -- they clean every inch they can reach. And they do it every single night while you're gone, in the dark, without you having to remember or do work.

Your comparison to plug-in vacuums is like saying a napalm bombing run just doesn't have the stopping power of a 38 special.

The reason these guys failed is that they were not a good robot maker.

Their original robot defined the market in the US. They were not the first, but they were the first in the US. However, as the Japanese, Korean, and Chinese robots developed robots with room mapping, lidar, remote control movement, object avoidance, etc., iRobot kept selling the same thing -- random walk robots you did not want. The only thing selling Roombas was brand-recognition.

Why were they not developing their robot? Because they were busy trying to get military contracts to make battlefield units. hustling to be in the news/trade-press for battlefield robots (and generating a lot of buzz there) while their bread-and-butter vacuum robots got more and more out of date.

When they finally improved, years later than anyone else, they'd lost their brand's good reputation -- it was like starting again as a new company, and the people who knew about room-cleaning robots didn't trust them anymore. And they were generally always behind in the tech, behind in the cost-per-unit of production, not bringing new benefits/ideas.

Sound familiar? Sound a little like Toyota eating Ford's lunch, so Ford gave us the Pinto?

iRobot might be missed as a name, but you didn't want their vacuums anyhow. And that wasn't because of state-sponsored competition per-se, it was because they were a complacent do-nothing company, when it was critical to evolve.

We got better results by moving a lot of coal burning to natural gas, but the increased production and movement of that natural gas means we're spitting out a lot more waste Methane, now. And it's a way bigger effect greenhouse gas than CO2. Luckily it doesn't last as long.

You at least used to be able to pay that kind of money (well, $30k) for a professional setup with new stuff.

But even the new stuff is cheaper now, it's well documented, anticipates DIY, and is just a lot easier to do now, and used panels are available for insanely cheap prices.

A much cheaper DIY system can get you blackout protection and will pay for itself in less years than you might think. (If you're unlucky enough to be using PG&E, that's something like a 3-year payoff.)

Owning a modern car? Yes. They all track you and sell your data.

Owning an EV? Complete 180 on reality. Can you make your own gas? Can you get gas at anyone you visit? Gas cars are a ball and chain. They break more often. They catch fire WAY more often. They keep you paying for maintenance that EVs do not need.

I see other responses here assuming you mean charging infrastructure. Download ABRP ("A Better Route Planner") tell it you own some EV which catches your fancy and plot out any trip you like. The infrastructure is there. And wherever you go, you can plug the car into a standard plug and get 30+ miles overnight (most cars get more than that overnight on a 120v socket).

You can drive cross country in an EV and sleep at a rest stop or campground with heat or AC all night (which deals with all your moisture) and that doesn't seriously degrade your range. Your gas car means you need a hotel or idle your car all night, which is dangerous, or you wake up sopping in exhalation moisture.

Your EV means you can camp and have electricity at the same time. You can keep your fridge running during an extended blackout. Your seldom more than a few miles from a 120v outlet, so you can be grossly inconvenienced, but never truly stuck.

The problem is that people search for justifications for fear of change.

You're being made to spend more to get less, on gas cars, and your tax money goes to clean up the mess they make -- health care for asthma, tax breaks to powerful oil companies (this WAY, WAY dwarfs EV and solar and wind subsidies combined), and all that money you've spent on wars for oil.

And EVs are CHEAP. Price a used one on Car Gurus. EVs last longer than gas cars, and 4 year-old ones are fine cars, often sold at 25% of their original value.

Gas cars are what's screwing your freedom. Wake up.

No, you would not. A hidden gem is HIDDEN.

These things kick ICE delivery vans' butts. When you're delivering one heavy object, driving a good distance on a highway, the benefits are small (aside from more ability to pass and to see traffic around you, and possibly a smaller crew since getting cumbersome things on and off these is easier than on ICE vans). But in a city, when you need to move into a stream of traffic, EV vans are massively better than ICE. They a low, and have a flat floor, so each and every delivery goes faster, with less injuries and damaged packages. Loading goes faster, too. They can deliver earlier in the morning without annoying people because they are almost silent. Each move from stopped to going to the next delivery goes faster, since they start up fast and get moving quickly -- so they more deliveries you make per day the more benefit you get from the vehicle. Each turn or merge goes faster (way more pickup than an ICE van), so your benefits go up when you're delivering in a complex traffic situation.

Hell, these things don't pollute at all, so they can theoretically drive deep into a poorly-ventilated warehouse to deliver to item to a row-end. And you can park and use them inside an air-tight, heated/air-conditioned building, so HVAC costs go way down, and people can work comfortably.

But did you see one commercial for it? Did you see it front and center at dealerships? Did you see influencers on Youtube talking about how much they improved their businesses? NO. Because they HID this gem.

(By the way, the Rivian van is also amazing. I recommend you look at the numerous videos made by Amazon workers on Youtube talking about how nice they are and why. I presume Amazon and/or Rivian paid them to make the videos. They are NOT hiding their gem.)

The guys at GM are, arguably, idiots. They are definitely good at making a part cost less -- removing fastener counts, reducing casting complexity -- they have massive talent there. But they're design for use has always been terrible, as have most of their marketing decisions.

The BrightDrop vans were odd, because they were a really nice design. They were more fit-for-purpose than any delivery van ever made by GM.

I completely agree with you that the guys at GM didn't want to do it. How do you shave costs off a fuel pump when it doesn't need one?
The folks at GM got good at making electric motors and the associated cooling for them cheaper, but there are so many fewer parts in an EV they had a lot less they could work their magic on. And the power-train was all new. New threatens jobs.

And then they didn't market it successfully. Of course. Because yeah, they probably wanted it to fail.

Aside from lower fuel costs,
    which do not completely justify the price difference,
and lower maintenance costs and lost downtime
    which actually probably tip the scales to making them more cost-effective,
you have the fact that these are designed from the ground up for deliveries.
    They speed up your workers. They reduce accidents and injuries. They save you lost time warming up, and seconds each and every time you start the vehicle moving. They have way more start-from-stop torque and thus get you moving into traffic rather than having to wait for a large hole between other vehicles, each time you're trying to merge or cross or turn. Your workers are happier because they are quiet, comfortable, require less straining, climbing, and lifting. They don't need to be left running and auto lock-unlock so you don't have the theft problems you have with older cargo vans. In a battle of inches, delivering package after package, moving around a city, these SMASH the ICE equivalents.

The real problem here is lack of imagination, lack of education, and pure laziness. Why change to something new which will improve productivity, employee health, your standing in the community, and profits when "meh, we're doing just fine."

I am an aware of them because I read. I have also seen videos of the inside of them. And I have seen them on the street, here in Chicago, because I look at things around me.

I think you're suggesting that the whole US has it's head firmly planted in the sand, just like you. I worry you are correct.

If you don't have a garage, or
If you need to drive on the highway to get groceries, or
If you live alone, nevermind, this is not for you.

But if you have multiple people in the house, and get the car out of the garage to drive a mile or three for groceries, you are throwing money away if you don't own a cheap, used EV.

You can get one for $5k, but it's probably wiser to pay more like $9 to $12k for one. You can charge it from a 120v outlet -- it draws the same current as a $30 Walmart space heater. You will be paying less than 1/4 of what you pay per mile for a gas sedan, or 1/8th what you pay per mile for a truck. You can get that down even more if you charge at the right time, at least in some places. You'll never pay for oil changes or brake jobs, and you're ICE car/truck will last longer because you won't be doing short trips in it.

You are almost certainly going to like the EV. But if you don't you'll be able to say "yep, I have one, and here's why they suck." And even while you hate it, it's going to save you a lot of money.

There are no hidden costs here. Cheap used EVs get about 4 miles per KWH in neighborhood driving. They draw about 1.5kw into them on a 120v plug. So overnight, they're going to get a good 50+ miles, which is a lot more than a grocery store trip, or a couple of trips to school to pick up or drop off your kid. You don't need any special wiring, so long as your garage has remotely decent, purely residential electrical. Old cheap EVs all come with a 120v charger, so there's really nothing to buy. (If the previous owner LOST it, it's gonna cost you about $120 to buy a replacement.) Generally speaking, it's buy the car, get it some plates and liability insurance, and you're done.

Go cheap. In the low end, old EVs lose value very slowly. So there's very little risk here.

Everyone looks out their window and thinks that's "most of the planet."

Most of the planet thinks EVs are amazing, because they're cheap, require almost no maintenance, charge with solar panels, and take them the very short distances they currently travel more comfortably than the bus, motorbike, auto-rickshaw, or their feet. Most of the world doesn't drive right now. EVs are way more practical for them than gas cars.

And China is going to eat that whole market, because we're not in a position to compete at all. The closest the West has to competing with China is some EU automakers -- France and eastern Europe.