When I worked in tech the standard thing to do when then competition got the upper hand was to FUD. Spread Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. I see so much of this surrounding EVs these days. The latest ongoing FUD is that it costs more to fill up an EV than a gas ICE car. Not in this universe. Not even close really.

Here is the way it works, apples to apples. The size of your battery is like the size of your gas tank. The cost of electricity is just like the cost of gas. How much does it cost to fill your gas tank? Multiply the size for the tank by the price. A car with a 20 gallon tank filling up with gas at $3 a gallon will take $20 x 3 = $60 to fill up.

Now take an EV with a 75 kWh battery and power at $0.10 kW (the actual top tier here in Austin). 75 x $0.10 = $7.50 to fill up. That’s it. Everything else is a distraction.

In fact, it could be half this much using one of the lower tiers. I can’t fill up my lawnmower with gas for that. Can you pay more for electricity? More than retail? Yes, but you can also pay a lot less. The WaPo takes aim at this, misses and gives voice to FUDders everywhere.

Is it cheaper to refuel your EV battery or gas tank?

Despite the recent success of renewables, or perhaps because of it, the Texas electrical grid keeps coming up with new ways to thwart their ongoing growth. Recently, rules about reliability and “dispatchable” power have been passed. Similarly attempts to limit power line construction that would benefit renewables has been noted. This one seems particularly dangerous, with requirements on existing (renewable) resources that may be difficult to achieve. Anyone else concerned about taking 50 GW of otherwise very inexpensive and reliable power off line when demand is 80 GW?

How a grid rule change could derail Texas renewables

We just had the hottest July on record here in Austin, surpassing last year’s record July. The rest of the country and the world seems to be in a similar situation. Yet I only see lots of disconnected stories about the weather in the media. I suppose we can put the pieces together ourselves, but I can’t say I’ve seen a single chart of historical CO2 levels anywhere in the mainstream news. I did hear on the BBC that the is flooding in China and the Beijing subways are flooded. Over 30 inches of rain in a place that seldom sees significant rainfall.

it is difficult to watch the slow motion foolishness of an entire planet. Even economically the costs of doing something, anything to fight climate change is dwarfed by the costs of doing nothing. How bad does it have to get? I suppose we are finding out.

Heatwave sees hundreds fall ill at World Scout Jamboree in South Korea

Another one from the Honest Broker. American Graffiti was slightly before my time, but I remember some of my friends older brothers had the album. Of course it was the nostalgia model for that TV staple of my youth, Happy Days.

How ‘American Graffiti’ Invented Classic Rock (and Changed My Life)

This morning I was drinking coffee and reading news and heard a loud noise. Couldn’t really identify it or where it came from. Sounded bad, especially on this quiet Sunday morning. I walked around and noticed a very large bird, a hawk, on the ground. He was moving but didn’t look well. We have had other smaller birds crash into our windows, mostly since we cleaned them a few months back, and all but one survived. I was optimistic for Mr Hawk, but alas, he didn’t make it. Sad way to start a Sunday.

In anticipation of moving house (which hasn’t yet happened) we did a large purge of possessions. It was surprising how much “stuff” we had accumulated, and how much of it we never used. I am still surprised at how little we miss these things and how much nicer our uncluttered house is. From The Guardian (UK).

12,795 possessions! Meet the woman who photographed every single thing she owns

From CNBC. Spoiler: worst state is Texas. Surprise: Mississippi not on the list.

America’s 10 worst states to live and work

A repeat posting. Almost a year ago the Reformed Broker made this extraordinary posting about the post-pandemic fight against inflation. Worth the a re-read almost a year later. Are we back to “normal” yet?

You weren’t supposed to see that

I was approaching a stop light in our new (600 miles on the odometer) Tesla Model 3 when all sorts of alarms went off. Everything was disabled, including the regenerative braking. Lots of messages popped up on the screen and I had to hit the brake hard to stop. Messages popped up and the car beeped and I started to worry.

Got it home and found it was a relatively common problem. Except the solutions were all over the map. Some people said it went away on its own, others said a reboot or a camera recalibration. Some swore by a software update. One fellow claimed to smell smoke in this situation. One person reported a required MCU replacement. It has also been record hot here in Texas but the car is garage kept and I assume Teslas operate in even hotter places. But who knows?

Last week we had the windshield wipers coming on sporadically. Again lots of people with this problem, and lots of suggestions. One was that the front camera was dirty and sunlight hitting it at different angles made it think it was raining. I cleaned off a little spot when the front camera was (ok, the car does need a wash) and all was well.

What if all of these other problems were dirty camera lens issues too? All these functions are tied in to the cameras. So I went around with a napkin and cleaned the five other cameras. Seems like it fixed the issue. Not a very graceful failure, disabling everything for a dirty camera lens. I will also note Tesla has moved away from ultrasound (?) distance sensors to camera only. This vision approach does not seem as robust as the old sensors. Am I suppose to trust self driving mode when it can’t even accurately tell me how far the front of the car is from the curb when parking?