12 April

How good is this? Sharing this one not just for the brilliant engineering, but because it illustrates how cars are being reinvented. Cars are moving away from being ‘mechanical’ devices. The basic mechanical drivetrain of an EV can last forever, in car terms, and doesn’t even need maintenance. Now cars are more about software, which add functionality over the air, rather than people needing to go out and buy new models to get the features. You can even use software to tweak the drivetrain. I can pay Tesla to make our Model 3 go from 4.4 seconds 0-100, to 3.8 seconds, with a simple over the air software update. Car enthusiasts say this makes EVs an ‘appliance’. They think that’s hilarious. They don’t think. Appliances just work, without having to pay for constant maintenance and repairs. These appliances are also far more powerful and have more functionality than the combustion vehicles they love. Maybe they mean a great car is one that breaks down all the time, is slow and noisy, and costs a fortune to fuel.