• dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    This horseshit again? Physical product available for independent analysis, or it didn’t happen.

    It’s not like the Chinese are famous for lying about the specs on things they manufacture or anything. Every week we hear about some Chinese company poised to “revolutionize” the EV with pie-in-the-sky range figures and yet the market continues to remain resolutely un-revolutionized.

    And as usual, this article harps on “range” as if that’s not an easily fudged figure. The real numbers we need to see are watts per volume, or watts per mass. And number of charge cycles tolerated, and how many before it loses what percentage of capacity. Any idiot can claim to make a 1,300 mile, 2,000 mile, 5,000 mile, 1,000,000 mile battery pack – just make the pack bigger, or the vehicle lighter, or both. That tells us nothing meaningful whatsoever about the battery chemistry itself. Advertising us what hypothetical ranges someone thinks a pack made of these “could” build is meaningless. We could build a 1300 mile battery pack right now with LiFePo cells if we wanted to, via the simple expedient of filling a dump truck with the things.

    • Crozekiel@lemmy.zip
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      7 months ago

      My guess is it’s just a car with a battery 5 times bigger than their comparison vehicle, can’t do over 30, go up a hill, or pass any safety standards.

      Or it’s fictional.

          • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            That’s because Toyota is trying to put all their eggs in the hydrogen basket. Toyota is the only brand that really has a functional consumer-available hydrogen fuel cell car and I think they’re stuck in sunk cost fallacy mode with that technology.

            • ForgotAboutDre@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              If there was serious investment in green energy. There would be large spikes in power, to have reliable baseline to power the grid. This excess power needs to go somewhere. Hydrogen seems a good solution. It takes free electricity and turns it into a sellable product. One that can be sold at a much higher cost than storing the energy in a battery and selling it back to the grid. It may be able to ease natural gas transitions as well.

              The big issue is no country is taking low carbon power generation seriously. Toyota is assuming governments will be responsible now. EVs are being sold because performance, running cost and individuals environmentally attitude is better. Hydrogen requires governments to change their attitude.

    • billwashere@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Exactly. It’s like an article I saw about some new internet tech that was “X times faster than broadband”. Broadband is a type of transmission using multiple frequency carrier waves to transmit data. It ain’t a speed.

      Wh/kg or yes maybe volume Wh/cm^3…

      The only other thing I’d care about it charge speed. Maybe it doesn’t last as long but I can fully charge in 10 seconds? Yeah I’m interested. Hell I’ve never had a car yet get the estimated miles per gallon on the sticker. It’s all bistromathics as far as I’m concerned.

    • ilmagico@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      The real numbers we need to see are watts per volume, or watts per mass

      You have to chase it down, following the link to electrek.co, but then it says: “the prototype cells house an energy density of 720 Wh/kg”

      (of course, I’m just stating what is claimed, no idea how true)

        • ilmagico@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          You’re right, I didn’t see it! I just saw a bunch of chinese writings, which I cannot read, so didn’t bother trying to read even the only thing I could 😅

          • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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            7 months ago

            Yeah, I’m really sick of the hype train, so that was the only info I looked for. Honestly, I was a little surprised it was that easy to find, and that is still no guarantee it’s accurate.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        7 months ago

        If that’s true, 1300 mile range isn’t the big deal. Going much over 400mi is pointless if we build proper charging infrastructure. Use wh/kg advancements to reduce weight, nor increase range.

        The big thing is that we can build fully electric airplanes with that kind of wh/kg.

        Big if, though. Batteries have been improving by 5-8% per year, and while we’re not close to theoretical limits yet, this would represent an unprecedented leap all at once. That claim needs more to back it up than a press release.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Battery density has been improving steadily for the last three decades.

        Battery costs keep falling while quality rises. As volumes increased, battery costs plummeted and energy density — a key metric of a battery’s quality — rose steadily. Over the past 30 years, battery costs have fallen by a dramatic 99 percent; meanwhile, the density of top-tier cells has risen fivefold

        With regards to anodes, a number of chemistry changes have the potential to improve energy density (watt-hour per kilogram, or Wh/kg). For example, silicon can be used to replace all or some of the graphite in the anode in order to make it lighter and thus increase the energy density. Silicon-doped graphite already entered the market a few years ago, and now around 30% of anodes contain silicon. Another option is innovative lithium metal anodes, which could yield even greater energy density when they become commercially available.

        What’s more, the Chinese market is both the leading producer and consumer of battery technology. So its weird to reflexively doubt that a Chinese firm would release a new higher-efficiency battery design.

        Given that this is a prototype, its entirely unclear if the model is cost-efficient to mass manufacture or efficiently scalable based on available resources. But I’m hard pressed to discount the claim on its face simply because its got “China” in the headline.

        • michaelmrose@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I would instantly discount it based purely on not having third party verification or enough details for a third party to replicate.

          • gian @lemmy.grys.it
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            7 months ago

            I think you are seeing this as racism when it is just some old good skepticism about a country that is famous for faking everything.

            Maybe they really done what they say, or maybe it is just some proof of concept that need to be ported, if possible, to a viable product stage or maybe it is just a fake, we will see.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Its not even like “China” invented a new battery tech. It’s some battery plant in China which is the place where most batteries are created that’s innovated on a design.

            There are battery plants in Atlanta, Georgia and Heide, Germany who are pursuing similar advancements. They just don’t have the money or the manpower equal to their Chinese peers.

  • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    If the company is able to scale this technology large enough for consumer vehicles while keeping prices down, it could easily double the range of the farthest-driving EVs on the road today.

    That’s a big IF. TL;DR: They haven’t developed a means of making this scalable and able to be mass manufactured. Until they do, this is another “revolutionary” battery tech that may or may not actually be used due to cost of production. Most likely in the “not” category.

    If you want to make EVs more popular, make them with Sodium-Ion batteries that are cheaper than ICE vehicles. They’ll sell better as a result.

    Hardly anybody needs an EV with more than 200 miles of range if they’re plugging in each night. Most people’s commute is round-trip sub-50 miles. “Range anxiety” is 95%+ of the time a “problem” that stupid people have for their theoretical future that never actually happens. Most people are impractical idiots.

    • CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      Range anxiety isn’t about your daily commute, it’s about the few times a year road trip you make across multiple states to see family on holidays. Having to stop and charge every 150 miles (as I wouldn’t trust letting it go below 50) sucks if you’re trying to go 500+ miles. Owning a gas car taking up space in your garage and costing you taxes and registration just to use a handful of times a year is wasteful. Renting a car is an option, but it’s cumbersome and if you plan to stay a while, expensive. I would not want an EV with less than 300 miles range. You have to factor in worst case scenarios as well, sometimes it gets dreadfully cold and windy in the winter. When it’s -10F and the wind is howling you’re cranking the (usually resistive) heat and driving head first into the wind kills your efficiency. These are real scenarios I have had to drive in my current car (Volt, so plug in hybrid) and my battery range can be halved (from 35+ miles under 20) in these worst case scenarios, but at least I can fall back on gas. I want to go EV for my next car but if I can’t reliably make it to and from my parents’ house 300 miles away on a bad winter’s Christmas break then it’s just not a feasible option yet, even if my drive to work is maybe 15 miles round trip. Also, charging station density is an issue. I would need to go half way to their house, 150 miles, to reach a charging station. You can’t just stop anywhere to recharge if you have a low range EV.

      • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
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        7 months ago

        id argue that renting a car might be less expensive. your argument doesnt consider the cost it takes to replace your tires often (the heavier your vehicle, the more often you have to replace the tires), which for some EVs already, is a pretty significant cost.

        buying something for something youll use less than 1% of the time is a terrible monetary decision. its like the people who buy big trucks with high torque, when more than 60% of these truck buyers have never towed something.

        These are real scenarios I have had to drive in my current car (Volt, so plug in hybrid) and my battery range can be halved (from 35+ miles under 20)

        this is a problem specific to lithium ion batteries. salt ion batteries and some other batteries that are being considered do not have that problem.

        • CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          How do sodium ion batteries help here? Driving into the wind and running your electric heater at full blast aren’t a battery issue, it’s just an unavoidable increase in power consumption that you need the extra capacity to deal with.

          • Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip
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            7 months ago

            you dont get the condition of having your battery level halved due to cold weather, nor have the battery on an “always on” state because lion battery’s only operate at a certain temperature range. theres a lot of losses on cold weather caused by the use of lithium ion batteries in general.

            just because battery capacities on cars should go down doesnt mean cars wont offer a “long range” option for users if they need it (tesla for example litterally does), its just the everyday one needs to go down. having extended range on all cars is a solution to a problem that affects the 1% situation, and is impractical to apply the fix to the general fleet.

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Hardly anybody needs an EV with more than 200 miles of range if they’re plugging in each night.

      Speaking of big IFs. Not everybody lives where a charger is convenient or can have one installed in their residence.

      • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Most people have the option of plugging in where they live and/or work. The only argument would be for apartment complexes. Townhouses, single family homes, etc. are easy to switch to electric.

    • Gregorech@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Range anxiety is in the what if scenario, can I go from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on one charge, batteries need to last longer and be cheaper or charge quicker. being universal and swappable wouldalso work.

      • Petter1@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Lol, that’s only 500km, there are many EVs capable to drive this in one sitting, but to be honest, a 15min charge and eat break would be great for every driver in a 4h ride.

    • qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website
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      7 months ago

      We’re considering a new car (current car is an old econobox that’s been to the moon), and range anxiety does factor in for the “weekend adventure” use case. We live in CA, and something like a trip to Yosemite or Tahoe requires refuelling/charging. But these places can get inundated with weekend warriors (like us!), who are all on the same schedule. We’ve had friends who have had stressful incidents e.g. charging in Yosemite valley, or on the way back from Tahoe. Add a toddler in the mix and it gets even less fun.

      Not insurmountable, but infrastructure and timing are still not as good as for dinosaur blood.

      For 95% of the time though yeah — commuting, single-day adventures, or bopping around the city would be no problem at all.

    • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      Exactly. Give me something with 150 miles range and a relatively inexpensive battery (like $3k?) and I’ll replace my commuter.

      I need 500 miles range to replace our family car though since we do road trips with it, and frequently go 400 miles between stops.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          Yup, I have a regular hybrid for my commuter and an ICE for our family car, but I’m hoping to switch the commuter to EV and the family car to a plug-in hybrid. That way we’d only really use gas when going on longer trips.

          But PHEVs are expensive right now, so I’m watching the market. I do need to upgrade at least one of them though.

    • ryrybang@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Ha, why was this downvoted? Sketchy website “reports” proprietary Chinese research firm’s accomplishment by rehashing the firm’s press release about an unbelievable claim with no other evidence. This got more red flags than the beach before a hurricane.

      At best, this is something they actually did approximate in some kind of lab setting that might be years and years away from being some kind of marketable product.

      The (translated) press release even has a stench all on its own:

      It is expected to fundamentally solve the battery life and safety anxiety of traditional lithium-ion batteries.

  • Gingerlegs@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    For some reason this reminds me of a cheap Chinese knockoff rotary tool I got from Amazon which the instructions said: “use until loud bang and smoke. Then replace.”

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Take EVs out of the equation and the ramifications of this tech (or Toyota’s) is huge, if true.

    Imagine an electric wheelchair you only had to charge monthly, or that could run on one charge effectively forever.

    • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      First they need Toyota to test their chemistry and develop their battery production system…it’s part of the way Chinese companies develop technology.

      If Toyota can do it, China will too! A win-win!

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        Funny how that works…

        China is always just behind the west (or Japan in this case)… And never ahead. I wonder why that could be?

        • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          It’s the development time 🙂. For example the new generation microchips. You know the US has them and Taiwan makes them. China is currently developing the technology. They got all their technology development partners out in the US and Taiwan working hard to develop all the little details.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Over the past 30 years, battery costs have fallen by a dramatic 99 percent; meanwhile, the density of top-tier cells has risen fivefold

      • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        We’ve gone from the most reliable battery being an alkaline through 3 different rechargeable technologies as well. Too bad that research never pans out…

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Too bad that research never pans out…

          That’s not true

          Better performance in driving electronics and huge money saving are the two major reasons to buy NiMH (Nickel metal Hydride) rechargeable batteries. They can be charged up to 500-1000 times and last longer than alkaline or NiCd batteries. NiMH batteries are ideally compatible with most consumer devices such as digital cameras, game boys, CD players, RC vehicles, PDA’s, portable two-way radios, flash units and many more high drain devices. One set of relatively inexpensive NiMH rechargeable batteries can save you from buying thousands if throwaway alkaline batteries.

    • femtech@midwest.social
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      7 months ago

      Need battery space also SUVs/crossove s hold more people. And EV busses will be great as well.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        Why do you need it to hold more people when most trips are with one or two people? Also, most families tend to have two cars, so they don’t need both to be big.

        Also, most SUVs hold the same as a sedan: 5 people. And they don’t hold more stuff, generally speaking, because they lose so much space being higher up. If you want to carry more people, look at minivans.

        People buy SUVs because they’re higher up, not because they’re better at much of anything.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            7 months ago

            I have three, so I think I can definitively say an SUV is not necessary with kids. We had a Prius until the third one came along, then we got a minivan, but only because my brother was getting rid of his. We now want to downsize because we rarely have more than just us in it, but it’s frustrating because many of the SUVs have less storage space than our Prius.

            I wish station wagons were still a thing, specially if it has jump seats. Everything with a similar amount of space is absolutely massive.

  • ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social
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    7 months ago

    It seems like this vehicle comes with (as far as I know) the first solid state battery in a commercial vehicle which is HUGE news if true! I’m slightly skeptical because of this claim coming from the Chinese government, but who knows, it would be a huge boon for all of humanity if they’ve figured out solid state batteries.

    The huge benefits we’ll all see are increased capacity so batteries last longer, and INSANELY fast charge times. You could recharge your car to 100% in the same time as it takes to fill it up with gas currently.

      • weew@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        At this point China is more reputable than Toyota when it comes to battery technology.

        Toyota has been promising solid state tech “within 5 years” for the past 15 years.

        Whereas Chinese companies like CATL and BYD basically make an announcement and then ship products within a year.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          So I guess we’ll see if they ship solid state batteries within a year. That’s the promise here, and I’ll believe it when I see it. Just like with Toyota.

  • calabast@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    If we just attached a generator to the battery industry, all these revolutions would solve our energy needs!

  • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    A couple of years ago I saw an article on Toyota inventing something called solid state battery’s… Never heard anything about that again.

    • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      So I went to my search engine of choice, typed in solid state battery, set the time range to 1 month, went to the news tab, and this is the first link. 2 days old.

      Just because no one went out of their way to remind you that researchers are continuing their research doesn’t mean they stopped doing it. And when the bar is this low to satisfy your curiosity, it really is on you. It would have taken less time to get the highlights than it would to post your comment.

      • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        You went on google and found an article indicating LG is still trying to develop solid state batteries.

        Here an article I googled about a cure for cancer.

        Congratulations on your ability to find things to confirm your bias on google. You’ve just entered the same arena creationists and flat earthers plow around in.

        Not to mention the article you provided was nothing more than “LG is researching solid state batteries” with no supplementary information and feels like it was generated by an AI.

        It’s the internet doofus. People generate articles about anything and everything as long as someone will click on it. Just make sure you also click on the ads as well.

        • YungOnions@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          A couple of years ago I saw an article on Toyota inventing something called solid state battery’s… Never heard anything about that again.

          the article you provided was nothing more than “LG is researching solid state batteries

        • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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          7 months ago

          Sorry, I forgot that some people say quaint little phrases like “never heard about them again” to mean “still haven’t seen a product released to market.” I also don’t live in a world where companies start multi-billion dollar partnerships with no belief that the corporations will get a return on that investment.

          • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Sorry, I forgot to say that some people forgot what confirmation bias is.

            That’s all those articles talk about, how they’re going to research this and that. Millions of internet articles are generated every day. They use AI to make them now.

            Of course solid state batteries are a topic of research, people are talking about them all the time. And nothing ever comes of it. Same with “the cure for cancer” or “room temperature super conductors”

            Are you not understanding what I’m eluding to? Or are you intentionally acting obtuse to trigger me?

            • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
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              7 months ago

              Then I’ll go to the basics. This which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. You made your assertion, I provided evidence. You dismissed it with “Well, everybody knows.” And yet, new discoveries are made all the time, research continues apace, and technology advances. Believe what you will. Your faith, or mine, makes no difference.

              Edit: I’m so sorry, I forgot to read a little further for you in my search the first time. Nissan is building a factory and plans on having their first batteries produced in 2025. That’s just one article I saw about it, there were others. My apologies if you find this triggering, as well.

        • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
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          7 months ago

          Is this how you speak to people?

          If you do that in person you must get punched a lot my guy.

          Have some self respect and be respectful to others. Jesus Christ it’s not hard.

          • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            What? Yes. This is how I speak to people in the real world. No, I’ve never been punched in the face.

            I’m simply assertive and avoid foofy wowo language to make people feel more comfortable with my hard opinions.

            I could careless about one’s comfort or offense level. Yours of which are apparently quite high. Which, as I just stated I could careless about.

            And let’s not be hypocritical you wouldn’t say what you said to me just now to my face if we met at a bar. So let’s not get all high and mighty.

              • mechoman444@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                Actually. That’s kinda crazy. I live just a mile away from Whitworth Park.

                I’ll be in front of the lidl tomorrow at 3pm asshole. Let’s do this!

                • dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  7 months ago

                  Haha that’s actually wild.

                  You not around today? I’m on the met at Queens Road.

                  I’m not finna fucking fight you bro. We can have a talk, see why you’re so rude on here. See if we can’t find some common ground.

    • dual_sport_dork 🐧🗡️@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Lapped by what? Vaporware? Oh, yeah. If we Americans don’t get all our liars organized we’ll never be as good as the Chinese at playing make-believe.

      This article is an ad. This thing being described is not actually a product; it does not meaningfully actually exist. It is installed in zero vehicles, and the manufacturer’s claims are completely unverified and, probably, unverifiable. It’s not real. These kinds of press releases get posted all the time. The company is just simping for investor money, that’s all.