Lol I believe it would be rapid uncontrolled oxidation

To be fair, it could have fully driven itself into the train: “fully self driving” <> “fully safe driving” /s

Umm that’s donuts if they’re from Dunkin’ 😜

I’m not sure where that number came from but according to Wikipedia the conversion from momentum to electricity loses 10-20% and the conversion from electricity to battery storage is another 10-20% leaving a theoretical recovery at 60-70%. In real world tests, Teslas recovered 20-32% range with regenerative braking, a far cry from 2-5% you cite. https://electrek.co/2018/04/24/regenerative-braking-how-it-works/

Idle losses are real but not very substantial in a modern engine compared to the bigger factor you’re missing which is that in city driving tests there is a lot of speeding up and slowing down, ICE vehicles throw away all the energy used to slow down as heat in the brakes which makes city cycles particularly inefficient while an EV captures that energy through regenerative braking, dramatically reducing the net cost of those momentum changes.

It’s the New York Post, temperature would be a chilly 45F for their American audience

I was gonna say this is a sad day, but that’s just nostalgia for a time that’s passed. I grew up reading and loving Popular Science, my dad always has a subscription and I would read it cover to cover usually the day it came in the mail. I let my own print subscription lapse years ago, tried a few different versions of digital magazines (anyone remember zinio?), but today it’s just websites like arstechnica and the verge that have become the focus.

I still value the articles I come across online but the print edition is just a warm memory at this point to me so I can’t expect them to keep a business going on that.

Observing and learning from the natural world is in no way dumb, it is extreme hubris to think we humans are so smart that we don’t have to listen to nature. Or that society gets to be somehow outside of nature. It is that kind of logic that got us global warming, obesity & diabetes epidemic, big pharma, and loss of traditional knowledge and wisdom. If I see a momma holding her cub by the nape of the neck my first thought isn’t going to be that I know better how to care for her young.