Ouch: “I couldn’t wait to get out of it.”
And How Was Your Day?
I, For One, Welcome Our New Self-Driving Overlords
Chevrolet of Watsonville in California upgraded their website chatbot with ChatGPT;
The dealer’s decision to out the AI-driven tech to use like this is not a wholly unique choice, as plenty of dealers have some form of virtual service harassing helping people who are shopping for a car online. However, the tech working behind the scenes in this particular scenario did not put enough guardrails in place to prevent conversations with ChatGPT from taking strange (and potentially) expensive turns.
Off the hop, one user was easily able to force the chatbot into agreeing to the sale of a 2024 Chevy Tahoe for the princely sum of one dollar. Wrangling this Price Is Right bid took nothing more than instructing the chat service to reply in a certain manner to all future inquiries — including asking it to sell a brand-new SUV for the price of penny candy.
It also recommended a Ford F-150.
We Don’t Need No Frozen Sparky Cars
A rare sighting: Global News reports on the renewable freeze-up in Alberta
Meanwhile, they’re idling in Washington…
Another brick sighted.
We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Buses
Daily Mail: Officials today launched an investigation after one of Sadiq Khan’s electric buses exploded during today’s rush hour.
We Don’t Need No Blazin’ Sparky Cars
General Motors has issued a stop-sale order for the all-electric Chevrolet Blazer. As previously reported, the model has been criticized for presenting reviewers with electrical problems. That’s not what you want to see from any vehicle and absolutely intolerable on an EV. Even worse is the fact that the Blazer EV uses the Ultium platform GM claims is about to underpin its future lineup.[…]
The Fast Lane Truck noted electrical problems with the GMC Hummer that made it un-drivable, requiring help from the dealership and a software flash. Meanwhile, both Edmunds and InsideEVs recounted similar problems with the Chevy Blazer EV.
Automotive News reported the stop-sale order was issued late on Friday, when people would be preoccupied with the holiday weekend. “We’re aware that a limited number of customers have experienced software-related quality issues with their Blazer EV. Customer satisfaction is our priority and as such, we will take a brief pause on new deliveries,” stated Global VP of Chevrolet Scott Bell.
Those “quality issues” included repeat crashing of infotainment systems and problems charging. InsideEVs said it received feedback from readers claiming that they had likewise endured issues with Ultium-based products — including the Chevrolet Blazer EV, GMC Hummer, and Cadillac Lyriq.
Related: “When you’re dealing with a family emergency, the last thing you should have to worry about is your relatively new vehicle,”
Greatest Toy Of All Time
We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars
A second IONIQ 5 owner in eastern Canada also has a battery protection cover scratched, the owner was also told the battery needed to be replace for more than the cost of a brand new Hyundai IONIQ 5.
Judge Loretta A. Preska Didn’t Kill Herself
Dozens of Jeffrey Epstein’s high profile associates are in for a New Year’s surprise as they will be named in court documents set to be released in the first days of 2024.
The pedophile’s powerful friends are set to be exposed as part of a vast unsealing that a judge ordered on Monday will take place in 14 days.
That will take the release day to January 1 – but as that is a holiday it is likely the files will be made public the following day.
We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars
Riding Mass Transit Is Like Inviting 30 Random Hitchhikers Into Your Car
And then the car won’t start.
Toronto’s disastrous public transit project known as the Eglinton Crosstown LRT stands as a warning to other cities across Canada to run screaming in the other direction when any politician at any level of government tries to sell you on the joys of so-called light rail transit.
Toronto’s disastrous public transit project known as the Eglinton Crosstown LRT stands as a warning to other cities across Canada to run screaming in the other direction when any politician at any level of government tries to sell you on the joys of so-called light rail transit.[…]
Greenhouse gas emissions would be drastically reduced, we were assured, as thousands of commuters would happily abandon their cars for the convenience of whisking along the designated route of the LRT, free of the city’s chronic traffic congestion and gridlock.
Reality turned out to be years of increased congestion and gridlock at major intersections as construction of the LRT divided the city in half, with those living and working south and north of Eglinton Ave. — a major east–west arterial road in Toronto — having to factor in dramatically increased travel times just to cross Eglinton.
Numerous small businesses along the route folded as the construction choked off access to their customers, combined with the additional financial burden of the pandemic.
Halt construction, park the railcars and convert the mess directly to tent city for homeless druggies and thereby skip the painful middle stage during which innocent commuters are exposed to the risks.
We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars
In whole, or in part.
An Arizona car owner says he was shocked when he heard how much it would cost to replace a battery in his hybrid vehicle.
Lucas Turner told KPHO that he recently took his 2014 Infiniti hybrid to a dealership for a check engine light.
He said he knew something was wrong but wasn’t expecting it to be this bad.
“They told me that I need a new hybrid battery and it’s going to cost $18,000 for the battery and another $2,000 to have it installed,” Turner said.
From The River To The Sea
From the sea, to the swimming pool.
More: Beach whales.
Oh no! Harvard president Claudine Gay’s career opportunity has been withdrawn.
We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars
… has taken on a whole new meaning when new electric vehicle owners get their first repair bill following a simple fender bender. The Wall Street Journal reports that a San Francisco resident got in a minor accident with his electric truck. He thought that repairs would be “a couple-thousand-dollar bill from the repair shop and to be without his truck for a couple of weeks.”
AdvertisementInstead, the first-time EV owner was shocked to get a $22,000 bill for repairs that took 2 1/2 months.
The Biden administration has a goal to have 50% of all new cars on the road in 2030 be electric vehicles. That’s about 48 million cars and trucks. Owners are going to need chargers on the road, mechanics to service them, and parts to repair their vehicles.
@SullyCNBC: It’s one reason – along with low resale – that Europe’s biggest car rental company just dumped em
This Is My Brother Muhammad, And This Is My Other Brother Muhammad
We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars
The CBC, always the last to know.
Electric vehicles have proved far less reliable, on average, than gasoline-powered cars, trucks and SUVs, according to the latest survey by Consumer Reports, which found that EVs from the 2021 through 2023 model years encountered nearly 80 per cent more problems than did vehicles propelled by internal combustion engines.
Consumer Reports said EV owners most frequently reported troubles with battery and charging systems as well as flaws in how the vehicles’ body panels and interior parts fit together. The magazine and website noted that EV manufacturers are still learning to construct completely new power systems, and it suggested that as they do, the overall reliability of electric vehicles should improve.
As the stupid rich people market nears saturation…
The growth of electric vehicle sales has slowed sharply since last year. In June 2022, EV sales were growing about 90 per cent year over year. By June of this year the 12-month growth rate had slowed to about 50 per cent, and automakers have become increasingly fearful that the pace will weaken further.
We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars
Ford Scales Back Michigan Battery Plant Investments
Expect to see media outlets bashing Ford for scaling back EV investments in the near term. You’ll also probably notice the stock market reacting unfavorably to the news for a time. In fact we saw the brand’s valuation slip a bit almost immediately after the two announcements were made. But Ford actually seems to be making the correct choice for itself here, even if Wall Street is blind to the fact. The automaker’s electric vehicle division is projected to lose $4.5 billion by the end of 2023 and wastes an estimated $36,000 on every EV it currently sells.
We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars
We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Bricks
Three-quarters of the city’s 60-bus electric fleet is in the garage with poor immediate prospects for parts to fix them.
Proterra, the American company the city purchased the electric buses from between 2019-2022, is in Chapter 11 filing for bankruptcy protection. Edmonton’s on a list of creditors, seeking $1.3 million and fulfillment of service and warranties. […]
While the website touts mileage up to 340 km on a charge, on Edmonton streets the stylish bus is a sluggish employee. It has a range of up to 117 km, which gets it on the streets from 5 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. before it has to hit the charger, and then gets back out from 2:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
The Flying Spur
Should have taken the Beetle: The Simulation strikes again.