By Jo Nova
Nobody mentioned the nausea
The planet-saving cars that are being forced upon us have another catch — they might make you vomit. Apparently, motion sickness is “a thing” for EV’s, not that our public broadcaster would mention it in the regular adverts they run to tell us how wonderful EV’s are “with ridiculous savings!”. Apparently the silent sudden acceleration of an EV is leaving some stomachs in a lurch — and some adults, kids and even dogs are throwing up.
‘I need a solution fast’: Electric car owners complain of motion sickness
Zane Dobie, Drive
Another user said: “I drive in an electric vehicle a lot, and I’ve found that regenerative braking absolutely makes me motion sick. I’m not always driving, so I don’t always have control of how it’s being driven, so other people’s driving really makes me sick… I really need to find a solution fast”.
Some drivers also reported their electric cars making their pets sick too. “Since [buying] the Tesla, [my dog] throws up in it almost every time…”
The theory is that EV’s are too quiet, too fast, and have too few cues to warn our insides to prepare for motion. But who knows, perhaps sitting inside a giant electromagnetic field triggers a queasy feeling too?
Shhh!
The problem (that no one mentioned in public) is apparently already so well known in the industry that car manufacturers are researching ways to reduce it. (Where are our journalists?)
Solutions include driving the car more like a combustion engine car and switching down the regenerative braking, both of which reduce the range of the EV (o’ the irony).
Manufacturers like Honda are looking to squash carsickness by revising their power mapping for a smoother ride at low speeds. Honda is on the case with its e:Ny1 (which is not available in Australia at this time) by changing their throttle map to emulate an acceleration similar to an ICE vehicle.
Adding that feeling of throttle lag that you get from internal combustion vehicles will help ease discomfort for those who aren’t used to the immediate torque of an EV, likely at the cost of some performance.
Hyundai is even adding fake engine noises to mimic normal cars.
Other brands, like Hyundai with the Ioniq 5 N, are adding fake engine sounds that are linked to the pedal on their EVs and even adding fake flappy paddles that mimic gear changes. While this is just a bit of fun for the owners, it could actually help combat some of the motion sickness felt in an EV.
This story is more about the media than about EVs. It’s hard to know how serious this problem is (where are those studies?). Perhaps it only affects a small percent of the population. But whatever it is, we know it’s worse than our normal cars. If there was any evidence that EV’s reduced motion-sickness by even 2%, the ABC and BBC would make it prime time news.
If 25-30% of all people are susceptible to motion sickness in traditional cars and if EVs exacerbate that sensation, the sick feeling could affect a lot of people.
On Geoff Buys Cars, @JamesSmith-qs4hx says:
EVs make me sick – and I don’t even own one 🤮🤮🤮
h/t Troy.
Image by 2690457
Having being enclosed in a huge field of battery radiation certainly doesn’t help.
The big stink about cell phone battery by your head was the narrative before.
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With phones, it is not the DC field, such as it is, from the battery, but the radio-frequency at which the phone signals are transmitted and received(800MHz and upwards). This is a fair way below the operating frequency of your average microwave oven and many orders of magnitude lower radiated power than the “TV that cooks”
I do not know for sure, but I guess that the juice fed to the motor(s) in EVs is essentially pulse-width modulated DC, with the modulation frequency being probably in the low Kilohertz range at max.
Regenerative braking basically involves re-configuring the motor(s) as a “generator” and using the “battery” as a “load” when braking is required. This is common practice on electrified rail systems, where EVERYTHING is bigger.
A rudimentary pass with RF analysis gear will sort out what is going on, if anything.
Generally, “motion sickness” is the result of the eyes seeing one thing and the balance “circuits” in the ears registering something different and the entire body getting a different vibe. Perhaps like the body’s reaction to a dodgy bit of food. Confusion, uncertainty, “bad-vibes”? open the sluices and get rid of it!
There may be another “issue”. The human body and brain is somewhat sensitive to “infra-sound”, especially in the region of seven Hz.. This is known to induce nausea and confusion if it is loud enough and especially if sustained. Being “infra-sound”, it is NOT perceptible as “sound” to your basic human. Elephants can hear it over significant distances. Those big ears do a lot more than act as handy “radiators” of body heat Infra-sound is detectable using lab-grade instrumentation microphones. These can detect acoustic activity down below One Hz. You also need serious low-noise amplification and other expensive toys.
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My neighbour has several EV’s including a BMW i3 and a new Volvo; and of those cars, only doesn’t make me feel ill when travelling. The Volvo has quite startling acceleration and it both affected my neck and made me feel nauseous; I won’t ride in or drive the Volvo again. The BMW i3 doesn’t affect me in that way, but it is the oldest and least powerful of his electric cars.
I was recently a passenger in a new Tesla when staying in Los Angeles, and it made me feel ill as well.
So I can personally attest that this is a real issue for some people; and it alone is a sufficient reason for me to reject an EV (not that I have ever considered buying one).
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Brett,
Here is a couple in the UK that are also sick of EVs but for a different reason!
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2024/03/18/unhappy-tesla-owner/
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That was a good read Col.
A real world experience of owning an EV, warts and all.
It won’t change the minds of the true believers though.
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They are in Canada, but it took a while to work out!
60
The charging noise comment in the article is interesting.
I often walk past a two bay charging facility.
It is in a quiet location and if the surrounding background noise is low a high pitch squeal is quite noticeable to my ears if there is a car in there charging.
I don’t know what dogs think of it
100
EV car sickness is caused by improperly calibrated suspensions and lack of hub air space to fix same. They haul two ton of batteries. It is a known, common problem for EVs. Get less batteries and more hub space and miraculously it can be fixed.
Full EVs are a fad. We will go back to IC engines or hybrids with synthetic liquid fuels.
81
Does Henry Ford have a descendant?
00
I wonder what the EV stalwarts have to say about this unpopular feature.
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It’s complete and utter bollocks. Regen breaking is far smoother than a lead footed ICE driver on the brake pedal. Mine has an auto regen mode that decelerates only as much as necessary to match the speed of the vehicle in front.
I can see how the extra acceleration might make some carsick. It is very frustrating being stuck behind an ICE as the vehicle goes through gear changes with a comical lack of torque.
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Simon says:
Classic Leftist hypocrisy.
It has always been Leftists who mocked ICE car owners who owned V8s claiming that all that “unnecessary” power was to compensate for the supposed insecurities of heterosexual white males.
Philip at #21 made a similar observation.
Now the Left boast about all the power at their command in EVs and the lack of power in ICE vehicles.
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I doubt anyone would call Elon Musk “Leftist”. You left/right dichotomy makes no sense, unless “Rightist” means conservative and resistant to change.
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EVs also need fake engine noise to alert pedestrians to their immediate presence. Although most younger peds walk around listening to music and Farcebook via headphones so they wouldn’t hear an ICE either
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I believe that the requirement for EVs to make fake engine noises to alert pedestrians has been the law in Japan for some time.
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You would appreciate it if you found an EV behind you, as I did when cycling on cobbled streets in Amsterdam. Absolutely silent and deadly on rubber tyres of course. They need to make a noise for everyone’s sake, including the EV driver.
140
Does an EV come with a sick bag or several sick bags then just like on a commercial airplane?
Happy Friday everyone.
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The scientific consensus is that this will not happen if your diet consist primarily of insect protein.
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The idea that we should eat insects really bugs me.
180
Have you tried the McBugger from Maccas?
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Does that come with flies?
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Only in Japan
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Everytime I see a Tesla I feel like throwing up…my God they are an ugly, ungainly looking car. I can also believe that some people would be prone to motion sickness in them.
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What modern cars aren’t ugly? I can’t even tell them apart anymore. Maybe top line cars look ok, but the normal people ones are like a loaf of hi-fiber white bread.
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Well EVs really make me sick every time I listen to their ABC and their BS and nonsense and I will never buy one of these TOXIC disasters ever.
But I worry about kids and young people who walk around with songs etc howling through headphones and seem to be unconcerned or connected to the real world.
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You listen to their ABC?
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Philip, early in the morning and some updates to quickly catch up to their BS and fraud.
And Macca on Sunday until Outsiders starts at 9 am on Sky News.
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Exactly. I listen to it in the car so I can see what they’re doing to society.
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Neville and Kalm Keith, thank you for listening to Their ABC so we don’t have to.
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Hi David,
I listen to it for the same reason I look over my shoulder if I hear something behind me.
Self preservation.
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I can’t bring myself to anymore.
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EVs make me sick and I don’t even have one. What makes it worse is that the whole reason for an electric car is based on the lie that CO2 is somehow dangerous. Where are the scientists that know that it is a lie but keep quiet? They can’t all be waiting for a grant to show that ice cubes melt faster when left in the sun.
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“…ice cubes melt faster when left in the sun.”
Really? No! 🤣
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Oh no! that will lead to catastrophic, unprecedented sea level rise as well!
50
There are several other reasons EVs are a useful step towards a better urban transport system.
Air quality, noise, automation ( “Robotaxi’s ?), etc.
“Horses for courses” , should be the approach.
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Just so you know that the Texas Schools Fund has withdrawn $8.5 billion from Blackrock. No point in investing in an outfit that wants to shut down Texas oil and gas assets.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770619911036870818
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Apart from Tesla US auto makers have basically stopped making EVs since most consumers do not want them and neither do most dealers
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CO2 Lover,
I suspect that Elon bought Twitter(X) as he could see what was coming regarding Tesla . How long before lithium powered houses and cars become an expensive liability ? He is currently attempting to monetise X by making it a subscription-based app . Reality can only be ignored for so long before it bites .
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Tesla has no alternative to resort to,…
..and they are a large source of revenue from the carbon offset certificates !
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“…they are a large source of revenue from the carbon offset certificates ! “, only for now, I hope.
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Some of the Left are already calling for “climate change denial” (sic) to be made illegal (see links below).
How long before reports of any measures to pretend to fight pretend “climate change” such as EVs making people sick or the horrors of being forced to eat insects or the environmental and economic devastation of wind and solar plantations are also rendered illegal?
https://theoutline.com/post/2202/climate-change-denial-should-be-a-crime
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/tiktok-moves-to-ban-climate-change-denial-content/648140/
https://esperanzaproject.com/2021/climate-change/should-climate-denial-be-illegal/
https://marketbusinessnews.com/climate-change-denial-may-become-illegal/108360/
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/climate-deniers-face-justice
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This shouldn’t affect most anti-CAGW proponents as we have never denied that climate changes, only the cause.
Of course, the definition of ‘climate change denial’ will be one that satisfies their desire to incarcerate us for disagreeing with ‘the science’.
170
Be prepared for the new “Dark Ages
Another religion is taking over.
150
Dark Ages if you’re lucky. Must of these people ‘think’ that arctic sea ice melting would raise the sea level, so the scientific knowledge predates Archimedes over 2,200 years ago and (roughly) the time Stonehenge was built. Nor would they grasp that the climate was warmer than now despite the CO2 level being much lower than today.
Indeed most of them want to switch society back, way back to the time when the serfs believed that the Gods controlled the weather and disasters could only be avoided by payments to the priests. So we have following their beliefs we have nutters clad in weatherproof articles made by petroleum shouting Just Stop Oil. Let them return by foot or animal cart to their home in a mud hut or cave, where they can grind out the miserable diet they espouse. Their lives will be “Nasty, Brutish, and Short” and nothing will be left to remind survivors of their madness. At least Stonehenge has survived.
20
The Tesla centre touch screen is unsafe
A laptop with wheels and not a proper car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2goaglM2Wiw&ab_channel=CNBC
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Where’s the speedometer.
20
Two electric car owners were seen today fighting over a charging port.
The police have said it was a charged environment and they will amp up patrols around area. A lot of witnesses were shocked and some saw someone socket to the other.
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I heard they got 7 days in a dry cell.
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Assault and battery??
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Right up there with wind farms lol
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Wind plantations do indeed make susceptible people sick due to infrasound pollution and shadow flicker.
The mere fact that Leftist sources including “fact checkers” (sic) have spent so much effort denying it, suggests it’s true.
https://stopthesethings.com/2019/05/07/far-out-german-study-finds-pulsing-wind-farm-infrasound-20-kilometres-from-turbines/
https://stopthesethings.com/2017/04/30/wind-farm-victims-smoking-gun-german-research-reveals-infrasound-exposure-causes-stress-sleep-disruption-more/
Wind Farm Victim’s Smoking Gun: German Research Reveals Infrasound Exposure Causes Stress, Sleep Disruption & More
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“fact checkers” (sick) ???
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“Waubra syndrome” – named after one of the first really big wind installations in Victoria.
30
They make some people sick too.
40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Yo4LpksWM&t=39s
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Don’t you just love computer controlled vehicles?
NOT ME, but.
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My EK Holden’s computer is located between my ears. Hopefully not susceptible to wayward viruses…….
00
Durkin’s new “Climate the Movie” is available to watch at this link.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/20/climate-the-movie-watch-here/
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If you follow the link to vimeo there, it’s downloadable in several qualities and sizes
40
Great movie. My problem with it is that Will Happer believes the CO2 increase is man made. He told me so. Peter Ridd agrees.
His comment in the movie is that we do not have enough fossil fuel to lift CO2 further and get more benefits. What?
So he feeds the man made carbon dioxide myth deliberately but argues that on balance CO2 is good, the gas of life.
Great except that it is not an argument against massive carbon dioxide (toxic) emissions taxes, electric cars and windmills and solar panels. His approach, wrongly conceding the essential argument that the CO2 increase is man made is not only wrong, it is a strategic disaster.
The CO2 increase is not man made. There is only 3.0% of fossil fuel CO2 in atmospheric CO2. We cannot change CO2 if we tried. But this movie effectively endorses carbon sequestration, carbon farming, carbon taxes, renewables.
It concedes incorrectly that we humans are indeed carbon dioxide polluters and you open the doors wide for government intervention.
But they don’t listen. Which is a shame.
There is only one foundation point to win in Rational science. Win that point and everything else is irrelevant. And it’s the point they concede implicitly and explicitly. Man made CO2 is a lie.
What a shame! It’s a great movie. Good graphics. Voice over. Balance. Everything. Even Clauser’s Nobel Prize. But it cedes ground disastrously in a conciliatory and misguided way. The increase in CO2 is not man made. We have known this since the birth of radio carbon dating in 1958 when fossil fuel CO2 was measured at 2.08%+/-0.15% after two world wars.
Humans cannot change CO2. There is a rapid world wide equilibrium of CO2 with the oceans, a simple fact of physical chemistry. And humans, trees, fossil fuels are irrelevant.
I am so disappointed.
50
One of the reasons the Left are pushing EVs is because they can be used to control your mobility much more so than ICE vehicles. E.g. they can control where, when or if you charge (through smart grids and each EV having to identify itself at charging time*) and in Australia, how many charging stations are or will be in remote areas? It means you will be stuck with a certain radius around major population centres.
* https://iapp.org/news/a/electric-vehicle-charging-stations-may-be-a-privacy-risk/
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Most green minded people complain about the technology in their lives, that laptops give you testicular cancer, the whole Ted Kazinski(?) thing, etc etc. But when it comes to sitting on an enormous battery for hours upon hours, no problem apparently.
I even have a hippy minded friend who still loathes dishwashers and frowns upon their ownership as an evil capitalist luxury that destroys your soul.
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Most “green-minded” (sic) people are fundamentally against the great abundance of material wealth (and to most people, happiness) that capitalism provides.
They revere primitive lifestyles of native peoples which is why Green-Left policies always prevent them from progressing e.g. despite billions of dollars spent on Aborigines or in Africa, little to no progress is ever made.
In Africa for example, the World Bank will only fund “renewables” not coal or gas power stations.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/powering-up-western-and-central-africa
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Luckily there is China to step in
Shining a Light on China’s Support for Power Plants in Belt and Road Initiative Countries in Africa and Asia
https://chinaglobalsouth.com/analysis/shining-a-light-on-chinas-support-for-power-plants-in-belt-and-road-initiative-countries-in-africa-and-asia/
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EV Utes?
The three top selling cars in Australia are all ICE Utes
Will there be a demand for EV utes? Are tradies into virtue signalling?
https://www.ldvautomotive.com.au/vehicles/ldv-et60/#:
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i actually need a 4WD ute, use the 4WD daily to get over wet clay paddocks and mud holes on tracks, my work would be impossible without it. I carry a diesel tank and a chemical spray unit on the back. It does annoy me that I am now the target of Chris Bowen’s year 12 female mind, which is brought on by the plethora of urban dwelling tradies who never use the 4WD in the car’s lifetime. I prefer the days when they drove Commodore utes.
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The early Holden Rodeo utes had a good reputation….
I might use mine to get in the classic car club….
10
The early Holden Rodeos had a Japanese Izuzu motor. 2004 saw a change with Izuzu selling the D max and GM using their own motor. If the present leadership at GMH continues for some time GM will go broke and disappear. The saying “go woke go broke” has some factual history.
00
I spent my youth quite interested in nice engines and motorbikes, and ridiculed by females and men imitating females (leftist communist males). Now, it’s all changed and the number one argument greens use for EVs is their fast acceleration. Hilarious, but too much to bare.
These days I’m more interested in diesel machinery that saves me digging or lifting anything – about to buy a mini excavator (for around the house), and they ridicule me for that. Point is, greens are simply antagonists with a socialist communistic anti-human mind, based on an ideology, that swings with the wind.
220
Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) is a broad term, and covers a range of materials beyond vegetable oil including animal fats (chicken, tallow, lard and byproducts of omega-3 fatty acid from fish oil) and algae. SVO can be from virgin feedstock, meaning crops grown specifically as a fuel source, or recycled from other uses, such as used cooking oils (WVO for waste vegetable oil).
Here’s the catch: SVO will burn in a diesel engine but only if its viscosity (the thickness of a liquid) is brought down to a level similar to petro-diesel.
So biofuels for diesels vs mainly coal power to recharge EVs.
Where is Chrisy Bowen on this one?
https://www.treehugger.com/do-you-have-to-modify-a-diesel-engine-to-run-it-on-vegetable-oil-4864172#:
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The oil companies named it ‘diesel’ fuel to salute Rudy for providing a new market for a hitherto unneeded byproduct.
50
From one comment above it may be possible to work out what’s going on.
No problem when driving: the brain knows what to expect.
As a passenger the movement of the car is confusing the brain and causing motion sickness because of the disconnect.
Solution may be to pay more attention to the car’s movements, at least until new neural circuits can be built and put into operation.
60
Look out the window to link visual input with the inertial changes experienced by the body.
40
No problem…I don’t intend ever to accept a lift in one.
91
As President Trump said:
https://youtube.com/shorts/93pv4tyqPD0
61
With the “kids” wandering around with headphones on, isn’t it a case of natural selection. Survival of the listening.
80
KK
This does not work for me. As I age my motion sickness gets worse especially when driving on winding roads.
Just the thought of being in a Tesla makes me feel ill!
I once had a few laps in a V8 Supercar. Took me 2 hours to recover. Never again.
90
Yes. As we get older things start to clog up.
Our dizzy gland becomes less responsive and we need to use our eyes more to compensate.
80
So, would the same problem of car sickness affect hybrids? They’ve been around much longer and nearly every taxi in Melbourne seems to be a hybrid Camry. Last thing you would want as a taxi driver is a car that makes your inebriated passengers sicker. Perhaps that’s what happened to Sam Kerr? ( SK – Australian Matilda’s soccer team captain recently involved in a vomit/ taxi / police abuse incident in UK)
60
People are used to regular petrol engine cars and hybrids could no doubt provide the sensory system with better feedback than full on EVs.
70
From articel text:
What journalists, do you talk about the gouvernements spokesperson ?
60
Will battery powered trains made you sick?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dV441HnVI34&t=132s
50
Two houses have burnt down in the Newcastle area in the past couple of weeks thanks to battery fires. Two fatalities.
130
Houses burning down is starting to become incredibly common again, as it was when everyone used fireplaces. It would be reasonable for battery started house fires to be reported Nationally as the graph would be a rocket ship. And negligence is not the problem.
We lost a neighbour’s house to a Dyson vacuum cleaner at night. Huge fire. No fatalities. A million in damages, a lot from the water. From one little battery. And another commenter here last week mentioned a neighbour’s house lost in similar fashion and they lost their dog. That time it was a Chinese copy of a Dyson stick vacuum. Possibly the same Chinese battery manufacturer.
Everyone is careful with petrol inside their house. No one would park a motor bike in their bedroom. But who thinks a big battery, say on an electric bicycle is as dangerous in total energy content? And the fire cannot be stopped. All big battery devices need to be stored outside where you would put petrol.
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Fires associated with the batteries are on the rise
According to Fire Rescue NSW statistics, there have been 45 lithium-ion battery-related fires recorded in NSW so far this year. There were 269 such fires recorded in 2023.5 Mar 2024
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-05/first-deaths-lithium-ion-batteries-nsw-teralba/103548972
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Thanks. “Dr Best urged people to check battery devices and cables carefully and to plug them into a charger outside the home.”
Also thermal runaway is associated with leaving appliances on charge, which is the whole point of these stick devices. Otherwise it would be sensible to leave nothing on charge. Not only for the savings in wasted power doing nothing but also the risk which looks to be substantial.
I am reminded of the Wiltshire stay sharp knife which kept knives razor sharp, largely unnecessarily. People were always chopping the tops off their fingers! Such razor knives should not be used for chopping carrots. A real knife is blunt and you sharpen it before use.
I keep such knives in a wooden block and sharpen them as needed. Or an electric knife.
So we are only starting to appreciated the dangers associated with battery operated everything on a massive scale in cars. And the cost of electric cars is starting to push up general insurance everywhere, possibly even for houses soon.
30
Those staysharp knives shaved a bit off the blade every time you replaced them in the holster and pulled them out again, after a while you had almost no blade left.
10
Natural selection.
20
Revising the regen mapping only reduces the range, adding the sounds of a ‘real’ car would be more productive.
20
That assumes its is a aural effect…
What if if is the result of some EMF field from those high powered inverters and EM motors ?
Oh !…and lots of people get motion sickness from regular ICEs , aeroplanes, even busses etc !
Different folks , different strokes !
20
“What if it is the result of some EMF field from those high powered inverters and EM motors ?”
Could be anything like that, they say an AM radio is useless in an EV because they pick up all the EMF produced by the electronics.
10
Drive also did a story the other day on NSW firefighters being trained to put out lithium-ion battery fires. A representative from the NRMA states in it that they’ve “heard stories” about how difficult EV fires are to extinguish
https://www.drive.com.au/news/nsw-firefighters-trained-on-electric-car-fires/
30
I get ill just looking at them.
Why do they have to be so ugly?
30
Ugly?
Aerodynamics simply follows the physical laws. Which is shy most modern cars of similar size look almost the same.
20
60 years ago our baby would vomit after traveling a short distance in our car the cure was to attach a strap to the rear bumper of the car to get rid of the static electricity.
31
Nothing to do with static, the littlies are too low in the car to see the horizon.
20
I remember those!
00
Motion sickness is nothing new in car design, it was vey common in cars until the 1980’s when engineers started to understand the causes. An osolating frequency between 0.1 to 0.4 Hz at at about 1 m/s will causes nausea. This unsurprisingly is the typical motion of a medium swell on the ocean.
Older vehicles with low rididity frame chassis, soft suspension and high wall tyres typically caused these conditions. If it is happening in EV’s then it’s probably to do with the higher mass/density caused by large batteries. It can be designed out with chassis/suspension stiffness and mass dampers if neccessary.
30
That’s an interesting tack.
00
Interesting.
Recently had my first ride in an EV, about a 15min trip shuffling between start and end locations of a 30km sea kayak in relatively bouncey conditions (up to 2m swell with a lot of rebound). I don’t get motion sickness as a rule, but know what does make me sick, head close to the water, looking down in moving boats.
After about 3 minutes in the EV I was feeling decidedly car sick, culminating with me having the head out the window and gulping air to keep things settled.
30
Unless a car sounds like this, I don’t want it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v4WoSvSdLY
Glorious!!
00
They make me sick.
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