| Author | Message | |||
     Ebutch |
      (Message edited by ebutch on April 03, 2022) | |||
| Ebutch |
Accid Burns       (Message edited by ebutch on April 03, 2022) | |||
| Hootowl |
Just assume that I posted dozens of photos of gasoline car fires and burn victims. There are so many every year it isn’t newsworthy. I won’t waste the space on it. | |||
| Hootowl |
https://www.kbb.com/car-news/study-electric-vehicl es-involved-in-fewest-car-fires/ | |||
| Ratbuell |
...but if they start, you ain't putting them out. Period. They go till they run out of (highly toxic) fuel. Same reason you don't toss your old Duracell's in the campfire. "Involved in the fewest fires"? Maybe. But even that article admits you ain't putting one out once it starts...and burning fuel, while not great, is nothing compared to burning lithium and other rare earth stuff in batteries as far as toxicity. Didn't we learn this lesson at the turn of the 20th century? People were trying to do electric cars then, and gassers took over the industry BECAUSE THEY WORK THE BEST. | |||
| Hootowl |
Meh. Once the car is on fire it’s totaled. Doesn’t much matter after that. The electric car thrived until the 30s when oil was discovered in Texas. Gasoline got cheap. It isn’t any longer. It is about three times cheaper to drive an electric car than a gasoline car, and there is little to no maintenance. I have an electric car and a diesel car. Guess which one I drive more often. It gets even cheaper when you compare an electric car with a gasoline powered car with similar horsepower and torque. | |||
| Rick_a |
When an electric car has a problem it is relatively catastrophic and tends to be extremely expensive. Most of them are extremely heavy compared to their gas counterparts. I like light cars. I drive across the state twice a month. Ain't got time to charge nothin.' My car is very thrifty in price. I doubt there's any savings over the lifetime of the vehicle. Also, without dino juice a car gas no soul. I do like all the cameras on Teslas. Makes for endless "idiots on wheels" footage. I did get rid of my nitro off road RC car and got an electric. The electrics just trounce them in performance, generally. Those lipo batteries are a bit of a hassle in charging and storage. | |||
| Aesquire |
Any energy storage medium is going to be hazardous in relation to energy density. A 20 pound amount of Plutonium isn't very safe to have around. In one lump. It's one of those "not found in nature" items because by the time the atoms formed in an exploding star reach Earth, they aren't Plutonium anymore. We have to make the stuff in a reactor. Technically, we make gasoline in a different kind of reactor. Modern gas isn't just a fraction of crude oil, it's a complex chemical, like aspirin or Mt. Dew. High voltage and hazardous chemical fires are just realities in modern Emergency Response Services. Just like they had to learn not to spray water on gasoline fires, you don't spray water directly on the burning Bolt. Oil was first pumped out of the ground in Pennsylvania. Before that it was sopped up with cloth from Natural leaks/springs. Without the fossil fuels we'd still be using Whale Oil or rendering critters for fats/oils or using horse & Oxen & steam tractors to grow crops. To Eat. Turning "vegetable oil" aka grain & fruit, into fuel is relatively modern. Biblical recent? Arguably the first "hypermilers" were concerned about a forced energy shortage by Oppressive Colonial Forces, and keeping the lights on in the Temple.  iirc, it was "a miracle", and thus we have... Marvel Mystery Oil. ( rendered from failed Superheroes, poor Sloth Girl & Static Man. ) | |||
| Rick_a |
Plutonium is technically refined into fuel or weapons grades. The fuel rods are made according to the current time tested technology, or according to what that country could afford in a reactor at the time. | |||
| Aesquire |
Generally, Plutonium has 2 uses. Fission bombs, very useful for Orion Drive spacecraft, for super heavy thrust needs, like diverting a comet from slaughtering the species. And thermoelectric long life power cells. Lousy weight to power ratio until you figure it runs for years, unattended, with no moving mechanical parts. Love one for the house. ( see The Martian ) There are other good uses, like in reactors as part of a breeder program for sustainable and renewable energy. ( afaik, not a current use ) Not sure, don't recall, what else. Unfortunately it's a nasty poison, is usually used in weapons of war & might decimate the species if, say, someone gets desperate. ( Joe*' Vladimir, the Red Skull... ) Plutonium has extraordinary energy density that can be tapped, and not just theoretically. That's why I used it as an example. ( often you get some bs example like "if the hidden power in this lump of sugar was tapped, you could light a city for a week" which is utterly unrealistic with current technology. ) Perfect safety is a mental disorder, not real. I'm from Nebraska. If it wasn't the Soviet Nuclear Threat, it was silo explosions. Grain dust! Seen it multiple times. The big silos have blow out panels. Hinged at the top, safety wired at the bottom. A static charge detonates the dust and it's a fuel air explosion with huge spouts of flame erupting from the sides. ( above the current fill level. ) Spectacular! Hardly ever wipes out a town anymore. Wait until some Greenie Con man sells a town a giant, multi city block sized, battery pack made from reject Chinese copies of Panasonic cells ( to save money ) and watch a disaster in waiting. Or the Warren Buffett owned train car derailment fires. ( why he opposes Keystone XL pipeline ) | |||
| Aesquire |
To be clear, batteries are just another hazard. Fire departments had to learn how to deal with gasoline cars too. | |||
| Ourdee |
I do like all the cameras on Teslas. I think they run 12 of them. Even when they are parked. | |||
| 86129squids |
I actually met a guy who does Tesla accident damage repairs... the only one certified to do so around here. Such eloquent, meaningful, and beaaaaautiful pics there. I have also gotten very wary of ANY Tesla that I encounter on the road. It is bad enough that most folks cannot put their G0oddamned cel phones down, it is now worse that you can now go to sleep in your FKin car. Wondering if ther might be a use for a barbed Taser for disabling idiot vehicles... for some time now. Certainly a train horn, that would be the best idea. I redact my above comment on tasing.. but hey, cattle prods are just that. | |||
| 86129squids |
RD and I did roll by a place on Deal's Gap where one of the highest $$$ Nissans burned into the tarmac! Rolling north on 129... this was about 5 years ago. Oh well... I figured that dude must've just sucked up too many leaves in the fall...  | |||
| Hootowl |
You can fall asleep in any car. Your chance of dying goes down in a car that will stay in its lane and stop when traffic does. | |||
| Oldog |
Butch, the lithum electrolite is not liquid, it may be acidic but all of it I have seen in vids has been a thick grey paste. I suspect that if you violently rupture a cell that a fire may result, it did with earlier batteries. | |||
| 86129squids |
Hmmm... I guess Elon Musk thought of everything. Maybe he factored out human error. My good buddy's brother has a Tesla... I've been promised a test drive when he comes back to town. I'll not be a Luddite... still wanting a Zero if I can find one for decent money. Hate to be antiquated in everything, except my value systems. | |||
| Mnscrounger |
As a commuter bike, an electric makes a lot of sense once you get past the buy in cost, but a 250 CC beater makes sense for that too. | |||
| Mnscrounger |
As a commuter bike, an electric makes a lot of sense once you get past the buy in cost, but a 250 CC beater makes sense for that too. |
