TIL about Detroit Electric
English
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- fubarx@lemmy.worldEnglish3 hours
An even earlier manufacturer was Baker Electric of Cleveland, Ohio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Motor_Vehicle. They werem’t the first (EVs had been around since 1880), but by 1906 they were the biggest car maker, running the largest manufacturing plant in the world.
Main market was for those who made frequent short stops, and didn’t want to get their hands dirty hand-cranking the gas or steam motor starters. Their coupe model had a ‘boat-tiller’ instead of a steering wheel.
Jay Leno has a restored 1909 Baker Electric he showed on an old car show: https://youtu.be/OhnjMdzGusc
There was a glut of electric cars, then gas-powered ones with longer range showed up. In 1912, the electric starter was introduced for gas cars, taking away one of the main features of EVs. By 1914, Baker would merge and then shut down.
- resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafeEnglish2 days
BS. It took a genius the level of Elon and his superior genetics to think of putting an electric motor in a car.
- BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish2 hours
I heard he invented electricity. I’d confirm that with the supercomputer in my pocket, but why bother? I have a great education, and in all my years in school, they never mentioned anyone else experimenting with electricity before Mr. Musk, so he must have invented it, and if you don’t agree, you have Trump Derangement Syndrome.
- Frenchgeek@lemmy.mlEnglish4 hours
Good thing the level of genius isn’t stated… “Rock-bottom” is a level.
- BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish2 hours
His family’s blood emerald money. But he had to COUNT the money, so that’s almost the same as his.
- edgesmash@lemmy.worldEnglish40 minutes
He probably didn’t even count it. I bet he hired a flunky to do that.
- 1 day
Remember when thought was given to the beauty of the design of cars (like above), and nowadays we have the mutant electric shaver that is Teslas?
- BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish2 hours
Or the refrigerator on wheels that is the SwastiKKKar.
And you thought Walter White’s Aztec was the ugliest car ever. Nope, Musk looked at that, and said “I can do worse.” And he did.
- captainlezbian@lemmy.worldEnglish24 hours
No, by the time I was born beauty was secondary to aerodynamics. It was the right decision, but I do understand what we lost is something to be sad we’ve lost.
With teslas my bigger issue is build quality. Though the dumpster they sell is ironically one of the few deviations from the modern prioritization of aerodynamics over aesthetics, it’s just done by someone who doesn’t understand good taste. Compare it to those Honda EVs to see a similar idea done much more beautifully.
- BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish2 hours
Good taste and profits often conflict. When they do, profits almost always win.
- jaykrown@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
The cyber truck is disgusting. It’s what happens when you give billionaires all the decision making authority. It seriously looks similar to a dumpster.
- edgesmash@lemmy.worldEnglish37 minutes
I highly suspect Musk had the idea for the swastikkkar as a kid and told some people, who proceeded to laugh at him. He then never let that grudge go, deluded that he is always the smartest boy.
- BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish2 hours
It’s a refrigerator on wheels, part of a weird Sociopathic Oligarchs’ odd vision to make their vehicles match their kitchen appliances, for reasons that only a weird Sociopathic Oligarch can understand. Probably AI.
1 dayDumpsters have 100 times more style and class than the cybertruck.
- IWW4@lemmy.zipEnglish1 day
The really horrible part is Teslas used to actually look great.
Their body stylings are petty lousy lately, but then again so are most modern cars.
I dunno. I recently saw the new Twingo and it’s a very nice and cute looking car. Their 2025 hatchback was also very cool and futuristic looking.
Honesty it seems like a decent car
I’m honesty surprised they managed to get 80 miles of range. That’s pretty much what you get with a older Nissan leaf
- jaykrown@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
Yea it was an actually decent car. We went the easy route and fucked up the planet by choosing the internal combustion engine.
Combustion engines are way better
Only now are we even seeing electric cars that can complete.
Try going on a long distance trip somewhere and then get back to me.
These days it is a little more doable. However, you still have to wait for your car to charge.
And that’s ignoring the wear on the battery from fast charging
- hardcoreufo@lemmy.worldEnglish21 hours
If we spent 100+ years focused on electric it would be better.
- BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish2 hours
That’s it. All my life, “smart” people would tell me that’s Solar power isn’t economically feasible, so we shouldn’t waste time on it, and I’d say it would become economically feasible if we spent real time on it.
Eventually, over all those years we’ve gotten to the point where it is literally the better choice in many ways, but we could have gotten there many years ago.
A lot of the tech powering electric cars was only invented recently
- Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish21 hours
The motors were fine. It was advances in battery tech that made pure EVs viable. Really, hybrids should have been a thing a lot earlier. Series Hybrid tech has been moving trains, ships and industrial equipment for decades before the Prius(Parallel Hybrid) hit the market.
- jaykrown@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
How did they let these die? They’re so stylish, we should bring them back immediately except with solid state batteries that can let them drive 200+ miles and charge in 5 minutes.
- zurohki@aussie.zoneEnglish2 days
Those older cars with the huge windows and great visibility handled rollover accidents by crushing the heads and necks of everyone inside.
At some point we decided the passenger cabin shouldn’t be the primary crumple zone, so you can’t make cars like that anymore.
- P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
You wouldn’t want to go 30 in that thing. You’d feel like you’re in a rock tumbler.
- captainlezbian@lemmy.worldEnglish23 hours
I kinda want to see what the wind would look like on this thing going 60 (96.5 km/h). I suspect you’d get more lift than is comfortable. And speaking as someone who’s had turbulence in a modern car (interstate driving into an Illinois windstorm), it’s terrifying even in a car that doesn’t want to roll over.
Edit: seriously thought about it and am more concerned about the moment/torque it might get from the wind
- jaykrown@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
I think one of these except more modern with all the advanced necessary features would actually be awesome.
- Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
But we gotta keep the 1920s car design. You csn put a modern battery, and bluetooth, and inputs for auxilery audio devices, and modern stereo syatem, and gps, and all this other stuff…but we gotta keep the old car vibe.
- mkwt@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
Without the monocoque, I doubt it can pass modern crash safety tests. Nor is there any safe place to install air bags.
- grue@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
What “monocoque?” That was made so long ago they were still talking about coachwork!
- spongebue@lemmy.worldEnglish2 days
Honestly, people love to shit on the PT Cruiser but at least it tried to be a little different - arguably in a cool retro way!
- deadbeef79000@lemmy.nzEnglish1 day
The PT Cruiser looked amazing.
I’d be very happy if more manufacturers took similar style risks.
Buuuut, apparently we get the
swasticarcyber truck.- P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
This is why most cars these days are black, white or grey. “We don’t want something someone WANTS to look at, just something that isn’t offensive to the eyes” (sports cars don’t count here)
I was scrolling quick so I didn’t notice it was slop until I saw the comment so strangely enough it was actually more useful than I would’ve otherwise initially guessed.
- P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
You killed 3 fish and made a retiree not able to pay her utilities for that picture. Proud of you.
- P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
You’re fucking using it. That’s like getting diabetes by eating shitloads of McDonald’s and blaming McDonald’s for it. Or a bartender blaming Phillip morris for second hand smoke.
- jaykrown@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
I already don’t eat beef, own an electric car, and don’t have kids. Stop pointing at me as if I’m the problem. You don’t know shit about me, don’t tell me what to do.
Did you use your AI to generate some stigmata on your body too? Get over yourself.
We know you’re using AI to generate slop and that’s precisely what we’re blaming you for.
- P00ptart@lemmy.worldEnglish23 hours
“I am not a pedophile, I don’t mass murder, I don’t staple cats to trees. I’ll publicly piss on anyone I want! You don’t know shit about me, don’t tell me I can’t piss on strangers.”
That’s you. That’s what you sound like.
- Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
Yeah, I’d totally drive a non-taxi labeled version of that! That looks awesome!
Wait…who is driving? Oh no bear is driving! How can this be??? Show me the money! Oh no!
I don’t think you can just magically make a battery that goes that long without serious engineering work
- OwOarchist@pawb.socialEnglish1 day
If only some serious engineering work had been done in the past 100 years…
I always knew that reading Donald Duck comic books would pay off one day, I’ve known about these since I was a child, that’s Grandma Duck’s car!
- Tim_Bisley@piefed.socialEnglish2 days
There were quite a few electric cars, they started in the late 1800s made by multiple companies. Shit they even had electric trains.
- captainlezbian@lemmy.worldEnglish23 hours
One of the wildest things to me is how many places need to move their public transit systems back to from grid electric. Electric trains are awesome. But I’m also of the opinion that the motor/dynamo is akin to the wheel in how fundamentally important and valuable it is.
I wish it would’ve gone into how the battery worked. I just can’t imagine that that part of it was too great.
- SirEDCaLot@lemmy.todayEnglish1 day
It was lead acid batteries, same as are used today in most gasoline cars to start the engine. That technology has been around for a very long time. It worked for car like this because the car itself was very light, and it didn’t go that fast maybe 30 mph or so peak speed. So the power consumption was way way way less than a modern electric vehicle.
Okay, that kind of makes sense. I was looking into solar and automatic switching (no grid tie) and was surprised to see those batteries being used as (smaller) options.
