G. David Felt

The Tesla Cybertruck is on display in LA and people lined up to see it. Many say they have warmed up to the design. I have to say that after looking at the images in this story posted online, the video, etc. I still HATE Tesla cyber truck. https://electrek.co/2020/06/20/tesla-cybertruck-prototype-close-look-public-outing-pictures/ Honestly it is not impressive to look at, what appears for headroom would say this will be more bunker style than a Chevrolet Camaro. Over all, I see no good angle from front, back, side or 3/4 that would make me want this truck. The Ford F-150 prototype EV truck and the Rivian are superior looking to me. I have high hopes for the Hummer by GMC EV Truck / SUV also.

Oregon Bus Depot deploys wireless charging system that is in the pavement, freeing up space and decreasing charging time for the deployment of EV buses. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/wave-deploys-wireless-charging-system-at-oregon-bus-depot/ In addition to the news of electric auto's, seems Tesla Long Range Model S has received it's awaited new battery range. 402 miles on a single charge for the updated Tesla S Long range auto. This is a 20% improvement over 2019 models with the same battery pack design. https://chargedevs.com/newswire/tesla-used-a-variety-of-technical-advances-to-increase-model-s-range-to-400-miles/

West Coast to lead the nation in becoming a Diesel free commercial truck zone. Utilities are working with the Class 8 Semi Truck industry as they deploy heavy duty rapid chargers to allow 800V Semi Truck and faster charging stations in support of the future of commercial transit. Along the major freeway system there is already an existing charging network that supports auto's and medium duty trucks from traditional level 1 charging to Level 3 rapid charging and with Level 4 extreme fast charging for vehicles coming on this is getting a boost of support as Utilities invest in having charging systems that will support future Class 8 semi trucks like the new Freightliner EV semi above. GreenCar web site is reporting that the comprehensive 185 page West Coast Clean Transit Corridor Initiative study will truly change as they add high powered DC fast chargers along the 1,300 mile I5 corridor from Mexico to Canada along with sites connecting state highways such as I-8, I-10, I-80 in California, I-84 in Oregon and I-90 in Washington as well as other local routes. 10 years ago, the West Coast Electric Highway was built from Whistler, British Columbia to Mexico with charging stations every 25 to 50 miles along I-5, U.S. 101 and California Hwy 99. The new initiative is to add these direct charging or extreme fast chargers since Semi Trucks (Class 8 ) take 100 times more power than a traditional DC fast charger for auto's. Total cost of the project is estimated at $850 million Full report can be read here: https://www.hdrinc.com/portfolio/west-coast-clean-transit-corridor-initiative PDF version of the report can be downloaded here: https://westcoastcleantransit.com/ Where you can see the 11 utilities that are to take part in this expansion of the charging grid. This is based on the following: Zero-emission MD/HD truck market assessment Zero-emission MD/HD truck forecasts Stakeholder surveys Current trucking market landscape analysis Current utility infrastructure evaluation Current and forecasted truck volumes along the corridor Identification of locations for future electric truck charging facilities

Rivian files new paten for drop tail gate per Teslarati.com. Everyone watches everyone and in the auto industry that is no exception where Rivian is expected to really shake things up. They had shown at an auto show a concept tail gate that dropped. It now seems it could very well be available on the truck as an option over a traditional tail gate or it could become the standard tailgate. Teslarati discovered this reviewing patent filings from December. Patent details of the actual tailgate here: https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2019236967&tab=PCTBIBLIO Teslarati story here: https://www.teslarati.com/rivian-r1t-tailgate-swing-drop-patent/

Fur Children are AWESOME! Hope you had a great fathers day Robert. My kids did an awesome day, recreated what we did for mothers day for me, so air fry chicken breast strips, curly fries and Whirlypop popcorn with real butter and watched two movies. Playing with Fire staring John Cena https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9134216/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 Shazam! staring Zachary Levi https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448115/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 Highly recommend both movies.

I found a shop that will do this and while they will not do any warranty which is understandable on the parts I bring to him. He does warrant his labor. Honestly, I like @riviera74 like a repair shop that uses quality parts. Yes costs a bit more, but worth it for our daughters older 99 Durango. My other auto's are OEM taken care of.

@riviera74 @Robert Hall I do have to wonder why Acura does not have any other sized luxury CUV's. I would think a lager than RDX/MDX and smaller would make sense for Acura. Your thoughts on Acura having additional sized luxury CUV's?

Road Runner

Happy Post Father's day to all the dads out there. Mine was great with my kids. In regards to auto's, Plymouth I see no lose in the auto line not being around. AMC, I miss as they were the first true CUV company of off road auto's that stood out. Quirky and cool before everyone wanted one today.

Which brings me back to Acura. JD Powers and Bloomberg reviews have not been kind to the Acura CUV's and if @smk4565 is right that a successful auto line has to have X amount of CUVs. One has to wonder why Acura does not see money in building an Acura version of the CR-V and the Pilot to add to the family. ?

Baby Yoda

The 4x4 posts while having the 4x6 screwed into them are for tenting. This allows us to have from heavy clear plastic early in the year when frost is still possible over the starts planted to protect them to using the lite weight cloth coverings to keep insects out but allow rain to fall on the plants. At this stage except for the lettuce as this helps keep it very clean, the rest of the veggie plants are established enough to grow with out tenting needed. Here is how it looked earlier this year after we had already gone from clear heavy plastic to just tenting against the sun. The posts will also be used as I will secure some lattice work for the squash plants to grow up on and let the squash hang and grow big, but clean. Planning to secure lattice this weekend if it does not rain. It will look like this. Lattice also allows the plant while growing and keeping the veggies clean to spread out easier so it does not mildew here where we tend to get plenty of drizzle.

Good Video if your into gardening and want organic beds.

If you look at the screen, they actually have an SL class of auto that pulls before and after with the various classes according to their web site.

Toyota

Pandemic projects. So in my 12th week of working from home. Actually loving it saving 2hrs a day in NOT having to commute to the office. As such I have gotten back to my enjoyment of wood and projects. I figure @A Horse With No Name who is a kindred spirit would enjoy my wood projects. So during this time, I hit a mental road block on a project and remember my math teacher who always said there is a solution, just go do something different and come back and you will find the solution. So I did just that, went out to my shed, used scrap wood, screws and stain to create a small table for my BBW area. My other recent project was a bit bigger, the wife wanted an easier time gardening, so I figure why not build her a decent raised bed. The last raised bed was a 2ft high plastic bed, $400 from Costco. 3ft x 10ft x 2ft high. I thought I could do this better with natural wood. So off to searching the web and then Home Depot and here is my raised bed I built for the wife out of 4"x6"x10ft timbers. This ended up giving me a 5ft wide by 10ft long 30" tall raised bed for gardening. You can see the Costco plastic bed with Garlic growing, planted early winter to the left. Stacking it into the ground. 3/8th rebar, 3ft long. 2ft into the ground, 1ft of wood. Drilled hole and then pounded the bar in. Finished bed with liner installed. Bed filled with Black Gold compost / dirt. Great way to grow healthy veggies. So the wife is on an organic kick, all things nature, no chemicals and as such I was researching various ways to make this last even longer then the estimated 15 to 20 years or so. As such a coworker introduced me to a Japanese technic of making the wood water and fire resistant. The technic is called Shou Sugi Ban. This is taking a torch to the outside and charring it and then wire brushing it down to have a harder wood surface. This take the softer carbon parts of the wood and harden it. My coworkers veggi bed, in the future any more beds I build will have this done on the inside and outside first before liner and dirt is put in. My Shou Sugi Ban veggi bed now that I have done the technic on it. More info if your interested in the Shou Sugi Ban technic here on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=shou+sugi+ban+technique Cool table project done here on this same technic.

@ocnblu @William Maley Thanks guys for keeping grounded, Yes My own FooBar as this week had a major product launch and it has been so crazy, I got lost in two different trains of thought. Will still be interesting to see how this Hyundai pickup sells here in the US. I also wish the Mazda truck would come here as I think it would sell and I know some folks that still have their 80's Mazda B2000 pickups that they love. Thanks again guys, Glad it is Friday! Need a FooBar emoji so I could vote myself that.

Hummer

Where, I have not seen one in decades. Searching used car and you cannot find them for sale. From 1980 to 1990 there are ZERO SL for sale. For 1990 to 2000 there is only 103 available auto's of the SL class and price is pretty low. Guess they DO NOT hold value long term.

Will be interesting to see how it sells. A Isuzu based truck with Hyundai style at what price point will be the interesting part.

Green

Daywalker

All the press release from GM says these new electric delivery / people transportation vans will be on the newest EV platform. GM Fact Sheet_EV Architecture 030320.pdf

Tartarus

I posted this in the Random forum.