Ronno

As a Model 3 (2024) driver, I fully agree! Meanwhile I finally nailed down a little over half the instances where it might phantom brake, so I'm more prepared. A common theme is cars moving within their lane while driving next to them. Even if they don't cross the line into my lane, the car will still brake abruptly.

Why bother having cruise control if you cannot use it comfortably and always have to rest your foot above the accelerator anyways?

This is then only regarding phantom braking. Another dangerous thing is the automatic speed adjustment of the cruise control. I have this set to "off", but the car seems to completely ignore that setting. It happened multiple times that the car changed set speed, both up and down. Imagine driving 130 on cruise and the car sees a sign that says "90 when asphalt is wet" but it's dry. The car thinks it's 90 and slams the brakes.

All I want is just dumb cruise control for cruising and traffic aware cruise control in traffic jams, is that too much to ask?

Such a long time ago and I still hear this scene when I see the picture combined with the slightly altered text. Wild.

Just to check, because I'm no longer sure:

Is this real?

Not sure how to effectively do that, but I reckon it would be no different than the cookie mess today. Which unfortunately is, hardly ever. The big GDPR related fines can still apply. Let's say a data set is leaked that includes tracking data that was not necessary for the service to have, then the company can receive a hefty fine. As long as the fine is larger than the reward, it might not be worth it for the company to track you anymore.

Which is why I had hoped the EU would ban all forms of fingerprinting and non-essential data tracking. But they somehow got lobbied into selecting cookies as the only possible mechanism that can be used, leaving ample room to track using other methods.

If there was anything the US was good at, it would be marketing. Creating the image that it's the greatest nation on earth, influencing mainstream media to tell their version of the story, keeping up appearances of a strong nation.

The moment these smoke clears and the mirrors break, that is when we see the real US. I think we have Trump to thank to show it to us.

But is capitalism really the issue here? As far as I can tell, you can put in place any economic agenda, if people just vote against themselves and if laws are actively ignored, the economic policy doesn't really matter?

It would cost me about 75 euro's (return) for a 4 hr commute (one way) with public transport to cover a distance of 150km (one way). This is a mixture of transportation modes, including bus and train.

Comparison with the car is quite difficult, but using a car cost calculator website, it says that for my car the average price per kilometer would be ~0,20 euro. So that would mean that the round trip would cost me roughly 60 euro's by car. As for time, a one way commute to the office is about 1,5h to 2h by car, depending on traffic. So, twice as fast and 1/4th cheaper.

My company covers car expenses in the company leasing contract. All I have to pay is taxes to use the car privately, which in The Netherlands is quite high (compared to for example Belgium). So I pay 350 euro (net) a month to use the car privately. The mobility budget for the leasing car represents about 1000 euro gross a month. But of course if I were to take public transport, my company would reimburse that, but I would have to give up the car.

To be fair, the situation here in The Netherlands is not much different than you describe, outside the larger cities that is. Most people commuting to these cities from the smaller towns and villages are still heavily car dependent. Even within my own town, public transport is just a sham. If I were to take the bus to get groceries, I would have to wait 2 hours for the next bus that takes me back home. Ain't nobody got time for that.

I drive, public transport in The Netherlands is horrible outside of the major cities. Even in the major cities it's "meh" to be honest. The PR department of The Netherlands does a great job at portraying our country as some sort of engineering marvel / paradise. The truth is that mobility in The Netherlands is expensive and in case of public transport, it lacks proper connection to regions outside of the cities. The only reason why we "love" riding our bicycle around, is that it's the only affordable mobility option.

Many people that cover longer distances, like myself, have a company leasing car. So it doesn't hit my wallet as much.

I'm located in The Netherlands, the housing market here is fucked. An alternative solution would be to find something to rent closer to work, but I would pay 1,5 times as much in rent, for a small apartment in a neighborhood where I don't want to live. Yes, I'm spending more time on my commute, but I also have more disposable income each month that I can save and invest. If all goes to plan, I can retire earlier and live mortgage free within 20 years. In essence, I'm trading a bit of time now, to have more spare time and a better financial position in the near future. I'm taking it.

Or have office jobs and commute a bit longer.

People say I'm crazy for commuting 1,5 hours (one way). But I get to go home to my own property. Especially now with hybrid working still being a thing, I only go to the office once or twice a week.

Unironically, it's better than we currently have. At least this speedometer would be right in front of me.