The difficulty of driving an EV in the “most beautiful race in the world”

Jet lag and charging added plenty of complications to this regularity road rally.

See full article...

 

[MST2.021K]

Sounds like you had a blast across the Italian countryside.

Er, I mean... Uh, Range Anxiety! You can't drive more than 200 miles!! Charging takes forever! Rawrrrr!

 

[Senti]

we use paper straw so the rich can fly all over the world and have luxurious car races, yay

 

[Asbestos Muffins]

we use paper straw so the rich can fly all over the world and have luxurious car races, yay

I'd rather let the rich do their races but tax them 50% on their net worth. its the straw man argument conservative radio's been using for 30 years, its stupid, disingenuous, and wouldn't be a problem if we had done anything constructive on climate change between now and 50 years ago

 

[Biffstar]

So in other words, a good majority of the rally was spent worrying about where to find the next charging point, rather than enjoying yourself.

Doesn't sound like a great time to me.

 

[tacticaL_hamster]

We also had to do a hard reset after a momentary bricking.

It’s just madness that this has become so normalised with EV’s.

 

[freaq]

we use paper straw so the rich can fly all over the world and have luxurious car races, yay

Yes well lets just do nothing then?
Point is tax the rich AND use paper straws.

Its not do neither.

And yes many rich people spent their own money to do a race, which brought joy to many thousands of spectators for free

 

[Snark218]

I badly want to do a chill rally like this someday. But not in a Polestar, sadly, because it sounds like their software is buggier than a $60 NYC hotel room.

 

[Snark218]

we use paper straw so the rich can fly all over the world and have luxurious car races, yay

Tying a reasonable change to end the stupidity that is single-use plastic to one’s resentment of wealthy people emitting lots of carbon is either whiny and resentful, disingenuous, or both. They don’t really have anything to do with each other. Yes, use paper straws. Yes, also tax fuel at the social cost of carbon. Stop bitching about the former because we’re not doing the latter yet.

 

[Snark218]

Sounds like you had a blast across the Italian countryside.

Er, I mean... Uh, Range Anxiety! You can't drive more than 200 miles!! Charging takes forever! Rawrrrr!

The Mille Tromboni rally is some serious shit

 

[Beckler]

The "wealth tax" is an interesting idea but how would it work? Do you get just one bite at the apple then it's just normal capital gains and income taxes per annum? Seems like a confiscatory, feel-good, measure rather than a real solution.

Seems like "confiscatory" is a feel-good word on your part and confiscational would be better.

 

[Beckler]

"Italians love their cars, and they revealed a clear preference for internal combustion engines"

We definitely need not worry about climate change + air pollution because there are some people who like gas engines.

 

[Fred Duck]

An illuminating story.

I wonder how the Polestar traveled. Did something happen in transit that caused the speedometer drift? Or does a vehicle need recalibration after moving continents? Or was the speedometer always inaccurate? Or was Waze at fault? (Or was Waze used after the auto's speedometer proved unreliable?)

 

[Asbestos Muffins]

It’s just madness that this has become so normalised with EV’s.

not to be the devil's advocate but its more likely just volvo is getting buggy infotainment systems from Geely. people with gas cars have the same problem you just don't hear them complain. volvo sells fewer, higher trim cars than anyone else.

my bolt has the exact same interior as a trax and trailblazer, down to the same buttons and controls. if something is bugging out its a problem on those vehicles too

 

[vdiv]

managing just shy of 20 kW per 100 km each day

20 kWh perhaps...

 

[ruet]

Seems like "confiscatory" is a feel-good word on your part and confiscational would be better.

Did you want to address the question or do you want to make more incorrect grammar corrections?

I'm all for more taxation on the wealthy. I'm not for theatrics. We have more than enough of that going on today. A one time, 50%, charge against a person's wealth is not serious and not sustainable.

Ya know what? Nevermind. We're (the US) done anyways.

 

[MilesArcher]

is it that green and leafy in Italy in January?

 

[Snark218]

"Italians love their cars, and they revealed a clear preference for internal combustion engines"

We definitely need not worry about climate change + air pollution because there are some people who like gas engines.

The amount of carbon and air pollutants emitted by these cars, doing this event, amounts to about two minutes worth of traffic in Rome or Milan. As always, a sense of proportion is useful.

 

[James Rivington]

An illuminating story.

I wonder how the Polestar traveled. Did something happen in transit that caused the speedometer drift? Or does a vehicle need recalibration after moving continents? Or was the speedometer always inaccurate? Or was Waze at fault? (Or was Waze used after the auto's speedometer proved unreliable?)

Most built-in OEM speedometers and odometers are not accurate enough for rallying out of the box. You either have to do your own calibration of your OEM unit, or you install aftermarket instruments that can be calibrated.

 

[vershner]

Still, it was hard to escape the general feeling—from both the race organizers and the general public—that we were something of an afterthought, second-class citizens relegated to staying in our place well apart from the main event

I think they have a point. It's supposed to be a historic rally.

It's bad enough having to put up with gigantic ugly SUVs on my commute. I'd be pretty annoyed at seeing one on the Mille Miglia.

 

[TreeCatKnight]

Did you want to address the question or do you want to make more incorrect grammar corrections?

I'm all for more taxation on the wealthy. I'm not for theatrics. We have more than enough of that going on today. A one time, 50%, charge against a person's wealth is not serious and not sustainable.

Ya know what? Nevermind. We're (the US) done anyways.

The wealth tax is so obviously aimed at a continuing, income/capital gains based plan that it borders on disingenuous to assume otherwise.

Of course it's not a one-time thing. If you were really concerned about arguing, you'd do better addressing how to capture a person's entire wealth when that very wealth allows them to hide it so well.

 

[Ken_g6]

How can you get penalized in a race for driving too fast? (Barring maybe a temporary safety limit for a crash or something.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Run_challenge

 

[AbidingArs]

How can you get penalized in a race for driving too fast? (Barring maybe a temporary safety limit for a crash or something.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Run_challenge

It looks like this is a regularity rally, where the objective is to drive at as close to a constant speed to hit the next waypoint at the time scheduled. Being too late or too early is a penalty:

At the start, competitors are usually briefed about the event and may be required to submit their cars for inspection. Each team is given a route schedule prior to departure. This schedule contains information that the navigator will use to try to keep to the specified route and it contains information about the designated speeds and times for each segment of the route. On some rallies, more than one type of schedule may be prepared for different types of competitors.

Once a team is prepared, they will usually start the rally at a specific time unique to them. Along the route, the team will encounter marshals. The position of the marshals is usually not known to the teams. The time at which the team arrives at each marshal is recorded and used in the scoring. In some cases the marshals are hidden from view. Teams may also encounter open sections where they are guaranteed not to encounter marshals and are not subject to any time penalties. There may be various other features along the route including points at which teams must wait for an 'exact time of departure', points at which teams must record their own times, etc.

Every regularity rally should have a deterministic route schedule. This means that the organisers can work out the exact times that should be recorded for each team at all the relevant points along the route. The difference between a team's actual times and the correct times determine their penalties. (Lateness and earliness both attract penalties.) The team with the lowest number of penalties wins.

 

[lurknomore]

It looks like this is a regularity rally, where the objective is to drive at as close to a constant speed to hit the next waypoint at the time scheduled. Being too late or too early is a penalty:

The main thing I hate about all the speed cameras that keep being added by well-meaning (and revenue-seeking) governments, is how I have to keep looking down at my speed, and worry that a truck was hiding a speed limit change not justified by the road conditions.
It's a detriment to safety, and a much bigger cognitive load leading to fatigue, than when I could drive the same road at whatever speed felt comfortable and safe, focusing only on the road hazards. There was a speed limit used as an indicator not to exceed too much, and very little enforcement to worry about. I obviously understand that other users just abused that freedom and deaths had to be addressed, but the speed camera solution coupled with pseudo-random changing limits is a terrible option.

A "race" designed to make you constantly worry about hitting an arbitrary speed/time is ... definitely not for me.

 

[LordSlinkySupreme]

It’s just madness that this has become so normalised with EV’s.

Yeah, I really like my Polestar 2 and I know that software and marketing are different budgets…

But holy shit I wish Polestar would stop blowing money on stuff like this while its in-car software is basically still in an alpha state.

 

[jrhmobile]

How can you get penalized in a race for driving too fast? (Barring maybe a temporary safety limit for a crash or something.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Run_challenge

The Mille Miglia hasn't been a race for the last 55 years. In its current incarnation, it's a time-distance rally for classic cars. In rallying, "performance" is being able to maintain precise speed, rather than the fastest one.

(Edit: Seeing another of your comments, I understand that this may not be your cup of tea. It's not necessarily mine either. Nonetheless, I can appreciate the discipline. You should check it out. It's pretty demanding stuff.)

 

[J Carr]

Why would the organizers stage a 1200 km rally for EVs without securing the necessary charging infrastructure? That is ridiculous.

 

[Andyvan]

Paragraph 3 specifies that the team included a Polestar 2 & 4, and later on we're introduced to a 2 and a 3.

 

[The Wonderful Wizard]

how to capture a person's entire wealth when that very wealth allows them to hide it so well.

You require anyone with assets worth more than $x to declare all items they own , or have any interest in, and sign a binding offer to gift or sell for one day’s dole any unlisted asset to any comer, and a sworn statement that they have no standing to contest any expropriation or damage to any other asset. I’d also require everyone to list any asset worth over 1 year’s median net income, if it’s ownership is not already publicly registered (depending on jurisdiction, that already covers land, cars, shares, etc.). I’d suggest $x should be the value of the 90th percentile dwelling that’s owned by one or two natural persons, plus the 90th percentile 65yo’s 401k (or equivalent), plus the median value of cars under 3 years old, plus the median annual net income (for miscellaneous household goods), so most people are never affected by it.

Coming at it from the other side, I’d also specify that if any beneficiary of a corporation or trust, or any similar arrangement, is not identified to the taxman every individual provision of every law or regulation must be applied as if he’s whoever it applied to in the least favourable way, and if you’re found to be intentionally or recklessly acting on behalf of a secret principal and don’t disclose that, all the assets under your management escheat to the crown.

 

[Eng_wkzm]

we use paper straw so the rich can fly all over the world and have luxurious car races, yay

Oh, you are such a poor little guy. I feel sorry for you.
But, don’t worry, you have my permission to use a metal straw from now on.

 

[PatientZero]

It’s just madness that this has become so normalised with EV’s.

...I honestly think this is just Polestars (maybe because of Google?)

I've owned Nissan, Chevy, and Hyundai EVs for over a decade, and have never had to once hard reset anything.

 

[iceice1972]

You require anyone with assets worth more than $x to declare all items they own , or have any interest in, and sign a binding offer to gift or sell for one day’s dole any unlisted asset to any comer, and a sworn statement that they have no standing to contest any expropriation or damage to any other asset. I’d also require everyone to list any asset worth over 1 year’s median net income, if it’s ownership is not already publicly registered (depending on jurisdiction, that already covers land, cars, shares, etc.). I’d suggest $x should be the value of the 90th percentile dwelling that’s owned by one or two natural persons, plus the 90th percentile 65yo’s 401k (or equivalent), plus the median value of cars under 3 years old, plus the median annual net income (for miscellaneous household goods), so most people are never affected by it.

Coming at it from the other side, I’d also specify that if any beneficiary of a corporation or trust, or any similar arrangement, is not identified to the taxman every individual provision of every law or regulation must be applied as if he’s whoever it applied to in the least favourable way, and if you’re found to be intentionally or recklessly acting on behalf of a secret principal and don’t disclose that, all the assets under your management escheat to the crown.

I think we would be served well by going to a tax structure akin to what we had in the 60s and would love to see no more billionaires, but I can't get behind a wealth tax because of the difficulty in determining asset value as well as the idea of taxing someone 50% of the value of something year after year.

Say someone has an interest in a private company that hasn't gone through funding rounds, who decides the value of that? How would you ensure that the value their appraiser is assigning to it is fair, how do you keep them from using vehicles such as private business to shield wealth?

And say someone has $100MM in stock, so you take $50MM and leave them with $50MM and then tax them $25MM, leaving them with $25MM then $12.5MM and on and on. To do that year after year means essentially you're just taking all of their assets.

A return to 60s tax structure, with the addition of a tax on loans against assets of a certain value (say $10MM loans or higher) that would allow for a refund if those assets were sold at a lower value in the future, would shrink income inequality and deincentivize high pay multiples. If you're high income and another $1MM in income only means $20k in take-home, how much effort are you likely to put into trying to get that extra million when you're already living a very comfortable life? It worked before for keeping income inequality down and it would work again.

 

[Deleted member 221201]

But this day ended with a parade through Rome, so we scarfed down lunch and headed off to charge once again. This time, the Polestar team took pity on our jetlag and let us climb into a support car to nap as our 3 topped up.

Polestar provided flights from Los Angeles to Milan and accommodation so Ars could participate in the Green Mille Miglia. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

If Polestar is paying for the flights then an earlier flight could be booked with an upgrade to Premiunm Econony (if applicable) or if they flew you Business class (lie flat, sleep)

In either case good planning and staying hydrated with plenty of water, no alcohol will minimize any jetlag

Either Polestar is selling well overseas or they are throwing a boatload of money to generate buzz because their SoCal store location is always empty

 

[Snark218]

If Polestar is paying for the flights then an earlier flight could be booked with an upgrade to Premiunm Econony (if applicable) or if they flew you Business class (lie flat, sleep)

Are you proposing that a corporate account manager is going to spring for a $2000 lie-flat plane ticket for a journalist attending a presser?

 

[Deleted member 221201]

Are you proposing that a corporate account manager is going to spring for a $2000 lie-flat plane ticket for a journalist attending a presser?

There are different levels so please read my post again
Economy + does not cost $2000
If you already have a seat you may be able to upgrade for a nominal amount + miles which might be viable given the amount of travel the author has done in the past few years

 

[sdean7855]

Thank you for the Bugattis. I grew up with two of them.built circa 1930, bought by my father in 1960 for $2500...FWIW, they were utterly dependable...always started and ran flawlessly. When my father sold the T40 (a body prototype of the Coupe Atlantique), its new owner drove it from Chicago to a meet in Maine...he had a chase truck and trailer,...but never needed it, drove the distance in a joyous summer top-down road trip.
My father's cars (sedans) and the full GP race Bugs shown in the picture speak of a different time and mechanical spirit. Ettore would disdain the rocket sleds that bear his name these days, and driving the cars of yore require skill and involvement lone gone in the cars of today. Hitting a doubleclutch downshift, no syncro-mesh, with howling straightcut gears, done right is like hitting a home run...
Gone, gone, gone beyond.

 

[MesserWolf]

I think they have a point. It's supposed to be a historic rally.

It's bad enough having to put up with gigantic ugly SUVs on my commute. I'd be pretty annoyed at seeing one on the Mille Miglia.

Agree - what do few bland EV cars have to do with a “rally” of beautiful historical cars?

 

[TuomasL]

It seems that a more interesting (at least to the general public) would be a Mille Miglia inspired race, that focused on EVs and specifically was aimed at measuring their range and charging perfomace.

Have a catagory for factory spec cars, and one for EV conversions of those that raced in the original series.

 

[BobbyBobberson]

I'd rather let the rich do their races but tax them 50% on their net worth. its the straw man argument conservative radio's been using for 30 years, its stupid, disingenuous, and wouldn't be a problem if we had done anything constructive on climate change between now and 50 years ago

The problem is that paper straws are forced on us now but the rich will never be taxed 50% of the net worth. And EV companies will continue to fly writers in from around the world to demo their cars.