Notable

London's Urban Foxes

Alan Taylor:

London's urban fox population has been growing and becoming more visible since the early 20th century. Foxes are well adapted to city and suburban life, and their numbers appear to have stabilized at about 10,000 foxes living in the gardens, parks, and alleyways of London alone.

Foxes really are everywhere in London, we hear and see them often. Seeing them I don't mind but hearing them at 2am fighting, mating or just being foxy(?!), can be really annoying.

Posted 5th Aug 2023 @ 09:00

The Yankees Booger Up Their Uniforms With Patches From Starr Insurance

Baseball fans don't know how good they've got it. Admittedly team names in large fonts isn't my taste. Puma tried this for away shirts recently in football and it was awful.

I would take sleeve sponsorship over shirt sponsorship any day. But jerseys should be unsponsored.

Posted 1st Aug 2023 @ 11:18

Teslas' Estimated Range Does Not Reflect Driving Conditions

Not surprised at all that this is the approach Tesla have taken. I've very quickly gone from being a fan to not caring about Tesla at all anymore. And that happened before Musk took over Twitter X. The EV space is moving on, self-driving is nowhere near being achievable from what I've seen and range anxiety / battery health are probably the biggest concerns that are not close to being addressed yet.

What I will say though is that no car in the history of the world has given an accurate range projection (as far as I'm aware). This is not unique to Tesla, but this is awful:

Tesla models get less than half their estimated range.

My own recent experiences with claimed range are tied to two mild-hybrids. Both achieve around 70-75% of the manufacturers advertised economy. Both also adjust their predictions based on recent driving experiences. If I've taken a long journey, and achieved better economy, then the claimed range will be longer than if I've been driving around town.

One car is fairly consistent with what the claimed range is, the other (newer) is pessimistic on a full tank and a little optimistic on half a tank but it basically averages out. Why Tesla wouldn't go this route confuses me. It's surely an easy algorithm for them to implement and to present something tied to reality. WLTP is fine, but I'd much prefer that manufacturers had a pessimistic view on the range available than presenting an optimistic and unrealistic picture that no-one can really achieve.

Take this Mercedes concept vehicle, the Vision EQXX. They shot for 1,000km and hit 1,008km with 140km left in the tank. That is how you address the range of your car.

Posted 28th Jul 2023 @ 09:13

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