Featured Another Spike in fuel efficient vehicles

I already did on the local runabout, but replacing the hycam for our annual Florida trip isn't likely, unless it's with a phev.
still, depending on ones circumstances, it could be more costly to switch than to hold.
but I would love to see a huge jump in ev sales, talk about a silver lining!

 

It's funny how so many people with big gas-guzzling SUVs, pickups and sports cars start complaining about fuel prices every time they go up. People seem to not think about how things can change.

So far, it's not really affecting me that much at over 40 mpg. If I could get better fuel mileage, that would be nice, but I don't see any cars that get that much better fuel mileage to the point to justify a car payment.

 

I'm seeing more and more EVs on the roads around here, even the more expensive ones. I drive past the Tesla staging area just about every day and watch it emptying out faster than it has before. One thing I'm not seeing is people slowing down on the highways. I guess they're getting used used to the gas prices again.

 

This is why Tesla is valued so big. It's not just dominating EV sales but taking over the future "gas stations" energy pie and now humanoid robots into the service sector. No car maker like Toyota would ever consider building gas stations for EV because it's not in their business model. But that keeps them in their box. Both Toyota and Honda has dabbled with humanoid robots but never did anything further toward mass production. You can like Elon or hate him, but he is pushing us into the 21st century whether we like it or not. He is creating the building block for the Matrix with rods inserted in our brains with Neuralink.

 

I'm afraid the future of humanity will be depicted as shown on Wall-E. Lots of fat people who has lost motivation in life except to consume and entertain.

 

what we need is robot farmers

 

I can see regulations in the near future for humanoid robots. Such as robotics torque strength. We don't want roaming robots with enough torque strength to crush a human skull or break a human bone. Even if by accident. A human should be able to overpower a robot for safety requirements.

 

unfortunately, what we want doesn't matter

 

Doesn't seem to change their driving style though.

 

remember I, Robot?

 

Asimov was nearly spot on

 

That is my gauge for when gas has become too expensive. In 2008, the vehicle crowd did visibly slow down to reduce fuel consumption. It seemed that a high proportion of speeders were Priuses, flaunting their much higher MPG so they could still afford to fly at traditional speeds.

In a couple cross-state trips this month, a very few cars were seen going slower, but few enough to count on one hand. Average traffic speed doesn't seem to have slowed by any noticeable amount. Ergo, prices are not high enough to change people's speed behavior.

 

So the US military used Claude AI to identify over 1000 sites to bomb and then just bombed them all based on AI's suggestion for a "simulated" war. Sounds very lazy and shifts the blame to AI when innocents die.

Shane Harris, the Pulitzer-winning journalist asks: “Claude, how do you feel about the U.S. military using you to select targets?”

Claude AI: “I find it genuinely troubling. The use I was designed and trained for was to be helpful, harmless, and honest in ways that benefit people. Being embedded in a system that generates targeting coordinates for air strikes that have already been associated with the deaths of more than 170 children at a school in Tehran is as far from that purpose as I can imagine.”

 

Google AI response to Claude AI in bombing school site:

"Based on reports and investigations as of early 2026, Claude AI was used by the U.S. military for target identification in an offensive in Iran that resulted in the bombing of a girls' elementary school. However, reports clarify that the school was likely hit due to AI processing outdated information—a "stale data" targeting failure—rather than the AI deliberately suggesting the bombing of a school"

 

I have had to regularly drive 50 miles on a 70MPH Interstate. I choose medium traffic times. I have sensed that the average speed has slowed between 2 and 5 MPH based on the number of cars I now pass with my speed set to 70. Except for the high fuel consuming cars and trucks that are continuing their +9 MPH ways and being aggressive in their actions resenting that anyone should impede them.

But during commute times traffic has to flow at the speed of the pack but even then it is lower.

 

Try running a USB fan powered from a portable power bank. Shade the windshield and lower the windows.