EVs won't save the planet. Ultimately, the material bill for billions of individual vehicles and the unavoidable geometry of more cars-more traffic-more roads-greater distances-more cars dictate that the future of our cities and planet requires public transit - *lots* of it.
--
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/26/unplanned-obsolescence/#better-micetraps
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--
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/26/unplanned-obsolescence/#better-micetraps
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2 użytkowników udostępniło to dalej
Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/2
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/3
In policy circles, EV adoption is treated as a logistical and financial issue, so governments have focused on making EVs affordable and increasing the density of charging stations.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/4
But there's a third EV problem that is almost entirely off policy radar: enshittification.
An EV is a rolling computer in a fancy case with a squishy person inside of it. While this can sound scary, there are lots of cool implications for this.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/5
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/6
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/7
https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/
EVs are *also* designed so that the manufacturer can unilaterally exert control over them or alter their operation.
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Cory Doctorow: IP
Locus OnlineCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/8
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon
Manufacturers can reach into your car and change how much of your battery you can access:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edison-not-tesla/#demon-haunted-world
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/9
https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/03/18/tesla-allegedly-remotely-unlocks-model-3-owners-car-uses-smart-summon-to-help-repo-agent/
And of course, they can detect when you've asked independent mechanic service your car and then punish you by degrading its functionality:
https://www.repairerdrivennews.com/2024/06/26/two-of-eight-claims-in-tesla-anti-trust-lawsuit-will-move-forward/
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Tesla allegedly remotely unlocks Model 3 owner's car, uses smart summon to help repo agent - Alt Car news
Paulo Acoba (Alt Car news)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/10
https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/
The thing is, for an EV, twiddling is the *best case* scenario.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/11
That's what just happened to owners of Fisker EVs, cars that cost $40-70k. Cars are long-term purchases.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/12
https://insideevs.com/news/723669/fisker-inc-bankruptcy-chapter-11-official/
Fisker called its vehicles "software-based cars" and they weren't kidding. Without continuous software updates and server access, those Fisker Ocean SUVs are turning into bricks.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/13
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/14
This confers a huge advantage onto the big automakers like VW, Kia, Ford, etc. Tesla gets a pass, too, because it achieved critical mass before people started to wise up to the risk of twiddling and bricking.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/15
The incumbency advantage here means that the big automakers won't have any reason to sink a lot of money into R&D, because they won't have to worry about hungry startups with cool new ideas eating their lunches.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/16
https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/23/23474969/mercedes-car-subscription-faster-acceleration-feature-price
Put that way, it's clear that this isn't an EV problem, it's a *cleantech* problem.
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Mercedes locks faster acceleration behind a yearly $1,200 subscription
Jess Weatherbed (The Verge)Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/17
And just as with EVs, policymakers have focused on infrastructure and affordability without paying any attention to the enshittification risks.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/18
I found this out the hard way during the covid lockdowns, when Solaredge terminated its 3G cellular contract and notified me that I would have to replace the modem in my system or it would stop working.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/19
There are good reasons to connect rooftop solar arrays to the internet - it's not just so that Solaredge can enshittify my service.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/20
But when the imperatives of extraction and efficiency go to war, extraction always wins.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/21
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/22
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/23
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/24
When we started shopping for heat pumps, it was clear that this was a *very* exciting sector. First of all, heat pumps are kind of *magic*, so efficient and effective it's almost surreal.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/25
By nature, I'm the kid of person who *likes* these digital features. I started out as a computer programmer, and while I haven't written production code since the previous millennium, I've been in and around the tech industry for my whole adult life.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/26
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/27
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/28
Take home batteries: your utility can push its rates to your battery every time they change their prices, and your battery can use that information to decide when to let your house tap into the grid, and when to switch over to powering your home with the solar you've stored up during the day.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet
Cleantech is a very dynamic sector, even if its triumphs are largely unheralded.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/30
https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/12/s-curve/#anything-that-cant-go-on-forever-eventually-stops
But cleantech is too important to leave to the incumbents, who are addicted to enshittification and planned obsolescence.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/31
It's not enough for our policymakers to focus on financing and infrastructure barriers to cleantech adoption. We also need a policy-level response to enshittification.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/32
* Based on free software (best), or with source code escrowed with a trustee who *must* release the code if the company enters administration (distant second-best);
* All patents in a royalty-free patent-pool (best); or in a trust that will release them into a royalty-free pool if the company enters administration (distant second-best);
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/33
* All diagnostic and error codes in the public domain, with all codes in the clear within the device (best); or with decoding utilities available on demand to all comers on a reasonable and non-discriminatory basis (distant second-best).
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/34
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/35
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/36
There's also an obvious *legal* objection to this: creating these policies will require a huge amount of action from Congress *and* the executive branch, a whole whack of new rules and laws to make them happen, and each will attract court-challenges.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/37
However, we don't have to wait for legal reform to make this work. We can take a shortcut with *procurement* - the things governments buy with public money.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/38
This is an old and honorable tradition in policymaking. Lincoln insisted that the rifles he bought for the Union Army come with interoperable tooling and ammo, for obvious reasons.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/39
By creating a market for enshittification-proof cleantech, governments can ensure that the public always has the option of buying an EV that can't be bricked even if the maker goes bust.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/40
We're going to have to change a *lot* to survive the coming years. Sure, there's a lot of scary ways that things can go wrong, but there's plenty about our world that *should* change, and plenty of ways those changes could be for the better.
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/41
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Cory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/42
https://www.hope.net/talks.html
On July 20, I'm appearing at Chicago's Exile in Bookville:
https://exileinbookville.com/events/39808
--
Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!
https://clarionwriteathon.com/members/profile.php?writerid=293388
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Authors on Tap: Cory Doctorow
exileinbookville.comCory Doctorow
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/eof
臺灣古寫真上色 (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raid_on_Kagi_City_1945.jpg
Grendelkhan (modified)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ground_mounted_solar_panels.gk.jpg
CC BY-SA 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en
eof/
File:Raid on Kagi City 1945.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
commons.wikimedia.orgrhizomatic arcade
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/33
Martin Hamilton
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/14
see shy jo
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/12
n8chz 🩎
•Ostrzeżenie o treści: Long thread/3
Peter Brown
•And they are also at their best at speeds under 40 miles an hour, becoming very greedy over 60.
Both of these factors will help modal shift to mass transit across longer distances and should help to reduce average traffic speeds.
Cory Doctorowudostępnił to.
Brianary
•The US needs much more investment in rail before we can stop using cars, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, where train service is perfunctory at best. I really hoped this would be a major benefit of Biden in the White House.
Arandmoor
•Help us keep the air clear and get the HSR built and people like me will help by raising our voices when the CA project is complete to continue extending the rails north towards Seattle.
John Deters
•Tom Andraszek
•Cory Doctorowudostępnił to.
keithzg
•JohnW
•EV's and clean tech can gain consumer trust and even fortify themselves against collapse with interchangeable software and even parts.
The "Right to repair" bill was a step in the right direction. I hope, with some amendments, that it can be the basis for a more consumer friendly clean tech industry.
Tom Ritchford
•It's why the US's recent climate and infrastructure bill, with the give-the-punchline-away title of the "Inflation Reduction Act" was so desperately disappointing. What America needed was a national public transport initiative; what they got was money given to the states peacemeal to do with as they pleased, which mostly meant "more highways for more cars".
Kevin Leecaster
•