With all the other stuff you’ve got going on you might want to look into solar. EVs are pretty popular with real preppers because you can be completely off grid with your own solar or wind or micro-hydro as an energy source for your vehicle as well as your home. With an ICE/diesel you are dependent on the petrochemical industry unless you refine your own biodiesel. Solar for the EV is a lot easier.
When the Colonial Pipeline went down in pre-COVID time due to a ransom-ware attack all my friends and neighbors who drive ICE vehicles were scrambling and panicking, but with an EV we had no worries. We also use our EV as a backup power supply for our home during power outages.
An EV is actually much less likely to be a brick if the grid goes down than an ICE vehicle. There are lots of ways an individual can generate their own electricity (solar being the most common and obvious) but not so many ways for an individual to refine their own petroleum into gas.
Interesting idea. My concern with Tesla is the network/software going down. Although it is somewhat safer being satellite based vs local cable provider dependent.
We have resisted solar simply because it requires tying into our electrical provider in some way. There is no (legal) option to simply install solar and have it feed only your house and needs unless you completely go off the commercial grid.
A Tesla can be driven when the network is down. Per Google:
“ Yes, a Tesla can be driven normally when the network or internet connection is disconnected. [1]
What Still Works Offline
Core Driving: Steering, braking, acceleration, and the powertrain operate entirely using onboard hardware and local computers. [1]
Safety & Driver Assistance: Most safety features and basic Autopilot/Full Self-Driving functions work without an internet connection because local sensors handle them. [1, 2]
Unlocking and Starting: Bluetooth phone keys or key cards communicate directly with the car locally, meaning you can still unlock and start the vehicle. [1]
What You Lose Without a Network
Live Navigation & Traffic: Standard maps will display basic layouts, but live traffic routing, satellite view, and online destination searches will not update. [1]
Entertainment: Online media streaming (such as Spotify or Netflix) and the web browser will not function unless you connect the car to a phone’s Wi-Fi hotspot. [1, 2]
Remote App Access: You cannot use the Tesla mobile app to check vehicle status, control climate, or unlock the car remotely. [1]
Software Updates: New firmware updates cannot be downloaded or installed. [1]”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said there remains a fundamental difference in worldview between his company and rival Anthropic on artificial intelligence regulation, arguing in an exclusive interview with Decoded by POLITICO that the technology’s benefits justify accepting some risks — and that AI should remain broadly accessible to the public.
Perhaps he could accept risks for himself, but I think it’s a pretty big ask to assume the rest of us should accept the risks he thinks it’s fine to take on.
Sam Altman to Decoded: ‘The world should accept some bad things happening’ for the benefit of AI Sam Altman and the very small group of CEOs controlling GenAI, so they can become trillionaires.
I was watching Jon Stewart the other day, talking about AI with a guest. He was showing all these tech oligarchs talking about how AI would reduce jobs, and maybe people wouldn’t have jobs at all….which would be fine because there would be so much wealth that people would have high income and standard of living created by the AI, lifting everyone out of poverty.
It sounded great, then you realize who is saying that. The richest man in the world who takes massive government subsidies and gives nothing to charity. The person who demands people work extremely long hours and fires them in a second. The person who mass fired government employees for the enjoyment of it (and had to hire many back), cut USAID to the point they think millions may die because of that.
I’m thinking this pretense of massive wealth and prosperity to create a perfect society and lift people from poverty, by a few guys who want to collect wealth only in their own bank accounts is a serious lie to placate the masses.
I saw that, as well. Where, pray tell, would this “high income” come from? Income comes from jobs or some sort of investments. If jobs are gone, where would the income (or money for investments) come from? The money tree on every street corner? Sure, the gazillionaires are going to suddenly begin sharing their wealth by providing everyone a universal high income. Righhhhtttttt. They already have more money than they will ever need, and they are still trying to get regulatory relief and tax breaks. I don’t believe for a second that they will ever believe that they have “enough” and will want to share.
At least with the theory of trickle down economics, they weren’t claiming you wouldn’t need one of those disappearing jobs, since you’d have so much money anyways.
For those interested in the insights of Alan Turing, in 1950 he commented on the concept of machine thought and on his anticipated evolution of language regarding machine thought:
We were watching the news this morning, and the weather person went on about how the Google AI model was so awesome, predicting what the national hurricane forecast model predicted. Well, duh. What information do you think was used to train Google AI? If the Google AI model is dramatically different from the national model AND is correct, then it will be news.
Calculators might be regarded as a primitive form of symbolic AI. However, the neural networks of current computing rely on a different conceptual framework. In other words, while calculators may “scale up” to symbolic artificial intelligence, they cannot scale up to neural networks. People seeking to understand the implications of modern artificial intelligence should consider this distinction.
