Wednesday, January 30, 2019
More 1969
Reading some of the stories of Tesla failure in winter.
The 1969 connection is strong today.
As I read about the Tesla, my neighbor is starting up his '69 Microbus. (He runs some kind of photo service and has a camera platform on top.) Temperature here is 19, not far from the 16 in the Tesla story. Like all non-Tesla cars, the neighbor didn't need to preheat the car before he could even access the doorhandle. Just grab, pull, open. The VW is poorly tuned and runs rough. In the old days I could have smoothed it out in 10 minutes, but I've lost my tools and skills, so I don't succumb to the temptation. Now I'd only do harm.
Despite being 50 years old and poorly tuned, it starts right up. keeps running, and takes the neighbor to his job. VWs were not especially DURABLE in comparison to other small cars of the era, but VWs were RELIABLE. They always started and always tried to run.
The Tesla is only a few months old. All of its parameters are Githubbed to the latest femtosecond. It can't be opened and can't be started.
Later: As the snow piled higher, the neighbor finally gave up on starting his Microbus and decided to take pictures OF it instead of using it as a platform to take pictures FROM. Even without the sign I could tell he was a real photographer. He struck a pose to take the picture. Ordinary people just hold the camera and click the button. Real photographers always get into dramatic poses.
Labels: coot-proofing
¶ 8:19 AM
