The EV debate; Electric or Internal Combustion vehicles?

[DAA]

I find it interesting that everyone gets worked up about EV charging, but nobody is batting an eye on the massive electrical load of AI.

Maybe it's just because of my job, and that my company is leaning very, VERY heavily into AI. But amongst the people I talk to the most, day to day, much eye fluttering is happening in regards to the electrical demands of AI. Like, it's an almost constant background thread of conversation in my day to day work life. We are kind of betting the farm on AI and electric power is a big talking point.

But, as I talked about in my first post in this thread. The conversation isn't around power generation. It's around the incontovertible fact that the grid isn't in any shape to handle significant increases in either generation or demand. It kind of doesn't matter how much energy we can produce if we can't distribute it effectively. And as of now, we can't.

- DAA

 

[DAA]

And... Maybe, perhaps, EV power demands will ride the coat tails of AI power demands and end up being just ants in the afterbirth. AI has the full attention of a good chunk of the billionaires @moab_cj5 listed. The power and the money, which are the same thing, very much have their attention and desirers focused on AI.

It could be, AI will provide all the impetus needed to make EV charging a convenient after thought.

- DAA

 

[Tonkaman]

Since I'm in the fire industry my first concerns are the fact that it is extremely difficult to contain an EV fire.

Most fire authorities are still trying to figure out how to protect against these lithium fires. Once the batteries get hot enough for thermal runaway there is nothing you can do. Firefighters just cover it with tens of thousands of gallons of water and wait for it to eventually burn itself out.

If the fire authorities aren’t even comfortable with letting an EV park in a commercial parking garage, then I certainly don’t want one in my homes garage!

Given the recent California fires it’s easy to pictures just how vulnerable our houses are once fire takes hold. Imagine if everyone of those garages and streets were filled with EVs. The intensity of that fire would have gotten exponentially worse.