Electric vehicles

[Andy Bennet]

Of course!

[Robin]

Well I suppose a silver lining may be that theft of cable would fall off as a certain class of criminal switched to nicking tyres to cut and cash in.

[Andy Bennet]

Each tyre has a microchip embedded in the rubber (like dog chipping) and is logged at the MOT test. Tyre fitting stations can also update the cars MOT data so tyres can be locked to car data.

[Roger Hayter]

You will need a government inspector to certify destructive punctures.

[Tim Streater]

Switching to fibre might help that.

[Steve Walker]

I hope that they go for a straight electricity used tax or a straight mileage tax. Effectively a direct replacement for fuel duty. I do not agree with varying the rates at different times, in different areas, etc. as it simply penalises those that have little choice about where and when to travel.

The majority of those in work are typically restricted as to when they can travel and of course where from and to. Their only choice then becomes mode of transport. Car sharing can work, but many people start and finish over a range of times, need to stop off at places on the way there or back or need to be able to rush off at zero notice if they get a call from school or a dependent relative; buses and trains are very limiting in their timings, routes, etc.; bikes are no good for those physically unable to use them, who need to carry things, who need to arrive fresh and dry or who ned to travel longer distances (perhaps by motorway).

I have the "choice" of car (20 minutes each way) or train/bus (1-1/2 to

2 hours each way ... allowing for them not connected to the times I need to arrive and leave, connections between them, etc.) Not using the car would simply mean having little time to get anything done in the evening, to spend with my family or to go out. Life would just turn into a constant round of getting up, going to work, coming home, cooking and cleaning, going to bed ready to get up early the next morning. That's no life.

[Andrew]

Not blue, brown, black or grey ?

[The Natural Philosopher]

They will stick GPS in every car and couple it up to a credit card in order for the f****ng thing to respond to the go pedal

[The Natural Philosopher]

The tyre fitters, clam back the VAT on unworn tyres.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Before cars, people simply lived on bus or train routes. My father bought a house within easy walking - maybe a mile - of a train station with 45 minute trains to the part of London he worked in.

But relax, we are all zoomed out now. outer Hebrides and optical fibre.

[Tim Lamb]

That seems unavoidable! How practical is it?

A couple of Jack Reacher novels refer to police recording their car journeys via gps information.

[tim...]

before cars

people lived within walking distance of work

[tim...]

I know you posted that as a laugh

but personally I think the credit card in the slot is a much better way of paying per mile than simply transparently billing the keeper's bank account.

There are lots of scenarios where payment for use of a vehicle, other than by the keeper, is required.

Starting with the rental market, where having to post process the monthly bill back to the 20 people who rented this car this month is going to add on a considerable admin fee from the rental company for each hire.

[tim...]

they do what??????????

[The Natural Philosopher]

not entirely.

I think it will come down to that. then the internet crashes and everyone is f***ed

[Steve Walker]

Yes and lived shit lives because they could not get decently paid jobs or spent many hours of the day travelling back and forth.

How is an engineering design company, needing qualified and experienced engineers and designers, to work if it can only recruit people that can walk to the office? What when a worker's spouse needs to be at their employment in another location? What when work and affordable housing are not available in the same location? What when someone changes jobs and their spouse must change theirs and their children change schools? What when suitable work is some distance away, but you have caring responsibilities that require you to live where you are?

Just accept that work, home, family cannot easily all be in the same location these days and people have to travel - unless we are all to go back to a pre-industrial, agrarian society.

[The Natural Philosopher]

By building houses for them.

^What when a worker's spouse needs to be at their

Workers spouses didnt need employment. They kept the home and looked after the children and actsed as community policemen as well.

Then you move the work or pay the workers more. Why the FUCK do you think that the northern industrial towns even exist? They are built where water power or coal power and sheep were not far away. People moved there or starved.

What when someone changes jobs

People didnt do that, then.

Then move Or get another job

Bollocks. The industrial age had f*ck all transport. You mean retreating from a post war consumer society rat race. Well it would be no bad thing

and with the internet work doesn't need to be further away than a laptop

[nightjar]

Not really. It would effectively be a specialised smart meter, fitted to the car. Payment could be through your electricity bill.

Assuming that would even be needed. Congestion charges are already an established way to deal with traffic congestion, while the whole point of getting people to move to electric cars is the claimed reduction in pollution.

That could be overcome by allowing the in-car meter to recognise when it is being charged from a public charging point. That would allow the tax to be collected at point of sale, with the meter not registering that electricity charge as taxable. Anybody travelling abroad is likely to be using public charging points, unless they have a second home. In that case, a way of detecting which home the vehicle was at would allow the right electricity bill to be charged.

Given a possible loss of £28bn a year revenue, HMRC will come up with a way to overcome any obstacles you can think of.

[Andrew]

real work doesn't involve the internet.

[charles]

That entirely depends on what work is involved.