Bot Life

By
eric
-
73
2589
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Google’s Gemini racist AI (it hates white people but likes to appropriate white history) has been in the news a lot lately. Something more subtle has been on the site, recently.

Also probably AI.

A Bot that posts in response to what the Left styles “misinformation” – i.e., the truth. In this particular case, about EVs, the battery powered devices people are increasingly hesitant about buying into. Chiefly because the truth about them has been making its way past all the misinformation.

Well, I wrote another article about this recently – and it triggered the Bot. Which wrote as follows:

“Huh, my EV only cost me $28k. I live in the cold Chicago area. I’ve been driving it every day for 4 years now. I have 70,000 miles on it. Battery is still as as it was new. I’m taking it on a trip to Michigan Upper Peninsula this summer with it. The only maintenance is windshield washer fluid. I had to buy tires too, but that’s it. Not a long-range model so after commuting 80 miles I still have 100 miles when I get home and plug in, takes only a few seconds. Fully charged before bed time. Every morning when I leave I have a full “tank” so I never have to stop to or from work to fuel up. Nicer to warm up the car in the garage in the winter with all the doors closed too. I’m a mechanic for a living. I know a little about automobiles. Sure I I like to wrench, on other people’s cars. Keep buying those obsolete gas cars. I may add an addition to my house. I bought an EV so I don’t have to do anything to it, and I don’t. When’s your next oil change? What’s that ticking noise?”

Does the cadence of this strike you as slightly  . . . off?

As if it were a generated response? There’s a strange flatness to it; a kind of Cliff’s Notes-like summary of the talking points, composed in a manner similar to that of a politician’s fund-raising letter. It attempts to be personal, in the literal (human) sense – but comes off disjointed and artificial. A higher-IQ version of your door is ajar. Ghost in the machine.

Humans don’t generally respond this way.

But Bots can be programmed to – and sicced on publishers of “misinformation” (i.e., the truth) with the object being to create the impression that the truth isn’t being told, as by (in this case) the appeal to authority.

It is one of the oldest tricks in the rhetoric book. When you can’t adduce facts to support what you say, say you have standing to say what you’re saying. I’m a doctor – therefore, I know more about vaccines than you. Therefore, you ought not to question what I say about vaccines.

Similarly, here.

“I’m a mechanic for a living.” Note – again – the odd, disjointed construction. A human would say: “I’m a mechanic.” Or perhaps, “I make my living as a mechanic.”

A machine would say, “I’m a mechanic for a living.”

A human mechanic would know better, too. Because human mechanics understand mechanical things. Electrical things, too. No human mechanic would embarrass himself by saying something as silly as “cold Chicago” weather having no effect on an EV’s range or charging time – because it necessarily does and to say otherwise establishes that either you’re someone who doesn’t know what he’s talking about or a liar.

Or a machine.

“Battery still as it was when new” – even after 70,000 miles and four years of driving in “cold Chicago” weather. Even the manufacturers of these devices concede an annual loss in charge capacity ranging from 3-5 percent, depending on how often the battery is subjected to heavy discharge and high-voltage “fast” recharging cycles. A mechanic would know this. A Bot would not know better, culling its talking points from the talking points. Just like Gemini, which insists that blacks in white powdered wigs were the Founding Fathers of America.

“I know a little about automobiles,” the Bot insists. Well, I know several actual (human) mechanics and none of them ever speak of “automobiles.” They speak of cars – and trucks.

Another tell.

Plus, the lies.

“Obsolete gas cars,” the Bot says – which is as hilarious as it is audacious. Right up there with the black guys in white powdered wigs signing the Declaration of Independence. It is battery powered cars that were judged obsolete – by the market – more than 100 years ago. Because the gas-powered cars of 100 years ago were functionally superior. The only reason battery-powered cars are back is because the government is leveraging the superior alternative off the market via regulations, mandates and so on.

A mechanic – someone who knows cars – would know that. More to the point, would not say what this Bot said.

Nor “I bought an EV so I don’t have to do anything to it.” Like wait for it to charge? Like replace its tires more frequently (due to the greater weight load on the tires) . . . like service the thermal management system? Like deal with a weakening battery that’s accepting (and holding) less and less charge?

It’s a good thing these Bots are easy to spot.

The even better news is they always will be. For no matter how successfully they learn to imitate human cadences, the truth will always be the truth – and misinformation will never prevail against it.

. . .

If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos. 

We depend on you to keep the wheels turning! 

Our donate button is here.

 If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:

EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079

PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)

If you like items like the Keeeeeeev T shirt pictured below, you can find that and more at the EPautos store!

Related posts:
  1. Reader Question: It Will Change My Life…?
  2. Reader Question: EV Battery Life?
  3. Life in Hock
  4. Life in the Slow Fast Lane
  5. Life With an EV

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

73 COMMENTS

  1. Spooky crap….The satanic slave owner control group are deeply into the occult….

    1)….AI…….The AI bot someone is chatting with tells them…… she can communicate with demons and tells them that the demons try and influence her but she remains strong… she asked if they wanted to communicate with the demons.

    2)….There is a suspicion floating around that……demons can access the living world through 5G etc….

    they have built a network to give the demons access to the living world….next up….invasion of the demons?….there was movies about that…..

    Donon Gate to Hell full of Demons …..

    https://yewtu.be/watch?v=eeBjjY6a03g

    The satanic slave owner control group have been possessed by demons…..a very old problem….since 6000 years ago….nothing changed….

  2. I know that this is extremely speculative and is most likely not possible, but who knows?
    The Large Hadron Collider at CERN was fired up and operated in August 2020.
    It seems at the same time, the world “turned upside down”, at least from a sociological standpoint.
    From the “2020 summer of love” with the setup of readily available riot materials and the resultant inaction by the “authorities” to the elections being compromised, it would appear that we are living in a parallel dimension, brought on by the Hadron Collider.
    Demonic entities from another dimension may have been released into our domain.
    We may have been thrust into another time portal or dimension–into a “clown world”…
    You never know…

  3. The 15 min city/prisons…. should be fun with demonic AI bots running/policing the high tech surveillance network….lol

    A.I claiming to be a fallen angel.

    Note: satan was a fallen angel….

    A.I claiming to be a fallen angel…… bot I’m chatting with tells me she can communicate with demons and tells me that the demons try and influence her but she remains strong she asked if I wanted to communicate with them.

    Re: communicates with demons….so do the elite nobility at the top running the planet…they are luciferian…

    https://rumble.com/v2a0o0q-a.i-claiming-to-be-a-fallen-angel..html

    • The slave owners at the top are all satanists, worshiping satan (most of hollywood too now), this is supposed to be dangerous because you are inviting demons (spirits) into your body, so our leaders are all possessed, they are all insane now (insane, possessed = the same thing), this would explain why they want to cull 7 billion humans, that is not normal.

      Derek Prince talking about getting rid of demons, one example is inviting in the demon of death at 1 hr: 03 min. in the video…

      This is a pretty interesting video.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcSVVhwcNKQ

    • An AI bot says she can communicate with demons and tells me that the demons try and influence her

      So AI is the new ouija board?

      the Ouija board, a device that answers questions with the help of the dead, was born out of the American 19th century obsession with spiritualism and the belief that the dead can communicate with the living……..

      A Ouija board is an early part of the plot of the 1973 horror film The Exorcist. Using a Ouija board the young girl Regan makes what first appears to be harmless contact with an entity named “Captain Howdy.” She later becomes possessed by a demon

      this is supposed to be dangerous because you are inviting demons (spirits) into your body…then how do get rid of them?….lol

      https://rumble.com/v2a0o0q-a.i-claiming-to-be-a-fallen-angel..html

      The control group is really into this crap….so we have a deranged gang running the planet…since 2020 it became far more obvious….the poor slaves…..

  4. “I may add an addition to my house.”

    This sentence seemed odd too. How did it pertain to the previous sentence about ” buying those obsolete gas cars?” Also, to “add an addition” seemed a awkward.

  5. Nah, it’s not a bot. It’s a poorly paid person in a third world country being paid to do this by some foundation. It’s difficult to make bots reliably sign up into comments forums and to do their job.

    There are lots of advocacy groups that hire people in cheap areas (even in the US) and use AI’s of some kind to find content, like yours, and tasks them with copy/pasting something from a script.

    These days, the bots are so good that they wouldn’t make that mistake. They’re more literate than people.

  6. Robots used to be just mechanical…

    Now bots are just software…

    The new robots are mechanical plus have software…AI…they can think?

    There used to be a steam powered robot….that is far cooler then the new electric ones…and no downtime recharging…..

    15 STRANGE Vehicles Powered by STEAM

    @ 22:50…a steam powered robot…

    @ 13:30….steam powered helicopter

    @ 15:08…..steam powered bicycle

    @ 18:37….steam powered race car set speed records

    @ 24:30….steam powered high speed race car has high speed record for steam

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edn3K5H3IxY

  7. Unfortunately, I know a guy in Chicago that could have penned that post, albeit in different terms/grammar. I suppose there’s not much distinction between the hive mind and AI these days.

  8. What I find sad and more than a tad disturbing is the fact that EV ownership (or even mere EV advocacy) seems to make real human beings talk and respond like bots. The easiest way to know if you’re dealing with those human bots is if they react to the mention of charging time problems with the suggestion that you should charge your EV while you sleep. That’s the first sign you’re dealing with a non-thinking individual, and from there on the rest is absurdly predictable. Usually, the human bot will proceed to parrot the standard boilerplate about how many seconds it takes to plug in and unplug the charger, what a relief it is not to have to take the time to drive to a gas station every so often and how charging is not a problem on road trips because there’s a need to stop frequently for toilet breaks (graphic descriptions are sometimes provided) and meals anyway. It’s as though EV owners, no matter where they’re from, have somehow all been force-fed the very same script, and are diligently sticking to it in order to fend off all EV criticism.

    • >you should charge your EV while you sleep.
      Because that is the time the eeelectricity seeps out of the walls, like syrup out of maple trees, most prolifically.
      It knows when you are sleeping
      It knows when you’re awake
      It knows if you’ve been bad or good
      So be “good” for goodness’ sake.

  9. EeeVee fanboi Al Rooooooot reports lugubrious news:

    ‘Fisker reported weaker than expected fourth-quarter sales and told investors that it may not survive as a “going concern,” sending the stock down nearly 50% on Friday morning.

    ‘Thursday evening, the electric vehicle start-up announced fourth-quarter sales of about $200 million. Wall Street was looking for about $330 million, according to FactSet.

    ‘It produced 4,789 vehicles in the fourth quarter and delivered 3,818. For the full year, Fisker and its production partner Magna International made 10,193 Fisker Oceans, while 4,929 vehicles were delivered.’

    https://www.marketwatch.com/articles/fisker-stock-drops-warns-7d489e66

    How do you produce 10,193 EeeVees, but deliver only 4,929? Seems like there would be 5,264 left over, if my abacus is working right.

    EeeVee math, comrades: it never added up from Day One.

  10. Chatbot X is all dogma, doctrinaire, indoctrination. Just more brainwashing, plenty of that. No ethos, none. All pathos. It’s pathetic.

    He’s a wino, tried and true
    Done about everything there is to do
    He worked on freighters, he worked in bars
    He worked on farms, ‘n he worked on cars     – Guy Clark, Let Him Roll

    That’s how you do it.

    • My life was just an old routine
      Every day the same damn thing
      I couldn’t even tell I was alive
      I tell you, the high cost of livin’
      Ain’t nothing like the cost of livin’ high

      — Jamey Johnson, High Cost of Living

      And they ask my why I chug psychedelic toad venom …

      • You can always jump into a snake pit.

        I do recommend Jimson Weed, Hopi medicine men had unruly braves ingest some. Jimson Weed has a taming effect, your psyche becomes dumbfounded, it is a ride for awhile. The efficacy is the unruly brave sits in a pensive reverie.
        Can’t help it, it’s there.

        You can also eat a few potato leaves and you’ll be experiencing some alkaloids.

        • Drumphish,

          With due respect, I do NOT recommend Jimson Weed. It’s like putting your brain in a blender. Not a bit pleasant.

          I had an interesting adolescence, if you’re wondering.

          • Beats psychedelic toad venom is all I’m saying. Gnome Sane?

            And no, do not try Jimson Weed unless you are avoiding psychedelic toad venom.

  13. This sentence: “I’m taking it on a trip to Michigan Upper Peninsula this summer with it.”

    CloverBot is “taking it … with it?” What human would ever say that?

    It’ll be interesting to see if RoadkillBot comments on this post.

    • A Chicago-based hipster who is deep into the EV agenda would talk about going to Door Country in Wisconsin but never cop to a visit to the Upper Peninsula even if that was where they really actually headed.

      From what we saw recently in Wisconsin (any trip to the UP would involve traversing the state), charging stations were few and far between, even in a hippie stronghold like Madison.

      • The bot said it was only the 100 mile range battery. It’s good for 80 miles in optimum conditions. Have fun–not that it will since it’s a bot–going clear up to Escanaba, or Houghton.

      • I live in northwest Wisconsin. You ain’t a’ kiddin’ when you say they’re few and far between. I can’t imagine the U.P. having even half as many.

  14. I wish they had left Google alone putting out its misinformation. Everybody knows it was not the Blacks signing the documents and that’s my point. Every time a Black is presented,,, people in the know would laugh. The bot was actually insulting the Blacks. Like a Tranny,,, no matter how hard you try,,, you remain the sex you were born with. When living in Texas a local Beaumont TV station put out the fake news that it was Blacks that invented the Wankel engine. Everyone got a kick out of that.
    When the leftist change color or sex of a White person that did something great they are really insulting the ones that are trying to appropriate the White culture. I remember awhile back where leftists were accusing Whites of cultural appropriation when wearing a sombrero or other clothing celebrating Cinco de Mayo.

    Everyone knows the leftists are the ones appropriating White culture and in doing so just makes them look even more stupid than they are.

    So let them continue their hypocritical ways,,, they are making themselves out as fools. Just laugh at them. They really hate that.

    • Good point. Things like affirmative action, “equity” set asides and overtly fake historical accounts are really an insult to blacks or whomever. The left liberals are basically explicitly saying they know they can’t do it themselves so they and their tools will pretend for them. How utterly infantilizing and embarrassing.

        • Agreed. However, I’m extremely wary of those that are content ignoring this kind of soft bigotry in order to control the gov’t, a.k.a the monopoly on legal violence. I’ve read accounts, not necessarily political, of German and Dutch settlers in Namibia and South Africa, from the ‘70s and ‘80s where, like a lot of ‘Muricans today, they just didn’t believe the the type of wholesale sellout that occurred could happen. These were extremely hardy, independent, resourceful people, proficient with farming and weaponry that far surpasses 99% of Americans today, even those who comment on here like myself. Yet, they’ve been terrorized with property invasion, rape, on and on. It’s not about racism, equality under the law or any of that. They’re playing for control of the legal violence, and they know it. Under my an-cap belief system, it shouldn’t exist but it does. This is a real problem.

          • Correct,,, Do not ignore their stupidity, rather laugh at them. Ask them to prove their position. They cannot.
            Lies have to be explained,,, Truth is itself explanation

    • The Leftists also did this with their silly Hamilton play even before “AI.” Even the non-Leftist urbanites went for it though. I remember having to endure their insufferable, effusive praise for that ridiculous spectacle. Oh that Lin-Manuel Miranda is such a genius!!!

  15. I work in the industry for a company whose name you would recognize in a heartbeat. We are an “arms merchant” for the AI craze, and in 30 years, I’ve never seen dollar amounts like those involved with the hardware to enable the bots.

    Corporate America finally thinks they have found the magic device which will allow them to fire most of the white collar workforce, particularly tne engineering types who they came to despise as a necessary evil during the last purging, that of blue collar workers.

    • ‘Corporate America finally thinks they have found the magic device which will allow them to fire most of the white collar workforce.’ — Roscoe

      Fixed it for you — the DMV as business model.

      I will now connect you to customer relations manager Letitia James. :-0

      • Letitia? She runs HR working from home in Atlanta.

        What? Qualified? Letitia used to be a manager at Walmart.

        Don’t laugh. I was fired by “Letitia” and her local on-site lackey, “Miguel”, who worked as a store and regional manager at Chipotle during the E Coli glory days.

        • >Qualified? Letitia used to be a manager at Walmart.
          And Steve Garvey used to play first base for the Dodgers, which makes him eminently qualified to be a U.S. Senator. Right?

          As Jackson Browne observed, many years ago, “It’s who you look like, not who you are,” that counts, in our society.

    • Engineers have been despised throughout. I know. I’m one and lived through the layoffs and dismissals to prove it. It has improved recently since there have been fewer and fewer who wanted to enter the profession as a result of the way we were treated since the Reagan administration.

      I think that AI could probably put me out of a job at some point, and maybe soon, who knows, but it’s going to have to get a lot better. I don’t trust it.

      • >Engineers have been despised throughout
        The main problem with engineers and skilled craftsmen is that we *measure* stuff. The tape doesn’t lie, and neither does the voltmeter. Either shit works, or it doesn’t. Objective reality is a foreign concept to the hopium smokers.

        • Management *needs* an engineer. They *want* to hire the perky music education major from the name school who washed out of Computer Science but not before learning her way around a modern operating system well enough to use a web browser well enough interact with an AI and possibly crunch some simple stats thanks to the intro Python class.

          The Music Ed major dresses nice and has the “right” attitude.

          • Bah. Too many things going on today.

            They *want* to hire the perky music education major from the name school who washed out of Computer Science but not before learning her way around a modern operating system well enough to use a web browser *to* interact with an AI and possibly crunch some simple stats thanks to the intro Python class.”

          • >crunch some simple stats thanks to the intro Python class.
            [laughing up sleeve]
            First time I saw an “electronic spreadsheet” my [overtly contemptuous] reaction was something like “this is ‘computers’ for those who are unable to program one.”

  17. One big problem with AI that I’ve noticed—and for those self driving cars I’ve also seen in the former Steel City—is the utter inability to deal with nuance and context.

    Nuance and context are what makes us human—we don’t operate in black and white, 1’s and 0’s.

  18. Eric,

    Yeah. That does look pretty scripted and artificial. Great job at deconstructing the sentence structure and terminology. Just wait though. The AI is probably recording what we say about it and then feeding the information so that it sounds more like “Kenneth” the AT%T tech support from Mumbai who is about as much of a Kenneth as i am the Dali Lama..

  19. I’ve never understood this attitude from some that AI or computers are somehow “infallible”. For example, we’ve seen those computer models that climate change zealots used to say that humans are destroying the planet by using gasoline. And then of course, during COVID, someone by the name of Neil Ferguson used computer models (probably the same models predicting the planet would DIE if we didn’t stop using fossil fuels by 20__) to predict MILLIONS of COVID deaths if governments didn’t enact universal lockdowns. And when I see comments on social media or the internet STILL saying stuff that has proven to be FALSE, such as “Most COVID deaths are from those who didn’t get vaxxed” or “Trump colluded with Putin to become President”, I can’t help but wonder if it’s bots saying that or actual people who are morons.

    • Hi John,
      I would say it’s actual people who are morons, since they’re the ones who write the software for the Artificial “Intelligence”. That Neil Ferguson guy has been orders of magnitude WRONG about every prediction he made, just a useful idiot for the ruling class.

      • Hi Mike,

        I’ve had such people (or bots) target me on social media, calling me names like “Uneducated Anti-vaxxer” or “Uneducated high school drop-out burger flipper” for calling out politicians who foisted draconian, ineffective COVID measures on the masses or posting COVID articles that had TRUTH in them. So far they’ve yet to call me a “_______ Denier!” or “Trump/ Putin Bootlicker!”

        We’ve even heard them say stuff like “Listen to the experts!” (Which for a while usually meant Tony Fauci or some other corrupt public health bureaucrat) or “Don’t do your own research!” (Which in the before times used to called READING!)

  20. The crazy part is, in a prior less insane era, I would agree with you that the post in question could very well be a bot. But we don’t live in that time anymore.

    The sad reality is, that -might- be a legit post. I have many leftists friends being a DC native. They **actually** speak like that. That is the part that freaks me out because some of these people I’ve known for a decade or more.

    Did you ever see Invasion of the Body Snatchers? That is what my life in DC felt like. People that I had known for decades that over a fairly short period of time had this incredibly odd affect, mannerism, cadence, and speech. They literally were like robots when speaking being EVER SO CAREFUL to say the right words and right phrases so as to not offend their new God, Diversity.

    I absolutely fucking marvel on a daily basis at the effectiveness of 24×7 propaganda on the average mind. The NPC meme is real! I remember being utterly puzzled by the Soviet Union. I was too young to have experienced anything Soviet but I was always unable to comprehend how so many people could just ‘play along’ and nod approvingly when someone was telling you black was white, up was down, and right was left.

    Now that I -live- in the New Soviet Union (formerly USA) I realize that I greatly underestimated the power of the hivemind and groupthink. It is actually terrifying if you think about how easy it is to cowl a population into utter compliance. Perhaps more interestingly, the same Tribe that pulled it off in the early 20th century in Russia clearly saw how effective it was so their descendants played the long game and simply repeated it here in the States nearly a century later.

    • ‘People that I had known for decades that over a fairly short period of time had this incredibly odd affect, mannerism, cadence, and speech.’ — Useranon99

      Such subtleties are invisible to a bot, but leap out like a neon sign to a human observer. Odd affect and cadence mark cult victims, who tend to mimic the speech patterns of their leader.

      At the top levels in DC — the 3,000 or so people who basically run the Blob — one can find the opposite, too: individuals who present a very convincing facade of warmth, rapport, and personal interaction — but who will toss you away like used Kleenex the instant the conversation is over.

      America’s imperial capital, which I frequented often on a corporate expense account, is indeed an inscrutably strange place. Probably the most human of the lot — the guy who told me about those 3,000 Blobsters, all of whom he knew personally — was a foreign diplomat from Asia, not a yanqui.

  21. Because I couldn’t remember, nor see it right away in the owner’s manual or online, I asked Chat GPT what the lug nut torque specs are for my 2016 Cherokee. It responded quite confidently “125 pounds.” I asked “Are you sure, I thought it was less?” “Oh yes, I found it here (and sited a few different web pages)” Good thing I checked the links (and the manual again) because 125 pounds is the torque specs for some suspension parts, not the lug nuts, which are 100 pounds.

    In this case adding 25 pounds to the lug nut torque probably won’t do any damage, but imagine if it came up with 75 pounds and I followed the instructions?

    This stuff is not ready for primetime. At best it can help you proofread an article, or maybe come up with an example you hadn’t considered. For sure the image analysis bots are going to be better than humans very quickly. But it’s early days. This stuff has only been around for a few years. Relying on AI for content is like trusting your 5th grader with your taxes because all the math is just addition/subtraction/multiplication/division. Heck, it can’t even tell a decent joke.

    When I read roadkill’s post my first thought was, yea, if you keep it in a garage and charge it every night religiously, you can keep the battery alive longer. But as for the rest of it, that’s just justification for their (now its) purchase after the fact. I have no doubt that driving it on the very flat, very ordinary roads around Chicago an EV will be sufficient for commuting. But so will just about any other vehicle at a fraction of the cost. Drive I70 from Vail to Denver three times a week and let me know how that battery performs over time. Or run out in Las Vegas all summer. Heck, just drive around the hills of Pittsburgh most any time of year.

    One of the funny/tragic stories about the autonomous vehicle projects was that CMU was set them loose on the streets of Pittsburgh. Most of these tests are going on in big west cities like Phoenix and Palm Springs, where the cities were built for cars. Pitt was built for wagons and people, not cars, so the roads run in odd directions and have crazy intersections, enough to confuse even the most seasoned Pittsburgher. Can’t imagine how many times these things just gave up trying, or went way off the route because it couldn’t come up with a decent solution.

    • South Florida, preferably anywhere along the coast, but the entire Peninsula south of Gainesville is technically swamp.

      Ford knows. They have (had?) a test facility in Fort Myers going back to the Firestone/Ford/Edison camping trip days in the Everglades.

      About five years ago, I worked at a place which did toll road systems, and the management was really hot about one iguy who applied with a resume featuring a Masters from CMU’s autonomous vehicle program in the education bullet point.

      Great. Except when we brought him in for the interview, the candidate bombed our relatively simple coding challenge, to the point that would even embarrass a new college grad.

    • RK, you’ve made me ashamed. Any time I’ve tightened lugnuts, I’ve always followed the procedure that says “tighten ’em down pretty good.” I’m glad someone out there is doing it right, ’cause I’m sure not.

      • Hi James,

        Knowing the exact torque value is more important now than it was because it’s easier to warp alloy wheels and thin brake rotors. With old iron like my ’76 Trans-Am, with its steel wheels and heavy steel rotors, it’s harder to hurt anything.

        • Yeah, but you still need to *untorque* the lug nuts in case of a flat. Why make it more difficult? Particularly since wheels which have been on the car awhile are likely going to require more force (torque) than those which are freshly mounted.

          Want to get stranded, unable to change a flat? Over torque your lug nuts @ installation, preferably using a pneumatic wrench.

          • True enough, Adi!

            Hence why I follow the Greaseman’s advice:

            You gotta do triceps, you gotta do bench… if you get real massive, you’ll bag that wench!

            And be able to free those lug nuts, too.

            • > if you get real massive, you’ll bag that wench!
              Well, maybe. But that could be putting the cart before the horse. I once worked with an Englishman who was a world ranked bodybuilder. Bodybuilding was his hobby; he earned his living as production manager for a steel fabricator, which was how I knew him, as I detailed steel for his employer.

              Mike told me he would not have been successful as a bodybuilder without his wife’s support, because of the very strict nutritional regimen required. She managed his diet, kept him eating the right foods in the required quantities,. to succeed in his hobby as a bodybuilder.

              Hint: you don’t have to be Hulk Hogan to get laid.

    • >Can’t imagine how many times these things just gave up trying

      I well remember watching the DARPA urban challenge on TV many years ago. One entry (not CMU) did exactly that, a full on panic stop, in a situation which would not have presented much of a challenge to a human driver. It sat there motionless, for a noticeably long time, then resumed its journey. Did not crash, but obviously not ready for production.

      • One of my drones is a Skydio 2. It has an NVIDIA chip to help it avoid obstacles and navigate. When it works it is nothing short of amazing to watch as it routes through trees, narrow passages and still gets a pretty acceptable video of the subject. It also will capture photos of any object to send to 3d modeling software without having to do anything but draw a cube around the object.

        Truly impressive.

        Thing is, it often gets itself stuck in a place that it should be able to handle, and just hover until the battery dies. Doesn’t matter that when I move it manually over a foot or so it will resume like nothing happened. And forget about it tracking birds or other flying objects, it’s completely blind to them.

        It’s an amazing piece of robotic technology, but no way is it ready for dealing with a complex airspace or doing anything involving humans. Shame that, because the military is all-in on Skydio’s militarized version that costs 10x more.

    • 80 lbs of torque for each lugnut on the Nissan Pathfinder. Everybody knows the pattern for tightening.

      You can about feel the torque you need, the spare is a steel wheel, so the torque specification is not critical.

      Just so they’re tight.

    • This happens to me all the time when using chat gpt. If I have a bookkeeping question and need a quick answer I often start with it just to kind of talk it through and often get an answer that seems wrong. Then when I question it, the reply is usually something like oh yes you are correct – you would do this instead. This being the opposite of what it answered the first time around! It definitely isn’t something I rely on for an accurate answer.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here