In the case of BT, from reading the literature they sent, this seems to be the exact scenario they support. I think they are basically doing something equivalent to ISDN over IP in the background and thus avoiding almost all problems of incompatibility.

What if the people are disabled so you get support from the state to employ them?

I'm not sure I disagree. I think what you are saying is more or less what I wanted to say, just with more specific detail. I am, however, assuming that somewhere out there are investors who haven't been following Musk in detail.

This clearly needs some out of the box thinking. An idea. How about we put a member of Waymo staff in the vehicle who can see even when network coverage is out and can halt the vehicle? You could even give them a set of local controls, duplicating the ones the remote staff use so that if the remote staff can't respond to a problem they can just take over and keep the vehicle able to move. You'd call them an "engineer" like in a train or a "captain" like in a ship.

BT in the UK is getting rid of its last real POTs customers by offering VOIP with power backup. They can even install a copper to fiber conversion in the DSLAM to make it work, in which case they maintain the last mile copper but nothing else. AT&T could find better (defined as more independent of the wireless network and less subject to collapse during emergencies) solutions than wireless if they wanted.

The crucial thing is some sort of physically connected, no wireless, connectivity and that there needs to be proper UPS and generator all the way back to the exchange. DSL over copper can be fine, VOIP over Cable TV could theoretically work. Satellite or 5G mobile is not the same. In real life that probably means that FTTH is easier in most cases. The little bit of flexibility of allowing copper for places where nothing else has been laid and its difficult to lay new lines can make a big difference to the costs.

Unfortunately not. The whole point of this story is that SpaceX looks like a reasonably sure bet on space and the military industrial complex (which wants/needs SpaceX's launch capability). However, in fact it's a bet on Elon Musk's ability to deliver AI this time, having failed already in Tesla and OpenAI. He's seemingly let his ego get ahead of himself and forgotten that Tesla, SpaceX and his other success were due to good engineers.

Hantarvirus has an 8 week incubation period. The experts who are currently reassuring us that everything's fine and it doesn't spread have no way of actually knowing that for at least the next two months. Obviously it couldn't have happened yet.

Why do you argue like this? Yes, it's true. So what. Petrol cars go on fire more often than battery cars, but both can do it. If your car goes on fire, how do you get to the hospital? What do you do to prepare for it?

The answer to the last question is that you don't prepare for it because it's so exceedingly rare that anything specific you do to prepare is silly. However, if you just prepare for your car to break down (again, more common with ICE cars, but possible with an EV too) for example by having a second car, or a friend who lives nearby and will drive you or lend you his, then you are fine.

None of this is changed by the arrival of EVs and the stuff that is changed by the arrival of electricity was already changed decades ago. In the end, you argue like this just because you won't admit that there is no problem and that the argument is long lost.

Not at all. You can *still* unplug and leave, you just won't make it to where you want to go without recharging, just as you can leave a petrol station with not enough petrol and will have to get petrol somewhere else.

Luckily, as I said earlier, since you will always ensure you have double the charge needed to get to the nearby hospital, this will never be relevant in the case of a pregnant wife.

Yes, at any moment when charging you can just disconnect and drive. I don't know where you are being fed information from but huge amounts of it are wrong. This is something I have literally done with a charging car. Press the release button, take out the cable and drive.

How does a person with an ICE car cope if their wife goes into labour just after they ran out of gas? Simple; if'' this is a risk, they don't. As long as your wife is close to due, you don't. If your car gets below double the range needed to get to hospital you stop and charge it.

If you just put it into charging and your wife goes into labour, you simply disconnect and drive to the hospital.

I'm not selling; I'm providing info for an engineering trade off calculation. I'm also marvelling that something that is the first generation of a new technology is already outclassing a massively mature technology in the ICE powered tenders for quite a number of applications and is considerably cheaper in a number of applications.

Right. This requires thought and pre-planning though and that seems to have been lacking.

They may be aware of the risks, but that doesn't mean it's okay to be negligent. If Russian teams are bringing in technology, their locations should be given to the rebels and sufficient weapons systems to allow them to be removed from the scene.