this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2024
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Suck it micro USB, mini USB, and lightning! πŸͺ«πŸ”‹

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[–] [email protected] 101 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Now for those swappable batteries

[–] [email protected] 37 points 6 days ago (10 children)

Including cars.

Drive in, swap non-proprietary batteries with an autoloader, drive out. Done.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago (7 children)

Yes and no. No need to hot swap massive EV batteries. Rapid is fast enough. But yes so the EV can be upgraded. The batteries go obsolete quicker than they degrade. So make it so we can swap the batteries and keep the rest running. In fact, just right-to-repair the whole car. In fact, the whole everything!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (3 children)

Hot Swapping batteries is actually surprisingly good for the life of the battery if done well.

Rapid charging the battery does do permenant damage over time especially if you fast charge every time. Whereas if you can hot swap a battery and have a suitable stockpile of them you can trickle charge the battery over a couple of hours instead of 30 mins and prolong the overall lifespan of the battery. Even slowing down the charge rate to 1 hour reduces wear on the battery significantly. Plus, without time pressure from a customer, more time could be taken to replace damaged cells or blocks in a battery so that one pack will more effectively use the whole battery up instead of throwing away perfectly good cells.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (3 children)

That is something that I wish would come true. This would also open EVs to the industry in some new ways. Currently it kinda sucks if you have machines that have to be able to run the whole day without big interruptions. When you're able to just swap the batteries in like 5 Minutes this machines don't have to rely on fossil fuels that much and are open to be replaced by electric ones.

What I'm thinking about are machines like tractors for farming. During the summer it happens that they are running for 8+ hours without interruptions. Building a battery this big will be quite challengening. However, if you're able to swap out the batteries after like 2 hours and then continue with work you effectively solved one of the biggest problems with not that much of a hassle.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 days ago (1 children)

This sounds great until you've had to repair an old car.

Everything rusts, warps, etc. The same things that make it hard to change your brakes will make it hard to change the battery pack, and you're expecting a robot to do it for you (and fast!).

There were companies built on this idea. I think they've all gone under at this point.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

One of the benefits of EVs is we can get rid of a lot of infrastructure. Everywhere already has electrical so home and destination chargers are a minor add on and it’s only superchargers that are new infrastructure. Meanwhile the entire gasoline and oil refining, distribution, and tens of thousands of gas stations can just go away, along with their associated pollution.

Swappable batteries may sound cool but they’re less edficient plus now we have to build up a huge new set of infrastructure agai, we have to standardize batteries, and we can’t build them into structural parts. The only real advantage is speed but that’s not much advantage if you need to drive somewhere. I’ve never had to charge more than 25 minutes at a supercharger, so swapping a battery is only convenient if it’s at most ten minutes more away. Then you’re also assuming there will be more more battery and charger advances, such as those solid state batteries that a couple vendors claim are already in production, such as 800v charging that a few vehicles already can do, such as the latest Superchsrgers that can charge faster than any car can accept so far, or the semi chargers that have a few built out.

Long before you could build out a huge new infrastructure for seappable batteries and standardize cars around it, we’ll already have charging improvements that will make seappables irrelevant. You could argue they already are irrelevant in some areas

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (4 children)

While 25 mins doesn't sound terrible you have to consider throughput. Long lines, waiting for chargers could become an issue if adoption takes off, and if I ever drove by a set of chargers that was full up and more people waiting that'd probably put me off from buying one.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 days ago

That's actually the next goal

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

And make all power tool batteries compatible.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 6 days ago

USA checking in.

Just bought a new USB-C charging beard trimmer on clearance.

Feels good, man.

Thamks if EU helped.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Thx EU, I live in the the land of the fee but will benefit from you forcing apple to be compatible.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Don't buy Apple to be compatible.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago

Don't buy Apple ~~to be compatible~~.

Couldn't agree more mate

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

Just don't buy apple

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

I don't but my kids do and I'm forced to maintain their crap at work.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Can we bring back the charging as well, and not just the USB cable... Oh, and while you're at it, screws instead of glue, to replace batteries would be awesome.

Thx!

[–] [email protected] 45 points 6 days ago (4 children)

There's a rule coming into effect in 2027 that enforces user replaceable batteries for devices in the EU. https://www.pcmag.com/news/eu-smartphones-must-have-user-replaceable-batteries-by-2027

[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 days ago (5 children)

while 2027 is better than nothing, I still wonder why it took them so long. Glue in smartphones has been around for probably a decade now.

Also, I think, anything that has a battery, should be user replacable... even teeny-tiny earbuds.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago (2 children)

To allow the manufacturers to adapt and phase out?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

Totally agree! It's seemingly gotten worse recently too. My phone is 5 years old and I was still able to replace the battery at home but it took special tools and a hair dryer. The newest Pixels and Galaxy phones look impossible to do with my current skillset.

Things like Fairphone and the HMD Skyline should be the norm going forward.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago

Based AF eu

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago (2 children)

no keep the glue please. I love that my phone's back just came off on its own just because it was hot outside and the glue melted away. it was fun and exciting!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Just get a Fairphone, with every module screwed into place. Except the battery, you can just take that out by hand.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago (3 children)

That's true, but if the EU could force every phone maker to make the battery replaceable by the customer this would be a huuuuuuge step in the right direction and reduce electronic waste.

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 days ago

Kudos to the EU, end the waste.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (17 children)

While this is good news, the likes of Apple will still find ways to be "compliant" while still being total assholes about it. e.g. the device might charge with USB C but they'll gimp the data transfer rates on non-pro phones. And they'll do the same when mandates about repairability come in - all of a sudden the battery will have a bunch of expensive DRM'd up the ass circuitry attached to it that will cripple the phone if its not recognized or registered by one of their techs and means Apple can kill old phones by being "out of stock" of the battery.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

This is absolutely true,however the EU has proven to be not someone you mess with. Apple has already tried shenanigans to stop side loading and got beaten by the EU to comply with the rules.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

e.g. the device might charge with USB C but they’ll gimp the data transfer rates on non-pro phones.

Just so you know, there are others who have slow speed on USB Type-C already. My mother's Galaxy A52 has a USB Type-C port that has only USB 2.0 support for data transfer, but with USB PD 3.0 PPS charging up to 25 W.

To me it's legitimate to use USB Type-C for better power delivery even if the chipset runs only at USB 2.0 speeds for data transfer. But hobbling a fast chipset just for product segmentation would be shitty. It is something I could see Apple doing though.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Only suck it lightning. It still allows standard chargers like micro USB and mini USB

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Are you sure? The EU parliament explicitly mentions USB C as the new mandatory standard.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX%3A32022L2380

USB C is mentioned in annex Ia and as an example in articles 11 and 12. As I understand previous articles, it is possible to use other standards that satisfy citeria from article 9.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago

Open standard W

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

With the iPhone 14 no longer being sold the specs of the rumored SE 2025 make a lot more sense.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago (3 children)

They should specified speeds too. I think Apple gimps usb c charging speeds

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

More speed is more heat is more battery wear.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (4 children)
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