“At some point, everything’s gonna go south on you… everything’s going to go south and you’re going to say, this is it. This is how I end. Now you can either accept that, or you can get to work”
Mark Watney, The Martian
I have been experimenting with creating a podcast using AI assistance. I have been part of a “real” podcast on TMC for over two years and have learned to appricate the amount of work that goes into producing a podcast. Doing all of that by one’s self is a huge task and personally speaking, I’d rather do other things. So I have this experiment in play. Take a listen and let me know what you think. This was created using NotebookLM by Google because A: its free and B: its free 😀
EV charging today is still some of the wild, wild west. We have different standards to contend with. We have infrastructure ranging from broken to state of the art and everything in between. We do not have a really good way to know for sure if the chargers are going to work or not. We know some brands like Tesla are very good and we learn that some off brands like EVgateway are a real crapshoot. We learn that not everyone loves EVs and we find vandalized chargers or its “ICE’ed by people who just want to be jerks and park in the charger spot so nobody can charge. We have to deal with some very sketchy places to charge to state of the art lounges.
All of this ties into the “be prepared” for an EV road trip adventure. Between the infrastructure and things that can just normally go wrong, Being prepared can be the difference between a successful road trip or one that is better forgotten and everyone uses as a curse word. Often times, that difference is not a large dollar amount, its about having a key item with you vs having to wait hours for someone else to help you.
I did create most of the content and I did edit and clean up the audio to smooth things over here and there. The link are various services referred to in the podcast. I have personally used all of these at one time or another. The impact wrench and other tools go with me on every road trip that takes me out of my normal driving area.
Here is a list of items in my frunk and lower trunk. Not everything is needed on a daily driver but I tend to go off the main highways and go explore quite a bit. And the last thing I want is to be stuck for hours on a side road when the fix is simple if only I had a few tools. I also carry emergency supplies like water and various kinds of bags all the time.
I plan to put together a comprehensive blog post where I go over in detail why I carry all this “stuff” and why. And yes, I was a Boy Scout IRL and my arm ink has “Semper Paratus” inked on it. Its the USCG motto of “Always Ready”. As I put into the show notes for the AI podcast, some of these items are just common sense and some are definitely a bit on the paranoid side 🙂
paper and plastic bags
lighter
hoodie
hats
t-shirt
water
RV style toilet paper ( small compact rolls)
CCS adapter to use other chargers like EA or EVgo
J plug adapter
small thermal chest for groceries /sodas etc
work gloves
disposable plastic gloves
head LED lamp
flashlight
windex
tint safe glass cleaner
microfiber towels
paper towels
hand wipes
para-cord
Tesla Mobile Charger
Tesla charger adapter kit
Bonded plug for RV parks
spare batteries
walki talki radios ( 3) ( trails or even when playing convoy of cars. ) Doesnt need cell coverage to work and will outlast a cellphone battery
tire jack and tire blocks
tire repair kit
breaker bar and socket for car
battery impact wrench ( road trips only)
25 foot 10 AWG extension cord ( road trips )
old floor mats to lay on if needed to work on car
several bottles of water or more
trucker style air pressure gauge. I dont need to get on my knees to use it
battery powered air inflator. Good to top all four or fill one from completely flat condition. ALWAYS TEST . Dont assume it will work
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