Grinds My Gears – EVs, Updates, Recalls Galore

The weekend is over the work week begins. For some today is a holiday (MLK Day) for others it’s just Monday morning and the long ride to work.

This week’s rant involves several topics, EV motorcycles, devices that constantly need updating, and recalls galore.

Polaris Industries purchased Brammo Motorcycles last week. A 5 billion dollar a year company purchases a boutique EV manufacturer for an undisclosed amount of money. Is this a desperate attempt to counter the LiveWire project? Harley-Davidson has been generating a lot of buzz with their electric motorcycle and the best way to counter that development is to buy a competitor that’s gift wrapped to sell. Will they compete with HD or will they go another direction is yet to be seen. This is not Polaris Industries only EV they also own Global Electric Motors so the technology is certainly there for them to jump right in to production.

We use a motorcycle GPS, cell phones, programmers, and communicators when we ride. I don’t always use these items daily but I just want to put them on the bike, helmet or whatever they attach to and go. It seems every time I want to use one they need an update. Plug it in, download the manufacturers software and then muddle around for 30 minutes or more until it might recognize the device and then hopefully update the software. Take them off when you get home wait a few days and voila you get a new update. At what point did we stop receiving items that work, and don’t require updates to work properly? I don’t mind new features, what I do mind is all the bug fixes for things that should work when you buy it.

Recalls have become more prevalent in the vehicle world as well. HD has several this past year totaling tens of thousands of motorcycles. GM recalled millions of vehicles as did Chrysler and others. So many issues that were issues that were cost cutting or simple items that were overlooked or ignored. GM in particular with their ignition issues is a serious breach of trust with the buying public.

Businesses have a job to do. That is to sell their products to us the consumer. They are supposed to do it for the right price and with quality that you can trust. Products have become so complicated that quality control has become the most important job in any process. When you spend more time checking to make sure something is made right than making the item and when your quality control is a larger operation than production does that serve your company? Progress is important but when progress begets issues sometimes you need to take a step back and simplify your life.

So that’s what Grind My Gears today, let’s hope that progress moves back a bit and remembers that simple works. The more complicated things become the more complicated things become.