Cargo Kit will be available to retail customers (confirmed by Slate)

[Doctors Do Little]

Having never driven a 1PD EV, I'm fully expecting muscle-memory to kick in when I least expect it and jerking me around like a zoomer on a clutch and frankly I don't like the image I'm seeing in my head. If you've ever met me, you'd know this is a real possibility

Dude, if I can master it, you can master it. It took me 1 afternoon in the Lightning. It took me even less time in my golf cart with the regen cranked up. New memories to muscle, that's all.

 

[LevelHeaded]

Dude, if I can master it, you can master it. It took me 1 afternoon in the Lightning. It took me even less time in my golf cart with the regen cranked up. New memories to muscle, that's all.

Only becomes an issue when you frequently hop between cars, then your muscle memory gets confused. Honestly, I consider this a safety hazard for a lot of drivers out there. Take the other car one day, come barreling into my rear end because they expect 1pd but they’re in their ICE!

 

[GrizzlysGhost]

Only becomes an issue when you frequently hop between cars, then your muscle memory gets confused. Honestly, I consider this a safety hazard for a lot of drivers out there. Take the other car one day, come barreling into my rear end because they expect 1pd but they’re in their ICE!

Yikes! Ya, that's a concern. I plan on the Slate to be my new daily driver so hopefully that won't be a big issue, but I can def see it happening.

 

[Doctors Do Little]

Only becomes an issue when you frequently hop between cars, then your muscle memory gets confused. Honestly, I consider this a safety hazard for a lot of drivers out there. Take the other car one day, come barreling into my rear end because they expect 1pd but they’re in their ICE!

I hear you. I switched between 3 vehicles regularly that have 1PD, 2 PD, and hybrid. At some point, the driver has to be responsible for the machine, I'd guess, all of the extra built in safety, notwithstanding.

 

[danielt1263]

I think it will be a non-issue for me. In my wife's car (an auto), I routinely use cruse control. With 1-PD, it seems to me that I can do the same. As I'm coming up to a light, I can just reduce the cruise control to simulate coasting.

My current car is a manual. Taking my foot off the gas already simulates breaking.

 

[bloo]

Completely letting off the accelerator and expecting to coast or near coast isn't how 1pd is meant to work. Completely letting off means you want to stop. The brake pedal is only used when you need to stop faster than the 1pd setup will stop you. Basically for an emergency stop.

Think of it this way, traditional 2 pedal driving you must use both pedals, you've got a speed up pedal and a slow down one. With 1pd the 1 pedal takes care of both. pressing down farther for faster, lift up for slower, and so once you learn it, it should be a lot smoother especially in city traffic, not having to keep switching pedals.

Also I've seen nothing mentioning that Slate wouldn't have a 2pd setting, just that the 1pd isn't adjustable.

And this is why 1pd isnt a good idea. Deoending on how far you push it, the right pedal acts as either an accelerator or a brake. It gets even better when the behavior changes at full SoC.

The safety issues don't end there. Thete are lots of times when I'm coasting through an area where a deer or dirt bike might come out of nowhere. A downhill road passing through a school zone is another example. In areas like this, I do the "brake hover." That speeds up reaction time quite a bit should I need to stomp the brake. Yet it sounds like with the Slate I will need to modulate the accelerator just to coast. And if i'm driving down a hill instead of merely coasting, it'll take more time for my foot to go from accel to brake. Ah well... venison is tasty. Dirt bike riders, not so much.

One-pedal proponents should take a page from airline pilots. Years ago, pilots would approach the airport using a technique called "dive and drive." The tower would instruct the pilot to descend to an altitude. The pilot complied by reducing thrust, nosing down to altitude, leveling off, then increasing thrust to maintain that altitude. This went on several times until the plane was on the ground. Hopefully without "Whoop Whoop, Pull Up" toward the end.

Eventually, someone figured out changing altitude in steps and manipulating the throttles to do it puts an unnecessary workload on the pilot. Dive and drive was abandoned in favor of using a glideslope. The pilot coasts down at a determined rate with engines at idle. Altitude and speed are usually adjusted with only the elevator and flaps. It's easier on the pilot becase push throttles for thrust, pull for coast, deploy flaps to slow down is automatic. Consistancy is safety.

It's also about efficiency. There are several situations where coasting uses less net energy than regen...

- Rolling down a hill when there's an uphill immidiately after.
- Coasting to a red light knowing it'll change just before you get there.
- Going down a long hill on a highway.

A lot of people forget that not all energy is recaptured in regen. Best you can hope for is 90%, and even then only at certain speeds. If you one-pedal a coast, every time you misjudge and go past the threshhold from braking to drive, more energy is lost. And if you brake too much, you will lose more electrons getting back up to speed. When a situation calls for coasting, the most efficient regen is none at all.

What I don't understand is why this is necessary. You can get all the benefits of one-pedal by feathering the brake. Just move your foot to the left.

BTW... I'm pretty sure "isn't adjustable" means "you can't turn it off." That's by design. Otherwise, it won't meet the 200-mile minimum for EV rebates to kick in. Nevermind that experienced drivers would go even farther without the regen nanny deciding when to apply the brake.

 

[bloo]

My current car is a manual. Taking my foot off the gas already simulates breaking.

Good thing it only simulates a failure. Modern transmissions are expensive to replace.

 

[RobertOne]

Speaking of cargo, is it possible that one day SLATE will produce a right hand drive with a cargo cap. It seem to me this might be just the ticket for rural mail delivery.

 

[Doctors Do Little]

Speaking of cargo, is it possible that one day SLATE will produce a right hand drive with a cargo cap. It seem to me this might be just the ticket for rural mail delivery.

We were discussing that last year. Easy use case

 

[Susan]

I’ll be reaching out to Slate as not only is this of major interest to me, but others. but I will wait a few days as I’d guess they are slammed by more urgent questions right now. And I will be posting the unedited, true reply here.

So, since the Squareback SUV, per the Slate website, "Includes: One (1) Slate Truck, one (1) Squareback exterior shell, one (1) roll cage, integrated airbags, and one (1) rear bench seat for three (3) additional passengers" what I'd like to know is:

Can we get just the Slate Truck with the Squareback exterior shell?

Otherwise, for the Cargo kit, can we get it with windows?

And for either of the above, can we get it with either a roof rack, or with accessory mounting holes to attach an aftermarket roof rack?

 

[tubes]

The webpage that shows the body styles, including cargo, is still out there, but has been delinked from the main pages.

It seems like work on the Cargo version has been pushed to the back burner. Judging by our own little survey here (less than 2%), it is not popular with general consumers.

So all those questions? Might have to wait for when they really engage fleet buyers.

 

[Susan]

The webpage that shows the body styles, including cargo, is still out there, but has been delinked from the main pages.

It seems like work on the Cargo version has been pushed to the back burner. Judging by our own little survey here (less than 2%), it is not popular with general consumers.

So all those questions? Might have to wait for when they really engage fleet buyers.

Thanks for that link. So, one of my questions (maybe) is answered. The Cargo kit picture showed a roof rack. There's hope

 

[DinoLord]

So, since the Squareback SUV, per the Slate website, "Includes: One (1) Slate Truck, one (1) Squareback exterior shell, one (1) roll cage, integrated airbags, and one (1) rear bench seat for three (3) additional passengers" what I'd like to know is:

Can we get just the Slate Truck with the Squareback exterior shell?

Otherwise, for the Cargo kit, can we get it with windows?

And for either of the above, can we get it with either a roof rack, or with accessory mounting holes to attach an aftermarket roof rack?

If you download the pic and zoom in, the cargo variant appears to just be the squareback roof. The lines for the windows are apparent, just wrapped.

 

[sodamo]

So, since the Squareback SUV, per the Slate website, "Includes: One (1) Slate Truck, one (1) Squareback exterior shell, one (1) roll cage, integrated airbags, and one (1) rear bench seat for three (3) additional passengers" what I'd like to know is:

Can we get just the Slate Truck with the Squareback exterior shell?

Otherwise, for the Cargo kit, can we get it with windows?

And for either of the above, can we get it with either a roof rack, or with accessory mounting holes to attach an aftermarket roof rack?

Still of high interest to me, and my answers from Slate have said the topper without seat and rollbar will be available, so I remain hopeful.


https://www.slate.auto/en/store/ACC...romSubcategoryId=accessories_exterior_utility what thoughts on this?

 

[gnarly180]

Only becomes an issue when you frequently hop between cars, then your muscle memory gets confused. Honestly, I consider this a safety hazard for a lot of drivers out there. Take the other car one day, come barreling into my rear end because they expect 1pd but they’re in their ICE!

My previous vehicles (2007 Honda Fit, 1992 Civic, 1991 Civic, 1983 S-10) were all manual transmission. Whenever I drove my moms automatic car I would try to press the clutch, except the much wider break peddle was there. When I got my current car (2019 Fit) with automatic transmission, it took me longer than I care to admit, before I stopped trying to press the "clutch". Hopefully, I can transition to 1pd a bit more gracefully.