Formula E team fires its AI-generated female motorsports reporter, after backlash: “What a slap in the face for human women that you’d rather make one up than work with us.”::px-captcha

  • Just_Pizza_Crust@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    Correct, it’s the batteries and powertrains. F1 uses hybrid powertrains, but at the end of each year cars ‘transferrable parts’ are often sold from one team to another, put in car museums, or scrapped.

    FE has a similar process, except nobody wants to put a big dumb battery in a museum, and nobody wants to buy a used battery for their cars (I think they’re not allowed to). So whenever a part isn’t being used, it’s always scrapped. This can include buying a brand new battery for each race, as any depletion may cause a driver to become disqualified for going over the 600kw limit. A new battery every race, even if recycled, is still incredibly wasteful. In comparison, F1 batteries can be used for a whole season.

    They’re lying about reusing tyres too. Teams often purchase extras and get fined for it, because it’s really dumb to race a whole season on 4 sets of tyres.

    • blackn1ght@feddit.uk
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      6 months ago

      Thanks for the reply. It definitely sounds like there should be a limit on the number of batteries used per season then. There must be a reason for doing it though - are they just not as performant once they’ve been through a race weekend?

      • Just_Pizza_Crust@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Yeah basically. Whenever a battery is used, its capacity is slightly reduced over time. If you ever watch a FE race, they’re finishing the race with like 0.1% battery remaining, because at 0% they’re disqualified. So since they’re racing for millions of dollars, it’s only sensible to spend thousands to improve their chances of not getting disqualified.