Google confirms they're throttling your Pixel 10's battery

And there's nothing you can do about it.

Their Battery Health Assistance "feature" was optional in models 9 and below, but is now mandatory in the 10 and possibly subsequent models. And it will also throttle your charge rate. So shorter battery life, and longer charge times. YAY!

Google rates their batteries at 1,000 charge cycles before the battery drops to 80% capacity. Samsung, on the other hand, rates their batteries at 2,000 before the 80% level. Hmmm...

Apple got into trouble a few years back by introducing a silent throttle on some of their phones and had to offer free battery replacements, something that I took advantage of when I happened to be in Albuquerque for a day-long medical seminar that was literally across the street from an Apple Store. Now iPhones have a charge limiter - adjustable and can be deactivated - that by default limits your charge to 80%. When I got an iPhone 16 a year ago (my 13 Mini had strange problems that defied diagnosis), I set mine to 90%, and it reports that my maximum capacity is still 100% after 125 cycles. Sometimes the charge limiter forgets and my phone is at 100% when I take it off the charger in the morning.

Personally, I like to get 4-5 years out of my phones if I can and the only time I replaced a battery, that I remember, is when Apple throttled it and it did hit my battery life pretty badly. Normally I have no problem getting good battery life over the full life of my phone, but I don't spend all day texting or flipping through TikTok or other SM on it.

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-10-battery-health-assistance-3585863/

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/08/24/038259/will-googles-battery-health-assistant-throttle-your-pixel-10s-battery

A couple of interesting things about BYD cars

You can't buy BYD cars here: the Biden administration slapped a 100% tariff on them to protect the Ketamine Kid's brand as they would literally destroy Tesla. They're available in Mexico, Europe, and selling like hotcakes in China where they're made.

BYD, Build Your Dream, started as an EV battery maker and became a car company. And they make amazing stuff. You can buy their entry level vehicle, the Seagull (they like aquatic names), for under $10,000 (converted currency, sans tariff).

Now here's where stuff gets interesting.

They have achieved L4 self-drive, and self-parking. Tesla doesn't have L4. And it's provided in the Seagull. And they have such confidence in it, that if your car dings itself or another car while self-parking, BYD will PAY FOR THE REPAIR!

The system is called God's Eye, it comes in three tiers. The basic level has - get this - 12 cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic sensors with 1-centimeter accuracy. The two higher tiers add one or three Lidar sensors.

The Tesla used to have Lidar, but Lidar sensors are expensive to buy and maintain, so they literally took them out of vehicles that it had been installed in and went camera-only. And they were cheap cameras.

My Subaru, a 2015 Crosstrek, has a system called Eyesight. It gives lane deviation warnings and has really cool adaptive cruise control. I can set the follow distance for three different lengths, speed-dependent, and it will maintain that distance quite well. If the vehicle in front of me slows down, my car slows down. If it speeds up, mine will speed up to the limit that the cruise control is set for. If another vehicle pulls in front of me, mine will slow down and re-establish that set distance that I configured.

It's REALLY cool.

But it doesn't self-park.

Tesla had self-park, once upon a time, and also had a recall feature where you could park your car in a lot, then go to dinner, walk back to the lot entrance, hit a button on your phone, and 'recall' your car and it would supposedly navigate the lot and come to you. I don't think they do that anymore after a lot of fender benders. Maybe they do, I'm not sure.

But these BYD cars? I expect they could do it.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91366273/byd-bests-tesla-again-cars-are-the-first-to-truly-park-themselves

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/07/11/1930239/byd-pledges-to-cover-damages-from-self-parking-car-crashes


BYD, like pretty much every car maker, has a high-end line called Yangwang. They make a hypercar called the U9.

It can jump over potholes.

I kid you not. It has a computer-controlled suspension that can read the road ahead and tell the car to leap over obstacles! This video has all sorts of awesome, including eluding a ninja ambush. Sorta.

Watch on YouTube

If we move to Europe, I would seriously consider one of their cars.