US fab construction costs twice as much, takes twice as long as Taiwan
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My comment had nothing to do with Taiwan, just the quote that sunzu2 said about how US construction actually works.
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Plus, these have to be automotive grade, which requires a higher tier of durability. Not a lot of profit margin to be made on those sorts of devices.
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“Free trade” means letting everyone do what they’re best at and then exchange the goods they produce
If that were the case there would not be Plaza accords, dismemberment of Angstrom and the absolute annihilation of industry in the post-soviet states. "Free trade" is and always has been a fanciful banner for wealth extraction
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Noting that China has been almost universally hated for 75 years is actually the most anti-China post today, good job.
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"Free trade" means big countries dominating smaller ones. In what way can a small Caribbean nation compete with the US for example? Say they have a self sustaining economy. They have farms to feed their people, and textile mills to clothe them. Free trade opens their markets up, and they are quickly overwhelmed by the mega corps and their economies of scale. Now local industry is driven out of business or subsumed by foreign competitors. Maybe tourism? Multinationals buy up all the hotels, beaches and restaurants. Locals get minimum wage jobs serving and cleaning. Any attempt at "protectionism" incurs penalties under the free trade agreements.
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A lot of modern cars can appear to be ‘running just fine’ but underneath the covers it’s pulled timing, altered fuel trims, etc. to appear normal and/or avoid damage but the computer stills knows that’s not a normal situation and alerts you to the problem. Unless you hook a scanner up and actually find out what the idiot light I telling you then you can’t be sure if it’s a false positive or not.
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If you thought GPUs were pricey now. At least the rest of the world can still buy from Taiwan.
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Compared to what? I didn't name a specific country, but you can pick some and let us compare.
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“Right to work”
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"A country with experience in fab construction can build one faster and cheaper than a country with no experience"
Yeah, not really surprising
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Exactly. Modern cars are great at compensating for poor maintenance, but that doesn't solve the problem.
Maintain your cars properly and they won't need to compensate like this, meaning you'll get better fuel economy and largely avoid costly repairs.
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The check engine light can trigger for a host of reasons, one of which is routine maintenance like oil (5k miles these days). To know what's causing it, you need to check the codes.
On most cars, if it blinks when starting up then goes away, it's time to change the oil. If it stays on, it's past time and/or there's another sensor tripping.
Don't ignore the check engine light. It takes like 30 sec to diagnose at any auto parts store, so just drop by and ask for a free scan if you don't have a reader or don't want to take it to a mechanic.
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If you think it's bad here, try other countries. I don't know about Taiwan specifically, but lots of countries have even worse enforcement.
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Well, Taiwan and Singapore are able to be competitive in the world market, despite being very small and lacking major resource advantages or big militaries. They do this by developing very sophisticated expertise and pressing the few very particular advantages they have.
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There are exceptions of course, but they are often less about "finding a niche", and more about politics. Taiwan is an important client state of the US for geopolitical strategy. Such relationships can include more favorable trade deals. I don't know much about Singapore except that that it's all about the finance "industry". Seems like it's the place where Eastern and Western billionaires can make financial transactions with each other.
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No... That's the oil change indicator. Different lights.
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one of which is routine maintenance like oil (5k miles these days) [...] On most cars, if it blinks when starting up then goes away, it's time to change the oil. If it stays on, it's past time and/or there's another sensor tripping.
The "check engine" light will never illuminate for an oil change reminder. If the vehicle is equipped as such, it'll have a separate "maintenance reminder" light.
It takes like 30 sec to diagnose at any auto parts store,
Pulling codes ≠ diagnosing
If you're taking it to a parts store to pull the codes, get the specific codes and nothing else. Don't listen to the parts store guys, they are there to sell you parts.
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You're getting downvoted, but I work in the industry (GF, Intel, TI, TEL, Screen) and have heard horror stories from people who have worked on TSMC and even Samsung sites.
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One of my older cars (2006) did trip the check engine light for oil changes IIRC. I could be mistaken though.
Regardless, checking the codes is always a good idea, never assume.
Don’t listen to the parts store guys, they are there to sell you parts.
Absolutely. But pulling the code is absolutely the first step to figuring out what went wrong. Sometimes it directly indicates the issue, and sometimes it trips due to another issue. I take the code, do a little research, and if I'm not confident in my own diagnosis (or it'll be a costly repair), I'll take it to a mechanic.
But don't just sit on the check engine light. Figure out what it is and address it. In my state, you can't pass emissions testing w/o having a clear check engine light (and yes, they check if you cleared it) or apply for an exemption, so we at least need to take care of it by then.
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100% on all points. I used to be a mechanic, and I DIY 99% of my vehicle's needs (except windshields, tires, and full alignments - simply for lack of equipment). Very important to get the codes, because, for example, a P0456 could be caused by something as simple as a loose gas cap (95% of the time), or something could be wrong with the evap system.
Though I'm curious what car you had that tripped the check engine light like that...
