And because of this scandal VW pulled their diesels, AND both Mercedes and BMW followed suit.
Quite sad, because an X5 diesel had really good mileage (if you used it for longer distances).
Maybe, next time we need to drive 5 miles for groceries, we should just fucking walk, and say hi to one another, too
Bicycling would make 5 miles a cinch, however.
Hot and dry is manageable since when cycling you naturally create cooling currents around you; you need to wear appropriate clothing (sunglasses + cap or helmet with shaded visor; appropriate long sleeved shirt, appropriate pants and shoes).
https://youtu.be/2opQQP13lPI?si=LdhJnF8yLKrVNuGM (for long sleeved shirts)
Cold climates are super manageable with appropriate clothing, bar mitts and most crucially of all: <well designed bike infrastructure including priority maintenance, just like for car infrastructure>.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhx-26GfCBU
Of course super extreme weather like -30C or +40C at some point makes any active transportation close to impossible, but the vast majority of people don't live in those conditions and the people that do live like that, only do it for max 1-2 months per year.
99.99% of these issues are actually failures of infrastructure design and implementation.
For snowy conditions: daily snow plowing, debris removal, salting to prevent ice formation, etc, etc.
For hot conditions: planting trees, removing asphalt (for example grassy tram/train lines; parking spots with grass pavers (https://buildwithabs.com/product/grass-pavers/), designing tall buildings to shade urban sidewalks, etc.
Also, infrastructure doesn't just need to safe, it needs to be maintained as critical infrastructure, just like for cars, so that the infra is not degraded in practice.
Plus you have to walk back, with groceries. Assuming you are feeding a family and not doing this 2-4 hour round trip every day, that means you’ll need a cart to push or pull.
Good luck pushing that loaded cart on a road with any amount of traffic. Most places in the U.S. where the grocery store is 5 miles away will involve either zero sidewalks and dangerous roads (more rural/suburban areas), or many many road crossings with lights that slow you down (denser areas).
I’m a big fan of walking. But 5 miles to a grocery store and then back is going to be way too much and too dangerous for most people.
If any of those conditions are not satisfied then it's better economic utility to outsource that entire task and get your exercise and socialization by going to the gym. You can even walk to the gym too. You can outsource almost anything except exercise.
Let's be realistic here and accept the fact that anything that involves more than 1km of walking one way won't happen for 99% of people.
That's why we have bikes, for distances from 1km to 10-12km (one way).
And only after that should we have cars. Cars should also be reserved for very heavy loads (more than 50kg), groups of people (not single drivers, 2+ people in the car), and various other niche uses.
There is a (slightly) tongue in cheek video you should watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBgQjByvXI
I don't want to spend 6 hours commuting a daily in the UK. I've done this btw in the UK a decade ago. It was miserable.
It just isn't possible to commute in places without a car. Especially once you get outside of a main transit hubs.
But we should all campaign for better public transit, good bike infrastructure, good walking infrastructure, less car-only infrastructure, etc, etc.
The solution, as usual for complex systems, involves more than one factor, almost no one living in an urban environment should need to go 5 miles to find groceries. Even on my suburb of Stockholm I have the option of 3 different groceries less than 1km away (we have villas, terraced houses, etc., so not only small apartments that some Americans are afraid of).
Urban design is a core principle to make your life easier, no self-driving EVs, those are a bad patch not solving anything of importance.