I think for _most_ people it comes down to this: how much can I cram into the platform. More lanes is more high speed storage, special purpose processing, and networking interfaces.
VMware users are starting to say that Epyc is too powerful for one server because they don't want to lose too much capacity due to a single server failure. Tangentially related, network switch ASICs also have too much capacity for a single rack.
Not to snipe but there does seem to be (as of this year) some folks doing cargo (e.g. longtail) with Bosch for USD ~4K.
The entire sector needs disruptive pricing on reliable sub-components. What it's been getting is disruptive pricing with unreliable products that fail silently/annoyingly (e.g. firmware) or catastrophically (e.g. fire).
I think adding Pinion, doubt they are dropping Bosch. Pinion has potentially a superior platform in that you have a fully integrated motor and gearbox, but this is a new item in the market. Bosch with Rholoff[0] is extremely well known as a platform, has high reliability and excellent efficiency across a wide shift range.
As a Bosch+Rholoff owner and a Pinion C.12 owner... I'd _loved_ it if R&M were doing Pinion in their cargo line. If something happens to your rear wheel you have to rebuild around your Rholoff. This might be hard to do on a tour compared to buying a new wheel if you had a Pinion. This assumes that your motor and electronics are not at risk of failing, which may be only reasonable if you're using Bosch...
I'm happy to see Pinion being picked up by R&M. I'd assume this is an excellent sign for Pinion as R&M's _schtick_ seems to be the customer experience (e.g. performance and reliability). This obviously signals that they are in some reasonable partnership to support this configuration for a long time. It would have been really nice to see Pinion offered in at-least one of their cargo platform though.
We just got a Load4 and I noticed that the Bosch+Rholoff dual battery configuration lagged in availability pretty significantly behind the other configurations. I presume this probably made R&M product management a bit irritated as the products form Bosch seem to be announced about a year before things are available. Anecdotally I believe I received 725wh batteries on my order when there is open discussion about how these batteries are not even in production by Bosch anymore as they've moved on to a higher density. Seems like with Bosch there is a big lag between announcement of a market disrupting product and when integrators get it on platform. Pinion may be faster?
Above there is a comment about Bosch being a ripoff (e.g. high margins), certainly it is but they are likely the only company you can build a product off unless you're going into race to the bottom price range. Propel has an interesting post [1] about going Bosch only. Now there are major providers in Germany also providing solutions: Pinion, ZF. I believe propel also started a thing called bloom [2][3] where I bet the "after sales support" portion of starting an e-Bike business is often times a discussion of why Bosch is safe.
The consistent transparency has guided many of my acquisition decisions personally and professionally. It also drove me to seriously examine B2, which is used personally and professionally as well.
Would like to encourage your organization to keep publishing these works, and the works like your POD. It’s really spurned on a lot of innovation and sharing.
Per comitter would be ideal, viewing source and interacting via tickets is something that is usually a secondary stakeholder community that is larger than the score development group (in every org I see adoptjng forge style tools)
