Unlike all the crazy idiots driving around today. Tesla - and other companies investing in C/AV - is making the world safer. Perfectly safe? No way. But safer and getting continuously more safe.
OT: Electric vehicles
- Thread starter BellyFullOfWhiteDogCrap
- Start date
Unlike all the crazy idiots driving around today. Tesla - and other companies investing in C/AV - is making the world safer. Perfectly safe? No way. But safer and getting continuously more safe.
Going backwards is never good
Normally I hate the new BMW grill. But somehow it looks appropriate and not too offensive on this model. The side and rear profile view is really nice looking, imo.
Tesla's Musk dials into Volkswagen executive conference
In a post on Linkedin, Diess added that he had brought in Musk as a "surprise guest" to drive home the point that VW needs faster decisions and less bureaucracy for what he called the biggest transformation in VW's history.
"Happy to hear that even our strongest competitor thinks that we will succeed (in) the transition if we drive the transformation with full power," Diess said on Linkedin.
As an example of Tesla's prowess, Diess said it took the rival only two to three weeks to rewrite software to allow for a switch from one type of microchip, which went out of stock, to another.
Diess warned last month that the planned opening of Tesla's car factory at Gruenheide near Berlin, the company's first in Europe, will force local industry to step up its game against the fast-growing U.S. electric vehicle maker.
In a post on Linkedin, Diess added that he had brought in Musk as a "surprise guest" to drive home the point that VW needs faster decisions and less bureaucracy for what he called the biggest transformation in VW's history.
"Happy to hear that even our strongest competitor thinks that we will succeed (in) the transition if we drive the transformation with full power," Diess said on Linkedin.
As an example of Tesla's prowess, Diess said it took the rival only two to three weeks to rewrite software to allow for a switch from one type of microchip, which went out of stock, to another.
Diess warned last month that the planned opening of Tesla's car factory at Gruenheide near Berlin, the company's first in Europe, will force local industry to step up its game against the fast-growing U.S. electric vehicle maker.
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I’m also not a fan of the newer BMW grills. And while I agree the front end treatment on this model is an improvement, I’m still not a fan of the styling in general.
As recently as two model generations ago, or so, I was very much a fan of BMW styling across their model lineup. But as of late, something has changed in the design language that just doesnt appeal to me. Yes, the giant kidney front grill was bad. But I couldn’t really find any angle from which I liked them. Not really sure exactly what it is.
Like Mercedes, though, they sure do know how to make a super luxurious car when they want.
I am surprised VW invited Musk and I’m even more surprised Musk accepted. I suspect VW’s motivation to be other than stated. And I can’t imagine Musk not having the same suspicions.
As for the three week software update, I’ll repeat what I said about the last time it came up. Unless it was a trivial code change, and to a non-safety-related part of the system, it’s never a good idea to rush such things. I hope the three weeks didn’t include QA testing.
You should short sell TSLA. You are so confident in the upcoming failures.
The more important fact about advertising is that TSLA spends far far less per car in advertising and 3 -4 times more per car in R and D than any other auto company.Not only do they advertise their products, they falsely advertise them?
I'm not confident enough in the timing of the upcoming failures or any subsequent successes. And the timing is all that matters.
Anyway, it's so much easier to let others manage my money for me. Requires way too much attention to do it correctly. And I'm much too lazy to pay the requisite attention. Who has time to waste on that boring nonsense when there's fun to be had instead?
I pay absolutely no attention at all. And then, every few months or so, when I think to check on it, voila, there's a bunch more money. For which I expended zero attention or energy.
I truly don't understand why people, other than high volume semi-amateurs or pros doing it for a living, bother. I assume it's a hobby and thus kind of fun. And I get that; it's kind of cool. But they'd mostly all do better by just shoving money regularly into a low-fee S&P 500 index fund and forgetting all about it.
How do you know how much money Tesla really spends on advertising and marketing, or on R&D? Annual reports?
People here keep saying Tesla doesn't even have a marketing budget. Yet they clearly do all kinds of marketing activities. So I'm curious how anybody can tell what they're spending on marketing and advertising? How do they account for all the spending on stuff like "AI Day" or their website? Miscellaneous operating expenses?
More to the point, why should anybody care what Tesla spends or doesn't spend on marketing or how much they spend on R&D? I mean, I could see where shareholders might care a little about the R&D spend. But why would anybody else GAF?
But is their battery tech just good at rapid charging? Or is it good for longer range? I want improvements to both before I get an EV SUV.
I'm one of those annoying have and eat cakers.
I would like to tell you where I get my info but I am lazy and rely on others to do the research - but trust me I am accurate.How do you know how much money Tesla really spends on advertising and marketing, or on R&D? Annual reports?
People here keep saying Tesla doesn't even have a marketing budget. Yet they clearly do all kinds of marketing activities. So I'm curious how anybody can tell what they're spending on marketing and advertising? How do they account for all the spending on stuff like "AI Day" or their website? Miscellaneous operating expenses?
More to the point, why should anybody care what Tesla spends or doesn't spend on marketing or how much they spend on R&D? I mean, I could see where shareholders might care a little about the R&D spend. But why would anybody else GAF?
As for not understanding the importance of R and D you just need to look at the legacy automakers horrible sales numbers and the claimed chip shortage. One of the main reasons for the chip shortage is that the big old automakers have not updated their vehicle control hardware in years and are using old tech chips that provide little profit for the chip makers.
You just have no clue what is going on yet you continually yap like you do. That is OK I guess since you have admitted being lazy and have others do the work for you
Ooooh! I love irony.
You made a statement of facts and opinion. And, when asked about that statement, completely failed to be able to defend either the source of your facts or your opinion about the importance of those facts.
And you say it's me that's cluelessly yapping. Good stuff.
Lucid Dream looks good, so far, according to C&D.
Sure, sensors and range and looks and all are interesting. But the really important thing is, what’s their marketing budget?
It's clearly not a fad. But I'm very curious to see where things are at in 10-15 years.
People who say they know are FOS. Certain technology sectors are advancing so rapidly now that the one thing that people better get used to is a lot of change. And probably a lot of unexpected developments.
Long article in today's WSJ about the strain on the energy markets from moving to renewables. Some highlights:
"Demand for oil, coal and natural gas has skyrocketed worldwide in recent weeks as unusual weather conditions and resurgent economies emerging from the pandemic combine to create energy shortages from China, to Brazil to the UK.
The situation has laid bare the fragility of global supplies as countries pivot from fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy, a shift many investors and governments are trying to accelerate amid concerns about climate change.
The transition figures to be challenging for years to come, energy executives and analysts say, due to a stark reality: While fossil fuel investment is falling, fossil fuels account for most energy-green energy spending hasn't been growing fast enough to fill the gap.
The International Energy Agency...forecasts that coal demand is set to exceed 2019 levels this year and rise somewhat until 2025.
Supply chain issues also constrain how quickly the world can increase wind and solar power. Most solar arrays are currently produced with energy from coal fired power plants in China."
So some please tell me again why nukes are being shutdown before the end of their useful lives, why the transition is going to pick up speed before storage has a breakthrough and how a Tesla running coal fired electricity or solar panels produced in coal fired plants are all that much greener than hybrids.
"Demand for oil, coal and natural gas has skyrocketed worldwide in recent weeks as unusual weather conditions and resurgent economies emerging from the pandemic combine to create energy shortages from China, to Brazil to the UK.
The situation has laid bare the fragility of global supplies as countries pivot from fossil fuels to cleaner sources of energy, a shift many investors and governments are trying to accelerate amid concerns about climate change.
The transition figures to be challenging for years to come, energy executives and analysts say, due to a stark reality: While fossil fuel investment is falling, fossil fuels account for most energy-green energy spending hasn't been growing fast enough to fill the gap.
The International Energy Agency...forecasts that coal demand is set to exceed 2019 levels this year and rise somewhat until 2025.
Supply chain issues also constrain how quickly the world can increase wind and solar power. Most solar arrays are currently produced with energy from coal fired power plants in China."
So some please tell me again why nukes are being shutdown before the end of their useful lives, why the transition is going to pick up speed before storage has a breakthrough and how a Tesla running coal fired electricity or solar panels produced in coal fired plants are all that much greener than hybrids.
My reply briefly: Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Not unexpected news.
I'm philosophical about it. A shift to cleaner energy is a good thing. But there will obviously be a period of pain during the transition. Which could go on for awhile.
It's not like the fears about nuclear energy are entirely unfounded. But I still believe we'll see a resurgence of nuclear power during the transition to clean-energy is completed. Humanity is expanding fast and rapid worldwide EV adoption presents it's own set of problems to be solved.
If researchers can find a way to produce combustible fuel that isn't petroleum-based, can be produced cleanly, and burned cleanly, it might slow EV adoption enough to help smooth the transition and potentially avoid resorting to using nuclear power to plug gaps in supply.
That's actually, more or less, what I said in my response, albeit with more detail.
The problem is in how we define "good" here. And in being certain that we've actually figured out good yet. EV adoption is not a fad and is trending upwards rapidly. But it'll be 20 years before we can start to understand just how good or bad a thing the trend turns out to be. We're still in the honeymoon phase.
Should be a fun ride, though. Pun intended.
Incidentally, the form of the expression I've seen used a lot in various tech sectors is: "better is the enemy of good enough". Basically saying the same thing, but I think there are subtle differences in meaning and in how people can relate to the sayings.
Nobody actually expects to achieve perfection and they don't really try. But people, especially engineering types, often fail to identify when a thing is already good enough to use/deliver/consume/etc.
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And is Indian Point on a fault line or at risk of a tsunami? I'd say that's not the perfect being the enemy of the good, that's being PC being the enemy of the economy, and probably advocated by those who won't feel the effects of higher prices and energy shortages.
And there is actually biodiesel, "renewable" natural gas, hydro and other forms that are being given short shrift by the gods of wind and solar. But they will take time.
the part that a lot of tech pioneers forget is that the baseline/foundation needs to be a well-formed minimum viable product. throwing out immature code out there, especially as it relates to the physical world, rather than just the virtual, is irresponsible.
in response to mdk...i think the world will start to come back around to nuclear energy sooner rather than later. just my opinion, but if you look at where we want to go vs the options that are currently available to us, you kind of end up back at nuclear ticking off more of the boxes than not.
I think that, as the realities of rapid EV adoption become apparent and cause some pain for consumers, we'll see more money start to back other potential energy technologies. There's already money flowing into so-called e-fuel development.
The driving motivation (pun intended again) at this time being preserving motorsports and the preservation of the immersive driving experience that cannot be replicated without exhaust sounds and gearboxes. But the driving motivation in the future may be plugging gaps in the energy supply by eliminating cars as electrical grid-sucking problems, or supply cleaner fuels for air-travel or sea-travel.
I'm pretty sure it'll sort itself out eventually.
That's why it's important to be right about when something is good enough. Engineers usually like to err on the side of a little better. Business people and customer-facing folks tend to err on the side of it's more than good enough already. There's a natural tension that I think in a well run organization with good people arrives at the right answers.
What can totally screw it all up is when some executive injects him or herself into the whole thing and demands something stupid.
the iron triangle. cost, scope, and time. you can't shorten one leg without affecting the other. most of the time, executives want to cut cost and time simultaneously, while adding scope.
Somewhere earlier in this thread, when the whole 3 week rewrite nonsense surfaced, I think I said good, fast, cheap, pick any two. A very accurate saying that's been around for decades.
When software starts writing and maintaining itself, there's a chance it'll produce good software fast and very inexpensively. Until then, it ain't happening.
C‘mon Tesla. You make good cars and are running a good business. Ya gotta stop with the utterly asinine yoke stupidity. Sacrificing usability at the alter of a cheap gimmick is so incredibly lame.
That one component perfectly sums up why some people hate Musk/Tesla.
Understandable.
Although I don't hate Tesla or Musk at all. They seem to make nice cars and Musk, although weird and egotistical and all, doesn't bother me at all. The cult worship thing is a slightly irritating, as it is with any cultish worship for anything or anybody. But no big deal.
But this moronic yoke thing is an absolute nope vote on me buying those cars. They could be the most attractive, best performing, most efficient cars on the planet and I'd never even consider buying one with a yoke steering wheel. Only if it could be replaced by an aftermarket part, perhaps.
For a race car with 360 or even way fewer degrees of steering wheel rotation, sure, sign me up - makes perfect sense. For a road car where the wheel typically rotates around 800 to 900 degrees or more, it's in the running for one of dumbest things in cars ever.