Why I think Tesla is building throwaway cars

Post by nkurz » Sun, Mar 06, 2016, 8:45 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #141

MagnumOpus wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10k gallons costs you $18,000 or less right now "while gas is cheap" - for a TCO of $20,000 in 20 years (plus cheap-ish repairs) - and you are driving a Merc. The model 3 (once you can actually get hold of it) will cost you $35,000 up front, plus about $7,000 in electricity for 200k miles at prices of 13-15c/kWh, plus about two battery replacements - battery lifetime is 8 years or 125k miles - at $10,000ish a pop - f…

I just filled up yesterday and gas was 2.89$ a gallon. Where exactly is it 1.80?

Post by PinguTS » Sun, Mar 06, 2016, 8:48 PM UTC

usaphp wrote: post #191

ryandrake wrote: post #45

One of the things that makes a car valuable is having a healthy aftermarket. It looks like, from this article anyway, Tesla is doing anything they can to make sure there is no aftermarket for their vehicles. To me, a car that you can't service yourself is worthless. A car that needs the manufacturer's permission to activate is not your car--it's owned by the manufacturer. And, when the manufacturer places a threateni…

But think about it from another perspective: someone purchases Tesla car, decided to service it himself without sufficient knowledge, then later he resells his car to another individual, the person who buys his car enables the autopilot mode on a car and because of the poor service quality/mistake the original owner did to a car the autopilot goes crazy and steers your car into a brick wall, everyone will blame Tesla…

Post by maratd » Sun, Mar 06, 2016, 8:50 PM UTC

x0054 wrote: post #108

ryandrake wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never bought a 2016 model car (maybe something changed this year?) so I have never heard about the concept of having to ask a manufacturer to "activate" your car before reading this article. I buy used cars and repair them myself. I wonder if this disqualifies me from ever owning an electric car? While more recent cars have begun down the troubling path of making less and less user-serviceable, most cars still h…

If you a replacing an ECU on a car with a new one, you have to flash it with the right firmware for the vin number of the car. At least that's the case with Chrysler. My friend works at a Chrysler dealership as a tech, and he says that basically anything you now put in on the car, be it something complex, like the ECU, or something simple, like the windshield washer control module, it has to be programmed. If you don…

Post by c22 » Sun, Mar 06, 2016, 8:51 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #188

userbinator wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're going to go down that route (no pun intended), why not eventually ban everything but officially certified driverless cars from public roads? I suppose it gets into a bit of a philosophical question at some point --- some people just want to get from A to B as quickly as possible (with whatever currently technology allows), while others actually enjoy the driving experience and having control over their vehi…

> If you're going to go down that route (no pun intended), why not eventually ban everything but officially certified driverless cars from public roads? I agree. That's the way its going to go. People kill 40K/people a year in the US simply driving, and injure/maim hundreds of thousands. There's no way self-driving cars aren't better than that. Want to build your vroom vroom car? Own the entire stack down to the atom…

Post by qume » Sun, Mar 06, 2016, 8:53 PM UTC

ssmoot wrote: post #131

qume wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would wager that 80% of cars that are crushed (which weren't in an accident) could be repaired (if broken) or 'fixed up' to operate better than the last owner thought possible for less than a days work and perhaps a few hundred dollars. I do appreciate your point, but I think people are far too afraid of older cars and they are scrapped too soon. I was hoping to convince some folk in this tech community that old ca…

I totally buy the environmental impact argument on keeping that Mercedes vs buying the Tesla. That isn't the only concern though. In a high speed collision against a modern 5-Star vehicle the people in the Mercedes are pretty much toast. I think it's possible you could upgrade the safety of an older vehicle in many ways, but realistically most owners never would beyond tires and modest braking improvements. And you'l…