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Tesla’s New Car Smell

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Re: Tesla’s New Car Smell

#121

Post by asah »

selectodude wrote: post #100
joelthelion wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that Honda doesn't make interesting cars. People are ready to cut Tesla some slack because they are truly innovating.

Because they put a battery in a car?

Because they built a car that people lust after. Breaking it down:

Exciting, classy exterior shape Retracting door handles Giant touch screen World class consumer software UI Regular OTA updates Ludicrous mode Auto pilot

Each of these is individually incremental-- the sum is amazing... just like the iPod and iPhone: there were many MP3 players already in the market and my Windows mobile 5 smart phone worked pretty well - but nobody lusted after those things.

Re: Tesla’s New Car Smell

#122

Post by tome »

sumedh wrote: post #96
gumby wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You cannot inspect your way to quality. I have to emphasize the sentence you ended your comment with. Anybody who has worked in volume production has heard this phrase too many times to count. People who never learned the difference between QC and QA never seem to understand this phrase either. Doesn't mean they are dumb, but does mean they don't even understand the scope of what they don't know. Another common mis…

> People who never learned the difference between QC and QA never seem to understand this phrase either. Can you please explain the difference?

Etymologically, Quality Control implies some sort of feedback. Quality Assurance merely implies a filter at the end of some process.

Re: Tesla’s New Car Smell

#123

Post by vultour »

robotresearcher wrote: post #25
IcePenguino wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree completely. Autopilot is miles ahead. While I'm waiting for my 3 preorder, I took a test drive a Model S. I haven't felt as moved by a technology like Autopilot since I first swiped on the first iPhone. Coincidentally, we're in the market for a 2018 Odyssey as our family car too.

Did you test a Mercedes and Audi as well?

I'd also suggest Genesis [0]. Almost S-class level in terms of features and comfort, with easily half the price. It's a luxury brand of Hyundai, so as a fan of brands like Mercedes I was skeptical at first, but damn is it a good car.

[0] https://www.genesis.com

Re: Tesla’s New Car Smell

#124

Post by danmaz74 »

DavidAdams wrote: post #14

Tesla is trying to "lean startup" the Model 3. Not clear whether that was originally their intention, but the fact that they're building parts of the Model 3 by hand immediately brings to mind the kind of non-scaleable stuff that people in the software industry do at early phases of their evolution (things that are hailed as "the right thing to do). Maybe Tesla's undoing is that there's a little too much of the Silic…

I don't think that's a fair comparison; I'm sure they had a plan for mass-scale production for model 3 from the start, the problem is if that plan/approach will work or not in a reasonable time.

The non-scaleable stuff was most likely done in parallel not to delay initial deliveries, they don't need to validate the product idea.

Re: Tesla’s New Car Smell

#125

Post by avar »

thrav wrote: post #37
carlivar wrote: post #4

The author is only comparing production ability and basic mechanical stats with the Bolt and Leaf. I am on the Model 3 waiting list for the Autopilot. Heck, it could be gas powered and I'd be on the waiting list for the Autopilot. I don't need full autonomous. I just want the best system, and currently Tesla has it. So hopefully they figure out their production issues. I also just bought a 2018 Honda Odyssey as our m…

My subaru’s adaptive cruise control has been pretty amazing. I still have to do most of the steering, but that’s probably a good thing in terms of keeping me engaged. I can easily go hundreds of miles from stop and go to 80 and cruising without touching the gas though.

I spent all of 5 hours in a new Subaru Outback I rented this summer and wasn't impressed.

I could set the cruise control to a certain speed and it would normally slow down if there was congestion, which was very nice.

But it wouldn't work at bends in the road, because the system was seemingly just directly ahead line-of-sight. I wanted to see if it would slow down itself in that situation before I had to slam the breaks, it would have plowed into the much slower-moving car ahead of me.

So my experience is that while these systems help in bumper-to-bumper traffic on congested highways they're still to dangerous to rely on.

Re: Tesla’s New Car Smell

#126

Post by jaimex2 »

bsaul wrote: post #118
jaimex2 wrote: post #117

Why is this on HN? Guy goes to a group tour and is suddenly an expert in auto manufacturing. "Sees chaos" and stock piled parts.

I think because the guy is jean louis gassée, former ceo of BeInc , which did built their own computers ( as well as an ex apple high ranked employee). So he has experience both with high tech and manufacturing issues. Granted, he's not an auto industry specialist but he's not the average joe either.

Ah, right. Still I feel like we get a lot of Tesla posts good or bad that aren't about tech innovation just "Look at what Tesla is doing now!"

Re: Tesla’s New Car Smell

#127

Post by mattmanser »

joelthelion wrote: post #97
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #65

> As I watched Tesla’s messy, hiccuping line, with workers dashing in to fix faulty parts in place, my mind travelled back to the Honda plant I had visited years ago in Marysville, Ohio. Clean, calm, everything moved smoothly. I was so shocked by the contrast that I imprudently voiced my concern. That didn’t go over well with my fellow Tesla owners. I was a killjoy, I was calling their choice into question. Well, it'…

The difference is that Honda doesn't make interesting cars. People are ready to cut Tesla some slack because they are truly innovating.

Honda's been know for quality for decades, I'd say that counts as an interesting car. Just not by your definition which sounds like it just means electric.

Re: Tesla’s New Car Smell

#128

Post by tenpies »

prostoalex wrote: post #80
Hypx wrote: post #13

> I couldn’t help check off the sins against the “Toyota Bible”, prescriptions for car manufacturers that are lucidly detailed in The Machine That Changed The World (a great and, in parts, sad read). In particular, one mustn’t stockpile parts on the floor, they must be fed in small quantities at small time intervals. If a part has a problem, only a small quantity needs to be shipped back to the supplier who can inspe…

Toyota’s recalls are expensive, as they involve a network of dealers who need to be paid for providing the repair and maintenance. Tesla’s vertical integration of service centers has an interesting side effect - recalls and repairs are pretty cheap, as the costs of service centers and loaner vehicles they give out are fixed and have been borne already. I wonder if that makes the company more dismissive of potential i…

This is scary because it points to a potential future where they're treating cars like software. Weekly/monthly visits to the garage to get the car equivalent of "Weekly bug fixes and performance improvements" would be absolutely off-putting.

Re: Tesla’s New Car Smell

#129

Post by matt4077 »

sschueller wrote: post #6

A greater problem may be the insider trading that might be going on according to the author.

That allegation is completely unproven. An with that set of facts ("some people know more than others", "the stock price changes") you can literally find "insider trading" for any given stock, in any given week.

Re: Tesla’s New Car Smell

#130

Post by pvdebbe »

bjelkeman-again wrote: post #83
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #65

> As I watched Tesla’s messy, hiccuping line, with workers dashing in to fix faulty parts in place, my mind travelled back to the Honda plant I had visited years ago in Marysville, Ohio. Clean, calm, everything moved smoothly. I was so shocked by the contrast that I imprudently voiced my concern. That didn’t go over well with my fellow Tesla owners. I was a killjoy, I was calling their choice into question. Well, it'…

I am under the impression that the criticism here on HN is more nuanced than I normally read on the web.

It is. Always when we are not talking about Tesla, Apple or self driving vehicles.
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