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Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#81

Post by tyfon »

blacklion wrote: post #17

> The computer powers the cars' self-driving capabilities as well as their advanced in-car "infotainment" system. Now I'm scared. I hope it is mistake of Nikkei and these two subsystems doesn't have anything in common, including power supplies.

No, the "self driving computer" is independent and it actually runs itself in parallel for redundancy and error checking.

The infotainment system runs a custom linux distribution running on ARM (MCU1) or intel atom (MCU2).

They talk to each other but they are independent.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#82

Post by lallysingh »

blattimwind wrote: post #35

> https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/htt... Strikes me as a typical low-reliability design. Would be surprised if this unit lasts ten (or even five) years.

How's that less reliable than many parts that can fail independently? Cars don't have much redundancy.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#83

Post by ec109685 »

blacklion wrote: post #17

> The computer powers the cars' self-driving capabilities as well as their advanced in-car "infotainment" system. Now I'm scared. I hope it is mistake of Nikkei and these two subsystems doesn't have anything in common, including power supplies.

Auto pilot still works when you restart the infotainment and display system (holding two buttons on the steering wheel down), so the systems aren’t powered by the same OS.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#84

Post by Causality1 »

blattimwind wrote: post #35

> https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/htt... Strikes me as a typical low-reliability design. Would be surprised if this unit lasts ten (or even five) years.

They are already breaking. The flash chips are wearing out because teslas obsessively log everything you do.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#85

Post by magicalhippo »

iamphilrae wrote: post #28
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Automotive grade components have to survive greater temperature extremes and vibration for 10+ years. Disposable consumer products don't operate in the same sphere. Tesla has been burned by using consumer grade screens.

Seriously... it’s just some extra pixels?! The have picked cheap components, plain and simple.

I tried looking for automotive grade LCDs with high DPI. Couldn't find all that much, but came across this press release from Mitsubishi[1], indicating they released something that starts to approach retina only last summer.

As mentioned, in a car you really want automotive grade components, at least due to the heat and vibration it needs to sustain.

[1]: https://www.mitsubishielectric.com/news/2019/0423-b.html

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#86

Post by neuronic »

latortuga wrote: post #74
codingmess wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even 10 years ago, normal cars had doors that line up, and proper paint jobs.

This is a brand new car company that has built manufacturing from scratch. 10 years ago, car companies had been manufacturing cars for decades. This stuff doesn't happen overnight.

Ah ok, this justifies luxury prices then. I mean early adopter surcharges.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#87

Post by resters »

hyperbovine wrote: post #26
iamphilrae wrote: post #16

My brand new Toyota C-HR comes with an entertainment screen that is not Retina display. Technology that has been out for half a decade and is found in the dirt cheapest of smart phones. It honestly doesn’t surprise me that the rest of their tech is so far behind.

How often do you replace your phone? How often do you replace your car?

why not just make the screen a module that can be replaced or upgraded, such as by inserting a fresh iPad every few years.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#88

Post by ishi »

RaceWon wrote: post #50

So Toyota and VW are concerned about the other companies, which currently supply their ECU's, having to lay off staff if they (Toyota and VW) switched over to Teslaesque style control modules. REALLY?! I find that laughable on its face.

It might be related to the fact that Toyota championed "Just-in-time manufacturing" which requires tight control over the supply chain. You have to be able to trust your suppliers to deliver what you need on time and in high quality. So you must cultivate close relations with your suppliers over many years. They almost become your partners. You can't just stop working with one supplier and switch to another on a whim.

"Toyota believes in developing mutually beneficial, long-term relationships based on mutual trust with all suppliers. To foster that trust, we pursue close and wide-ranging communication to share our business knowledge to enhance our business relationship." (https://www.toyotauk.com/toyota-in-the-uk/supplier-relations...)

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#89

Post by aguyfromnb »

swiley wrote: post #12

6 years ahead electronics here means AI ASICs. I thought that was weird, I know Toyota cars have radar and I’m not sure about Teslas. IMO as an armchair observer the sensor array is far more interesting than any of this. Personally, if I were to buy another car (and hopefully I don’t have to any time soon) I’d want the processing electronics to be off the shelf not weird custom stuff that’s going to have all kinds of…

>I’m upset about this because it’s (IMO) more of a marketing thing (and maybe a way to have some leverage over 3rd party repair shops) and not really a technical improvement.

The number of "tech people" that think Tesla has some chip building advantage over the likes of companies like NVIDIA is astonishing.

Tesla's marketing compares their chip to older NVIDIA boards. NVIDIA has better tech available off-the-shelf:

https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-fires-back-at-tesla-c...

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#90

Post by neuronic »

dontdoitpls wrote: post #69
KaiserPro wrote: post #48

This is grand, apart from the build quality of the mechanics is ~10 years behind. Go to a tesla showroom, Look at the doors of the model three. Note that they don't line up. Look at the paint job, notice that there are bumps and chips, especailly on the edges of the doors. This is on a _demo_ car, stuck in a showroom. these should be perfect. Even a budget Kia has better build quality than this. Its not the isolated…

The power of marketing is incredible. No one else could get away with Tesla quality at luxury pricing, but they sell vehicles.

Let's take a look at the economic models again that assume all consumers are rational agents...
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