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Comparing Tesla, Ford and VW’s Electrical Architectures [video]

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Re: Comparing Tesla, Ford and VW’s Electrical Architectures [video]

#11

> In this episode Sandy Munro sits down with the gentlemen from 3IS Inc. to discuss the differences between the electrical architectures of the Tesla Model Y, Ford Mach-E, and Volkswagen ID.4.

I am really disappointed with Sandy. While other guys are professional, Sandy to me seems too much biased. He was not like that. Sad.

You should watch some of his early Tesla reviews. He was pretty negative on them. It wasn't until he dove deep to really understand all of Tesla that he realized how well things are going.

Re: Comparing Tesla, Ford and VW’s Electrical Architectures [video]

#12

I'm about halfway through, but this is actually quite interesting (the different trade-offs, both for modularity and or for simplicity vs. complexity). The thing I find interesting is that no matter what your opinion on how things should be made, different vehicles "nail" it in different areas (e.g. the ID.4 having a simple four wire audio-system as opposed to an audio-network but also almost double the ECUs). Either…

Absolutely. Love seeing these breakdowns...

Re: Comparing Tesla, Ford and VW’s Electrical Architectures [video]

#14
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Watching it now. How so?

I'm not a Tesla fanboy but I didn't think it was biased. E.g.: Right off the bat he talks about the number of ECU[1] of Tesla compared to others. He points out that this will result in inferior quality due to the number of connections. A no-brainer with cascading effects which has many other advantages for Tesla[2]. Spelling this out will upset a lot of people because it's a valid attack that also knocks the other de…

I own a Tesla, but I'm not a fan-boy. I can appreciate how having fewer ECUs means, all other things being equal, it would be less failure prone. (But more expensive to replace a failed larger ECU than a failed smaller one). Tesla starting from scratch gives them a lot of advantages, not being tied to a specific legacy architecture or vendors. Again, assuming they actually do it right rather than bodge it :)

Sandy and the other experienced gentlemen in the video are welcome to strong opinions about one approach being better than another; it's not necessarily biased. Maybe you favor a "simpler" design, or maybe you favor one that's cheaper to repair, or uses a tried and true architecture, or more off-the-shelf components.

I actually just had a steering wheel module replaced in my Model 3 last week; the Park button had stopped working. Of course these kinds of things are electronic in virtually all modern vehicles.

Re: Comparing Tesla, Ford and VW’s Electrical Architectures [video]

#15

I understand Musk’s point on parts not being available now (then? Model 3) but I’d like to see a deep dive on 48v vs 12v.

Yeah, me too. I've been hearing about 48v (used to be 24v) for what feels like ages now. I only sort of "get it". Seems Tesla had a great opportunity to jump into 48v, more so than legacy automakers.

On the other hand, if they had done it and it caused a bunch of problems, you'd have another Model X falcon doors issue. Tesla just doing something "to be different", and paying the price for it.

Re: Comparing Tesla, Ford and VW’s Electrical Architectures [video]

#16

I'm about halfway through, but this is actually quite interesting (the different trade-offs, both for modularity and or for simplicity vs. complexity). The thing I find interesting is that no matter what your opinion on how things should be made, different vehicles "nail" it in different areas (e.g. the ID.4 having a simple four wire audio-system as opposed to an audio-network but also almost double the ECUs). Either…

When they were talking about pros/cons of fewer (but centralized) ECU's vs more ECU's (isolated, lower cost) I immediately thought of microservice architecture vs monolith.

Re: Comparing Tesla, Ford and VW’s Electrical Architectures [video]

#17

I understand Musk’s point on parts not being available now (then? Model 3) but I’d like to see a deep dive on 48v vs 12v.

Excuse my ignorance, but what's the advantage of 48v vs 12v? I didn't hear them talk about it.

Re: Comparing Tesla, Ford and VW’s Electrical Architectures [video]

#18
post #15

I understand Musk’s point on parts not being available now (then? Model 3) but I’d like to see a deep dive on 48v vs 12v.

Yeah, me too. I've been hearing about 48v (used to be 24v) for what feels like ages now. I only sort of "get it". Seems Tesla had a great opportunity to jump into 48v, more so than legacy automakers. On the other hand, if they had done it and it caused a bunch of problems, you'd have another Model X falcon doors issue. Tesla just doing something "to be different", and paying the price for it.

> Tesla just doing something "to be different", and paying the price for it.

I own a Model Y, and there are absolutely things I wish they just keep the status-quo.

- Navigation / map data here in Tennessee is frankly awful. Much worse than Google Maps. Missing locations, wrong/inefficient routes is common.

- Turn signals. Infuriating, just stay up and down when engaged like every other turn signal.

- No windshield wiper physical control. Add it to one of the stocks. Using the touchscreen to control wipers is silly.

- No HUD. A optional HUD that displays: gear, speed, battery percent, and direction would be super useful and a missing feature from a $50k+ car.

Re: Comparing Tesla, Ford and VW’s Electrical Architectures [video]

#19

I understand Musk’s point on parts not being available now (then? Model 3) but I’d like to see a deep dive on 48v vs 12v.

Excuse my ignorance, but what's the advantage of 48v vs 12v? I didn't hear them talk about it.

Less amps at the same power level, all the wires can be smaller.

Re: Comparing Tesla, Ford and VW’s Electrical Architectures [video]

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excuse my ignorance, but what's the advantage of 48v vs 12v? I didn't hear them talk about it.

Less amps at the same power level, all the wires can be smaller.

I’ve read that data + power can share a wire at 48v, powered Ethernet.
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