Live data from Hacker News

Whistleblower drops 100 GB of Tesla secrets to German news site

jalopnik.com

401–410 of 634 posts

Re: Whistleblower drops 100 GB of Tesla secrets to German news site

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll go a bit further... Do we really need computers on four wheels? Can't we just have simple electric vehicles without all the high-tech? No distracting screens, no computer for other than just governing the electric engine, no fancy car locks, and so on. I don't understand why we need to put so much technology in a vehicle. Honestly, it seems to me that is absolutely unnecessary tech, ridiculous. I'd like to have…

The flashy tech bells and whistles are there to compensate for the inherent problems with electric cars. They lag in range compared to gas cars, and get absolutely trounced when it comes to putting energy back in the car. Concrete example: this week I had to drive some people between San Jose and Hollywood. Google maps says that's 5:40 hours over 340 miles. I looked at renting a model 3 for the trip but it simply cou…

I only drive more than 150 mi in a day about two times a year.

The time saved up over the year of not having to go to a gas station every other week and just plugging in at home will dwarf the extra charging time on the very rare road trips (where I'd have to stop and let the kids have some fresh air anyway)

Re: Whistleblower drops 100 GB of Tesla secrets to German news site

#402

Is it just me, or are these numbers almost low enough to be labelled positive PR? > The Tesla files contain more than 2,400 self-acceleration complaints and more than 1,500 braking function problems, including 139 cases of unintentional emergency braking and 383 reported phantom stops resulting from false collision warnings. The number of crashes is more than 1000. A table of incidents involving driver assistance sys…

It’s not the burden of society to prove the dangers of the technology we purchase on behalf of the businesses that sell it. We recall consumer products for danger well below the numbers reported in the article above. A vehicle on the road should be held to an even higher standard.

> We recall consumer products for danger well below the numbers reported

Aren't recalls related to systematic failure and severity, instead of absolute number of occurrences of an issue?

Re: Whistleblower drops 100 GB of Tesla secrets to German news site

#403

Is it just me, or are these numbers almost low enough to be labelled positive PR? > The Tesla files contain more than 2,400 self-acceleration complaints and more than 1,500 braking function problems, including 139 cases of unintentional emergency braking and 383 reported phantom stops resulting from false collision warnings. The number of crashes is more than 1000. A table of incidents involving driver assistance sys…

It’s not the burden of society to prove the dangers of the technology we purchase on behalf of the businesses that sell it. We recall consumer products for danger well below the numbers reported in the article above. A vehicle on the road should be held to an even higher standard.

[dead]

Re: Whistleblower drops 100 GB of Tesla secrets to German news site

#404
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'll go a bit further... Do we really need computers on four wheels? Can't we just have simple electric vehicles without all the high-tech? No distracting screens, no computer for other than just governing the electric engine, no fancy car locks, and so on. I'd love to, the problem is it would get some pitifully low NCAP rating (because lack of active securities would bring the score down and I remember it is && de…

Same I have an old Suzuki and I wouldn't get rid of it for anything. On the other hand, I think the whole concept of cars is the actual problem, especially heavier cars. The tire dust alone is enough to think about weening ourselves off the project. Then there is strip mining the earth for cobalt and all the other nasty shit in the devices, it's pretty bad. Where I live e-bikes are really taking off, to me e-bikes an…

Don't ebikes generate tire dust as well?

By "public transport" you mean shared ebikes? I don't think this can be a mainstream public transport solution if we want to move forward. Ebikes are unsafe, for starters. I expect a lot worse security issues than what's being reported with Teslas...

Re: Whistleblower drops 100 GB of Tesla secrets to German news site

#405
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just the software. They are trying to make due without the kind of sensors that are required to properly sense the immediate environment (LIDAR)

How expensive is LIDAR even? My xiaomi vacuum has LIDAR.

Does it drive you to work too?

Re: Whistleblower drops 100 GB of Tesla secrets to German news site

#406
post #55

IMO Tesla would be better if they focused solely on making good EVs, rather than also trying to become the leader in self-driving. I get that they're trying to create a wider moat against their competitors, but if their self-driving software are found to have systematic failure modes in them as these internal docs seem to suggest, then that could very well do more harm to their reputation in the long run.

Elons point on cars being worth 5x as much with self driving shouldn’t be dismissed. If a car that costs $25,000 to manufacture all of a sudden can be driven 40-50 hours a week automatically, how much is that car now worth? So I totally disagree on that end, as do most investors given teslas enormous valuation.

>Elons point on cars being worth 5x as much .... all of a sudden can be driven 40-50 hours a week ...

Look at it this way, assume humans drive, or need to be driven/travel, X miles per year.

Today, assuming a car drives Y miles per year, the market needs X/Y cars.

Given your argument, with self driving, a car runs nY miles per year, the demand for car will drop to X/nY, basically 1/n of before or maybe a little more, since after all the humans won't suddenly need to drive/travel nX miles per year.

So, if a car were to become worth 5x more, but we need 1/5x cars, the total market would remain the same.

Re: Whistleblower drops 100 GB of Tesla secrets to German news site

#407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not the burden of society to prove the dangers of the technology we purchase on behalf of the businesses that sell it. We recall consumer products for danger well below the numbers reported in the article above. A vehicle on the road should be held to an even higher standard.

> We recall consumer products for danger well below the numbers reported Aren't recalls related to systematic failure and severity, instead of absolute number of occurrences of an issue?

It can be both.

Re: Whistleblower drops 100 GB of Tesla secrets to German news site

#408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A part of me really wants those spinny window cranks back. Highly prefer those funny things over electric windows. Touchscreens on cars need to die out, preferably quickly.

Just bought an old truck with crank windows and manual locks. They're still as wonderful as you remember:)

Oh how I long for the older, simpler and unobtrusive systems like that.

I have so many things where I just want the old non-electric style back.

Re: Whistleblower drops 100 GB of Tesla secrets to German news site

#409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And he’s admitted self driving was way more difficult than anyone realized, so his dream is gonna be delayed 5-10 years like most of his other major ones. It’s now 2013, want to see a video of Starship taking off?

"It’s now 2013, want to see a video of Starship taking off?" Can they even build a strong enough launch pad to handle starship?

Probably.

https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/raptor-steel-...

Re: Whistleblower drops 100 GB of Tesla secrets to German news site

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Can't we just have simple electric vehicles without all the high-tech? No, because ~nobody would buy them. > I don't understand why we need to put so much technology in a vehicle. Because 99% of people want it. Not everyone wants everything, buy each group of people wants some features and the end result is that you have to stuff your car full of tech to be competitive in the modern car market. And this isn't an EV…

People don't care. We have them because they cost less to build than having buttons.

Not touch screens, which have been rejected by most of the market. Tech like adaptive cruise control, collision warnings & automatic breaking, reversing cameras, lane assist, automatic parking, blindspot detection, spotify playlists. I've got a 25 year fully manual tin can with an engine just perfect for puttering around the local area at the 50km/h speed limit. I'm looking for another car with modern safety features for regular distance driving, and most of that requires computers (and buttons!).
Post reply on HN