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Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

reuters.com

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Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#751

Post by mdwalters »

aydyn wrote: post #523
Lendal wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought it would be cool. I didn't consider the fact I don't actually like it when someone else is driving. I don't like being a passenger even if a person I trust is driving, so why would an AI be different? Apparently I like to drive more than I thought I did. Also, I didn't realize how many restrictions there would be. You have to keep your hands applying constant tension on the steering wheel, and there's actua…

You can just play games on your phone, or take a quick power nap (don't forget to set a timer!) It's awesome!

we would be doing that if technology was perfected

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#752

Post by fsckboy »

malwrar wrote: post #158
jvanderbot wrote: post #8

I have a model Y. I hate almost everything about it. But most germane, The "Battery meter" at the top of the display is total bunk. That's got to be "rosy" numbers. It'll display a the battery in miles, but it's at least 25% inflated. However if you punch in a destination, you'll get exact numbers, and those are insanely reliable. It claims (and I don't believe any claims coming from tesla) that it'll factor wind, el…

I actually got stranded once for some hours because of the mileage indicator! Was driving back from a campsite that I turned out to not have charging compatibility with, but thought I had plenty of margin to get to the nearest charger. As I drove through the mountains however, I began noticing that a.) my battery was depleting much faster than expected and b.) I wasn’t seeing any houses and very few motorists. I watc…

> turns out you need one that has a full bed because of the regenerative breaking

towing a car with regenerative braking seems like a great way to charge it! Elon needs to put somebody on this.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#753

Post by mdwalters »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #264
croes wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the best and most intuitive UI I think the best UI was before all the computer displays in cars. Everything operable without visual contact.

I disagree. Because we seldom have the same car twice, I always need to decipher some strange icons to find out what something does. Or how to operate the wipers. It might work better if you know it b/c of tactile feedback, but it's in no way intuitive.

just read the manual??

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#754

Post by simondotau »

ethanbond wrote: post #745
simondotau wrote: post #734

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's good for Tesla customers because it means NACS charging infrastructure will be more widely available from more companies. Tesla will have reason (and economic motive) to add more Supercharger sites and make them larger than they'd otherwise be. It's good for Tesla because it costs them a lot less to have everyone else shift to NACS than for them to redeploy ten thousand Supercharger stalls with CCS1. Honestly th…

Right so they were backed into a corner by everyone else starting to build out infrastructure and they had to cede access to their previously privileged network to pull it off. I agree, I have no sympathy for CCS1 investments etc, NACS seems superior and it looks like consumers writ large will win etc etc., I'm just wondering how any of this adds up to a bullish case for Tesla and I'm afraid your comment doesn't clar…

It’s bullish for Tesla that their extremely costly NACS investments will be proved correct, they now have increased economic value, and a future risk is eliminated. Having long calls proven right is bullish. This level of influence over the North American automotive sector is bullish.

It also plays into the perception that Tesla are technology leaders the EV sector. Which is a big deal if EV technology is the future of the the automotive sector.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#755

Post by gonehome »

ethanbond wrote: post #748
gonehome wrote: post #746

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The licensing discussion I heard between Ben Thompson and John Gruber on their Dithering podcast (not sure the details). Even ignoring that, I think it's still a good outcome for Tesla - they effectively own and control a large percentage of all charging infrastructure in the world. Every other car company adopting their standard means they have a lot of customers that will pay them to charge at their stations (even…

Got it! I've been meaning to check out Dithering anyway so I'll give that a listen. > they effectively own and control a large percentage of all charging infrastructure in the world. Every other car company adopting their standard means they have a lot of customers that will pay them to charge at their stations (even independent of the licensing). This is the argument I find interesting... IMO if everything does cent…

No worries - trying to engage in thoughtful conversation despite the internet incentivizing craziness is my goal!

Fair point about existing players, I just tend to discount old large companies being able to execute for the same reasons startups tend to eat their lunch. Why haven’t they done it already? Why haven’t they started even now?

Why did it require Tesla to build EVs? Why did existing car companies ignore Tesla for 20 years until they were way behind?

Probably the innovators dilemma - it’s rare existing providers are much of a threat.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#756

Post by AtlasBarfed »

jvanderbot wrote: post #8

I have a model Y. I hate almost everything about it. But most germane, The "Battery meter" at the top of the display is total bunk. That's got to be "rosy" numbers. It'll display a the battery in miles, but it's at least 25% inflated. However if you punch in a destination, you'll get exact numbers, and those are insanely reliable. It claims (and I don't believe any claims coming from tesla) that it'll factor wind, el…

It's what drives me nuts about "300 miles is more than enough".

Consider:

- batteries lose, best case, about 10-20% of max range over a typical car ownership period

- not charging to the max is very often important to not getting bad degradation, so take another 10% off

- winter can take 10-20% range off

- driving at typical speed as opposed to the alleged ratings is probably another 10-20% reduced range

- headwinds, air conditioning/heating, and other factors can remove another 10-20%.

So suddenly, some 300 mile rated range is actually 150 miles of real world range. So here in the midwest, with underinvested charging infrastructure and biiiiiiggggg states and rural density, a 400 mile range really is pretty much required for any functional long distance driving.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#757

Post by AtlasBarfed »

iJohnDoe wrote: post #627
malwrar wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually got stranded once for some hours because of the mileage indicator! Was driving back from a campsite that I turned out to not have charging compatibility with, but thought I had plenty of margin to get to the nearest charger. As I drove through the mountains however, I began noticing that a.) my battery was depleting much faster than expected and b.) I wasn’t seeing any houses and very few motorists. I watc…

I’ll admit, it’s somewhat comforting to see Tesla owners are treating other Tesla owners poorly. I thought you guys only treated everyone else badly. Seems like so many Tesla owners drive like complete jerks. Drive way too close to people (tailgating). Drive way too fast all time, even in neighborhoods. Drive way too aggressively. Drive way too entitled. I’ve seen some crazy stuff from people driving a Tesla. Driving…

1) younger drivers

2) male drivers

3) intelligent drivers that think rules don't apply to them (see: HACKER news)

4) affluent drivers, a lot of the BMW crowd

5) single drivers (if you have a kid, you slow down in general)

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#758

Post by vGPU »

01100011 wrote: post #593
jayd16 wrote: post #537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You drive 100 miles and spent hours charging? That makes no sense. We're you towing something?

Exactly. Nope, no towing. Drove about half those miles and spent about 45 minutes at a supercharger, then drove another 35 or so and spent a little over an hour at another one. In the second case I was trying to get to 90% so I could return the car above the 72% I picked it up at. We ran the A/C most of the time. I was driving pretty conservatively with about 50/50 highway/city streets. I did try to show off the acce…

That doesn’t seem right. I rented a Y LR off Turo recently. The range is nowhere near the claimed 300+ but I’d get 200-250 and I’m a pretty aggressive driver.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#759

Post by firesteelrain »

dinom wrote: post #567
firesteelrain wrote: post #525

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... assuming you have battery (which he didn't)

Yeah, that's a fair point but isn't it true that a mostly discharged battery will still have enough charge to perform some limited functions. E.g. even in a normal car I think a dead battery can power the lights even though the starter only "clicks". Nonetheless, I'm a rather conservative type of person and see your point so in my "dream car" I might want a way to manually put the car in neutral (or free-roll mode, w…

For the Tesla, it shut itself off in this story. Regardless of whether it may have had some juice left

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#760

Post by thejazzman »

macintosh-hd wrote: post #716
thejazzman wrote: post #672

My 2015 85D's battery, with only 70k miles, died the day after the warranty expired. $15k to have them out in another refurbished, 8yo battery. And they kept mine to resell to someone else for $15k. Any other company I'd say it's a coincidence. But I suspect it was suppressing errors during the warranty period :/

Don’t you think if there was an intentional conspiracy to do this they would make it a little less obvious by not activating battery self destruct the day after the warranty ended? I’d have made it wait at least a month afterwards…

You'd absolutely think so, but imagine how many times we might say that about Tesla & Co the last ~3 years :/

You've got to admit that a car that mostly sat idle for years (like a literal Sunday driver) had a sudden and catastrophic failure upon entry is bizarre and hard to justify. And of course my only option is to pay Tesla directly or junk the car (only worth about $20k now if the battery is fixed!)

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