Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't say any existed. Re-read the comment.
Huh? Are you completely and utterly mental? You were stating what you normally do when you read something saying that it is by Elon Musk on Medium. To claim that you have a normal behaviour for a given situation would usually presuppose that it is a situation you have previously encountered, more than once.
Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
241–250 of 408 posts
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given the extremely dangerous potentials of such a mix-up, I would very much doubt an "Oops" moment would occur. Quite honestly, the way they run the company, I wouldn't be surprised if the process of pushing an OTA update to the automobiles is akin to launching a nuclear missile.
Fifteen years ago, NASA lost a Mars orbiter because one of their contractors used Imperial measurements when NASA used metric. Swissair 111 crashed because the operator installed a new entertainment system which overheated. A lot of serious systems made by serious people still end up with stupid problems.
While that is true, it also means that the 'serious firmware' developed for the car probably has stupid problems.
And it might be safer and cheaper to have the option of fixing problems when you find them, because if you don't have that option, you're forced to weigh the costs of a recall against the risks of the issue for every little thing.
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
The standard that the media holds Tesla to will still be a picnic compared to how the media will treat the first self-driving cars. Far safer than human-driven will not be nearly enough; the first high-profile accident will be wall-to-wall "Are Self-Driving Cars Really Ready For Prime Time?"
Even Betteridge's law occasionally has it's exceptions.
Does Betteridge's law have exceptions?
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#244Earlier quoted context omitted.
Compared to what? A Tesla isn't anywhere near my price range (and I drive a C-class).
My Infiniti payment is something like ~$550/month. To go to a Model S would only cost me ~$800 more per month, which is 5 hours of my time from a billable perspective. Yes, the payment is higher, but I'd have no fuel expenses (currently ~$350/month), so technically its only $450 more a month (3 hours of my time).
If you went with the 60 kWh Model S, your payment would only go up $130, INCLUDING gas. If you're spending $350 a month in gas, you'd actually save money over your Infinity.
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
Compared to what? A Tesla isn't anywhere near my price range (and I drive a C-class).
My Infiniti payment is something like ~$550/month. To go to a Model S would only cost me ~$800 more per month, which is 5 hours of my time from a billable perspective. Yes, the payment is higher, but I'd have no fuel expenses (currently ~$350/month), so technically its only $450 more a month (3 hours of my time).
So at 3 hours per month you are talking about 36 hours per year or three to four days of holiday (depending on the length of your work day).
That sounds significant to me. It might be worth it but there are other ways to spend that time and money.
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#246Earlier quoted context omitted.
My Infiniti payment is something like ~$550/month. To go to a Model S would only cost me ~$800 more per month, which is 5 hours of my time from a billable perspective. Yes, the payment is higher, but I'd have no fuel expenses (currently ~$350/month), so technically its only $450 more a month (3 hours of my time).
That just indicates that you make enough money to buy a more expensive car, not that the Tesla is not significantly more expensive (i.e., about double what you are paying).
That's entirely fair. I didn't look at it that way.
What do we consider affordable? I haven't had the time to do this, but you could take US Census data (average/median income per zip code), derive a formula for percentrage of income someone can spend on transportation, and thereby determine what affordable is.
A Model S is definitely a luxury item at this time; on the other hand, if it was self-driving, and could roll into bays to recharge all in software, with access being on-demand (Uber, with no drivers), they wouldn't be expensive. It would be the same as a company buying airplanes and selling seats on said expensive aircraft.
Maybe we're looking at Tesla wrong. They're not selling luxury cars; they're bootstrapping a mobility company by selling to the wealthy.
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
GM is currently recalling 1.6M cars which can accidentally turn off while driving: http://www.thewire.com/business/2014/03/gm-recall-mary-barra... (this has apparently resulted in a number of deaths, as the power steering stops working)
Not only were they aware of the problem, they did the calculus and decided to release a brand new model knowing this issue effected . http://consumerist.com/2014/03/25/gm-knew-chevy-cobalt-ignit...
Isn't it true that every car manufacturer will be aware of some level of risk and will have to make decisions based on that? There's always more you can put in a car to make it safer, but at some point you stop and release the car.
Note that I'm not saying this particular case is justified. I'm just saying that it's a continuum, and I'm not sure how we should expect car manufacturers to draw the line on the continuum.
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
But titanium is less dense than steel, hence preferred when weight is important. For an electric car, weight is paramount, I would think.
Actually, nope! While it requires more initial force, that extra energy due to added mass is stored in kinetic energy, and contrary to popular belief, it does not affect efficiency. There was actually a myth busters episode about this. Electric cars would store this added energy in their regenerative breaking, so it shouldn't affect energy consumption. Also, the added weight of steel over titanium would be negligible…
Regenerative braking does not capture 100% of the force used to accelerate to that speed. Far from it.
According to this article: http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/magic-tesla-roadster-regener...
The Roadster's regen braking is at most 64% efficient. I'm guessing in real driving scenarios, it will be much less.
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#249Did anyone else notice a screw coming detached from the titanium underbody shield after the impact of the three ball tow hitch, you can also see the shield bend on the impact of the concrete block and the hole where the screw was. It would be kind of ironic if this actually made the car less safe.
Plastic rivet, used to hold other plastic pieces to the underside of the car. Probably in this case it's holding on a plastic splash/aero shield, which is what bent. No big deal.
Damn things fall off all the time. Go look under yours, I bet you're missing a few. And you haven't crushed any alternators in the process.
I was actually pretty disappointed to see that--because I hate those things. I guess it was too much to believe that Tesla wouldn't have any of those damned plastic clips. I guess once I get my (rather unlikely) Model S I'll still have a reason to go to AutoZone.
Re: Tesla Adds Titanium Underbody Shield and Aluminum Deflector Plates to Model S
#250Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Take the nubmer of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probabilty rate of failure, B, multiply by the average ouf-of-court settlement, C. A x B x C = X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."
Cost-benefit analysis, psychopath style.
In all honesty, how would you recommend doing cost benefit analysis for a car manufacturer? There will always be safety risks to the drivers, after all.