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Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

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Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, you may be defeating your own argument there. The main reason that front-wheel drive is better in slick conditions is more weight over the wheels in the typical front engined car. Rear wheel drive may actually be better if the battery pack is sitting on top of it.

That's only part of it. The other reason is that on a front wheel drive car, torque is applied in the direction you want to go. On a rear wheel drive car, torque is applied in the direction you are currently going.

A common complain about FWD is understeer though. It's worse with more torque at the front wheels.

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#232

Anyone else getting a vaporware vibe from this car?

Lmao what? After he's delivered the S and the X, and created reusable rockets, you think this is vaporware ? Wtf?

People are still trying to call Tesla the new Delorean. Even after all the successful deliveries.

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#233

my only head scratch on the design is the giant tablet attached to a thin pole on the dash i live in sf, where a book on your passenger seat will get you a broken window and lose you a book the tablet looks like it is going to inadvertantly encourage broken windows and is inevitably going to be ripped out of the dash here's to hoping it retracts to under the dash when off

It's an unfinished cabin design. I doubt they're going to leave a monitor sitting in that spot as the end look. Most likely it'll be mounted flush into the dash in some manner.

The Model X has a tablet sticking out like this for the pre-production but the production model has it molded into the dash.

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#234
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and it will have standard safety features like automatic braking that use that hardware. But what does that have to do with whether or not the Model 3 design is based around fully autonomous driving?

He said the hardware would be standard meaning that Autopilot will be a software unlock. The software safety features are enabled by default.

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. You appear to be reiterating what I said in the comment you replied to.

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get an S1000RR, an RSV4 or an R1 and you can go back to treating any Tesla like a normal sleepy car :)

Hah. I am too much of a hooligan to let myself acquire a proper sportbike; I get into enough trouble as it is. I'm actually thinking of switching to a BMW K75 or K100, since I'm no longer commuting via bike (nowhere to park downtown, alas) and something suitable for long weekend cruises might get more use.

Heh. Me too. SV650 at moment. I'd like another Triumph 955, my licence wouldn't. :)

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Model S is already at 0.24 (most efficient car in production)

I'm guessing Tesla gets to cheat a bit since they don't use heat engines and don't have to run a bunch of air over a giant mesh screen to keep the engine from burning up. Also, that giant pane of smooth glass over the top probably helps.

So by "cheat" you mean "solve the same problem in a better way"?

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#237
post #3

Unveil part 2 is "super next-level". And the "steering controls and system feels like a spaceship" And Musk tweeted a little while ago about getting a special team of Software Engineers reporting directly to him for self-driving that was "top priority" within the company. And there are no gauges directly in front of the driver at all, which has been confirmed to be like that for production. At this point, can it be a…

> At this point, can it be anything other than full autonomous? There is no way that autonomous driving is going to work in most small European town and villages. There are so many downtowns which were never meant to be used by car and it is already difficult to navigate those places as a human. I just don't see how this should work over here in Europe. Selfdriving on the highway or in a typical suburban sprawl in th…

[deleted]

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#238
post #3

Unveil part 2 is "super next-level". And the "steering controls and system feels like a spaceship" And Musk tweeted a little while ago about getting a special team of Software Engineers reporting directly to him for self-driving that was "top priority" within the company. And there are no gauges directly in front of the driver at all, which has been confirmed to be like that for production. At this point, can it be a…

> At this point, can it be anything other than full autonomous? There is no way that autonomous driving is going to work in most small European town and villages. There are so many downtowns which were never meant to be used by car and it is already difficult to navigate those places as a human. I just don't see how this should work over here in Europe. Selfdriving on the highway or in a typical suburban sprawl in th…

People always raise these issues... "I know about a tricky street that no computer could drive!" But it doesn't really matter in terms of selling autonomous cars. If autonomous driving is only enabled for the top 90% of the most autonomy-friendly routes, then only people in those areas will buy the first round of autonomous cars. Over time, AI improves, maps improve, and people put pressure on municipalities to improve roads.

But is any of that a problem for Tesla to sell a lot of autonomous cars? No. Not even a little.

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#239
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget computers have vastly faster response times than people. A car going 5mph with 10ms reaction times can stop in ~1 foot. http://www.random-science-tools.com/physics/stopping-distanc...

Do you want to be inside the car when it does that? It is not going to be much fun unless you are paying attention and bracing yourself, in which case I'm not sure I see the advantage of letting the computer do it for you.

I would VASTLY prefer to be in that car than to be in a different car with a human driver and watch a person get killed by the vehicle I'm riding in.

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#240
post #3

Unveil part 2 is "super next-level". And the "steering controls and system feels like a spaceship" And Musk tweeted a little while ago about getting a special team of Software Engineers reporting directly to him for self-driving that was "top priority" within the company. And there are no gauges directly in front of the driver at all, which has been confirmed to be like that for production. At this point, can it be a…

You don't really need gauge at all, autonomous car or not. Seriously, in every day driving you need the speed and that's it. (even on a clutch ICE car, the RPM is really unnecessary unless you have a racing driving style) They have confirmed in some video that the odometer is within the visual field of the driver and actually very visible.

The rest of the information does not need constant visual presence, actually the GPS is probably more interesting than anything else.

I would still be surprised if there is no HUD provided with the car. You still need some very visible notification area for event like running out of juice or any kind of malfunction. Also there still some stuff the car are bad at doing like fog lights, or putting the light on in a foggy situation ( actually almost had a crash because of that - so use of the car switching the light on or off, forgot that fog during day or overcast weather are the same to a light sensor ) Also if the car is not 100% of the time autonomous, you need to be able to tell immediately if it is enabled or not.

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