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Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

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281–290 of 460 posts

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#281

This feels very much like a marketing fluff piece pushed by Tesla PR. Take this gem: "Young companies like Tesla, on the other hand, are not shackled to suppliers and are free to pursue the best technologies available." Try the automated windscreen wipers on any big car brand, they're mostly made by Bosch and they work, even on a 15 year old car. Then Tesla came along with their own approach, guess what, they didn't…

I don't think it is, there was an article a year or so ago where a famous detroit car expert, that specialised in tearing down cars and inspecting them did so for the Tesla.

What he said was that the electronics were light years ahead anything he had seen before, but he wasn't surprised given its a silicon valley car. The chassis on the other hand was way behind the likes of Toyoda.

I can understand that your mileage may have varied but this was through visually inspecting the electronics, not using them in action.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#282

This is grand, apart from the build quality of the mechanics is ~10 years behind. Go to a tesla showroom, Look at the doors of the model three. Note that they don't line up. Look at the paint job, notice that there are bumps and chips, especailly on the edges of the doors. This is on a _demo_ car, stuck in a showroom. these should be perfect. Even a budget Kia has better build quality than this. Its not the isolated…

Also they asked an engineer at a car manufacturer if they could make a computer. He said "We cannot do it." but I feel like the article omitted him saying something like "That's what Bosch is for."

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#283
post #6

I'd really like to see a simple EV for a change. No screens, no AI, no Autopilot, just a 5-seat vehicle with a reasonable range (400+ km) and AC.

What advantages are you looking to get for a super stripped down EV? Less potential maintenance cost? Cheaper? It's pretty clear for more car buyers the market has spoken and folks want more infotainment/screens/AI/whatever, so it seems that type of vehicle is definitely going to become less and less common.

Has the market really spoken, though? If it's literally impossible to buy an EV that doesn't have all these gimmicky screens and AI features in 'em, then there's no way for the market to actually speak.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah ok, this justifies luxury prices then. I mean early adopter surcharges.

I don’t plan on buying a Tesla anytime soon, but the amount of critics that seem to hate everything they do is stunning to me. They are producing an electric car you can buy. They basically forced other companies to produce electric cars you can buy. It’s awesome. Be a little kid again for just a minute...

I think that was more Obama telling american auto manufacturers they have to build electric vehicles if they want a bailout during the recession, and the EU banning the sale of gas and diesel vehicles by 2040.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#285

I am a bit skeptical. Remember when Tesla ventured outside of the typical automotive supply chain to obtain large screens in their cars? https://www.thedrive.com/tech/27989/teslas-screen-saga-shows...

Exactly. And unlike this AI module thingamabob, a touchscreen doesn't have the power to fatally slam me into a wall at 70MPH going down the 101.

I'd rather wait for the likes of Toyota to do things right with automotive-grade components and automotive-grade programming and automotive-grade testing than trust my life to whatever hackery Tesla wants to brogrammer into its ASICs.

The article's probably right about some Japanese engineer saying "I can't do this". Not because that engineer doesn't know how to do it, or because of some relationship with component manufacturers, but because doing so would be ethically questionable at best.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#286
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the "self driving computer" is independent and it actually runs itself in parallel for redundancy and error checking. The infotainment system runs a custom linux distribution running on ARM (MCU1) or intel atom (MCU2). They talk to each other but they are independent.

Question is, how do they talk? For example, if they have shared memory on same bus, it is BAAAAAD.

They talk over the CAN afaik.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#287
post #257
post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what Detroit car companies said when Japanese car quality started taking off. The worst fit and finish I ever saw was my sister's 1980 Dodge Aspen.

Sorry can you clarify your point? I am lost in a bit of ambiguity in the syntax.

"I don't think minor cosmetic issues will materially impact public opinion" is exactly the opinion of the Detroit car companies before they started losing market share to the Japanese companies. They've never recovered. The Japanese were widely regarded to be higher quality machines, and the fit/finish was a big part of that perception.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#288
post #145
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Battery production seems like a problem that can be solved right now with money. VW and Toyota could partner with a 3rd party (like Tesla and Panasonic) and build factories. Custom silicon seems like a much harder problem for VM/Toyota. Unless a supplier can build something for them I don’t see either company innovating like Tesla. Basically Tesla’s secret sauce is the Tech not the EV components.

It isn't just production, but is also the chemistry. Tesla has the lowest amount of cobalt and nickel in their batteries of any battery manufacturer in the world. It makes their batteries cheaper, but also use less rare earth minerals (which are difficult to get ahold of at their scales). Tesla isn't sharing their chemistry, which is demonstrably better than anything LG Chem or Samsung, etc has been able to come up w…

Volkswagen is paying less than $100 per kWh for the batteries in their MEB cars. The mid-range Volkswagen ID.3 achieves slightly greater range at a lower price point than a Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus.

The supposed battery advantage isn't really there. So hopefully the Maxwell stuff is better.

Re: Tesla teardown finds electronics 6 years ahead of Toyota and VW

#289
post #6

I'd really like to see a simple EV for a change. No screens, no AI, no Autopilot, just a 5-seat vehicle with a reasonable range (400+ km) and AC.

So, a Chevy Bolt? It does have an infotainment screen, but otherwise: no AI, no Autopilot, 5 seat vehicle, Air Conditioning, and a 416km range

If they made them for the UK I’d have one already.
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