Live data from Hacker News

Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer without larger batteries

tesla.com

421–430 of 521 posts

Re: Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer without larger batteries

#421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are far easier to handle than, for example, changing a timing belt on a gasoline engine. Faster too... You need less qualified people, less time, less parts, less often for repairs that a handy person can often do themselves and save on labor and parts. Significant sources of income are therefore shrunk for dealerships.

Sure, you can replace brake pads yourself. But few people want to do it; let alone are capable. Saying "significant sources of income are therefore shrunk" significantly overstates just how many people would do their maintenance work on that level. I know people who have paid people to replace the bulbs on a car. My wife rarely even bothers to refill the washer and I can count on 1 hand the number of times she's chec…

>I know people who have paid people to replace the bulbs on a car.

To be fair most newer cars need a fair amount of front bodywork pulled to change a bulb and most crossovers require pulling tail light housings which can be kind of intimidating for someone who's never done anything more than changed windshield wipers.

Re: Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer without larger batteries

#422
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve had a couple of American cars and apparently year-by-year or even in the same model year the manufacturer changes the location of certain parts, which I didn’t expect. Mechanics and I have had trouble finding various parts like fan relays and cabin air filters.

This is pretty common. My 2017 and 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee had small differences. My 2000 E46 also had small differences including having an Iron block that was switched to an Aluminum block. Not to mention small design choices like knobs, switches, and buttons. Dont you want manufacturers to fix something mid production if they find an issue?

My assumption was that the process was more rigid, and everything was thoroughly standardized and determined before the car went into production.

Re: Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer without larger batteries

#423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to me. I judge Tesla on the same metrics as any other car company. The Model S is getting long in the tooth.

As long as I can smoke that Maserati at a stoplight on Sand Hill Road, not a problem.

I agree. After driving a P3D this weekend one of my conclusions was that if you wanted to street race, there were very few cars that would beat it aside from one of the P-model S's.

But if you want a drivers car, Tesla is not currently in that market. I look forward to seeing someone serve that market. Maybe BMW will try to live up to their motto again.

Re: Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer without larger batteries

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to break it to you but very few vehicles are going to the dealer for engine/trans related work. Dealerships mostly only see vehicles that are new enough to be under warranty or recently out of it and major power-train stuff doesn't often break in that time period. It's stuff like steering and suspension wear items, the occasional window motor, trunk latches that won't pop, HVAC and stuff like that they make mo…

My parents both decided they trust the dealership's mechanics more than anyone else's, and have their vehicles serviced there. The family pickup, a Ford F-150, is expected to last ~18 years (makes me sad, because that's a long time to go without Bluetooth) and went out of "warranty" a few years back. The truck has yet to need major work on it, but my dad intends to get it worked on at the dealership. Mind you, we als…

Howdy. As a fellow F-150 owner let me just point out that two DIN replacements are available for the stock radio with everything from just bluetooth to full blown android or proprietary entertainment centers with digital radio and sirius xm inputs. I realize your dad may just not bother since the dealer (most likely) won't do the work but it is possible to replace the stock radio.

Re: Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer without larger batteries

#425
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You go on the website, click a couple boxes, and it tells you a price. You pay what you see on the website. How is that more confusing than a regular dealership?

The model I saw last week when I was thinking about buying is different than the model I saw this week. The price I saw last week for the set of features I remember selecting is different than the price I see this week. They need to calm the rate of change here. It's been all over the map in Q1.

It was also all over the map in Q3 and Q4 of last year (when I was buying a Model 3).

However, I would take this any day over the opaque prices at a dealership.

Re: Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer without larger batteries

#426
post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They break at much much lower rates, because they have many fewer parts. I don't really believe this is true. This is Tesla marketing spin. At one point every vehicle produced was having the drive unit replaced. There have been issues with water ingress and seat problems. Scour the Tesla motors forums. Also, since it's the car is an iPhone model there aren't any aftermarket repairs. Seems to me to worse in every wa…

My 2013vVolt has 105K miles (85K EV / 20K ICE) on it and besides tires and one oil change, I've done NOTHING to it. zippo. It drives like the day I bought it.

[deleted]

Re: Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer without larger batteries

#427

Compare to the Audi e-Tron, which has a fairly massive 95kWH battery but only scores 204 miles of EPA range. They claim they're only using 88% of the battery capacity so that charging is faster and battery longevity is preserved, but thats a really weird engineering decision that belies the fact they have made a terribly inefficient (and perhaps rapidly degrading?) battery pack/drivetrain. Meanwhile the base Model S,…

> Compare to the Audi e-Tron, which has a fairly massive 95kWH battery but only scores 204 miles of EPA range. They claim they're only using 88% of the battery capacity so that charging is faster and battery longevity is preserved, but thats a really weird engineering decision that belies the fact they have made a terribly inefficient (and perhaps rapidly degrading?) battery pack/drivetrain. Audi chooses to limit cha…

> Audi chooses to limit charging thresholds to preserve battery life and your conclusion is that they must have a rapidly degrading battery pack?

I mean, that would be a weird reason to limit it, but every other reason is weird too. 12% degradation over 100k miles would be pretty high. They've started with 12% degradation from the factory by design in order to avoid it!

I can't think of a good reason for this, tbh.

Re: Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer without larger batteries

#428
post #79

What is super cool about Tesla is their laser sharp focus on creating a good electric vehicle. From the autonomy announcement and then this one, they are creating tools purpose built for cars, like new chips for self driving, battery tech etc. They have done so much in so little time, we have come to expect more from them. There is only so much a car company can innovate, Tesla has gone beyond it. Edit: I am a Tesla…

> I don't condone their false advertising around FSD. Can you elaborate on this?

Tesla in the past has made unachievable predictions around self driving. From charging people for FSD and not yet delivering.

Re: Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer without larger batteries

#429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla is also deep in the red so I partially read these PR announcements with a grain of salt as they desperately try to acquire capital

Exactly. Financials come out today, and after saying that it's "profits from here on out" ntwo quarters ago, Tesla will probably produce another huge loss. As is par for the course, their PR news will come hot and heavy: Cars go further! Our entire business model is now robot taxis! None of it matters if you can't sell your product at a profit.

To be fair to Tesla, the "profits from here on out" statements came with some caveats around Q1 2019. I get the feeling that they have moved even more one time charges into the one-time-bad-really-bad quarter as a result.

To be fair to your point, the "Autonomy Day" presentation implied a willingness to renege on the promises about other quarters as well.

Re: Changes to Models S and X allow them to travel longer without larger batteries

#430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Independent researchers have already proven Musk to be 100% right about LIDAR. Pseudo-LiDAR from Visual Depth Estimation: Bridging the Gap in 3D Object Detection for Autonomous Driving https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.07179 3D object detection is an essential task in autonomous driving. Recent techniques excel with highly accurate detection rates, provided the 3D input data is obtained from precise but expensive LiDAR tech…

> Independent researchers have already proven Musk to be 100% right about LIDAR. Well, you better let all the other smart people doing this work know! They're all doomed! Why do you think it's one or the other-neural nets and LIDAR-, and not both? The more sensors the better.

I've mentioned this before but, how many technologies do you see companies working on where they say, "well we have one approach we think is gonna work, but we're also going to spend a ton of resources and time developing this other solution that we don't think is going to work, that would be useless if the first approach does work. Oh and it would make our cars 5k more expensive at least."
Post reply on HN