Tesla's splitting with sensor supplier Automotive motion-sensor outfit Mobileye has announced that it's broken up with 'leccy car-maker Tesla. The Israeli company made the announcement during its earnings call yesterday, saying that it wants to concentrate on closer collaborations, rather than merely being a parts supplier. Chairman Amnon Shashua said the company …
“There’s nothing unexpected here from our standpoint … We’re committed to autonomy.
I think Tesla and everyone else is getting distracted by autonomous driving.
What, one wonders, is it that people think they're really buying when they buy a Tesla? Are they buying an electric car with moderately good usability characteristics which goes like stink (that just happens to have fancy cruise control)? Or are they buying a car with a ton of gadgets, a prototype autonomous mode, and a swish app (that just happens to be electric)?
For me, having been in a friend's Tesla, all that gadgetry, connectivity, remote data logging by Tesla, autonomous mode, is seriously off-putting. The entire car has been designed around having that enormous display in the centre console.
To me that demonstrates that Tesla are getting their priorities wrong. It shouldn't be all about what's shown on that screen, what data is collected and logged, what autonomy and gadgetry is made possible with all that on board compute power and all those sensors.
Instead it should be about making a car that goes well and is usable, despite being electric. Goes well? Check. Usable? Well that's still a big 'it depends'. And with drivers of upcoming models not being given the same level of access to Tesla charging points enjoyed by existing drivers, we have to conclude that usability is going to get worse.
My friend is certainly mixed up by it. He likes the gadgets, the app, the data, the autonomous mode and the especially the performance, hates the range anxiety, and in my opinion probably wouldn't have bought the car if it were gadget free. His enjoyment of the performance in it is limited by the fact that the range limitations means he can't go off somewhere to enjoy it. Instead he's limited to the commute, and gets stuck in the traffic just like the rest of us.
In that sense Tesla have got their priorities right - they're making sales that wouldn't have happened otherwise. But they're still not making a profit.
@petur,
Why should one exclude the other?
I think all the extra's come from the fact that it can be done on the platform.
The point is that all the extras can be done on a car powered by any means, petrol, diesel, electric, hybrid. There's nothing about the automation and gadgetry that Tesla have that requires the car to be moved electrically, as Google, BMW, Volvo, etc have demonstrated with their petrol powered demonstrators.
Tesla's key selling point should be that it's electric. I think in practise that's diluted by the addition all the extras. Arguably the automation is a business risk (they might get sued big time if it goes really wrong), and reduces the effort they can put into making it a better electric car (ie more range).
Are you saying its a worse car because of the gadgets? That doesn't make sense. Especially since you don't actually have to use the gadgets if you don't want to.
Their primary focus is the Model 3 - getting that built and getting very mass market is what they are aiming at. Meanwhile the Model S and X get better with each iteration.
How often do you drive more than 250 miles in a day? When you do, do you stop off for a coffee break?
People make far too much about the range limits of these cars. I have a friend with a BMW i3, with a range of around 90 miles on a charge. He manages quite well even with that, and he makes a long journey twice a week with it.
It's not just about the range. There are gasoline powered cars with 40L tanks, and big stupid (Harley) motorcycles, that have very short ranges, not much different than the Tesla.
It's the refueling TIME. It's the remaining lack of locations to recharge. It's the advice to not use the full range of the cells. Over a real world 24 hour race on an arbitrary route, the Tesla wouldn't beat a VW Camper Van.
It's the extraordinary price ($40k) and 10 or 12 year life span of the pack. Just the depreciation of the battery pack costs more per year ($4k) than I spend on gasoline.
Range Anxiety is real, but over simplified.
The other point is that, as volumes ramp up, the cost per kWh of the battery packs falls. In 10-12 years a replacement pack will be far cheaper than it is today.
Your petrol car also contains consumable parts (oil, spark plugs, filters, belts etc) which are going to add up to rather more in maintainance over that period.
@JeffyPoooh
It's the refueling TIME. It's the remaining lack of locations to recharge. It's the advice to not use the full range of the cells.
Agreed, that's the real killer. Given that the recharging time is long the single charge range matters.
If they made the range really good (1000 miles), that would suit even me, even if it took all night to recharge.
The long term point in automation is to get rid of the car ownership entirely.
Once cars can drive themselves there is no point in ever owning one. Simply request a car on your phone, get in and be taken to the desired destination.
Think UBER without the major cost of the drivers. Instantly ready, always fully charged. The rides will cost you less than you currently pay in fuel let alone tax, insurance, tax, maintenance and of course tax.
The reason is it in the car now is for a the DATA. Currently at 1 million hours of autonomous driving PER DAY, all being fed back to Tesla to use to make the system better.
Whilst that may come into being, it misses out one of the key aspects of cars. They're personal spaces, with our stuff in them. We like our personal spaces.
As soon as they're shared they're only as nice as the worst person to have ridden in it since it was clean. That's one of the reasons why people bought cars - to get off the buses and trains and smelly taxi cabs.
It's also a model that may work in a city but doesn't work in the country side.
This is all about mobileye's bottom line and has nothing to do with Tesla. BMW & Intel are cutting them a slice of the pie which Tesla wasn't prepared to do. BMW wont have a fully autonomous vehicle till 2030 as they are hamstrung by their investors/lawyers unwilling to accept the risk.
Don't believe the Top Gear comments when they reviewed the Leaf and Zoe. Tesla is more than capable of delivering over 200 cheap and reliable miles out of a single charge. The Supercharger network is growing, not at the rate we want, but still getting better. Also the network is free to use and will always be free to use (for Model S and X users). I can choose to drive from London or Edinburgh right now, knowing that I can make it easily, albeit with a couple of stops mid journey to recharge. These typically take just over an hour, and you are ready to go. It does mean that you spend some of the money you save on coffee.
I bought my car on the way it drove (which is amazingly quiet and luxurious - and if pushed - unbelievably fast), I love the way it looks. It is fairly universally accepted from Tesla owners perspective that Petrol/Diesel cars are slow, polluting and needlessly expensive to keep feeding.
Autopilot seemed like an expensive toy, at £2300 to enable a software feature. It was initially scary, but I have lots of faith in it, but use it mainly in heavy traffic. I think the negative publicity regarding the recent crash has been relished by the other car manufacturers, I don't know anyone who has stopped using Autopilot. When this feature first got released, there were videos of people getting out of the drivers seat and letting the car drive itself. Some people will push anything too far.
Also, in response to previous posters, who pay $3500-$4000 in fuel, the UK fuel prices are ridiculously expensive, with fuel £1.10+ per litre, which puts it into £5.50+ gallon, which is topping $7 per gallon. It feels nice to not have to worry about rising fuel costs.
It will be interesting to see what Tesla do when they cannot use the Mobileye software. I have faith that they will have something up their sleeve.
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