This comes off as pretty out of touch with reality.
> [Electric car] that is much safer
It's way too early to tell, we need a decade more of statistics before you can say that. As of now, there are many gasoline cars that have better safety records than the Model S; in terms of fatalities per mile it is only on par with the NHTSA average.
> [Electric cars] that unlike gasoline cars is upgraded for free on a regular basis after you purchased it
Gasoline cars have similarly complex ECUs and entertainment systems and are already being updated for free (usually at regular services).
> [Electric car] has much more luggage space
The Model X "SUV" proves that electric cars with decent range are so far restricted to the "liftback" body shape. Let me know when there is an electric equivalent of a Chevy Suburban or Volvo V70 (which really have much more luggage space).
> unlike gasoline cars, [electric cars] can be upgraded modularly for small investments
You've seriously never heard of the $300 billion-a-year market for aftermarket car parts? Never heard of the SEMA show? Gasoline cars are much better suited for modular upgrades: everything from better air filters to chiptuning to a bigger turbo is easily available and can be done by anyone with freely available tools in their garage. Unlike electric cars, which are inherently much less hackable.
> They haven't integrated solar in the cars yet to further kill any range anxiety.
You clearly haven't done the basic math here: a solar panel the size of a car roof will take several weeks to charge an electric car.
> Any day Tesla can license their battery technology and superchargers
Tesla does not own the IP for the battery tech nor the superchargers
Due to dealerships, most cars can _only_ have their software upgrades during services. Tesla can push it out over the air. I'm not aware of anyone else doing that, and they probably can't due to dealership rules.
Yep we can agree on this one, solar wont help on cars.
> Licencing
> Tesla does not own the IP for the battery tech nor the superchargers
Do you have a source for that? Tesla batteries are damn complicated, its not just a load of laptop batteries glued together, there are very complex support systems around the battery cells. Are you telling me they dont own the IP for that?
The "Safety Rating" may be fantastic, but if it translates into an average fatalities per mile, it's likely the metric is inadequate and shouldn't be lauded too greatly (at least, by itself).
Of course it could be that reckless drivers purchase Teslas, confounding the statistics. But given the safety ratings only account for how likely a passenger (or pedestrian) is to die/be injured in certain kinds of impact, it is a very incomplete picture.
Even if the metric is perfect at measuring this, the average result for fatalities per mile would seem to then suggest an increased number of high-risk collisions per mile.
Also, just counting cubic feet with two luggage compartments is only helpful in some situations. You wouldn't be able to fit a washing machine in a Model S, for instance, or a dog cage, nor most baby prams (without significant disassembly).
Tesla does own some patents on the battery pack assembly, but Musk famously declared a while back that these are free for all other car companies to use in good faith. (He "open sourced" them.) Also, Tesla is the only electric car manufacturer going for the 18650 cell as the basis, all others are going for much larger individual cells in their packs, so most of Tesla's battery pack IP doesn't apply to others since it's specific to the cell form factor.
You don't understand. Most car manufacturers have agreements with dealerships that will prevent OTA updates from being possible.
> Musk famously declared a while back that these are free for all other car companies to use in good faith
Yep, but 'good faith' means opening up their IP in return, more or less, so not many companies are taking that up. Anyhow Tesla still own the IP, so your original statement is incorrect.
> You don't understand. Most car manufacturers have agreements with dealerships that will prevent OTA updates from being possible.
There are also legal frameworks that make OTA updates edgy. Tesla is being investigated in germany because pushing additional features ("auto"pilot) might substantially alter the car from the approved version, leaving it without approval to drive on german roads.
OTA also suffers from all the beautiful issues that networked updates suffer from, most notably security, authentication, encryption. I for one prefer updates done via good old fashioned removable media.
So yes, OTA updates are nice, but I'm not certain I really really want that in my car.
There's also the problem all software updates can suffer: a code change breaking something in production. In this case it would be a car carrying humans.
sure, but thats a different argument. I am arguing with semi-extrinsic who claimed that Gasoline cars have similarly complex ECUs and entertainment systems and are already being updated for free (usually at regular services).. I'm arguing that no-one else comes close to what Tesla are able to do with updates. e.g. in the next month or two autopilot 8 will be pushed out, bringing significant new functionality to the 30,000+ autopilot equipped Teslas already on the road.
I'm not sure what type of software updates we're talking about but BMW allows idrive updates (nav/media) via the USB port. They provide the updates for free on their site.
I drive a Hyundai that has a navigation system. I purchased it in 2010. I have to dish out $250 or something at the dealer to get updated maps. The nav system's update process is password-locked so I can't just do it myself.
I don't want there to be any possibility of my car changing its behavior unless I take the deliberate action of bringing it into a dealership for that purpose. It's one thing if an update bricks my laptop, it's quite another if it bricks my car. Let alone if one day a malicious update somehow gets pushed out.
It's not just you, there are a bunch of people like you, but you are a minority.
I see four categories of people here:
1) People who really don't want to think about it, and fully trust Tesla to take care of them. This is the vast majority of people.
2) People who understand security, and want security patches applied as quickly as possible by a professional. This group also likes OTA updates, but is admittedly quite small.
3) People who want to minimize their security surface area entirely. These people wouldn't buy a Tesla, nor would they allow their dealer to plug into their car. They buy a car that's carefully vetted to have a small attack surface, and do the maintenance themselves (or by a trusted contractor). This is, like, the Secret Service, etc. This is a tiny group.
4) People who need some degree of "control theater" so that they can maintain the sensation they are in control of the status of their vehicle, but who aren't actually applying any sort of rigorous security protocol (as evidenced by leaving their car unattended at a random dealership). It's is a bigger group than #2 or #3, but much smaller than #1.
> maintain the sensation they are in control of the status of their vehicle
Hopefully it's more than the sensation. Anyone who's ever had a Windows update take over right before a presentation, or an Apple update brick their phone, wishes they had more control over when and if to accept an update.
Being able to upgrade/downgrade helps a lot. "Bluetooth for my headphones broke, after I upgraded. I'll downgrade, until they've fixed that bug."
I believe Tesla's idea behind solar panels is to extend the range a bit (5 percent or so) in order to alleviate the range anxiety drivers have, not to charge the batteries fully. At least not before the batteries and panels get much more efficient.
As for IP, Tesla doesn't need to own all IP from lithium ion batteries to chargers. Just to have the necessary licenses for whichever part of the the base IP which is not already in free use and to have licenses or patents to the way they have put it all together (the way they combine the batteries, their charger etc.). Take Volvo: For them, building a network of chargers covering their markets would mean an investment of billions of euros that they don't have. Buy batteries from Tesla instead, and they can pay as they go.
Changing modules in an electric will eventually be like changing RAM or a fan in a computer. Something most people can't do themselves but that an expert can do in half an hour. Electric cars can be built like PCs where one module can replace another. Gasoline cars are not as modular. Also, the 300 billion dollar market for gasoline car parts is mainly because there are many and many old gasoline cars and because their moving parts need to be repaired and replaced often, not because they are upgraded. You rarely upgrade a gasoline car - you mainly fix broken stuff. I never heard of anyone handing in their gasoline car and picking it up a few days later with faster acceleration and longer range, just like Tesla now offers with their new battery.
> You rarely upgrade a gasoline car - you mainly fix broken stuff. I never heard of anyone handing in their gasoline car and picking it up a few days later with faster acceleration and longer range, just like Tesla now offers with their new battery.
Ever seen "The Fast and the Furious"? I am pretty sure people upgrade their gasoline cars all the time. People already replace modular parts on their cars similar to computers. OEM upgrades that increase acceleration, etc may not be common, but aftermarket upgrades that increase acceleration or horsepower are extremely common.
I'd bet there are many more options for upgrading an old 90s model Toyota Supra or Mitsubishi Eclipse than there are for a brand new Tesla Model S.
Um PCs are module because there is a history of competition going back to IBM using off-then-shelf parts. Basically everything from technology companies since is more anti-modular and anti-competative.
Excluding markets where serviceability is at a premium. Server hardware is often highly modular, but then the modules are quite proprietary. IBM is doing that themselves nowadays.
>>I never heard of anyone handing in their gasoline car and picking it up a few days later with faster acceleration and longer range, just like Tesla now offers with their new battery.
It's really pretty standard. I have several friends who "chip-tuned" their diesel engines for significant HP boost, people regularly change suspension parts, exhausts, they add intercoolers to the engines, order a turbo etc.
Those are pretty standard things and there are many specialized shops when you can drop your car for a few days to get those done.
You shouldn't trust your opinions on the topic if you haven't heard about it because those are really common things among car enthusiasts.
> [Electric car] that is much safer
It's way too early to tell, we need a decade more of statistics before you can say that. As of now, there are many gasoline cars that have better safety records than the Model S; in terms of fatalities per mile it is only on par with the NHTSA average.
> [Electric cars] that unlike gasoline cars is upgraded for free on a regular basis after you purchased it
Gasoline cars have similarly complex ECUs and entertainment systems and are already being updated for free (usually at regular services).
> [Electric car] has much more luggage space
The Model X "SUV" proves that electric cars with decent range are so far restricted to the "liftback" body shape. Let me know when there is an electric equivalent of a Chevy Suburban or Volvo V70 (which really have much more luggage space).
> unlike gasoline cars, [electric cars] can be upgraded modularly for small investments
You've seriously never heard of the $300 billion-a-year market for aftermarket car parts? Never heard of the SEMA show? Gasoline cars are much better suited for modular upgrades: everything from better air filters to chiptuning to a bigger turbo is easily available and can be done by anyone with freely available tools in their garage. Unlike electric cars, which are inherently much less hackable.
> They haven't integrated solar in the cars yet to further kill any range anxiety.
You clearly haven't done the basic math here: a solar panel the size of a car roof will take several weeks to charge an electric car.
> Any day Tesla can license their battery technology and superchargers
Tesla does not own the IP for the battery tech nor the superchargers