We do road trips in our EV frequently, and it’s just fine. There’s a real difference between Tesla (long range battery, great charge network) and non-Tesla (often much shorter range, unreliable charge network). When you can 100% count on chargers delivering a recharge in 15-20 minutes then drive another 200+ miles,…

To clarify, the closer a battery is to 100% the slower it charges, not because you’re throttled, but because the less voltage delta there is because the battery’s voltage is higher, so the slower the current flows.

No, it’s crappy maintenance. When a charger is broken, the companies make less money. As to the economics of slow chargers, while they’ll always piss off customers who then want to go elsewhere, some chargers charge per kWh delivered in which case slow costs them money, and some charge per minute in which case slow…

Wireless charging is 94% efficient. Wired chargers are 88-95% efficient. So wireless charging is more efficient than most wired charging, not less.

The insurer would point out that with driver assist systems, including Autopilot and FSD Beta, as well as many other driver assist systems from many manufacturers, the driver is responsible for driving the car. There are numerous cases of idiots crashing many different cars with “collision avoidance” systems, for…

Software release notes generally just list major changes that drivers have to know about - there are always lots of minor issues that aren’t in the release notes. In fact, something like half the release notes (for many developers, not just Tesla) are just a generic “bug fixes and feature enhancements” note.

Cars on the road from most manufacturers are running different versions of software depending on when they were manufactured. Tesla does of course do testing before they release software. The big difference is that Tesla updates software in the field, so a car from 2018 isn’t stuck with the software (and bugs, etc.)…

That’s not what autopilot in an airplane does. Autopilot in an airplane is similar to Autopilot in a Tesla, in that it automates the boring parts of flying and the pilot is responsible for maintaining awareness and control.

If Tesla drivers were all idiots that weren’t paying attention, making Autopilot a huge risk,…

The driver is responsible for not ignoring the siren and flashing lights. Slowing down gives them more time to respond.

there are tens of thousands of collisions with emergency vehicles every year with people driving manually. The reality is that emergency vehicles are parked in unusual positions, so even with flashing lights, etc., they’re 5x as likely to be in a collision as a non-emergency vehicle.

Zero of the 11 emergency vehicle accidents in the last 4 years that they’re talking about involved cars using FSD Beta. So I’m not sure why they’re talking about FSD Beta. FSD Beta is in very limited testing (2,000 testers so far) with zero collisions, so not relevant to this discussion.

The system that they’re talking…

Autopilot in airplanes is pretty close to what Tesla’s Autopilot does, which is why they use the name. That is, autopilot in an airplane automates the boring part of flying, but the pilot has to remain aware and is responsible for remaining in control of the airplane.

If people didn’t know what autopilot in an airplane…

Agreed, it means that the system learns from “good drivers”, which is better for the system’s behavior. And, of course, good drivers are more likely to continue FSD Beta’s clean track records (zero collisions so far).

Legally, Tesla is very clear that their current system is driver assist, and the driver is legally responsible for maintaining control of the car. And since Tesla drivers with Autopilot have 1/10th the collision rate of the average drivers, and the tiny number of Tesla drivers using FSD Beta have zero collisions, so it…

Note that Tesla is very clear that they’re selling a system that is currently driver assist, and that their goal is to develop full self driving in the future, and that they’re giving a discount because it’s not done yet. And given that Tesla drivers have much lower collisions rates than non-Tesla drivers, due to the…

There’s zero evidence that Tesla drivers think that Autopilot doesn’t require the driver to maintain awareness and control over the car. The collision rate when Autopilot is engaged is 1/10th the national average, which certainly implies that drivers aren’t particularly at risk when using Autopilot.

Teslas don’t have “FSD Mode” other than a tiny number of beta testers with FSD Beta.

They have Autopilot, which displays a dialog that explains that it is driver assist and the driver has to maintain control, which they driver has to acknowledge when you first turn it on.

Perhaps that’s why in reality drivers using…

Autopilot in a Tesla means the same thing as Autopilot in an airplane, which is where it got the name. That is, it automates boring parts of flying/driving, and the pilot/driver needs to remain aware and in control. And Tesla reminds drivers of this repeatedly, not just in. the manual but in an alert that is displayed…

This feels like an intentional choice, not a flaw, because they engineered the car to engage the brakes when they could have not done so. So the question is - is there a good reason that Tesla (and several ICE and EV cars) made the decision to lot leave a dead car free-rolling? Is it perhaps safer more broadly, even…

Tesla’s steering is a mechanical linkage, not drive-by-wire, so that no matter what the electronics does you can still steer.