Elon rubs me t he wrong way often, but I appreciate the long term view and not getting lost in the quarter to quarter weeds. Just needs to make sure he is actually focussed on delivering and not getting distracted.
I don't like the guy (and hey, thanks for all the Schadenfreude, Elon), but does he even have focus? Is Cybertruck anything other than a 5 year old being rich enough that every he employed said "Fine...", is it a future platform? (Yeah, my dislike might be clouding my judgement, if someone is patient enough to try to educate me...). Self-driving, sure the goal is clear (a car as good as a human driver, at least that's before numerous watering-downs), but is Elon the man to lead developers to this goal, from what I can gather he seems to be more of a hindrance (e.g. by refusing to use Lidar).
Sure it is. Some of their innovations include steer by wire and 48 volt low voltage system.
These innovations aren't entirely 'new' or had been talked by the automotive industry for years, but they never made that leap for one reason or another. Common sense stuff that anybody with a brain could probably propose but the bean counters don't like.
WRT style design, the Cybertruck is a sign that Elon Musk isn't afraid to have an opinion. I don't like it, but other people do.
The issue with the Cybertruck isn’t controversial style design, it’s that it’s probably going turn out to be a very poor product and business decision. Time will tell.
At the time he made the no-lidar decree, it made a lot of sense. He was building a $50k car, so the whole self driving ability had to cost $500-$1000 in total added parts cost.
That includes the cameras, computer, and actuators for brake and steering.
There was no way that would pay for a lidar in 2015.
And, it is a fairly cheap decision to reverse when lidar becomes $50 or less - just sell/give a camera replacement kit.
> but I appreciate the long term view and not getting lost in the quarter to quarter weeds
What? How quickly we forget the maniacal EOQ death marches on the production lines. Even the Tesla faithful told you to be wary if your car was built in the last couple of weeks of a quarter.
Not to mention the serial pumps of "FSD, this year, this year, this year!"
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[ 0.19 ms ] story [ 35.4 ms ] threadThese innovations aren't entirely 'new' or had been talked by the automotive industry for years, but they never made that leap for one reason or another. Common sense stuff that anybody with a brain could probably propose but the bean counters don't like.
WRT style design, the Cybertruck is a sign that Elon Musk isn't afraid to have an opinion. I don't like it, but other people do.
That includes the cameras, computer, and actuators for brake and steering.
There was no way that would pay for a lidar in 2015.
And, it is a fairly cheap decision to reverse when lidar becomes $50 or less - just sell/give a camera replacement kit.
Elon’s BSc is economics. His physics degree is a BA.
He seems to think physics is like fiat economics where you can spin the numbers however you want to make them work.
Physics isn’t as flexible and he didn’t put the work required into experiment to see why.
But that doesn't matter - like I said, you can always retrofit if needed, or just settle lawsuits with a refund in the worst case.
In the meantime, the fact that "these cars will be able to self drive, no others will", is selling more cars, even if it may never be true.
What? How quickly we forget the maniacal EOQ death marches on the production lines. Even the Tesla faithful told you to be wary if your car was built in the last couple of weeks of a quarter.
Not to mention the serial pumps of "FSD, this year, this year, this year!"