The cars are cool, the solar energy stuff is cool, the space stuff is cool, the other stuff, well, maybe not so much.
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I've always understood it as a nerd car for early-adopting enthusiasts rather than a real product, which is fine. I'm not in that niche myself for cars, but I am in other areas, so I don't begrudge it.
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Even if it weren't it needs firmware. You can't manage the dangerous batteries without some kind of firmware, and then at that point, and since people want the same old the, firmware handles that: lane assist, cruise control, automatic breaking, abs, airbags, crash sensors.
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Lane assist (or any way a computer can interfere with steering) is an extreme antifeature in my book. Auto braking and cruise control maybe nice but certainly not standard expectation. ABS is antifeature but mandatory now. Airbags certainly desirable.
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I agree with lane assist, I've never liked it. As far as autobreaking and and cruise, they are pretty standard now on new cars, the former is particularly useful, I don't use the latter that much unless long distance. Depends on time of year for ABS when it's me.
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The typo is very fitting for IoT cars. ;-)
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Autobraking is probably awesome if you're distracted and about to hit someone, but seems awful if it false+'s and gets you rear-ended or inhibits your ability to steer and accelerate out of a collision situation.
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I've been in a situation where I was about to hit one car if not for quick maneuvering *and* about to get hit bad by another if I'd stopped instead or moved too slowly.
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In any complex electrical system these days, there's bound to be at least one microcontroller _somewhere_, but that doesn't mean the thing has to be an IoT/DRM nightmare, so I'm with you on that.
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Yes. I think you can do a pretty nice modern EV without that, assuming you don't count the charging controller. But I'm fine with not counting code on UCs that are already inside stock components as firmware unless they have vehicle-specific logic or interface w/ outside world.
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It's the difference in a coffee maker with uc for the controls and an IoT coffee maker. As far as cars go, Teslas are the latter.
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100% agree
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Actually the prospect of closed source, un-rootable cars has major implications for personal autonomy and power in an eventual future where nobody has drivers licenses anymore. (Think about how much social power and mobility having a car gives someone vs. not having a car.)
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Agreed (and speaking as a non-driver).
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on the contrary - every car with a modern head unit desperately needs a security audit followed by a firmware update
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Yes, the problem with shitty IoT-esque designs is not unique to Tesla, but you can kinda ignore the problem if there's no OTA data link.
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It is all but impossible to make an efficient and reliable li-poly charger for huge packs (high cell count) without firmware. The charger would be larger, heavier, less efficient, and probably less safe.
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