Also Tesla: drive the price of EVs down to parity with ICE cars while delivering a superior product, built out the nations charging infrastructure (and got everybody to switch to NACS), and oh yeah: made self driving available to everybody for next to nothing.
> Tesla: drive the price of EVs down to parity with ICE cars while delivering a superior product
Tesla was more than willing to jack up their prices and maximize profit when they could. What drove prices down on Teslas was real competition from the incumbent manufacturers. And inflation cooling people's willingness to blow a bunch of money on expensive cars. And CATL making batteries less expensive. And even then, their cars are only at parity right about now, with a $7500 tax credit. And also only if you are fairly loose about what features you need to consider 'parity' achieved.
Let’s just ignore that oil companies owning patents killed evs for years my gripe here is Tesla’s “self driving” isn’t actually self driving? It is basically advanced cruise control and requires supervision, Tesla is not liable for it running into things, and there is no indication of that changing anytime soon?
Basic Autopilot that is free on every model is advanced cruise control + lane keeping.
FSDS (Full Self Driving, Supervised [for now]) can handle the vast majority of driving scenarios, from A -> B. I currently intervene once per 10 drives, usually due to a routing issue (never safety critical). It is rapidly improving, and will drop the human requirement once it surpasses most drivers.
FSD still requires you to pay full attention. The name is still a lie and Elon has been claiming the human requirement will be dropped “soon” for what now? Almost a decade?
> for next to nothing
Their cars are certainly out of my price range. Plus, openpilot has been doing it for free for years.
you should try driving with openpilot and compare it with FSD to see if they're equal since you are making this comparison
So, most other new cars are as well?
OpenPilot works well in limited scenarios, but even the founder George Hotz openly admits Tesla is significantly ahead and has the right approach.
“Self driving”
Not sure where an unreliable, very expensive to fix, poorly QC'd cars are a "superior product" but it's not where I live. The charging infrastructure is a great feat though.