Poll: Do you have, or plan to get, an electric car?

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Do you have an electric car or plan to get one?

  • Yes

  • No

  • I plan to

  • Over my dead body


Results are only viewable after voting.
The first 90% is easy. The next 5% is hard. The last 5% is near impossible. Tesla is somewhere between 90-95%. Considering how many bad choices it makes, like turning onto train tracks, I’m not sure that it’s only a sensor issue.
You do realize that this software is constantly being upgraded as each event trains the AI how make fewer missteps right?
 
Ok. So when's your prediction for Tesla to be able to take the driver controls out entirely?
No idea but as a beta tester I see advancement every time the software is updated. There are crowdsourced trackers of the critical disengagements per mile as well as Tesla posted data that say the same. Based on that I feel pretty confident it will get there eventually but wont venture to say how long because how can anyone, except the engineers working on it, know.

What I don't understand is the negativity surrounding Tesla's FSD technology. It's a new thing and will take time to work out all the bugs yet people insist it will never work even though they have no firsthand experience with it nor take the time to see there is consistent and verifiable progress.

Waymo will get there as well IMO but won't be as profitable since the hardware costs so much more. How that will shake out in competition between the two, who knows.
 
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I hope they don’t. That’s not the standard I am looking for.
Me either but it seems logical Tesla will continue to put the driver controls in the more expensive trims. That is until the insurance companies start charging higher premiums for that more dangerous capability. On the other hand if robotaxis become common and available all the time, I'll have no problem giving up car ownership altogether.
 
my issue with fsd is that as long as it's based on tesla's choice of only using cameras, it's a system that can be fooled by bad weather too easily.
Waymo and other systems seem to be on track for becoming true self-driving(as in as good or better than human drivers) in the next 5-10 years.
 
When the cameras are “fooled”, you cannot engage FSD. If FSD is already engaged when the cameras become inoperable, the car warns you that it is about to disengage FSD.

That all said, mine drove me through Hurricane Ian in 2022 when the storm hooked back over South Carolina for its second landfall. Had I been required to drive, I’d have had to pull over. For at least 20 miles I could barely see but the car stayed perfectly between the lines because they were still visible.
 
I hope they don’t. That’s not the standard I am looking for.
That's the standard the world is looking for. I don't quibble that Tesla's system is a pretty good ADAS. But any system that requires a fully attentive, licensed, insured, legally liable for everything the car does driver isn't autonomous. It just isn't. And what the world wants is autonomous driving.

And funny, that's exactly what Musk has been promising us for over a decade. Autonomous.

Maybe that's not the standard you want. After all, I get the sense that you enjoy being behind the wheel for some, uhh, spirited motoring 😂

I, too, will find it a little bittersweet, being a middle-aged man who has enjoyed cars, motorcycles, and has a bit of lead foot and an adrenaline habit, to give all that up for a car that just does literally EVERYTHING for me. But we have about ~40,000 vehicle fatalities a year in this country, and full autonomy could massively cut that number. I consider that a worthwhile tradeoff. So for me, full autonomy is the standard.
 
I think there was a scene in I, Robot where Will Smith hops in the driver's seat of his car and it drives him while he looks over paperwork or something. It appears that the car will just drive him the whole way to his house without any input from him. Along the way, robots start attacking him and he switches to manual driving mode (the movie is over 20 years old, don't whine about spoilers) and he evades the robots well enough to get somewhere I don't remember. It must have been a safe enough location, because I think some other people got upset with him about the incident, and one of the things they specifically got upset over (because the plot demanded it, I guess?) was that he switched to manual driving mode.

I want those options. I want to be able to plug in my destination, have a drink, read on my tablet, or just take a nap with no consequences. I also want to be able to take the wheel if I need to get away from killer robots, or I just need to pull into a field driveway so I can tell the kids to behave or something.
 
I changed my Scout reservation to the gas range extender version. I read more about this new-ish style hybrid yesterday. It seems like solid mix of EV with gas capabilities without directly driving the vehicle using gas. Very good for outdoors activities, which fits with my lifestyle and of course the Scout brand.
 
Looks like it’s coming in June 2025.
Based on what Elon says. Who has been promising it's "just around the corner" for a decade now... And yet... It's not here yet. He was predicting 1M robotaxis on the road, what, 5-6 years ago?

I've been part of the HBT fantasy football crew for a few years now. The league is based around sending local beer to the league winner. Usually that's 6-8 cans or bottles (usually cans as that's where craft beer has gone). I send the beer I promise.

Would you be willing to take that wager on whether Tesla is going to ACTUALLY roll out unsupervised FSD robotaxis in Austin TX by June 2025? If Tesla does, I'll send you 6 bottles or cans of local craft beer. If Tesla doesn't, you do the same for me?

I feel comfortable betting against Elon's claims. Do you feel comfortable betting on them?
 
I feel comfortable betting against Elon's claims. Do you feel comfortable betting on them?
Hey it may not happen on that date and to be honest I also often wonder about Elon's timelines. I simply thought it was interesting he was oddly specific on a date this time. I'd take you up on the beer thing just for fun but it's actually illegal to ship beer, wine or any alcohol into or out of my state.
 

My 2018 model S came with FSD HW2.5 computer and in 2020 Tesla upgraded it to HW3 for free. They will do the same for the next upgrade. Indecently while it was in the shop for that they offered me to upgrade the main computer to a faster one and both screens to higher resolution ones for $2200 all in. I thought it was a great deal and did that as well. It's unheard of any car company in the past that would offer upgrades to older models like this.
 
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The automotive definition of “upgrade” prior to Tesla was, “Come in and we’ll show you the latest model.”

Tesla, under Elon, completely changed the automobile industry. Same as he’s doing in Space and possibly soon, underground.
 
They will do the same for the next upgrade.
And the one after that and the one after that and the one after that. And none of those upgrades will actually deliver FSD. Which doesn't really bother me all that much, since I don't want to share the road with a bunch of self-driving cars that can't really drive themselves.
 
Hey it may not happen on that date and to be honest I also often wonder about Elon's timelines. I simply thought it was interesting he was oddly specific on a date this time. I'd take you up on the beer thing just for fun but it's actually illegal to ship beer, wine or any alcohol into or out of my state.
He's been specific (and spectacularly wrong) more than a few times 😂
 
The automotive definition of “upgrade” prior to Tesla was, “Come in and we’ll show you the latest model.”

Tesla, under Elon, completely changed the automobile industry. Same as he’s doing in Space and possibly soon, underground.
Yes it’s amazing the things he has accomplished yet so many can only concentrate on the negative. Also I feel sorry for the people who bet on failure and dumped a bunch of money into shorting Tesla stock. Ouch.
 
Yes it’s amazing the things he has accomplished yet so many can only concentrate on the negative. Also I feel sorry for the people who bet on failure and dumped a bunch of money into shorting Tesla stock. Ouch.
The disconnect comes from having no experience with the system. If I so choose, I can arrive at my friend’s house in 40 minutes having not touched my wheel since leaving my driveway. To the uninitiated, this capability doesn’t exist and they only focus on the polarizing figure who has not accomplished enough for their liking.
 
pretty big space
Also, I giant gap between the big accomplishments of Tesla and SpaceX, on the one hand, and Musk's "contributions" in the public sphere. One can be an important tech innovator and a highly objectionable person - so objectionable that I don't want to buy anything he makes or contribute in any way to his well-being.
 
Since you guys find him objectionable, you can’t see what has already been achieved.
If this is directed at me, you're clearly wrong. What if I were to say that since you're happy with your Tesla, you refuse to see that he has overpromised and underdelivered a number of times? Would that be accurate? Or perhaps objectionable?
 
If this is directed at me, you're clearly wrong. What if I were to say that since you're happy with your Tesla, you refuse to see that he has overpromised and underdelivered a number of times? Would that be accurate? Or perhaps objectionable?
He definitely has overpromised & under delivered. But the company consists of thousands of engineers and programmers who have delivered a very quality product that works. It just doesn’t work to the “full” in full self driving.

It’s usually very easy to tell in these conversations that people are letting their disdain for musk and their inexperience with the system to cloud their judgments against it.
 
It’s usually very easy to tell when these conversations that people are letting their the same for musk and they’re inexperience with the system to cloud their judgments against it.
But the recent comments about FSD in this thread have been limited to the overpromising and underdelivering on FSD (and technical criticism of Tesla's approach to FSD, which being technical criticisms, should be debatable without emotion or acrimony). But when a Tesla owner gets defensive about any criticism of Musk/Tesla, he's doing exactly the same thing that you're complaining about.
 
You can criticize Musk all you want. He’s not my family. Why would I care? I’m not defending Musk. I’m defending FSD and positing that you’re allowing your anti-musk opinions to color your analysis of FSD.
 
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