Tesla's "Secret" Battery

You say that, and I agree. But I also can’t help but notice drivers, every time that I’m out, that can’t seem to “color inside the lines” as I mutter at them. There are really some out there that depend on lanekeeping-assist to be viable drivers.

It would help if they put their [redacted expletives] phones down while they drive!

You know, as much as enthusiasts knock it, ABS is a great thing. Power steering is great when they don’t muck it up and introduce a bunch of slop into the steering. Stability control is nice, because I don’t have the control to manually brake a single corner in a skid.

Traction control, though… Well, I don’t think I’d miss that one.

As far as transmissions go, I’ll never own a slushbox (torque converter transmission) nor a rubber-belt CVT. I am in a Prius, though, which they call a CVT but its transaxle is very different and more robust than the rubber-belt CVTs that like to explode every 100k. Actually, it’s more robust than manual transmissions too…

Then they shouldn’t be out on the road at all.

The problem with all this high-tech crap is that it lets idiots “drive”. And mfrs pandering to these idiots is even more infuriating.

There was one commercial that really pissed me off. Some pretty-boy is in his car on the way to work, presumably, and is daydreaming, “I need to get ready for that meeting at 11…” BEEP BEEP BEEP, the car slams on its brakes to keep him from rear-ending the car stopped at a light ahead, “Whew, that was close…”. Then he’s wondering if maybe he left his curling-iron on, BEEP BEEP BEEP, “Whew, almost drifted out of my lane right into that other car…”, and so on, like 3-4 times.

The mfr is supposed to be proud of that? Letting idiots who have no business behind the wheel of a car, go out into the world and glide right through stop-signs? Well, I guess so, because there are cars now which can “read” speed-limit signs, stop-signs, etc., and act accordingly.

:person_facepalming:

It’s all fun’n’games ’til your Tesla slides under a semi and cuts yer head off…

I agree, it’s ridiculous. But I’d feel much safer if certain other drivers that are on the road all had certain safety features like lanekeep assist. So they don’t change lanes into ME or rear-end ME. I’d of course prefer they be better drivers…

I like the emergency braking system, to cover for you if you happen to mess up. THAT is a smart device. But adaptive cruise control? BAD. Because it lulls the driver into paying less attention. Driver’s shouldn’t be doing anything except DRIVING. You don’t need to be “relieved” of the cognitive function of keeping a safe distance.

What is missing is a TAILGATE ALERT. Heck, they’ve got distance sensors for parking. Use them while traveling.

  1. If your car gets too close to the car in front of you, a bright yellow dashboard light starts to flash. If after 5 seconds you have not corrected, a beeping alarm goes off in the cabin. If you STILL ignore it, the car takes control of the accelerator and eases up on the gas for a few seconds. If the driver can’t “handle” this, they shouldn’t be driving.
  2. If the car behind you gets too close, the 3rd brake light starts pulsating. If that car doesn’t back off, reverse lights start flashing as well. If a cop spots this, they’ve got every right to pull over the offending vehicle and issue a costly ticket.

This should be happening already to SCHOOL the idiots who just refuse to practice safe driving.

I had an idea about 20 yrs ago (in high-tech Austin back when it existed) while out with drinks with my programmers/board designers.

Idea: Make a GUN that shoots… (wait for it)… code. Not infrared, but radio and at a certain frequency (bought by the “police” lobby in Washington at the FCC auction that was selling off cell phone bandwidth at that time— and since). A narrow band device ON the car that ONLY has one job: to take electronic “bullets” from other drivers’ electronic guns.

So… if you drive like a “coitus’ing donkey hole”… within a year you’re going to have THOUSANDS of “hits” which should cost lets say about $5 a hit. So— a $10,000 fine to get your license renewed and goes to a PUBLIC fund paid out to drivers with LOW hit points— and NOT insurance (scam artist) companies— but right BACK in the pockets of good drivers.

Now, like military school… you got a few freeby hits to avoid “tour duty”— since some people got nothing to do but shoot other drivers (and they ALSO have a fine if too many shots are fired). So it’s a completely feasible idea (20 years ago even), and totally democratic.

I guess this is what happens growing up smoking (really bad) weed, playing LOTS of dungeons and dragons in high school, and finally getting out of college and jumping into the (kinda) real world of high tech back when we were ALL doing start-ups (even for just for a week over beers) :sunglasses:

All this talk of safety features reminded me of Tullock’s Spike.

I found this article on ‘risk compensation,’ with some seemingly counterintuitive scenarios.

The article includes H-Day, when Sweden switched from driving on the left to driving on the right, and two groups of German taxis, one with and one without anti-lock brakes.

I will, however, admit to feeling a tiny bit safer when the car behind me on the highway is a Tesla. :partying_face: Do all of their models have front-end collision prevention?

That’s also a Houseism.

“If you want people to drive safer, take out the airbags and attach a machete pointing at their neck. No one will drive over three miles per hour.”

yes but now
a. the battery is twice as expensive
b. they weigh about 900 lbs so it is not trivial to swap them around

I was driving the Tesla around the outskits of town one day, exhausted from a bad night’s sleep. I was paying attention to driving, but had let my eyes relax a bit out of focus since it was a straight stretch with no stops, and I was following the flow of traffic. I have NOT paid for autopilot. Suddenly a warning beep came over the speakers and the brakes engaged. I came to attention and realized the car in front of me had slammed on his brakes for a nearly-missed turn, but none of his tail-lights worked! Clearly Autopilot is watching out for my safety even though I have never paid for it. It’s moments like this that make you a fan of Tesla.

If it was a Ford, the system would be dead until you paid. And crashes just be examples of why you should have paid.

Man. I don’t know what’s worse, the cars with no working brake lights, or the idiots that drive down the street with the brake pedal accidentally feathered so their brake lights are always on.

Yeah, I’m driving an ’08 suv and my wife won’t let go of the 2000 suv (lucky me) because she thinks the seat is so comfy. A new Subie sounds like such fun. The payment, not so much. :disappointed:

But how are they ever going to take control of our older model suvs and force us to crash? :stuck_out_tongue: I guess they’ll have to finish us off some other way….

I don’t even know what you drive and I can guess it has a faulty air bag and a bad safety rating. Give it time :stuck_out_tongue:

Wellp, my old Cavalier with the 2.0L 4-banger (a whopping 88hp!) burned so clean, that even with a hollow cat it passed inspection every year without a hitch for something like 5yrs straight. Muffler guy banged on it and it rang like a bell. “Want a new one?” “Nope, don’t need one.” :laughing:

That all changed one year when the state halved allowable emissions. Think it went from 8.00g/mi to 4.00g/mi of whatever. Was the only time it flunked, and then just barely, at 4.04g/mi. For some reason I still remember that.

Anyway, the mechanic was giving me crap about it. Too much NOx means it’s running too lean, too much HC means it’s running too rich, blah blah blah.

“Put in a new cat.”

“No, no, no, we have to diagnose this right…”

“Put in a new cat.”

“…”

“Seriously, JUST PUT IN A NEW CAT.”

Did, and it passed even cleaner than before, amazingly enough.

Made it to something like 23yo before it gave up the ghost. 2yrs more and it would’ve been considered a “classic car”, and no more smogging, just safety checks.

I definitely wouldn’t want a car without ABS here, it’s extremely helpful in the 6 months of snow and ice every year.

Kinda the same with manual transmission. I’m sure there are plenty out there that could drive it safely in any circumstance, but there’s so many terrible drivers out there as it is so I’m glad there’s one less thing for them to screw up. Just don’t ask them a question while they’re driving and or they might stop breathing! :wink:

I’ve owned cars without and with ABS. I find ABS is better. I know how to pump my brakes. But ABS does it better, because there’s no human decision making involved. It’s easy to panic if pumping isn’t doing enough & then jam brakes fully on.

The auto emergency-braking system on the Tesla & on some luxury cars (Mercedes, Lexus, Audi) is great as a fall-back. But adaptive cruise control encourages lack of human attentiveness. Fine for good drivers, but for less skilled drivers it can create dangerous situations.

Automatic braking isn’t the autopilot package. Tesla includes the hardware for self-driving features standard based on a business model that heavily promotes the self-driving upgrade package, and reducing hardware differences, which makes it straightforward to implement automatic braking, even though they leave the rest of the automatic features deactivated. This fits with their place as a luxury car manufacturer. Other manufacturers have typically only installed the hardware if the automated features are included in the options package the car is being built to.

That is changing, however. Automatic braking is being made standard by all the major manufacturers by 2022. As of 2 years ago, Ford’s plan was to roll it out as they implement model upgrades, and to have the overwhelming majority of their cars equipped with it by this year. Elsewhere I saw an update for 2019 indicating they were at 65% that year.

But it is. If you watch the screen in my car as I drive you see it visualizing the lane markers and other cars. And this is without Autopilot paid for. The only difference between my car and one with “Autopilot” is they have taken away the enable button from the driver. Want proof? If I let go of my steering wheel and the car heads for the ditch, the same warning sound comes across the speakers. But instead of applying the brake, it engages full autopilot for 1 second and straightens the car out. Notice I didn’t say it steers left. With your hand on the wheel you can feel it’s driving a full corrective S shape to fix your trajectory.
It’s become obvious the car doesn’t just use proximity to brake or painted lines to jerk the car away. It is Autopilot being engaged to act with the least amount of panic required to fix the situation. When it brakes, it has already determined the best stopping distance. When it steers, it has calculated a path to follow. It really is the Autopilot system running in the background.

Retro Tesla fantasy;

I ride my bike, rollerskate, don’t drive no car; I don’t go very fast but I go pretty far—-Melanie. :smiley: