Aren't self-driving cars vs high performance cars, contradictory?

[MOD220]

I'm hoping to pull the trigger on a M3 soon, and as I debate over LR vs P, it donned on me. If we are in fact going to sit in the backseat and let the car chauffeur us around soon, why spend money on performance which really only benefits one if you are behind the wheel and controlling the car? I guess the argument is for now, we as drivers, enjoy the performance, and down the road enjoy autonomy, but it seems like two competing things. Anyone else thinking about this?

 

[Vines]

Its the best part about the P3D. When you want a commute appliance its great for that. When you want a drivers car that can spank an M3 its also that.

 

[BM3LRPUP19]

I'm hoping to pull the trigger on a M3 soon, and as I debate over LR vs P, it donned on me. If we are in fact going to sit in the backseat and let the car chauffeur us around soon, why spend money on performance which really only benefits one if you are behind the wheel and controlling the car? I guess the argument is for now, we as drivers, enjoy the performance, and down the road enjoy autonomy, but it seems like two competing things. Anyone else thinking about this?

I love driving my M3 it certainly is the best performing car I’ve had. I resisted getting FSD for months insisting on my preference to drive my own car. I also balked at laying out another $8k to take away my driving privileges or having to babysit and train an AI. I did have the 14 day trial back in November and I found summon to be a fun parlor trick to show friends and family. When the price dropped for the short odd time and a weak moment wanting to support Tesla and it’s vision I clicked the button and waited the 3-4 days for it to install. I’m glad I did. Living in San Francisco, and just CA in general there are some fun places to drive but a lot of traffic. On a recent round trip to So Cal i loaded up about 100gb of music on an SSD and probably used FSD for about 35% of the drive. Mountain, desert, rolling winding hills, boring I5, ev hating ice drivers, muscle cars trying to drag race you, and at times a lot of traffic. These mix of driving situations I let the fsd do the driving that I did not want to do: mundane boring stop and go traffic. I meander through my music library and listen to pod casts on streaming. That I’ve really enjoyed and it’s taken the frustrating traffic jam time and turned it into stress free chill out music time or learning about some lake in Louisiana drilled by Texaco and flooded a salt mine. I also used it on most of the 210 and FSD handled the mildly winding and hilly freeway without too much intervention. I’ve yet to really test out parking and summon but with 12.1 out I maybe do that in a few weeks. Looking forward to the autopilot hardware 3 (or 4?) upgrade and have a sfo to Santa Fe trip planned in June.

 

[MOD220]

I love driving my M3 it certainly is the best performing car I’ve had. I resisted getting FSD for months insisting on my preference to drive my own car. I also balked at laying out another $8k to take away my driving privileges or having to babysit and train an AI. I did have the 14 day trial back in November and I found summon to be a fun parlor trick to show friends and family. When the price dropped for the short odd time and a weak moment wanting to support Tesla and it’s vision I clicked the button and waited the 3-4 days for it to install. I’m glad I did. Living in San Francisco, and just CA in general there are some fun places to drive but a lot of traffic. On a recent round trip to So Cal i loaded up about 100gb of music on an SSD and probably used FSD for about 35% of the drive. Mountain, desert, rolling winding hills, boring I5, ev hating ice drivers, muscle cars trying to drag race you, and at times a lot of traffic. These mix of driving situations I let the fsd do the driving that I did not want to do: mundane boring stop and go traffic. I meander through my music library and listen to pod casts on streaming. That I’ve really enjoyed and it’s taken the frustrating traffic jam time and turned it into stress free chill out music time or learning about some lake in Louisiana drilled by Texaco and flooded a salt mine. I also used it on most of the 210 and FSD handled the mildly winding and hilly freeway without too much intervention. I’ve yet to really test out parking and summon but with 12.1 out I maybe do that in a few weeks. Looking forward to the autopilot hardware 3 (or 4?) upgrade and have a sfo to Santa Fe trip planned in June.

Thanks, I totally get that, I think we are entering the hybrid phase of driving. But Musk (who I know tends to overshoot a bit..) said he envisions making cars without steering wheels in the next few years. So this hybrid period may be quite brief. That's where I get confused, to spend all this time and money, on R/D, engineering, etc. all the performance stuff, only to make it obsolete almost immediately, is a head scratcher.

 

[viper driver]

No.

 

[BM3LRPUP19]

Thanks, I totally get that, I think we are entering the hybrid phase of driving. But Musk (who I know tends to overshoot a bit..) said he envisions making cars without steering wheels in the next few years. So this hybrid period may be quite brief. That's where I get confused, to spend all this time and money, on R/D, engineering, etc. all the performance stuff, only to make it obsolete almost immediately, is a head scratcher.

I’m not worried about Elon taking my steering wheel, as much as the DMV. Let’s dig into this a bit. Maybe Elon shares a common view that some people don’t belong or want to be behind the wheel and for many reasons alternative transport isn’t an option. Once Amazon perfects the challenge of drone-delivered package this technology can be scaled up to deliver these would be drivers to their destination and leave our roads and freeways traffic/accident free. The performance vehicle and the open road is for the rest of us. Remember I'm from California and I’d guess 65% of our drivers belong in a steering-wheel-free car, either temporary or permanently: that driver-when 1 drop of rain hits the pavement automatically reduces their speed by 30mph, dui, moving/traffic violations, unable to comprehend slower-traffic-keep-right, EV-hating ICE drivers, people who are new to diving or afraid to drive in a city or on freeway or over a bridge, needing to get to a location without parking and just need a drop off (very common in NY/SF) tourists, half asleep commuters, Jeffrey Star who’s putting on make-up on the 405 in his Model X, (seriously YouTube him it’s a hoot a different kind of Drag race) etc. the list is a mile long of people who either should not or do not want to be behind the wheel but need to get from A to B.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I'm hoping to pull the trigger on a M3 soon, and as I debate over LR vs P, it donned on me. If we are in fact going to sit in the backseat and let the car chauffeur us around soon, why spend money on performance which really only benefits one if you are behind the wheel and controlling the car? I guess the argument is for now, we as drivers, enjoy the performance, and down the road enjoy autonomy, but it seems like two competing things. Anyone else thinking about this?

Autonomous cars will benefit from being quick, because being quick allows more legal maneuvers.
Quick can also improve safety by being able to respond faster to danger.

Until there are actual autonomous cars, Tesla needs to sell expensive non-autonomous cars. Performance helps to sell expensive cars, and since they can't do luxury, they have to have it.

 

[norbert-tx]

True, you can drive a fast car slow, but you can't drive a slow car fast. Its nice to have that option if you need it.

 

[Leafdriver333]

Transportation and toy in one.
Riding on a boat to go out to snorkeling is not contradictory.
Self driving to winding road or track for fun driving is not contradictory.

Being a good cook and a good mom for my children while being a sexy wife is not a bad contradiction either.

 

[notrhj]

Top end 162 miles per hour,
why do you need that ?

Why not ?

Next they will complain about tread life, lumens per head light, and glove box size

Strive for the best and enjoy the better.