Elon Musk UK visit - potential factory?

[GreenT]

Steering and brakes are not drive by wire. They have a direct mechanical connection too.

I'm well aware of that ... hence my question ... what would it take to indeed make steering and brakes by wire.
Both could use servo motors. Sensors.
Could save car manufacturers a ton.
I know I'd buy one. So I can easily drive from Europe to the UK.

 

[Tony Hoyle]

One of the tests requires that the car is able to make multiple figure 8 manoeuvres after failure of the electrical systems. So whilst on the one hand there's no rule against drive by wire in practice it's a hard test to pass without a physical link (such that Tesla didn't even attempt it). Braking is similar.

 

[MrBadger]

Would it be that difficult to make a hybrid car?
One that switches from LHD to RHD at the flick of a switch?
Pedals raise and lower.
Drive by wire.
Driver releases the wheel and "plugs" it into the passenger side?

Musk has said that by end of the year, FSD will be Level 5 and it can then only be a matter of time before Tesla remove the steering wheel and pedals. Problem sorted

 

[GreenT]

Musk has said that by end of the year, FSD will be Level 5 and it can then only be a matter of time before Tesla remove the steering wheel and pedals. Problem sorted

Only a matter of time in Musk world means 2040 at the earliest?
Besides removing those components would never pass homologation.

 

[AnthonyLR]

Dave Lee just posted a video on YouTube. He thinks the UK is a good bet for a next gen Tesla factory for the £25,000 car

 

[Watts_Up]

Dave Lee just posted a video on YouTube. He thinks the UK is a good bet for a next gen Tesla factory for the £25,000 car

Pure speculation with no real fact...
In fact, in the 70's the UK Trade Labor Unions basically killed the UK car industry and now Brexit killed the UK export market to Europe.

The location for the next Tesla car factory will be surely India.

Exclusive: India woos Tesla with offer of cheaper production costs than China

India is ready to offer incentives to ensure Tesla Inc's cost of production would be less than in China if the carmaker commits to making its electric vehicles in the south Asian country, transport minister Nitin Gadkari told Reuters.

www.reuters.com

 

[AnthonyLR]

Pure speculation with no real fact...
In fact, in the 70's the UK Trade Labor Unions basically killed the UK car industry and now Brexit killed the UK export market to Europe.

The location for the next Tesla car factory will be surely India.

Exclusive: India woos Tesla with offer of cheaper production costs than China

India is ready to offer incentives to ensure Tesla Inc's cost of production would be less than in China if the carmaker commits to making its electric vehicles in the south Asian country, transport minister Nitin Gadkari told Reuters.

www.reuters.com

The question is “how many Gigafactories does Tesla need to achieve 20m cars annually by 2030.” The answer is, around 20. Yes India for sure. But the UK must be in the mix.
Regarding Brexit exports to EU, there are rules of origin relating to cars that make a UK Gigafactory vital.

 

[Adopado]

I'm well aware of that ... hence my question ... what would it take to indeed make steering and brakes by wire.
Both could use servo motors. Sensors.
Could save car manufacturers a ton.
I know I'd buy one. So I can easily drive from Europe to the UK.

They could definitely transition to full drive by wire so no swapping of brake hydraulics for LHD/RHD or mechanical steering components ... but I wouldn't be buying one! There's a good reason why they are not drive by wire at the moment ... and I experienced the power steering failure due to the electrics already ... at least I was able to continue to steer even if it was extremely heavy.

 

[GreenT]

They could definitely transition to full drive by wire so no swapping of brake hydraulics for LHD/RHD or mechanical steering components ... but I wouldn't be buying one! There's a good reason why they are not drive by wire at the moment ... and I experienced the power steering failure due to the electrics already ... at least I was able to continue to steer even if it was extremely heavy.

An aeroplane is a far more mission critical vehicle than a car yet it's all fly by wire.
So there's no reason why cars cannot be "by wire" for three components. Steering, brakes and thrust.

 

[imstitch]

An aeroplane is a far more mission critical vehicle than a car yet it's all fly by wire.
So there's no reason why cars cannot be "by wire" for three components. Steering, brakes and thrust.

I have 100% faith in the quality control, testing, systems and redundancies in place at Airbus. I do not share the same opinion of Tesla or car manufacturers. You cannot compare aircraft to road vehicles in terms of capability/safety, one bad plane crash can ruin a company, car manufacturers get away with it.

None of this applies to Boeing, they are basically an extension of the US government and cannot fail, that’s why you saw the 737max drama.

 

[browellm]

An aeroplane is a far more mission critical vehicle than a car yet it's all fly by wire.
So there's no reason why cars cannot be "by wire" for three components. Steering, brakes and thrust.

F35 says hi.

 

[AndrewGR]

There seems to be a lot of concern on this thread about difficulties making RHD and LHD cars in the same factory. At the Oxford BMW Mini factory they make all models 2, 4, 5 door, LHD, RHD, petrol and diesel etc on the same production line. I don’t know about electric - I visited just before that launched and I think they might have been building a new line for that but I’m sure if they did it would be building all models. Simply (!) a matter of logistics to deliver the right components to the right place on the line at the right time. Even the robots that build the body shells were switching between models all the time to meet the production orders. Impressive!

 

[GreenT]

F35 says hi.

Not following?

 

[Adopado]

Not following?

Just a tenuous fly-by-wire reference I suspect.

 

[crouchy]

There seems to be a lot of concern on this thread about difficulties making RHD and LHD cars in the same factory. At the Oxford BMW Mini factory they make all models 2, 4, 5 door, LHD, RHD, petrol and diesel etc on the same production line. I don’t know about electric - I visited just before that launched and I think they might have been building a new line for that but I’m sure if they did it would be building all models. Simply (!) a matter of logistics to deliver the right components to the right place on the line at the right time. Even the robots that build the body shells were switching between models all the time to meet the production orders. Impressive!

The electric is also made on the same line. Just as with the VW Golf, GTE/e-golf are made on the same line as fossil powered vehicles.