Living in constant fear of v9....

[tomas]

Every time someone tells me Tesla is more a SW company, than a car maker I just want them to look at what Tesla calls a user interface these days. And to be honest here, Windows 98 probably came with a better media player, than my S ever had.

They build great cars, but I wouldn't call the SW (besides AP) a selling point anymore. And especially with Apple car play and Android something something and soon Amazon, we start so see some real big guns entering the "smart car" stage and this will intensify.

IMO Tesla should start to focus a lot more on UI again, because otherwise people will buy cars with better OSes eventually.

Except that Tesla makes the best car. People buy cars for the car. How many millions of people over the last 20 years have bought BMWs despite iDrive? Not the first market leader in this segment with UI issues. I don’t think people buy sport/lux for the UI. Which does not forgive a crappy one. Makes it more frustrating in fact.

 

[R.S]

Except that Tesla makes the best car. People buy cars for the car. How many millions of people over the last 20 years have bought BMWs despite iDrive? Not the first market leader in this segment with UI issues. I don’t think people buy sport/lux for the UI. Which does not forgive a crappy one. Makes it more frustrating in fact.

I agree, the cars are great, but with electric vehicles and autonomous driving, a lot of what defines a good car today, will soon not be really important anymore. EVs are inherently super quick and handle good, so there is not that much difference. But especially once cars drive themselves, those metrics will start to become less and less important.

People will always care how something looks, or feels, but other metrics change. Just look at the smartphone. Before, people just bought a phone with good stats, but suddenly the OS became really important. Blackberry had the first smartphones, but their OS sucked...

 

[tomas]

I agree, the cars are great, but with electric vehicles and autonomous driving, a lot of what defines a good car today, will soon not be really important anymore. EVs are inherently super quick and handle good, so there is not that much difference. But especially once cars drive themselves, those metrics will start to become less and less important.

People will always care how something looks, or feels, but other metrics change. Just look at the smartphone. Before, people just bought a phone with good stats, but suddenly the OS became really important. Blackberry had the first smartphones, but their OS sucked...

1) I did not say software, I said UI. Software features like driver assistance wil become must haves, just as ABS and Nav ( also software) already have.

2) Totally disagree with the phone analogy. People buy phones completely for aesthetics. ergonomics and UI. Maybe apps. People buy cars for other things. Performance, space, hauling utility, fuel economy... A car is not a phone.

 

[Mediocrates]

2) Totally disagree with the phone analogy. People buy phones completely for aesthetics. ergonomics and UI. Maybe apps. People buy cars for other things. Performance, space, hauling utility, fuel economy... A car is not a phone.

You may want to consider the bolded phrases and how the former includes the latter.

You may also want to consider expanding your list of capabilities for smartphones produced in the past 5 years.

 

[tomas]

You may want to consider the bolded phrases and how the former includes the latter.

You may also want to consider expanding your list of capabilities for smartphones produced in the past 5 years.

No, I don’t.

 

[R.S]

1) I did not say software, I said UI. Software features like driver assistance wil become must haves, just as ABS and Nav ( also software) already have.

2) Totally disagree with the phone analogy. People buy phones completely for aesthetics. ergonomics and UI. Maybe apps. People buy cars for other things. Performance, space, hauling utility, fuel economy... A car is not a phone.

1) You don’t generate value with must haves. Once every car can drive itself, there won’t be money made from that.

2) When all cars are electric and drive themselves, performance and fuel economy won’t be very important. Hitting the go pedal and accelerating to 60 in 4 seconds is cool, sitting in a car that does that by itself is annoying. Space will probably always be important, though. But many driving related values will loose their importance in the mass market.

People often say EVs are a revolution. They really aren’t, they are an evolution. The Homo sapiens surpassing the Neanderthal. Smart cars, linked to digital assistants like Alexa, creating value due to things like streaming services, that will be the revolution. Some things will stay, people still buy smartphones on their looks, like they do now. But many old metrics will become increasingly irrelevant.

 

[tomas]

1) You don’t generate value with must haves. Once every car can drive itself, there won’t be money made from that.

2) When all cars are electric and drive themselves, performance and fuel economy won’t be very important. Hitting the go pedal and accelerating to 60 in 4 seconds is cool, sitting in a car that does that by itself is annoying. Space will probably always be important, though. But many driving related values will loose their importance in the mass market.

People often say EVs are a revolution. They really aren’t, they are an evolution. The Homo sapiens surpassing the Neanderthal. Smart cars, linked to digital assistants like Alexa, creating value due to things like streaming services, that will be the revolution. Some things will stay, people still buy smartphones on their looks, like they do now. But many old metrics will become increasingly irrelevant.

We are different planets. I don’t share your vision. All cars driving themselves is many decades out and any hypothetical about that world will be way off because it will miss other important innovations that will happen over that period. But you are entitled and welcome to share your vision. As am I.

I believe most of the world for the foreseeable future (decades) will be driving cars and will predominately value driving and transport characteristics, economy, and increasingly automated driver assistance. For a rather long period after self driving is technically possible and legal, a majority will still prefer to drive, or will live in environments where they have no choice.

So, to me, we are so far off from self driving car as a convergence of car and Alexa and phone, it’s not worth any more discussion. My opinion.

Signing off...

 

[sorka]

Fascinating list!

I have never once manually turned on headlights -- auto works fine.

I never use my cellphone in the car, for distracted driving safety reasons, so no interest in hands-free calling features.

I deliberately purchased coil suspension, so no need to adjust air suspension on the fly. (My concern with air suspension is that it was unnecessary complexity that would be expensive to fix when it broke.)

I don't have a heated steering wheel -- something I regret -- nor heated rear seats, so no need to turn them on or off.

I generally leave climate control on auto and turn it on or off, and adjust the temperature, with the right steering wheel button, so no need to fuss with climate control settings, save for turning defogging on, which is a single touch button. I do agree that the custom climate control settings are much worse in V9 than in V8.1, but I rarely use them because auto works well.

I do use voice navigation a lot on road trips, which is most of my miles, albeit fewer days than local driving. And I use the media player a lot, both for streaming and USB, so I usually have the media player up, although I mostly control it from the left steering wheel buttons. I always have the map in satellite view because it is pretty where I live and interesting to watch.

I do use the main screen a lot for other things while parked, especially while Supercharging on road trips. Makes it less of a safety issue to adjust things while parked, IMO.

I suppose my use case is akin to your "mule driver," by your standards! So be it.

Take a thing and give it to hundreds of thousands. There will always be some that like some thing no matter how bad it is

 

[sorka]

Imagine some day when if you want to drive your own car you'll have to select "self drive" option and of course pay far more for insurance if you want the privilege of driving your own car. Most won't but some, like me, will.

 

[tomas]

Imagine some day when if you want to drive your own car you'll have to select "self drive" option and of course pay far more for insurance if you want the privilege of driving your own car. Most won't but some, like me, will.

Unless you find the fountain of youth, you probably won’t live to se that day.

 

[whitex]

Imagine some day when if you want to drive your own car you'll have to select "self drive" option and of course pay far more for insurance if you want the privilege of driving your own car. Most won't but some, like me, will.

Yea, maybe, except when highways become autonomous-mode-only, and those who don't have it will find themselves where horse carriages are today, can ride them around, but very impractical for travel as not allowed on highways/motorways.

 

[⚡️ELECTROMAN⚡️]

Funny, how driving for must of us is one of our greatest pleasures, we look forward to a day when autonomous driving is the norm. I don’t. At least not for me

 

[mvotb]

Funny, how driving for must of us is one of our greatest pleasures, we look forward to a day when autonomous driving is the norm. I don’t. At least not for me

I wouldn't worry much about that, like Tomas said, Unless you find the fountain of youth, we probably won’t live to see that day.