Exbloodylactly. The “Tesla are leading innovation” line is laughable. Granted, in some areas eg the drivetrain they are class-leading, but in other “tech” areas they’re comically inept (eg wipers, park assist, self-park, adaptive cruise speed camera recognition). They’re also instrumental in the infuriating removal of buttons that many other manufacturers are now inflicting on us.I got the feeling a few manufacturers ran to be like Tesla initially with the big screen (most had screens before Tesla, just not as dominant) but later designs are bringing back buttons for basic every day controls like heating and we’re getting more of a mixture. Others are sticking with a rotary controller to aid navigating the screen on the move. Tesla don’t which has made a 3rd party market for the sexy controller.
Aston Martin had completely flush door handles before Tesla, Tesla didn’t invent that.
Ferrari had stalkless indicators before Tesla, so didn’t invent that either, and virtually nobody thought it worth copying
Wipers will probably never work well. A simple physics assessment tells you that a camera with a focal length and aperture that’s ideal for seeing the road isnt going to be good at picking up stuff on the windscreen, do the test yourself, stand close to a window and look outside to the distance and anything on the glass all but disappears. We’re nearly 8 years on from when they took away the rain sensor, there comes a time when you should accept defeat and not be stubborn.
Tesla are avoiding head up displays and augmented reality. They’re great tech
We’re getting excited about adaptive headlights which have been around for years on other cars
So those that talk about the Tesla technofest and innovation everyone will follow, what exactly are we referring to other than games and fart noises? Tesla are challenging lots of things, sure, but it feels they just want to be different for the sake of being different, or if it’s cheaper to build, not because it’s better. Take cheaper construction with mega castings, does it made the car better? The BMW innovation in this area was carbon core technology, material science, composites.. which of those two sounds more high tech? That probably just leaves autopilot and we’ve hardly been blessed with progress in Europe
Theres a lot I like about Tesla, supercharging network making the idea of EVs viable, but I’m increasingly thinking what I like is actually common to many EVs, some power train etc, and charging isn’t a concern like it once was.
It doesn’t help that they play the Apple-esque game of introducing innovations that have been around for ages as their own - which is then lapped-up by the faithful.