Redundancy Steering Component Dropped

[Tam]

Tesla cut a steering component from some cars to deal with chip shortage, sources say

Tesla omitted one of two electronic control units in the cars' electrical power assisted steering systems. Tens of thousands of cars are affected, sources say.

www.cnbc.com

It happens in China: Instead of beefing up the redundancy system for Robotaxi by the end of this year, this is the reverse and making it a Level 2.

Of interest is China's uptake of FSD is only about 1%.

 

[Knightshade]

Yup, makes quite a lot of sense given chip shortages- divert the chips to the markets most likely to get >L2 soonest- you can easily retrofit the chips into cars sometime in the future if it becomes relevant....and if it doesn't you're saving $ and increasing production NOW.

 

[DM206433]

Not sure it’s going to be an easy retrofit, from what I read in the article it sounds like a new steering rack would be required.

 

[AndreP]

Interesting that the information seems to be coming from employees who are almost trying to act like whistleblowers, citing how little time the company spent researching the change and lack of disclosure despite impacting the claim that all vehicles are sold with the hardware believed to be necessary for full autonomy.

Internally, Tesla employees said that adding “level 3” functionality, which would allow a driver to use their Tesla hands-free without steering in normal driving scenarios, would need the dual electronic control unit system and therefore require a retrofit at a service visit. They also said that the exclusion would not cause safety issues, since the removed part was deemed a secondary electronic control unit, used mainly as a backup.

Tesla is actually internally discussing adding Level 3 functionality? Huh

 

[GilR]

Would you need this "upgrade" for beta FSD in AU?

 

[Tam]

Would you need this "upgrade" for beta FSD in AU?

The science is global so the principle is the same: In theory, since there's no one in an FSD to control the car, there needs to be a redundancy system so if one fails, the other one would make up for the loss.

However, in reality, FSD still needs a licensed driver, so it's a moot point for paying for a redundancy system because the car owner is the one and it is free.

 

[Boza]

At the same time, they are pouring resources in FSD development, at the expense of other EV/car things.

 

[Knightshade]

At the same time, they are pouring resources in FSD development, at the expense of other EV/car things.

<citation needed>

Tesla has like 17 billion dollars in cash in the bank and ever-growing YoY free cash flow- to my knowledge there's no evidence they're resource constrained on anything else by having people working on FSD.

 

[AndreP]

<citation needed>

Tesla has like 17 billion dollars in cash in the bank and ever-growing YoY free cash flow- to my knowledge there's no evidence they're resource constrained on anything else by having people working on FSD.

There could be real resource constraints on talent/manpower spread across the various companies out there. Not saying that's the case but just throwing out the idea

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Interesting that the information seems to be coming from employees who are almost trying to act like whistleblowers, citing how little time the company spent researching the change and lack of disclosure despite impacting the claim that all vehicles are sold with the hardware believed to be necessary for full autonomy.



Tesla is actually internally discussing adding Level 3 functionality? Huh

No, discussing whether the vehicle has the hardware necessary should they have the software in the future.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Interesting that the information seems to be coming from employees who are almost trying to act like whistleblowers, citing how little time the company spent researching the change and lack of disclosure despite impacting the claim that all vehicles are sold with the hardware believed to be necessary for full autonomy.



Tesla is actually internally discussing adding Level 3 functionality? Huh

And Tesla sells/sold cars without the upgraded computer, which was known to be a required upgrade.

Not a concern, so no need for concern trolling.

 

[Knightshade]

There could be real resource constraints on talent/manpower spread across the various companies out there. Not saying that's the case but just throwing it out the idea

I guess I'm not sure what "else" you'd have the same guy working on that Tesla is neglecting.

It's not like an AI engineer would be working on metal alloy engineering for the cybertruck or something- those are different guys.


Occasionally folks make the same argument about how it's silly they add games and fart noises without finishing FSD first- as if Andrew Andrej Karpathy, instead of some random comp-sci intern, is the dude creating fart noises or importing a MAME rom instead of working on FSD.

 

[Boza]

<citation needed>

Tesla has like 17 billion dollars in cash in the bank and ever-growing YoY free cash flow- to my knowledge there's no evidence they're resource constrained on anything else by having people working on FSD.

How would you explain that their driver-related software is getting worse and worse, the quality is second to last and it takes weeks to get any service done - while FSD and robots are all the rage?

 

[AndreP]

No, discussing whether the vehicle has the hardware necessary should they have the software in the future.

Level 3 has never been in the discussion with Tesla as far as we knew and that's what would be surprising, the conversation here not long ago was skipping Level 3-4 entirely

But "leaked" sources can't be fully trusted regardless

 

[Knightshade]

How would you explain that their driver-related software is getting worse and worse

Do you mean the user interface in V11?

Do you think the same guy that works on that works on FSD?

Because they don't. So that argument makes 0 sense.

, the quality is second to last

By what standard?

My 2018 Model 3 has needed less service and had fewer quality issues than my previous vehicle, a bought-new Lexus IS 350 did.


Also, again, the AI developers aren't the same guys checking panel gaps so your argument makes 0 sense again here.

and it takes weeks to get any service done - while FSD and robots are all the rage?

Weird, I can get an appointment at my nearest service center in a few days anytime I've checked.

That said, certainly they do need more in some places.

But again- "rando service center guy" is not the same guy developing FSD. So there's no constraint by having the FSD guy not sitting around waiting to rotate your tires or something.

 

[AndreP]

Constraints can exist in companies as a whole simply from shifted focus, executives / directors losing sight of goals and not pushing departments, or any number of things. And this type of stuff happens all the time.