Siri in Tesla? Honda already has it.

[liuping]

Oh yes, that would be a great idea. Next thing you know Tesla will change the power plug for no reason other than to make everyone buy new HPC's and UMC's. And then when an aftermarket springs up providing them for a fraction of the price they will push a software update to the car which will cause the aftermarket chargers to stop working. Oh yes, please, can I live in that world?

Man I hate it when I can't tell if someone is being sarcastic or serious. I used to be able to tell easily, but reading forums on the internet broke that part of my brain...

 

[brianman]

@liuping - I'm sure he's being totally Siri-ous.

 

[Discoducky]

Man I hate it when I can't tell if someone is being sarcastic or serious. I used to be able to tell easily, but reading forums on the internet broke that part of my brain...

Sarcastic for sure, unless strider doesn't ride motorcycles, then I have no idea.

Siri-like functionality or discussion based searches and action based on that discussion would be interesting so you could say things like.

Q: "Best way to get a good burger"
A: Burger joints that are too far away
Q: "Ok, how about a bit closer"
A: Since there are none closer, how about Thai? (since you've been there several times, but not recently) It's only a few miles away and there is no traffic and you have a meeting at 1pm anyway so don't you think this would be a better choice?
Q: Ok, cool.

 

[Incredulocious]

Oh yes, that would be a great idea. Next thing you know Tesla will change the power plug for no reason other than to make everyone buy new HPC's and UMC's. And then when an aftermarket springs up providing them for a fraction of the price they will push a software update to the car which will cause the aftermarket chargers to stop working. Oh yes, please, can I live in that world?

Well, you do live in that world but I think you're misrepresenting it. Tesla already came out with a new and improved power plug (unlike anyone else's) and put it in the Model S and if sometime down the road the need arose again (safety, performance), I expect they, like Apple, might choose to change the plug again. And if third parties started introducing somewhat-but-not-entirely compatible accessories, I imagine they might also decide to block them and allow for only approved well-behaving devices. So, like Apple, not "for no reason other than to make them buy" new gear but to provide much improved functionality and performance for the years to come. And, like Apple, Tesla chooses to maintain quite the "healthy"/premium margin on all their products and accessories.

Despite what you might think, the folks who work at these companies aren't making these choices out of greed or to piss off their customers, but they are pushing the bar and trying to create exceptional products. And it's not easy to do that and keep absolutely everybody happy.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Well, you do live in that world but I think you're misrepresenting it. Tesla already came out with a new and improved power plug (unlike anyone else's)

The physical connector is different in the US, but the protocol's the same. The European version is essentially the same as Type 2 (just has deeper pins to support supercharging). This is different than Apple (which stubbornly refused to add a micro-USB port). Tesla also contributed a whole bunch to making J1772 what it is today.

And I think the difference is Tesla haven't really been trying to get third parties to buy into their connectors, while Apple had. Apple got everyone to use their 30 pin connector and when they switched to Lightning (without providing backwards compatibility) it pulled the rug under a lot of people.

Plus there's the whole licensing chip inside any adapters too (I really hope Tesla does not do that; there was some speculation if the CHAdeMO adapter has this, but it seems to be confirmed that it doesn't). That's what strider is probably talking about.

 

[Incredulocious]

The physical connector is different in the US, but the protocol's the same. The European version is essentially the same as Type 2 (just has deeper pins to support supercharging). This is different than Apple (which stubbornly refused to add a micro-USB port). Tesla also contributed a whole bunch to making J1772 what it is today.

And I think the difference is Tesla haven't really been trying to get third parties to buy into their connectors, while Apple had. Apple got everyone to use their 30 pin connector and when they switched to Lightning (without providing backwards compatibility) it pulled the rug under a lot of people.

Plus there's the whole licensing chip inside any adapters too (I really hope Tesla does not do that; there was some speculation if the CHAdeMO adapter has this, but it seems to be confirmed that it doesn't). That's what strider is probably talking about.

I can't speak to what you're saying about the protocol of Tesla's Model S plug vs. J1772, but I'm surprised to hear that given the differences in capability. But my point was that, like Apple, they decided to do something different than their previous product (Roadster) and the more widely-used standard (J1772), for seemingly good reason. And, as you mentioned with Tesla, Apple is also very involved with and contributes to industry standards, sometimes even being the first to deploy and help kickstart a new standard.

As for Apple and micro-USB, they wanted more than could be provided via just USB and the old 30 pin connector (that they kept to for so many years) was becoming a limiting factor for physical designs. So I don't think it was unreasonable for Apple to finally decide to improve the connector. This wiki page details the supposed advantages of the Lightning connector over micro-USB:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_(connector)

As for the authentication chip, that's Apple's prerogative and I can't say whether it was really necessary.

 

[stopcrazypp]

I can't speak to what you're saying about the protocol of Tesla's Model S plug vs. J1772, but I'm surprised to hear that given the differences in capability. But my point was that, like Apple, they decided to do something different than their previous product (Roadster) and the more widely-used standard (J1772), for seemingly good reason. And, as you mentioned with Tesla, Apple is also very involved with and contributes to industry standards, sometimes even being the first to deploy and help kickstart a new standard.

The Roadster to Model S switch could be justified because the Roadster connector was a pre-J1772 design (came out before J1772 was finalized). The Model S connector is basically J1772-DC "lite" (kind of like the different variants of USB sockets, with protocol being the same, just the physical connector being different form factors) and it also came out before J1772-DC was finalized. USB 3.0 however had been around for years before the Lightning release (and USB 2.0 before the 30 pin connector).

Yes, Apple does collaborate in the industry (webkit for example), but more often than not they go their own road (or come up with their own "standard," like FaceTime). My main point there is Tesla does work very closely with industry and is less stubborn than Apple in terms of resisting other industry standards.

As for the whole licensing chip, I think that is the core thing that people don't want Tesla to emulate. I've pointed out before that there are similarities between the two companies, but the differences really do matter.