Perhaps with Musk apparently become more realistic about FSD the cars will have more features added to remain competitive.
Part of the minimalism of the cars is based on the arrival of FSD as an extraordinary feature. While I like the the minimalism in general, some of Tesla's choices come off as cheap. Like lack of appropriate blind spot warning, under door paint protection, sound insulation, interior lighting, and more robust power points.
Don't count on it. Elon is a minimalist. It took significant criticism to include the optional center console as standard equipment in the Model S.
To stay competitive Tesla is much more likely to cut prices. Right now I think they have the largest profit margins of any car maker in the world. They have kept the prices where they are because they sell as many cars as they can make at that price point. Tesla gets their batteries significantly cheaper than any other car maker, which is a significant advantage. They also run the company incredibly lean. It hurts service IMO, but it also makes them a hard competitor.
Tesla is also the only car company outside of China mass producing EVs. There are a lot of other cars coming out, but none are made in large volumes yet. At this point in time all the competition is battery bound. They can't get enough batteries to mass produce an EV if they wanted to.
Tesla has a production advantage for at least another 2 years, probably longer. During that time the Cybertruck, Semi and new battery tech will all be coming into production. They will start making cars in Germany and expand production in China. They will continue to have the best long distance charging network. CCS networks are expanding quickly, but there aren't even any plans to make CCS charging as convenient and no brainer as supercharging.
Tesla might end of top of the pack in FSD and it might not. There are a lot of unknowns there between all the different technological approaches and regulatory issues.
Great. Thank you.
Now, could you point to the procedure in one of these agencies for getting "regulatory approval" for a fully autonomous car?
That also has a number of different approaches. To get legislative approval usually involves lobbyists handing sympathetic legislators copies of the bill the company wants passed and hope it makes it into law. Regulatory agencies require the company to ask for the agency to change its rules and jump through any hoops they ask for. To change a local ordinance would probably involve approaching the council that is in charge.
The US has the most multi-layered government structures in the world. The upside is that it makes it very difficult for a bad actor at the top to break the system entirely, but it can also be a massive headache to get regulations changed.
I am not a native english speaker. Can you please explain how this last sentence in the quote above can be understood?
There is no guarantee
that
any incremental changes in the specific equipment we deploy in our vehicles
over time
will not result in initial functional disparities from prior iterations
or
will perform as expected in the timeframe we anticipate,
or
at all.
It looks like it was written by a lawyer paid by the word. My partner is an attorney and taught legal writing. She would have failed a student who wrote something like that.
In short is looks like Tesla is trying to give themselves some wiggle room saying they may not be able to deliver what they promised, or they might be able to deliver with added hardware. They aren't sure yet.
At least that's how I read it.
