Evidently Tesla has rolled out a beta self-driving update to a small number of users, and videos of it operating are showing up on YouTube. It seems...not horrible. But I've only seen videos of it operating in good weather, and I haven'tseen any "tough" tests. Also it seems that it won't turn into a driveway. I'm also gathering that Tesla will be switching to a high resolution radar module, presumably to supplement the cameras...hmm, maybe cameras alone weren't enough.
|
|
|
Any GTAM'ers own an electric vehicle?
- Thread starter PrivatePilot
- Start date
2021 Rivian R1T first drive review: It's going to be a game-changer
After a grueling eight-day off-road test, I can wholeheartedly say the electric Rivian R1T is the real deal.
www.cnet.com
Great read
cleantechnica.com
Teardown Finds Tesla Is 6 Years (At Least) Ahead Of The Competition - CleanTechnica
After a full tear down of a Tesla Model 3, Asia Nikkei claims is at least years ahead of other automakers when it comes to designing and building the computers that will control the self driving cars of the future.
cleantechnica.com
Since EV and self-driving seemed to be tied together, here's an article on Tesla's "full self driving" package trying to crash which is not to be confused with their "auto pilot" package which also requires the driver. I am still shocked and appalled that regulators allow these beta tests in public. They are not remotely ready and people really really suck at maintaining focus and readiness when they have nothing to do.
Watch video to see M3 pull out from a stop sign and try to accelerate into the rear of a parked car.
electrek.co
On a related note, skydio drone was doing an impressive job flying in terribly obstructed airspace. It was dodging trees and power lines without crashing. Sometimes that meant it got pretty far behind but then it picked open spaces to put the hammer down and catch up.
Watch video to see M3 pull out from a stop sign and try to accelerate into the rear of a parked car.
Watch Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta's performance from the sky with scary near-miss
Today, we take a look at an interesting new video showing Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta’s performance from the sky in...
electrek.co
On a related note, skydio drone was doing an impressive job flying in terribly obstructed airspace. It was dodging trees and power lines without crashing. Sometimes that meant it got pretty far behind but then it picked open spaces to put the hammer down and catch up.
Yeah I was impressed with that drone, that's for sure. I've yet to try the track-me feature on the new one. The MavicAir2 I have now has forward and rear facing obstacle avoidance, but no side sensors. From what I can see in that video...it has to have side sensors as well otherwise it would have almost certainly crashed on some of those fly overs where it ended up in front of the car vs trailing.
Edit: Yeah, I just looked...that drone is miles ahead of anything from DJI so far as fully autonomous flight. Skydio 2™
Edit: Yeah, I just looked...that drone is miles ahead of anything from DJI so far as fully autonomous flight. Skydio 2™
The Porsche Taycan Is Off To A Surprisingly Fast Sales Start In The US
The Porsche Taycan is an all-electric sports car that starts at $103,800, a proposition that I had assumed wouldn’t sell all that great here, mainly because you can get any Tesla for less. Well, that was wrong.
jalopnik.com
There's going to be an electric modern interpretation of the bus. The concept vehicle was called the ID Buzz. It's about a year away, and it will also be based on VW's MEB electric platform.
And on a somewhat related note ... I had a couple of projects pass through the works yesterday with the project code P702BEV. Nothing special about it ... except that's the designation of the electric Ford F150. All I can tell you about it is that there's an auxiliary chassis component completely unrelated to the vehicle being electric, which is different from the one used on the standard model ...
Ford e-Transit announced - available next year.
Tidbits. Single motor, independent rear suspension (in place of the normal Transit's live rear axle and driveshaft from the front). As I suspected with these, the motor is integrated into a rear drive module with the rear suspension (just as Tesla, Rivian, and others are doing) and this frees up space between the frame rails for the batteries. Battery size is not great (67 kWh), range is about 200 km ... it's designed for local deliveries and contractors, not camper conversions. I gather that the range will vary depending on what body configuration you get - high roof and longer length mean more aero drag and more weight, and shorter range.
Doesn't really work for what I use my van for ... I need to get to Grand Bend, Shannonville, Mosport, etc. Calabogie would be a stretch, but I could live with one high-speed recharge on the way there.
There's an electric version of my van, but not available here ... New e-Ducato Electric - Van, Chassis Cab, People Mover They have a choice of 2 different battery sizes, the bigger one being 79 kWh, and 360 km range on NEDC, which is hopelessly optimistic, but 300-ish real world would be useful.
Back to the Ford ... The electric F150 is in the works. I saw some assembly tooling for it a couple days ago. Evidently there are some chassis components not the same as for the regular model ... probably because it is going to use a similar independent rear suspension and rear drive module that the Transit is using, maybe even the same parts.
Tidbits. Single motor, independent rear suspension (in place of the normal Transit's live rear axle and driveshaft from the front). As I suspected with these, the motor is integrated into a rear drive module with the rear suspension (just as Tesla, Rivian, and others are doing) and this frees up space between the frame rails for the batteries. Battery size is not great (67 kWh), range is about 200 km ... it's designed for local deliveries and contractors, not camper conversions. I gather that the range will vary depending on what body configuration you get - high roof and longer length mean more aero drag and more weight, and shorter range.
Doesn't really work for what I use my van for ... I need to get to Grand Bend, Shannonville, Mosport, etc. Calabogie would be a stretch, but I could live with one high-speed recharge on the way there.
There's an electric version of my van, but not available here ... New e-Ducato Electric - Van, Chassis Cab, People Mover They have a choice of 2 different battery sizes, the bigger one being 79 kWh, and 360 km range on NEDC, which is hopelessly optimistic, but 300-ish real world would be useful.
Back to the Ford ... The electric F150 is in the works. I saw some assembly tooling for it a couple days ago. Evidently there are some chassis components not the same as for the regular model ... probably because it is going to use a similar independent rear suspension and rear drive module that the Transit is using, maybe even the same parts.
Don't bother with the e-transit.
A proper electric vehicle, van or otherwise should be designed from a clean sheet.
Frankensteining an electric drive train on an existing model is not a good solution.
We've seen this when automaker try to marry a hybrid power train to a car designed from scratch as an ICE model.
The dismal range on the e-transit tells you all you need to know....
but does the roof peel off?
The van that Rivian is designing for Amazon is a clean-sheet design ... but it remains to be seen what those are going to be like. Practically nothing is known about them. No one knows if those will be generally available to anyone other than Amazon.
I wonder what's under the hood of the Transit ... whether they've made use of the space vacated by the original engine for anything. I tend to suspect not.
The VW ID Buzz is more oriented towards private owners, and that's a clean-sheet dedicated-EV design.
I wonder what's under the hood of the Transit ... whether they've made use of the space vacated by the original engine for anything. I tend to suspect not.
The VW ID Buzz is more oriented towards private owners, and that's a clean-sheet dedicated-EV design.
They moved the spare tire there now. Pretty clever actually. The underside rear where it used to be is reserved for.... you know what.
The Rivian actually looks pretty good. Will have to see final product to make an assessment but willing to wager it will be a winner in the van market. At least until big T comes up with something.
Its impressive range is a good sign. That's what clean sheet will get you.
That's an terrible range if it's based on "perfect world" scenarios as many range estimates for EV's are.
Put a typical package delivery guy behind the wheel who only knows 2 throttle positions (to the floor, or skidding to a stop) and I suspect that range will be closer to 125km, especially in the winter with the heat on fighting both the drivers and rear doors being opened and closed all day long.
I don't see this being successful except for a very niche segment for hyper local delivery. I think theres actually far more chance this is going to end up attracting negative media attention when parcel drivers start getting stranded on the side of the road half way through their workday - companies who don't understand the realities of EV's will buy these thinking the 200km stated range is a "guaranteed" thing 365 days a year regardless of who they put behind the wheel. That will not be reality.
I'll just leave this here.
www.greencarreports.com
Tesla Model Y reliability "much worse than average," Consumer Reports says
To be fair, many of the Model Y issues CR suggests sound like fit and finish issues rather than failures that will leave owners stranded.
Leading the world at making interesting products with the worst mechanical design and assembly practices. I get it, Musk is interested in the software/go fast bits, the body and everything else is just an annoyance that he doesn't want to spend any time or money on.I'll just leave this here.
Tesla Model Y reliability "much worse than average," Consumer Reports says
To be fair, many of the Model Y issues CR suggests sound like fit and finish issues rather than failures that will leave owners stranded.
It won't happen with Ego Musk at the helm, but based on valuations, it makes more sense for Tesla to buy a legacy auto manufacturer to acquire their engineering and assembly knowledge (and fold up the rest of the crap company). I still think it would have made more sense for Tesla to design propulsion (and maybe driving aid) systems and sell them to traditional manufacturers (although traditional wouldn't like weekly updates to fix bugs that kill people) or for Tesla to design and use a competent assembler like Multimatic to assist them in making a design that can be successfully deployed.
|
|
|
|
|