Elon Musk’s sleight of hand | Hacker News Reader

Elon Musk’s sleight of hand

medium.com

20 pointsdeegles8 comments

Am I the only one that thinks a self driving car needs far more than a 'software update'? I would imagine it would need multiple redundant 360 degree sensor packages.

Supposedly the Google self driving cars analyze a gig of data per second so more processing power would likely be needed too. That is not to say the platform may not be a self driving car at some future date... Also one good software bug that loses lives might be enough to destroy Tesla financially as well as their reputation at this stage.

... Tesla added a big sensor package to Model S over a year ago. It doesn't have LIDAR like Google's cars, but it is similar to sensor packages from other car companies that do lane-following and adaptive cruise control.

He completely misread these features. Most self-driving taxis will be very small because most trips have few passengers. In a vehicle that will see as much use as a self-driving taxi, the fewer moving parts there are, the better -- you would rather have an extra door to get to the rear seats than seats moved by motors.

These are all natural evolutions of luxury car features.

Right. And if you want to see into the future of any 'luxury' that becomes available to the well off middle classes look to what the really rich are doing now. They are driving cars that are too big for every day needs. They have people who open the doors for them. They have people who make sure there will be enough room to get in. And so on.

A larger format is more versatile than a smaller car. It can accommodate groups of friends, families (huge market not currently using taxis), people going on domestic holidays, and will handle smart-routes.

Tesla also have a smaller-format car to come.

Obviously things like seat and door technology, the snake charger, etc can be applied to other sizes.

I like the creative thinking in the post. However what we see at play here is confirmation bias. Once the author has convinced himself that Model X is a step towards self-driving future, everything demoed is viewed with that lense. This happens completely unintentionally.

What makes the author wrong? It all sounds very likely to me.

It does not make the author wrong at all. Just that as humans we tend to rationalize things, often by reading between the lines.

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