Comment by semi-extrinsic | Hacker News Reader

Comment by semi-extrinsic | Hacker News Reader

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If the OTA updates is something customers want, it will be straightforward for other car companies to follow suit.

As for luggage space: I was talking about an estate/wagon class car, so this is the correct comparison:

http://cars.axlegeeks.com/compare/1525-17575/2013-Tesla-Mode...

Also, just counting cubic feet with two luggage compartments is only helpful in some situations. You wouldn't be able to fit a washing machine in a Model S, for instance, or a dog cage, nor most baby prams (without significant disassembly).

Tesla does own some patents on the battery pack assembly, but Musk famously declared a while back that these are free for all other car companies to use in good faith. (He "open sourced" them.) Also, Tesla is the only electric car manufacturer going for the 18650 cell as the basis, all others are going for much larger individual cells in their packs, so most of Tesla's battery pack IP doesn't apply to others since it's specific to the cell form factor.

> OTA

You don't understand. Most car manufacturers have agreements with dealerships that will prevent OTA updates from being possible.

> Musk famously declared a while back that these are free for all other car companies to use in good faith

Yep, but 'good faith' means opening up their IP in return, more or less, so not many companies are taking that up. Anyhow Tesla still own the IP, so your original statement is incorrect.

> You don't understand. Most car manufacturers have agreements with dealerships that will prevent OTA updates from being possible.

There are also legal frameworks that make OTA updates edgy. Tesla is being investigated in germany because pushing additional features ("auto"pilot) might substantially alter the car from the approved version, leaving it without approval to drive on german roads.

OTA also suffers from all the beautiful issues that networked updates suffer from, most notably security, authentication, encryption. I for one prefer updates done via good old fashioned removable media.

So yes, OTA updates are nice, but I'm not certain I really really want that in my car.

sure, but thats a different argument. I am arguing with semi-extrinsic who claimed that Gasoline cars have similarly complex ECUs and entertainment systems and are already being updated for free (usually at regular services).. I'm arguing that no-one else comes close to what Tesla are able to do with updates. e.g. in the next month or two autopilot 8 will be pushed out, bringing significant new functionality to the 30,000+ autopilot equipped Teslas already on the road.

There's also the problem all software updates can suffer: a code change breaking something in production. In this case it would be a car carrying humans.

I'm not sure what type of software updates we're talking about but BMW allows idrive updates (nav/media) via the USB port. They provide the updates for free on their site.

I drive a Hyundai that has a navigation system. I purchased it in 2010. I have to dish out $250 or something at the dealer to get updated maps. The nav system's update process is password-locked so I can't just do it myself.

We're talking about pretty major things like new features for Autopilot, and performance enhancement from better battery/motor management.

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