Hacker News Reader

Comment by cperciva | Hacker News Reader

Is it any worse than what other manufacturers deal with? The 2019 Honda Accord shares some parts with the 2018 Honda Accord which shares some parts with the 2017 model... when something breaks in my Honda the first question is "do they still make/use this part or did they change it in newer models?"

View on HN

A former Tesla employee, who worked on their IT infrastructure and whose NDA has expired, has revealed the technical shit show going on behind the scenes at Tesla. (I'm a Tesla fanboy as well, but this is scary).

https://twitter.com/atomicthumbs/status/1032939617404645376

That is a highly amusing/horrifying thread.

If someone wants to copy-paste some parts instead of pictures, here's the link to all his posts in that thread.

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=38...

Gee, I hope they have some kind of system to track that. Maybe software even?

I find it hard to imagine they wouldn't

That was sarcasm

tangentially, MFW I realized hours later who I sarcasmed at.

You jest, but years ago I worked for one of the largest auto parts places. You have no idea how many times you'd input year, make, model, and trim, just to be presented with multiple choice questions. Nobody knew how big their drums were, in inches, or the number of blades on their fan, the length of their belts, etc. Apparently a lot of mixing and matching happens. Some folks legitimately had to give us a prior year for us to find the right part.

Yep. Just went thru that 2 days ago with my father's GMC W series truck. The air filter I got from the retailer is for the previous generation, even though that's what their system says for the truck.

I had to hand the old filter to the store staff and have him copy the FRAM part number.

If you've ever been to a tesla service center, it's kind of interesting.

Cars glide in silently and when they sit there for a bit the words "Service Mode" come up in maybe 5" high letters on the dashboard.

There are lots of technicians on their computers. The car info comes up on the specific car and shows lots of history, where and when it was last serviced and so forth.

Each car seems to have it's own personal list of options and features, that shows up on the website when searching for cars, or when signing into you car portal.

folks have taken the time to document them:

https://github.com/timdorr/tesla-api

https://github.com/fredrikfjeld/tesla-options-decoder

I think all cars are like this, but telsa is less rigid / concerned about model years and just consults the database for the specific car's info at every step.

The dealerships use VIN numbers, which end up getting you the exact part you want, even if the same car model of the same year has different parts. I suppose some of the retailers don't have this privilege.

"Vehicle Identification Number numbers"?

Just like PIN number, ATM machine, CAC card, and "is that a work PC or personal?"

It's a very typical construction, for whatever reason.

"is that a work PC or personal?"

I disagree with putting this one into the same category. The "personal" in "PC" means "used by a single person; not shared" which is quite different from the meaning of "not belonging to an employer".

At least you use LED as a noun. In Poland, I constantly hear people saying "LED diode". I keep correcting this and "PIN number" indiscriminately.