On a Tesla: Don't | Hacker News Reader

On a Tesla: Don't

medium.com

24 pointsonethought14 comments

A lot of difficult (for Tesla fans) truths in this.

Obviously Lessig is not a fan of Elon, but it is strange that he makes the statement “If Tim Cook were CEO I’d have endless confidence” (paraphrasing). Tim Cook has been trying to build an EV for 10 years, was also given the opportunity to buy Tesla, and didn’t.

I also don’t quite understand the “Software update sucks” sentiment. Is there another OEM that does it better? The only regressions i see are from regulatory requirements. (Well and disabling of sonic sensors)

> I also don’t quite understand the “Software update sucks” sentiment. Is there another OEM that does it better? The only regressions i see are from regulatory requirements. (Well and disabling of sonic sensors)

I found myself thinking this about a lot of his comments, TBH. I've seen cars with horrible Android Auto implementations. I've got cars with far worse lane centering, and that chatter about seat belts even more aggressively.

The Tesla UI is actually pretty amazing in a number of areas. Few EVs match it with regards to seamless navigation. The auto wipers are bad, but, TBH, I've had phantom wipes in other cars too. The auto high beams are not perfect, but again, they are better than my reference Nissan. :)

Auto climate doesn't work for everyone, but for me, it has been almost magical. Cabin overheat protection is spectacular in the southeast. Maybe it doesn't matter as much wherever Lessig lives.

I guess I'm saying, they are far from perfect, but there are really no other cars at the same price point that I'd pick over them right now.

Probably part of why Apple's car keeps getting delayed is because building a product that actually is significantly better really is far from easy. I don't doubt that Apple can achieve that, if they release one. I thought that about Dyson too, but they cancelled their product.

> I also don’t quite understand the “Software update sucks” sentiment.

Software updates don't always go according to plan:

https://www.thedrive.com/news/tesla-owners-say-autopilot-ada...

  > You press the function, and the car takes forever to calculate how
  > to place itself between two other cars that are themselves not
  > moving. It starts and then stumbles, pausing to recalculate. The
  > process takes forever, during which time you should think: So this
  > is how effectively it navigates two stationary cars while moving at
  > less than ten mph. And now I’m supposed to trust it at 65 mph
  > navigating through cars moving at the same speed? Are those physics
  > easier?

The funny thing is that parking like that really is a lot harder than driving down the road at 65 mph, especially for a limited set of cameras and a fairly limited NN.

It is really hard before to make a purchase decision based on what you feel about a CEO. But in 2024, it is the norm with all these influencer type founders.And Elon is the number one influencer-type CEO/founder.

The author cited many product issued with the car, which he attributed to some degree the CEO’s actions. If the CEO isn’t accountable for the product, who is?

I think I disagree with almost all of his examples. But his overall point feels accurate: Tesla just seems constantly distracted with “the next thing”.

Why are they building a robot when they haven’t finished autopilot/fsd? Why are they adding features like “Lightshow” and “Adding and Dropping Disney” when it has semi broken implementation of Spotify/Netflix/Youtube. They are basically printing cash these days seems weird they aren’t putting more polish on their features.

I'd guess that some of that is just because there is limited overlap between teams. I doubt the team doing media would really be involved with AP.

But I agree with your point. It is weird that they've focused on FSD on streets when they can't even do hands free on the highway.

There's a serious lack of focus at the company right now, and maybe even a fear of launching new product lines.

TLDR; Writer doesn't like Elon and claims Tesla will fail because Elon is stupid.

That is his bottom line, but not a TLDR. He writes in detail about his experience owning a Tesla for years and lists many reasons he doesn’t like about it, besides positive experiences.

Takeaway: Lessig believes Elon is as cool as Trump.

This is surprising. I don’t agree.

Trump is cooler, you mean?

In the sense that a senile rapist wearing diapers while trying to set himself up as Americas Hitler with brown people playing the role of dangerous menace instead of Jewish people can be said to be cool. Nothing says Übermensch like a full pair of depends and the heady smell of shit mixing with the smell of clown like greasepaint.

I'd say he should have done this when he was young in the 80s but the role of TV star cosplaying as President was taken back then and we really both the apprentice to bring Trump into the popular consciousness and a drastic overreaction to a black man becoming president to make his ranting resonate.

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