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Comment by Sakos | Hacker News Reader

When the Cybertruck launched was already too late for them to have launched a "budget" Tesla, and a budget Tesla is what they really needed to cement their lead in the EV industry. Now there are a bunch of decent competitors in Tesla's market segments and China is eating (or will eat) everybody's lunch in cheaper segments (except for the US, I guess, with the 100% import tax).

I have no idea what they're doing. It looks like the budget Tesla is dead in the water and they're all in on robotaxis? How is that going to work? What's their actual strategy for the near to long-term future?

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> When the Cybertruck launched was already too late for them to have launched a "budget" Tesla

Sure. When the Cybertruck started diverting resources it wasn’t.

> they're all in on robotaxis?

Current market leader is Mercedes with an SAE Level 3 vehicle [1]. (Tesla markets like it’s Level 5, but it’s technically Level 2, same as my Subaru.)

Waymo is Level 4 [2]. They appear to be at their field’s forefront. If Tesla could sell a Level 4 vehicle, even one that only carries that guarantee on certain routes at certain times of the day in certain weather, it would be a game changer.

[1] https://fortune.com/2024/04/18/mercedes-self-driving-autonom...

[2] https://www.sae.org/blog/sae-j3016-update 3.5 if you’re picky

> Current market leader is Mercedes with an SAE Level 3 vehicle

That's not a market leader when it just follows the car in front and has significant limitations.

Cannot even change lanes

Works only in traffic jams and heavy traffic

Works only under 40MPH

Works only on specific highways (which need to be mapped?)

Works only in daylight, does not work at night

Does not work in rain

Is the only Level 3 vehicle on the roads in Germany and now California and Nevada. Until Tesla steps up and says you don’t have to pay attention, that the car can drive itself and if it fucks up it’s on Tesla, it’s Level 2. Not in the lead.

> it just follows the car in front

No, that’s active lane keeping. My Subaru does that.

> Cannot even change lanes

Yes it does [1].

> Works only under 40MPH

If you want to exceed this, you can switch to its Level 2 mode.

FSD is a very advanced Level 2 system. (Probably the most advanced.) But it’s still Level 2 because you are still supposed to closely supervise it.

[1] https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/what-is-mercede...

> But it’s still Level 2 because you are still supposed to closely supervise it.

I just recently noticed that Tesla now officially calls it "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" in their manual.

https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/modely/en_us/GUID-2CB6080...

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