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Comment by pinkyboy | Hacker News Reader

Charging experience? Teslas can't charge as fast as a modern Kia, Lucid, Geely, or BYD. They can't two-gun charge like a BYD. They don't have battery-swaps like NIO. They've got a single charge port in a back corner... very unclear what's best about them.

And as for software, on the infotainment side, AA/CP are great (but not available on Tesla), and people often like having _some_ physical controls, which goes against Musk's aggressive cost-cutting.

If by software you mean FSD (Supervised), I think essentially every major auto lane-keeping + adaptive cruise covers the key use case where FSD is useful: highway slogs.

For anybody who lives outside of the USA, the Chinese EVs are the obvious answer -- they've surpassed Tesla on essentially every dimension.

For people who live inside the USA the math is different, since the government is actively interfering with the free market to protect a critical donor.

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Android Auto and Carplay are better than dealing with just crappy infotainment systems but they still don't make the overall software experience good. You end up with disjointed interface with functionality split between the automakers UI.

FSD is unmatched. Auto lane-keeping and adaptive cruise control don't provide the reactivity that FSD does even for straight highway driving.

Most objective reviews comparing a Model Y and Chinese EVs are far less conclusive than you propose.

Tesla FSD and infotainment is the best in the US only. Tesla is no match for Xiaomi or Li Auto.

> Charging experience?

They have a very reliable charging network with excellent coverage. You just plug your car in and it charges. No fiddling with the charger or apps.

> And as for software, on the infotainment side, AA/CP are great (but not available on Tesla)

The infotainment is good enough where you don't need AA/CP but that's a very subjective detail. The software also extends outside of your car because you can do a lot from the Tesla phone app. It's your car key, control/schedule/monitor charging, lets you control climate remotely, use GPS to find your car, dashcam, etc... all are standard with a Tesla but unavailable or locked behind a subscription elsewhere.

> If by software you mean FSD (Supervised), I think essentially every major auto lane-keeping + adaptive cruise covers the key use case where FSD is useful: highway slogs.

Agree but FSD (Supervised) is actually getting better over time. You 100% need the latest model/hardware car to see those improvements though. Still needs supervision but far less than you may have seen before.

And you can plug almost any modern EV into the Tesla supercharging network without issue. However, unlike Teslas, you can _also_ plug and charge them in other networks.

On self-driving: if you want true autonomy, where you can relax and do something else entirely while you drive, the answers are Waymo, Apollo Go, and to a lesser extent: rideshare.

Every other system requires that you sit in the driver's seat, pay attention, and be ready to handle exceptions. Which means that ongoing improvements don't actually buy you much of anything, because having to handle an exception every 50 miles isn't a better experience than having to handle one very 5 miles.

> However, unlike Teslas, you can _also_ plug and charge them in other networks.

why?

I think the plug situation in the US is different and they only just settled on a standard which is what I assume the parent comment is talking about.

> Which means that ongoing improvements don't actually buy you much of anything, because having to handle an exception every 50 miles isn't a better experience than having to handle one very 5 miles.

That's what I thought too but after trying FSD on HW4 for two months I really think they are almost there. HW3 was really bad but I didn't need to intervene once with HW4. I think their biggest hurdle will be more of a legal or insurance one when they need to shift liability to actually stop saying it needs supervision.

> the answers are Waymo, Apollo Go

Both of which are supervised too, but remotely, and not constantly. There's no reason why Tesla can't do the same - they probably do for Robotaxis now - as soon as the exception rate is low enough, why not?

If it is so good why don't they take liability? They aren't even willing to risk money while you are ready to risk your life...

Because it's not good enough yet.

Ah ok, i thought you meant it’s just a matter of paperwork

comma.ai is the one that's available now to cars today.

comma.ai requires supervision just like Tesla's FSD.

Tesla wins on charging because Superchargers are ubiquitous and they just work: you can pull up to one and be pretty much guaranteed that you'll be able to charge. This is manifestly not the case for any of the competition.

Pretty much every EV can use Superchargers.

I'm setting aside that charging off of public EVs is relatively rare anyway... but your premise is flawed.

This article was about Europe. There is no benefit for Tesla here. It’s all CCS now. Anyone can use Tesla superchargers.

Afaik it’s the same in US, isn’t it? Just with the complication that there’s no government mandated standard, but NACS seems to becoming the de facto standard? So a benefit to Tesla for older models I suppose?

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