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Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by Reedx on Wednesday April 24, 2019 @09:30PM (#19744191)
Yeah, but people have been saying they won't make it for over a decade now. It's tiresome and unproductive.

Meanwhile they've done amazing things that most considered impossible. They went for it despite the difficulty and actually changed an industry. Electric cars were thought of as golf carts! Not so anymore. The idea of covering the country with chargers was a pipe dream. Now it's reality.

Here's hoping Telsa continues doing big things.

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by semi-extrinsic on Thursday April 25, 2019 @12:54AM (#19745098)
I'm not sure they've done things anyone considered impossible. People have said these things will be wildly unprofitable, sure, and so far those people are mostly right.

But nobody has said it would be impossible to build a big expensive electric sedan with high range. Nor did anyone say it would be impossible to build a wide coverage fastcharge network. Surely they are impressive feats, but not "thought to be impossible".

In fact, other companies have managed to build similar things. Today the Jaguar and Audi e-SUVs are competing with the Model X, in a few months the Porsche Taycan is competing with Model S, and the ChaDeMo charger network is the same size as the Supercharger one (both have 12,000 units deployed globally).

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by pbreit on Thursday April 25, 2019 @02:01AM (#19745434)
First US car company in 60 years, electric at that. Best crash test ratings. Highest owner satisfaction. First US-owned factory in China. Built in about 6 months. Ability and willingness to use OTA updates. Willingness and ability to put auto-pilot on the road for consumers. Ridiculous performance. Better chip than Nvidia. Top 2 auto battery supplier. Best selling lux car in US (ICE or EV). Dramatically better battery efficiency. No dealerships. Online ordering. Plausible FSD story. Camera-based autonomy. $35k price point.
Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by dragonwriter on Thursday April 25, 2019 @02:49AM (#19745645)
> Plausible FSD story.

No.

> Camera-based autonomy.

That's among the reasons the former isn't true.

> $35k price point

That PR point has largely been abandoned. I mean, nominally they’ll still sell it to you if you jump through hoops, but they’ve deliberately made it less accessible because, as much as it was an important PR point, it was never really viable.

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by audunw on Thursday April 25, 2019 @07:10AM (#19746875)
I've been on the fence about Tesla's approach (no Lidar) being the right way. But did you see the recent presentation at all?

At this point I think it's clear that they have a high chance of succeeding.

And I think the core argument is correct: If you don't have a neural net that can estimate depth from cameras as well as a human, you don't have a viable FSD system. The classifications that the system has to do to actually implement all the requirements of true FSD, is way harder than what's needed to make Lidar redundant with cameras and radar. Lidar is a shortcut to get a proof-of-concept running when your vision system is too weak to actually do full FSD.

> as much as it was an important PR point, it was never really viable.

Of course it's viable. It's just a question of time. It's pretty silly to think that sommehow, right this year, batteries will stop falling in price and Tesla will find no other ways to continue to reduce costs.

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by semi-extrinsic on Thursday April 25, 2019 @10:48AM (#19748716)
> And I think the core argument is correct: If you don't have a neural net that can estimate depth from cameras as well as a human, you don't have a viable FSD system.

I agree that this statement is probably correct. But they're assuming the positive outcome here, and we have no proof that's correct.

In fact, it may well turn out that the current approaches to autonomous driving using neural networks won't ever yield a viable FSD system. In fact I'd take that side of the bet, to be honest.

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by pbreit on Thursday April 25, 2019 @03:37AM (#19745862)
Continuing to deny something that exists is actually beyond calling it impossible!

If you've got some spare time, go read some third party research on how cameras might actually be better. Lidar superiority is a myth. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1812.07179.pdf

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by hyperbovine on Thursday April 25, 2019 @07:48AM (#19747051)
Dude, if you think a CS conference paper is going to be the secret sauce that extracts Tesla from the $5b hole it’s dig itself into, you a) know nothing about business and b) know nothing about CS.
Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by dillonmckay on Thursday April 25, 2019 @09:15AM (#19747708)
A little decorum, please.
Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by pbreit on Thursday April 25, 2019 @02:36PM (#19751188)
Just an external, corroborating data point. That’s all.
Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by threeseed on Thursday April 25, 2019 @07:00AM (#19746824)
That paper says nothing of the sort. Did you even read it ?

The numbers actually show pseudo-LiDAR being worse in general and significantly worse at longer distances.

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by pbreit on Thursday April 25, 2019 @11:26AM (#19749132)
I read it. Did you?

"it is plausible that image-based 3D object detection for autonomous vehicle will become a reality in the near future."

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by threeseed on Thursday April 25, 2019 @05:11PM (#19752545)
You do know that we have 3D object detection today. In fact we've had it for a few years now.

The issue isn't whether it works or not. The issue is whether you need LiDAR in the mix as well. And your paper says unequivocally that the answer is "yes we do".

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by whttheuuu on Thursday April 25, 2019 @03:29AM (#19745815)
This comment is the very definition of head in the sand lol.
Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by semi-extrinsic on Thursday April 25, 2019 @02:35AM (#19745585)
Apart from the FSD bit, which is still a far way from realized and might never be, none of those things are in the category "people said this was impossible".
Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by pbreit on Thursday April 25, 2019 @03:34AM (#19745847)
Read the list again.
Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by kmlx on Thursday April 25, 2019 @07:41AM (#19747017)
wow.

here we go: > Best crash test ratings.

partly false. there are 30 cars in the same category. kias, hyundays you name it.

> Highest owner satisfaction.

partly false. only the model 3 got it. model s was dropped due to how crappy it is.

> First US-owned factory in China. Built in about 6 months.

false. it’s not built. and there are so many other corps out there that own china factories it’s not even funny.

> Willingness and ability to put auto-pilot on the road for consumers.

how many people died because of this?

> Better chip than Nvidia.

proven to be false.

> Top 2 auto battery supplier.

false. that would be Panasonic.

> Dramatically better battery efficiency.

false. same efficiency as a kia.

> No dealerships.

this is very bad.

> Plausible FSD story.

false. debunked.

> $35k price point.

false. they don’t sell $35k cars.

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by pbreit on Thursday April 25, 2019 @11:31AM (#19749177)
I could go down your list and write false as well. To take the first one as an example of how you are wrong.

https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=NHTSA-2017-0037-0037

Model 3 not only the very best results, but by a wider margin.

And the last. Tesla absolutely sells a $35k Model 3: https://www.tesla.com/blog/update-our-vehicle-lineup

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by audunw on Thursday April 25, 2019 @07:00AM (#19746822)
> Better chip than Nvidia.

That's arguably false. Nvidia has a more powerful FSD chip. But performance/watt might be better for Teslas chip.

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by leesec on Thursday April 25, 2019 @10:06AM (#19748230)
>I'm not sure they've done things anyone considered impossible.

Is this also a joke? They've been doing impossible stuff for literally 10 years, there's plenty examples of people claiming so.

Consider this, there isn't a better car than the one they produced in 2012, and GM's best effort at an EV (the Bolt) lost somewhere between 4-8k per unit.

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by S_A_P on Thursday April 25, 2019 @08:48AM (#19747483)
Agreed- and I'm a fan from a distance. Again I have no dog in their fight, but I would at some point like to own a Tesla or equivalently performing vehicle. For me, Elon is still the guy to lead the effort. He had some missteps during a stressful period, but he is someone that will keep Tesla in the news and keep people interested. Even if half of the people want him to fail.

Aside from Autopilot and the everymans model 3, Tesla has delivered some pretty damn incredible tech that actually works in the real world. I would love to own a Model S, maybe when V2 comes out, I will be in a position to get one. Lets hope they still exist when that happens.

I personally don't understand why someone would wish for them to fail. Maybe to prove that how they feel about Elon was "right", who knows. I see some issues with autopilot coming to a head at some point. They are either going to deliver or have a giant rebate due at some point in the future. I don't see any other option. If I bought a car in 2018, and had to wait 4 years for a feature my car would be about used up(I drive about 26,000 miles a year).

Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by steelframe on Wednesday April 24, 2019 @11:58PM (#19744855)
I'm an ex-Tesla owner (went for an I-PACE with my last EV purchase), but I have to agree with this sentiment. Tesla will go down in history as an amazing phenomenon, regardless of whether they survive in the marketplace.
Re:Tesla Posts Big Quarterly Loss as Its Electric-Car Sales Lag by m3kw9 on Thursday April 25, 2019 @01:47AM (#19745377)
Haha I see that you did. That’s after you’ve tried an I-Pace