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Tesla is saving the world, but not by selling an increasing number of electric vehicles. Instead, they’ve been the largest seller of electric vehicle credits to

Tesla is saving the world, but not by selling an increasing number of electric vehicles. Instead, they’ve been the largest seller of electric vehicle credits to other car manufacturers manufacturing electric vehicles [0][1]. In my honest opinion, if Teslas did not invest their efforts into self-driving vehicles (per vehicle costs for LIDAR and other technology, R&D costs, headcount, etc) their base offering for the Model 3 could actually be competitively priced with similar offerings by other car manufacturers. In addition, there would not be any deaths from people putting their faith into FSD/Autopilot (6 deaths as of this writing) [2]. In all fairness, governments should only allow these EV credits to be used by the original car manufacturer that gets them, and they should only give one EV credit per electric vehicle produced. [0] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ev-regulatory-credits-why-tesla-113115520.html https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ev-regulatory-credits-why-tes... [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/715421/tesla-quarterly-vehicle-production/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/715421/tesla-quarterly-v... [2] https://www.tesladeaths.com/ https://www.tesladeaths.com/

soared 5y ago
No.. Tesla is saving the planet by forcing market trends to accelerate very quickly. Prior to Tesla the only real electric car with market share was a Prius. Now every car manufacturer is fully bought in to electric, thanks to Tesla.
- conception 5y ago
  This is amazingly true if you look at someone like VW’s annual report in 2011 and 2012... and the the S was released and then look at 2013.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 5y ago
  > Prior to Tesla the only real electric car with market share was a Prius. Now every car manufacturer is fully bought in to electric You could say that about any first to market product. The first one who got serious market share must have caused everyone who followed, right? That's not the simplest explanation.
MPSimmons 5y ago
Say whatever you want about the effectiveness of autopilot and the self driving program, but you can't just hang 6 deaths on autopilot. People are stupid and do stupid things. The absolute worst thing I can rationally say about autopilot is that it requires good judgement from the general populace, and that's irrationally hopeful. In 2016, at least 7 people had died from car surfing [0] their non-self-driving cars. Of course people are going to die using autopilot, just like people are going to die not using autopilot. People are dumb, and I'm including myself in that, too. [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/12/the-dangerous-thrill-of-car-surfing-claims-its-7th-young-life-of-the-year/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/1...
- Terretta 5y ago
  The white frame of the screen above the sink in my kitchen window is marred by giant bold black lettering warning screens don’t prevent children from falling out so keep your window closed. I think about that when restarting my push lawn mower after I killed the engine by letting go of the safety cutoff handlebar to get a dangerous rock out of the way. Maybe its easier to just mow over the rock and hope it doesn’t get bashed my way. And when trying to tape up boxes using the new 3M packing tape dispensers that only extend the cutting teeth if you sufficiently mash the dispenser against the box at an awkward angle. You can unscrew that lever and Sugru or epoxy the mechanism in normal cutting position, or never ever discard your 3M dispenser from before someone sued them. What I think, though, is: This is why we can’t have nice things.
  - brianwawok 5y ago
    But look at seatbelts. Low annoyance, saved many many lives. Some safety stuff is great. Some is annoying. How do you draw that line? Put a price per death at $1,000,000 and see if the change is worth it? Or if a human life is priceless, then we must always do all the safety changes.
- enraged_camel 5y ago
  I don't think it's quite as simple as blaming those who died for being stupid. Autopilot's capabilities are exaggerated by both Tesla and Musk to the point of being fraudulent. This leads many drivers to put too much faith and confidence in it. In addition, the mechanism to detect that the driver is paying attention is overly simplistic and easily bypassed. They don't even use weight-detection on the driver seat, despite the fact that the seats have the capability. Similarly, some of the other manufacturers have driver-facing cameras that further help ensure the seat is occupied. These are not complex mechanisms, and it is odd that Tesla does not have them. You could make the argument that people will find a way to circumvent the mechanisms no matter what they are, but I don't think that absolves Tesla of the responsibility to at least try a bit harder.

soared 5y ago

No.. Tesla is saving the planet by forcing market trends to accelerate very quickly. Prior to Tesla the only real electric car with market share was a Prius. Now every car manufacturer is fully bought in to electric, thanks to Tesla.

conception 5y ago
This is amazingly true if you look at someone like VW’s annual report in 2011 and 2012... and the the S was released and then look at 2013.
6gvONxR4sf7o 5y ago
> Prior to Tesla the only real electric car with market share was a Prius. Now every car manufacturer is fully bought in to electric You could say that about any first to market product. The first one who got serious market share must have caused everyone who followed, right? That's not the simplest explanation.

MPSimmons 5y ago

Say whatever you want about the effectiveness of autopilot and the self driving program, but you can't just hang 6 deaths on autopilot. People are stupid and do stupid things. The absolute worst thing I can rationally say about autopilot is that it requires good judgement from the general populace, and that's irrationally hopeful. In 2016, at least 7 people had died from car surfing [0] their non-self-driving cars. Of course people are going to die using autopilot, just like people are going to die not using autopilot. People are dumb, and I'm including myself in that, too. [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/12/the-dangerous-thrill-of-car-surfing-claims-its-7th-young-life-of-the-year/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/1...

Terretta 5y ago
The white frame of the screen above the sink in my kitchen window is marred by giant bold black lettering warning screens don’t prevent children from falling out so keep your window closed. I think about that when restarting my push lawn mower after I killed the engine by letting go of the safety cutoff handlebar to get a dangerous rock out of the way. Maybe its easier to just mow over the rock and hope it doesn’t get bashed my way. And when trying to tape up boxes using the new 3M packing tape dispensers that only extend the cutting teeth if you sufficiently mash the dispenser against the box at an awkward angle. You can unscrew that lever and Sugru or epoxy the mechanism in normal cutting position, or never ever discard your 3M dispenser from before someone sued them. What I think, though, is: This is why we can’t have nice things.
- brianwawok 5y ago
  But look at seatbelts. Low annoyance, saved many many lives. Some safety stuff is great. Some is annoying. How do you draw that line? Put a price per death at $1,000,000 and see if the change is worth it? Or if a human life is priceless, then we must always do all the safety changes.
enraged_camel 5y ago
I don't think it's quite as simple as blaming those who died for being stupid. Autopilot's capabilities are exaggerated by both Tesla and Musk to the point of being fraudulent. This leads many drivers to put too much faith and confidence in it. In addition, the mechanism to detect that the driver is paying attention is overly simplistic and easily bypassed. They don't even use weight-detection on the driver seat, despite the fact that the seats have the capability. Similarly, some of the other manufacturers have driver-facing cameras that further help ensure the seat is occupied. These are not complex mechanisms, and it is odd that Tesla does not have them. You could make the argument that people will find a way to circumvent the mechanisms no matter what they are, but I don't think that absolves Tesla of the responsibility to at least try a bit harder.