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Tesla puts a ‘dummy’ camera in its new vehicles
- anonkogudhyfhhf 4y agoI'm guessing so newer parts can still be used as repair parts for older vehicles
- blakesterz 4y agoMy vehicle has a couple "dummy" things on the inside as well. Places for plugs and switches and things that are only on other models. Maybe it's something like that? It'll be an upgrade option or on a different model? It's probably much cheaper to make the housing thing to be used in a wider range of models.
- dmonitor 4y ago“tesla reuses old plastic molds for new car models” is a much less interesting title, though.
- daveguy 4y agoExcept it's not just the mold. They put a fake realistic camera in where the placeholder is. If it was to "fill space in a generic mold" they could have used a plastic cover. Instead they chose a realistic looking mock camera. I wonder why.
- tomatotomato37 4y agoIf they also manufacture the enclosure for the camera electronics in-house then it may still be cheaper to produce more of them than it would be to spin up separate manufacturing for a filler piece
- practice9 4y ago> instead they chose a realistic looking mock camera. I wonder why. For it to look better? Not everything has to be a generic plastic cover.
- strifey 4y agoThose are typically just simple pieces of plastic to fill a hole. There is clearly no function to them. What seems weird is they went through the effort of installing a nonfunctional yet functional-looking piece.
- xeromal 4y agoCars do that pretty often. EVs for instance often have fake grilles for no reason.
- electric_mayhem 4y agoMy guess would be so that eagle-eyed ocd tesla owners don’t freak out over seeming to have fewer cameras in their car than their buddy’s previous model year version. I’m certain there’s be posts complaining about being short a camera without any understanding of hw4 being better despite having a smaller quantity of cameras.
- xeromal 4y agoI bet this is at least part of the reason if not all.
- Alupis 4y agoIt's still incredibly bizarre to go through the effort of manufacturing a real-looking fake camera instead of using an industry-standard feature-delete panel like the entire rest of the automotive industry. The fake camera feels like it's trying to mislead people.
- xeromal 4y agoIt could be but misleading has a few levels. One is misleading that it has a feature that it doesn't (like 100 HP vs 500 HP) and the other is putting something there that a person expects even though it's no longer necessary (like the close door button in an eleveator)
- moffkalast 4y agoWhen a car costs nearly $100k it better come with all the fucking upgrade options installed.
- IncRnd 4y agoAlas. That is never the case.
- kylehotchkiss 4y agoIt’s also a safe space for aftermarket accessories, say you add a bigger alternator and inverter and it gives you a spot for a switch. Or you add fog lights. Or some NOS.
- Alex3917 4y agoEveryone knows that a ship with four smokestacks can't sink, so obviously a car with three cameras isn't going to crash.
- unxdfa 4y agoSure feels like Tesla owners are being experimented on to some degree...
- lagt_t 4y agoThat beta feeling
- Hippocrates 4y agoKnowing the Tesla owner community quite well, I suspect Tesla was hoping nobody would find out it’s a dummy and complain that the newer cars are inferior to the older ones (like they did with the radar and ultrasonic sensors)
- giobox 4y agoKnowing how car parts work quite well, I suspect nobody wanted to pay the large costs in retooling the mount and heated window they already manufacture in the millions of units. This kinda thing happens all the time. The best/worst example I've seen recently is the Jaguar V6 which is still inside a V8 engine block, so the company could use same mounting parts etc: > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmcXCwW5U3M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmcXCwW5U3M
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- bdcravens 4y agoWouldn't they just put in a plastic cover like every other manufacturer that has holes and ports not used by every model?
- giobox 4y agoThe fake camera effectively is a blanking plate/cover - without the fake camera, there would be a visible hole in the mount at the top of the windscreen.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- ilrwbwrkhv 4y agoThe cars are steadily getting worse though. The first model s which I still have was fantastic. Since then I have moved over to the taycan.
- falcolas 4y agoFeels a lot like the “two motors for steering” issue where they’re omitting one motor for cost, leaving the car unable to be fully self driving until it’s replaced. I cant think of many other reasons they would reduce coverage and redundancy for a sensor critical to their obstacle detection system.
- ianzakalwe 4y agoChanges that Tesla made to the newest vehicles are very clearly cost cutting measures. Looking at how economy is doing, it's not a bad adaptation strategy.
- diebeforei485 4y agoIs this so there is an extra camera for oncoming traffic?
- evolvevia 4y agoIs it possible that removing a camera from the front of a car is a big enough change that it would require the car to go though crash testing again - in multiple countries? Might be cheaper to use a dummy camera until the Model S/X is fully redesigned and has to be retested.