Electric Vehicles: Tesla specific talk, current firmware, purchasing, modifications

[Eric]

Pluralistic: Tesla’s Dieselgate (28 July 2023) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow

pluralistic.net

Plus:



If you buy a Tesla at this point, it’s all on you.

At this point it's nice to see all the other manufacturers jumping on the EV bandwagon, all it took was the free market to make it viable. I think this could've come a lot sooner had it not been for the opposition but that's another story.

My next car will have Apple Play and be an EV, so no more Tesla's for me, either.

 

[Citysnaps]

At this point it's nice to see all the other manufacturers jumping on the EV bandwagon, all it took was the free market to make it viable. I think this could've come a lot sooner had it not been for the opposition but that's another story.

My next car will have Apple Play and be an EV, so no more Tesla's for me, either.

I'm still in the market for an EV. It's looking like I'll make a decision early next year.

As an aside, my wife recently purchased a 2023 Toyota Venza hybrid. It's an outstanding car with astonishingly excellent suite of tech and features.

My dilemma is I really need a truck - I currently have a 1999 Ford F-150 Flareside and a 2012 Toyota Highlander.

Don't want a Rivian, Tesla, or Ford Lightning. Today I don't need a truck the size of my F-150. Toyota recently announced a totally redesigned Tacoma truck, offered in five different versions, including hybrid - available at the end of the year. It's the right size for my needs today (being able to carry a couple sheets of plywood, bikes, etc). So...if the Tacoma hybrid turns out to be as good as the early (and currently incomplete) reviews, with even better tech than my wife's Venza (which is expected), I might go that way. A rumor suggests they might have an EV version.

 

[Eric]

I'm still in the market for an EV. It's looking like I'll make a decision early next year.

As an aside, my wife recently purchased a 2023 Toyota Venza hybrid. It's an outstanding car with astonishingly excellent suite of tech and features.

My dilemma is I really need a truck - I currently have a 1999 Ford F-150 Flareside and a 2012 Toyota Highlander.

Don't want a Rivian, Tesla, or Ford Lightning. Today I don't need a truck the size of my F-150. Toyota recently announced a totally redesigned Tacoma truck, offered in five different versions, including hybrid - available at the end of the year. It's the right size for my needs today (being able to carry a couple sheets of plywood, bikes, etc). So...if the Tacoma hybrid turns out to be as good as the early (and currently incomplete) reviews, with even better tech than my wife's Venza (which is expected), I might go that way. A rumor suggests they might have an EV version.

So do you think the Lightning is just too big? I've been sort of drawn to this one.

 

[Citysnaps]

So do you think the Lightning is just too big? I've been sort of drawn to this one.

I think it's about being too big for my needs. If I was a building trades contractor, or needing to tow a trailer, or had a ranch, or... That would probably be different.

My F-150 is a nice truck, but my priorities are different today than they were 24 years ago. The Lightning also seems a little pricey (despite the recent $10K cuts), especially if you want the extended range battery. However... I haven't looked too deeply into the Lightning (yet), so there are likely some attributes that would put it into the plus column. But yeah, I really don't want a large truck.

Being super impressed with my wife's Venza's tech, that would be a baseline decision driver for my next vehicle. It would need to be at least as good as that. I know the upcoming redesigned Tacoma's tech will be even more advanced being the next version.

It's funny that something as ancillary as that all of a sudden becomes an important driver in a purchase decision.

 

[Citysnaps]

So do you think the Lightning is just too big? I've been sort of drawn to this one.

Also, after thinking about it a bit regarding an F-150 being "too big."... When I bought and special ordered my '99 F-150 back then, I really didn't need that much truck. I just wanted to experience having a largish truck. And have no regrets at all looking back. It helped a lot making numerous dump runs over the years, picking up lumber and plywood for various projects, loading it up with soil/mulch/gravel for landscaping, moving between homes, helping others, etc. I'm sure you'd find similar uses.

IMO, Ford makes the best trucks. I have no knowledge regarding their EV Lightning, though. No doubt you can research that out. If after doing that, and you're still jazzed about the Lightning, I say go for it!

It's a shame Ford doesn't have an EV F-650! Now that's a large truck.

 

[Eric]

Right, it may really be too big for me too but I like the idea of having a truck for all of my outings. I think it'll really come down to range and affordability more so than size.

 

[Eric]

 

[diamond.g]

My FSD FW trip has been interesting so far.

 

[Eric]

It looks like the bastard child of 1980s Robocop. I don't care what anyone thinks about Musk, that thing is the fugliest rig I've ever seen.

Some Tesla engineers secretly started designing a Cybertruck alternative because they 'hated' it - Autoblog

"They were like, 'You can't be serious.' They didn't want to have anything to do with it," Franz von Holzhausen said, according to Walter Isaacson.

www.autoblog.com

Some Tesla engineers secretly started designing a Cybertruck alternative because they 'hated' it​

 

[Cmaier]

It looks like the bastard child of 1980s Robocop. I don't care what anyone thinks about Musk, that thing is the fugliest rig I've ever seen.

Some Tesla engineers secretly started designing a Cybertruck alternative because they 'hated' it - Autoblog

"They were like, 'You can't be serious.' They didn't want to have anything to do with it," Franz von Holzhausen said, according to Walter Isaacson.

www.autoblog.com

Some Tesla engineers secretly started designing a Cybertruck alternative because they 'hated' it​

I was down in Newport Beach and walking around a mall and decided to hassle a tesla salesman. He was stoked about how nice the cybertruck looked. I told him that it must be something in the Orange County fascist air, because up in Silicon Valley the cybertruck is the subject of ridicule and scorn.

 

[Eric]

The actual inventors of the Tesla, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk is their Thomas Edison.

 

[Eric]

Regardless of my person feelings on Musk, this thing is the ugliest turd ever made.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/tesla-cybertruck-deliveries-begin-november-elon-musk/

Elon Musk: "We Dug Our Own Grave With Tesla Cybertruck," Which Finally Arrives in November​

Tesla CEO also says Cybertrucks will trickle out until 2025, and admits that making this truck is hard.​

 

[Cmaier]

Regardless of my person feelings on Musk, this thing is the ugliest turd ever made.

https://www.motortrend.com/news/tesla-cybertruck-deliveries-begin-november-elon-musk/

Elon Musk: "We Dug Our Own Grave With Tesla Cybertruck," Which Finally Arrives in November​

Tesla CEO also says Cybertrucks will trickle out until 2025, and admits that making this truck is hard.​

These things are all over the place in Palo Alto. Mostly with big “RC” stickers on the sides (which i assume means “release candidate”). They are as ugly in-person as you would expect. They also seem very impractical-looking. This is all particularly striking considering there are also Rivians all over the place here, and the Rivians look so much nicer and better-built.

 

[Eric]

These things are all over the place in Palo Alto. Mostly with big “RC” stickers on the sides (which i assume means “release candidate”). They are as ugly in-person as you would expect. They also seem very impractical-looking. This is all particularly striking considering there are also Rivians all over the place here, and the Rivians look so much nicer and better-built.

Yeah they're whoring that RC all over the place and there were so many "spotted" threads in the sub on Reddit that I left it. It's hard to say whether or not people will buy into it but I agree, it seems terribly impractical for a "truck" and none of his MAGA supporters are going to touch it either. It seriously looks like some sort of reimagined 80s 16 bit tech brought back to life.

 

[Citysnaps]

No way I'd buy that truck, or even be seen in one.

Throw in a Phased Plasma Rifle, in the 40 watt range, and I'd consider it.

 

[Herdfan]

This is all particularly striking considering there are also Rivians all over the place here, and the Rivians look so much nicer and better-built.

Maybe it's just me, but the Rivian looks like it was designed by an after-market spoiler manufacturer. Yeah, it looks OK, but the design is just missing something.

Tesla on the other hand produced a car right off the bat that looked as good as any car coming out of NA, Europe or Japan.

 

[Eric]

Maybe it's just me, but the Rivian looks like it was designed by an after-market spoiler manufacturer. Yeah, it looks OK, but the design is just missing something.

Right, I think it's hard to beat a standard and modern looking truck from Ford, Chevy or RAM TBH. This is why my main interest has been in the Ford F150 Lightning, if I were to go that way.

Tesla on the other hand produced a car right off the bat that looked as good as any car coming out of NA, Europe or Japan.

Agreed, the car looked very modern and didn't break from a standard design. I think this truck is what happens when Musk thinks for himself and doesn't listen to any of his designers.

 

[Citysnaps]

It would look great as a Mattel Hot Wheels toy.

 

[Eric]

 

[Eric]

Wait, so you can't lie about battery range then? What's this country coming to. BTW this has impacted me directly, I now know I cannot make the range the car says and have to plan for less.

Tesla warns that a federal probe into whether it exaggerated the range of its cars may lead to a 'material adverse impact on our business'

Earlier this year, Reuters reported that Tesla had created a special “diversions team” to avoid dealing with complaints from customers about their vehicle ranges.

fortune.com

Tesla warns that a federal probe into whether it exaggerated the range of its cars may lead to a ‘material adverse impact on our business’​