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0 pointsstandyro6y ago0 comments

For a bunch of "tech visionaries" that Hacker News is supposed to embody, this thread is full of such shortsightedness. I self-drove from Southern California to Phoenix, Arizona, so I guess that's like 1/10th of the way. I couldn't have imagined that ten years ago. Part of the job of being a CEO is to sell the dream, even if it's years or decades away.

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5 comments · 3 top-level

javagram6y ago· 1 in thread

Elon’s predictions have been wildly out of touch with reality when it comes to self-driving.

In Jan 2016: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/686279251293777920

“In ~2 years, summon should work anywhere connected by land & not blocked by borders, eg you're in LA and the car is in NY”

Four years later, summon works in parking lots at 2-3 mph, while a person is supposed to be monitoring and watching the car the entire time and holding a button to keep it moving.

FireBeyond6y ago

Whilst either "being distracted by a fussy child" (if you listen to their marketing copy), or "paying full attention to the vehicle" (if you listen to their legal disclaimers).

FireBeyond6y ago· 1 in thread

Highway driving in SoCal on nicely maintained highways in the summer is the easy part of self-driving. Winter driving on local roads in Pittsburgh is the less easy.

> Part of the job of being a CEO is to sell the dream, even if it's years or decades away.

He literally said you would be able to do it _this year_. That's after he said you would be able to do it in 2018. And that's after he said you'd be able to do it in 2016. And all the while charging thousands of dollars for the promise of it "coming".

standyroOP6y ago

You're right. SoCal summer roads are definitely the easy part. I bought a Comma Eon for a few hundred dollars and it does most of what Tesla's Extended Autopilot does. It's a solved problem, that's relatively inexpensive.

However, if people are willing to pay Tesla $7k for the promise of a "coming" full self driving product that doesn't exist yet, I don't really feel bad for them. It's kind of Tesla's business strategy at this point. I don't think they're acting in bad faith to their customers, because they have a track record of (eventually) delivering great products, but their leadership is unreasonably optimistic. I worry for the future of the company. Whether Musk's isn't living up to his fiduciary responsibilities to investors, I have a lot of issues with... that's a whole separate topic.

rootusrootus6y ago

I use autopilot between Seattle and Portland regularly. It requires intervention a half dozen times or so, each way. Sometimes my wife makes me switch back to TACC-only, because she finds the interventions unnerving.

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