One of my phlebotomists at the hospital showed me this headline and story on her phone today. She drives a Prius too and said she’s waiting on a new GM line of EVs from Chevy she is seeing as “coming” in brochures. I think she’ll be waiting another year, as Mary Berra is running up against scaling problems at $GM:
SAN FRANCISCO — Long before he became “Chief Twit” of Twitter, Elon Musk had a different obsession: making Teslas drive themselves. The technology was expensive and, two years ago when the supply chain was falling apart, Musk became determined to bring down the cost.
He zeroed in on a target: the car radar sensors, which are designed to detect hazards at long ranges and prevent the vehicles from barreling into other cars in traffic. The sleek bodies of the cars already bristled with eight cameras designed to view the road and spot hazards in each direction. That, Musk argued, should be enough.
Some Tesla engineers were aghast, said former employees with knowledge of his reaction, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. They contacted a trusted former executive for advice on how to talk Musk out of it, in previously unreported pushback. Without radar, Teslas would be susceptible to basic perception errors if the cameras were obscured by raindrops or even bright sunlight, problems that could lead to crashes.
From today’s news:
A Tesla seen smashed into a brick wall has left many questioning whether the high-tech car’s parking sensors or anti-collision mechanisms were working when the embarrassing incident happened.
The car was photographed on top of the wall outside a Narwee newsagent, in Sydney’s west, over the weekend, leaving bystanders in stitches.
The car appeared to have completely mounted the curb before smashing into the red brick wall, partially destroying a garden and leaving parts from its undercarriage on the street behind it.