How many safety hazards does Tesla, which pursues speed, bury?

Produced | Tiger Sniff Technology Group Author | See you Head Picture | Visual China The female car owner’s rights defense incident at the Shanghai Auto Show pushed Tesla to the forefront. Yesterday afternoon, Tesla emailed the female owner’s data about the car in the accident, and announced the data 1 minute before the accident. However, according to the latest news from Elephant News, the female car owner was still in detention and could not receive outside news. Her husband, Mr. Li, believed that Tesla’s public data violated personal privacy. Tesla explained this one minute before the accident: “When the driver stepped on the brake pedal for the last time, the data showed that the vehicle speed was 118.5 kilometers per hour. Within 2.7 seconds after the driver stepped on the brake pedal, the maximum brake master cylinder pressure was only 45.9 bar. After that, the driver increased the stepping on the brake pedal, the brake master cylinder pressure reached 92.7bar, and then the forward collision warning and automatic emergency braking function was activated (the maximum brake master cylinder pressure reached 140.7bar) and played After the ABS was applied, the system recorded the occurrence of the collision. After the driver stepped on the brake pedal, the vehicle speed continued to decrease. Before the collision, the vehicle speed was reduced to 48.5 kilometers per hour.” Although Tesla claims that vehicle data is encrypted and stored and cannot be directly read, modified, or deleted. When product disputes arise, Tesla will provide true and complete vehicle data in accordance with the law, but there are still voices questioning the authenticity of the data. A brake technology expert told Hu Xiu, “This kind of Excel table data is easy to be tampered with.” “The data is meaningless, it is impossible to determine whether the data has been tampered with, and more information about Bosch brake systems needs to be disclosed.” Zhang Xiang, a member of the new energy and intelligent networked automobile industry expert think tank of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, believes that in general, data should be uploaded in real time The data that is hosted by a third party or government agency and then released from the third party’s server is more credible. According to relevant experts interviewed by China Daily, there are three possible reasons for Tesla’s “brake failure”: One is the poor interaction between the car pedal and the iBooster brake-by-wire system, or the vehicle control center makes a mistake in judging and sends wrong instructions to the brake system, causing the brake plate to lose control. The second is that the iBooster system may have a very small possible design flaw; the third is that Tesla’s AutoPilot system and the iBooster system may have a very small matching flaw. According to the experience of another Zhang Che who advocated Qi (a pseudonym), he had twice responded to software problems with the customer service and asked to check the background data, but the other party’s reply was: too much background data, one minute of data It takes a long time to watch. “It’s not that they can’t find the problem, but they don’t act. Every time, they tell me to come back next time if there is a problem.” In addition, Tesla also provided a set of vehicle conditions 30 minutes before the accident: “The driver drove the vehicle normally, with more than 40 records of depressing the brake pedal, and the vehicle exceeded 100 kilometers per hour several times. And the situation of multiple braking stops.” Generally, brakes will have “thermal decay” problems. If the owner frequently re-presses the brakes, the overheated braking force will be severely reduced. However, it cannot be directly inferred that the main cause of the accident was the improper operation of the car owner. What is the final result of this rights protection storm requires more investigations. Without accurate and true data, all speculations are just conjectures. Female car owners are not alone. Since Tesla entered China in 2014, it has encountered various complaints every year. The female car owner just brought to the spotlight in an unexpected way the defects of product quality and after-sales service that had been concealed by Tesla’s aura for many years. How high is Tesla’s failure rate? Data shows that the number of Tesla Model 3 failures is as high as 236. This means that on average, every new Model 3 will have 2.36 failures within 2-12 months. The calculation method of this value is: the number of failures in one hundred vehicles = the total number of failures in the corresponding car system ÷ the sum of all the people participating in the evaluation × 100, which represents the number of failures per one hundred vehicles in a new car within 2-12 months, including failures , Abnormal noise, inconvenience and other problems. Compared to Xiaopeng P7’s 180, ideal ONE’s 134, Weilai ES6’s 56, and BYD Han’s 55, Tesla’s 100-car failure rate is significantly higher than these competing products. After Zhang Qi got the new car Model 3 in June last year, she often encountered some problems-for example, a new car of 350,000 drove on the road, sometimes shaking like a domestic car of tens of thousands of dollars; driving to work in the summer morning, the car will A layer of water mist appeared because the car automatically adjusted the air conditioner to a very low level, and it lasted all night; while driving in winter, the air conditioner only blows cold wind; sometimes the ears of the car cannot be turned on. This is nothing. Zhang Qi called the customer service before driving for repairs. The other party told him that the ball joint (also called universal joint, a kind of ball connection to realize the power transmission of different shafts) Mechanical structure) also repair him. “I wasn’t grateful to him at the time, it just made me think, why didn’t I say it early and recall it early? I only said it when I came to repair it? This attitude is very irresponsible.” Zhang Qi thought she was a very stubborn person before. People are very good at defending their rights, but facing Tesla’s after-sales service, they have no temper at all. The new car started to have various problems in less than a month. Zhang Qi has gone to repair 4 times so far, and the air conditioner has been overhauled 3 times. The first two times, the Tesla maintenance staff told him that there was no problem. Until the third time, the car screen displayed: “Due to a system failure, the temperature holder is unavailable”, the maintenance staff took it seriously. After changing the hardware, the air conditioner can be used later. The automatic control is still inaccurate, “Blow cold air when hot air should be blown”. Zhang Qi’s first three maintenance settlement statements At the end of March this year, when Zhang Qi drove this Model 3 off the elevated road, she smelled a pungent burning smell of the car. He and his friend sitting in the passenger seat were in a cold sweat. They thought it was a battery problem and the car might explode. They quickly parked the car on the side of the road for ventilation and called Tesla maintenance personnel. Two hours later, the maintenance personnel arrived at the scene, pulled the car to the maintenance point, and gave a “no problem” inspection result. During the overhaul, Zhang Qi once went to the car to pick up things. He found that his usual car phone charging cable was scorched. He asked a friend who worked in a car company to find out that this might be due to unstable battery, unstable voltage, and hot. There is a problem with the control system, etc., but Tesla inspectors still said that the car is okay and did not explain clearly-what faults will cause the data line to be burnt? What faults can cause the car to smell burnt? Compared to the car owner who has had a serious traffic accident, Zhang Qi is relatively lucky, but he has not dared to drive a Tesla since then. According to incomplete statistics from the Beijing Intelligent Vehicle Industry Innovation Center, Since 2013, Tesla has had hundreds of traffic accidents worldwide, resulting in a total of 175 deaths. According to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla has had 200 traffic accidents caused by “out of control” in the United States. Loss of control mainly refers to sudden acceleration, deceleration, and brake failure or steering wheel failure. In China, more than 20 Tesla vehicle accidents have appeared in the news in the past year. Although the number of traffic accidents cannot infer the direct fatality rate of Tesla, it can at least reflect that Tesla does have some unforeseen safety hazards. As Tesla’s sales increase, users have a deep understanding of the problems that arise during the use of vehicles. From the number and reasons of the recalled vehicles, we can also see the quality defects of Tesla vehicles. Among the many domestic new energy vehicle brands, Tesla has the largest number of recalls in the first quarter of this year. According to the announcement issued by the State Administration of Quality Supervision and Administration, a total of 5 new energy vehicle companies need to recall a total of 83,800 vehicles. Including 36,100 Tesla Model S and Model X, accounting for 43.1%, as well as BAIC New Energy’s EX360 and EU400 pure electric vehicles totaling 32,000, and Xiaopeng G3 vehicles totaling 13,399. Tesla’s latest recall of vehicles is mainly to update the software and replace the visual computing module in the central display (including the 8GB eMMC multimedia memory card). The eMMC cards of Model S and Model X produced before March 2018 experienced cumulative wear and tear, It will cause the central control screen to continue to be black. The central control screen integrates the most basic controls of the vehicle, including temperature, navigation, prompt sounds, etc., and most of the functions of the assisted driving system also need to be displayed on the screen. Although eMMC failure will not directly cause danger to the vehicle’s driving performance (acceleration, braking or steering), the software version of the vehicle is running too early, and the eMMC fails, the reversing image will not be displayed, and the external turn signal will not be able to be displayed during subsequent driving. Lights up, and even the defogging and defrosting functions of the windshield cannot be used. With this product issue alone, Tesla was required by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the United States to recall more than 130,000 Model S and Model X vehicles. Earlier, the German Automobile Administration (KBA) had also requested Tesla to recall about 12,300 Model X vehicles because of the shedding of the molded structure of the car body. In China, in addition to the recall, the relevant regulatory authorities have also interviewed Tesla twice, once in March last year, because some of the Model 3 vehicles should be equipped with HW3.0 chips (Tesla self-developed self-driving chips) , But only used HW2.5; the second time was in February this year, mainly for problems such as abnormal acceleration, battery fire, and remote vehicle upgrades. Why does Tesla always have problems? “Tesla’s current situation is that there are obstacles in the front and chasing after. The market can’t wait for Tesla to hand over a perfect product. If it waits for him to find out all the hardware and software problems, not only the capital can’t wait, but the users Can’t wait, the company has already closed down.” Zhang Xiang said. Tesla has actually passed the stage of building a car (Roadster) and building a good car (Model S), and now Tesla needs to build more good cars (Model 3). In the first two stages, Tesla relied on extreme technological innovation and cost control to highlight the auto market that has been dominated by established automakers for many years and gain a small market share. But in order to gain a firm foothold in the market before the auto giants increase their investment in electrification and intelligence trends, Tesla must rely on selling more products to stabilize the basic market in order to survive. Tesla has been accelerating its expansion in the past two years, building more super factories to expand production capacity and entering more emerging markets. This kind of speeding expansion is obvious in China-8 months to complete the construction of the factory and the off-line of the white body; last year, more than 410 super charging stations and more than 4,000 super charging piles were built in the country; last year, the production capacity was 150,000 vehicles. To achieve 550,000, it has tripled. Shanghai Tesla Factory During the production ramp-up period, Musk is also very clear about the problems behind it. He once said frankly in an interview at the beginning of the year that consumers are not advised to buy vehicles that are in a state of ramping production. “Either buy them at the beginning or wait until the production stabilizes.” Because it is difficult to guarantee that when the output rises sharply, It can achieve perfect details. For example, during the speed-up production process, it takes an extra one to two minutes for the vehicle paint to dry, but in fact there is not enough time to dry the paint. Although this is only an example of non-core components, it can at least show that there are still many omissions in Tesla’s manufacturing process. In Musk’s own words: “Yes, our production is like hell.” In the “Tesla China Chaos Revealed” released by Pinwan, it was mentioned that in order to complete the production, unqualified parts and components were installed on new cars; in order to make these products leave the factory, the solution was very simple and rude– Lower the factory standard. This kind of chaos in the production process is actually because Tesla pursues too much speed, and does not have the time and energy to confirm whether every detail is in place, and to carefully examine the possible omissions and omissions in the vehicle production process. Another point that causes product quality problems is cost control. Musk’s way of doing things is to achieve the best results at a very low cost. Zeng Yuqun, chairman of the Ningde Times, once complained, “Musk has been talking about cost issues all day, and I told him that I will definitely have a solution.” In addition to finding lower-priced suppliers, Tesla’s cost-saving method is actually to reduce unnecessary parts and reduce the cost of core components through system design and independent research and development. According to the dismantling of a Model 3 by the Zhihu Disassembly Laboratory, Tesla has done a lot of “cut corners” to reduce costs. “Switching from Model 3 to a minimalist interior to integrate the lights, rearview mirrors, and entertainment systems into the central touch screen, Tesla’s material cost is 1,000-2,000 yuan less than the competition. Take the 12.3-inch instrument as a For example, if the controller is included, the cost of this component is more than 1,000 yuan. Although the cost of the central control is saved, it increases the user’s interaction cost and sacrifices a certain degree of safety. …… The other is the highly integrated electrical architecture. Model 3 and Model Y divide the left, front, and right body controllers and the central computing unit by location. Although the unit cost of the controller has risen, the overall cost has dropped a lot due to the reduction in quantity. It is estimated that The saved material cost is equivalent to the latest smart phone. ” Tesla’s independent research and development of core technologies, such as chips, autopilot systems and other products, can reduce the occurrence of “stuck necks”, and the cost can also be greatly reduced, but the risks are also increased because of the products or technical routes independently developed by Tesla. Both require a certain amount of time for market verification. A typical example is that Tesla’s driverless technology mainly adopts the visual recognition route, which is to install a large number of cameras and sensors on the car to form a perception layer to identify and distinguish the environment around the car. Another technical route is the lidar route. For example, Xiaopeng, Weilai, Huawei, Uber and Baidu Apollo all choose to use lidar. The reason Tesla chose to take a different path is that it is too expensive. A set of lidar requires an additional nearly 50,000 yuan. Musk once bombarded lidar: “Stupid X only uses lidar!” Although lidar is more expensive, As long as the object exists, it can be detected without being affected by weather, light, etc. Truss once exposed the “ghost phenomenon”. For example, when a car drives to an unmanned cemetery, he perceives a lot of pedestrians around him; there is no car in the front and back, but it senses that there is a car. These are actually algorithmic flaws and cannot be quickly reacted in a special environment. For Tesla, it will take a long time to ensure that the error rate of the entire system is negligible. Write at the end The turmoil that Tesla is facing today is actually the sharp feedback from the market on the quality of its products and services. Tesla needs to divide responsibility and set standards for serious accidents. Regarding the rights protection of female car owners, although Tesla’s current attitude is to fully cooperate with third-party inspections. But Zhang Xiang said, “ At present, there is no third-party organization in the world that can clearly analyze the traffic accidents of smart cars. . Smart cars include a perception layer, a decision-making layer, and an execution layer. At present, third-party inspection agencies can only detect fuel vehicles. For the perception layer and decision-making layer, you need to get the schematics and software codes, and then get them one by one. Analysis, the workload behind this is huge. ” Exploring the truth and investigating responsibility is one direction, and the other direction is that we should think about why there is almost no third-party organization that can analyze the causes of traffic accidents in smart cars clearly? Why is the judgment standard for traffic accidents in smart cars still stuck in the era of diesel engines? When thinking about these issues, some people in the industry also gave concrete feasible solutions. The CEO of Ideal Motors wrote on Weibo that regarding ADAS and brake failure issues, government regulatory agencies can put forward the following regulatory requirements: 1. Vehicles with ADAS must be equipped with a driving recorder as standard; 2. When recording, the screen must display whether ADAS is running or not; 3. In addition to the display of the ADAS operating status, the corresponding basic working status of the accelerator, brake, and steering under the ADAS status should also be displayed. Human driving also displays the working status of these. He believes that this solution is not technically difficult, but it can provide relatively important evidence to reduce the difficulty for car owners to obtain evidence and the probability that manufacturers feel wronged. “If the car factory cheats here, it will directly stop the qualification for production and sales.” Do you have any constructive opinions behind the female car owners’ rights defense incident? Welcome to discuss~