Teslas – Spress https://en.spress.net Spress is a general newspaper in English which is updated 24 hours a day. Thu, 24 Jun 2021 12:00:07 +0000 en-US hourly 1 191965906 [In a word]Hand in hand with Microsoft, surrendered to Puri, and missed Takata, but now he has become Tesla’s “little brother”? https://en.spress.net/in-a-wordhand-in-hand-with-microsoft-surrendered-to-puri-and-missed-takata-but-now-he-has-become-teslas-little-brother/ Thu, 24 Jun 2021 12:00:07 +0000 https://en.spress.net/in-a-wordhand-in-hand-with-microsoft-surrendered-to-puri-and-missed-takata-but-now-he-has-become-teslas-little-brother/ Preface China’s auto parts companies, when can they see the sun? The gap between China’s auto parts and Europe and the United States, if the technical distinction is difficult to judge, it is sad to see from the attitude of the downstream car companies. If you are purchasing parts from a leading German company (such as Bosch), most car companies will proudly display them and even hug their thighs, but if they are purchasing parts from China, their attitude is 180. The ten-degree turn will not only not be announced on its own initiative, but it also restricts the other party from publishing the cooperation relationship with the car company. If it breaches the contract, it will be fined. Recently, Joyson Electronics was shot. 01 Warned for holding Tesla’s thigh, or face a fine of hundreds of millions Joyson Electronics received a formal warning from Tesla on the grounds that Joyson Electronics’ previous publicity mentioned its business relationship with Tesla-providing Tesla with pedestrian safety protection devices. The previous two supplier contracts included “It is forbidden to mention the business relationship with Tesla on any occasion.” Tesla may use legal means to retrospectively win the penalty for breach of contract, and the fine may reach hundreds of millions of dollars. Joyson Electronics did not shut up. It was called “untrustworthy and not worthy of sympathy” by netizens. Joyson Electronics’ motive was obvious. It wanted to hug Tesla’s thigh and then hinted at how awesome the external parts are. You see that Tesla has purchased it to impress other car companies and increase potential customers. Unexpectedly, it drew a severe warning from Tesla. But if you think about it carefully, this is really a bit of a “overlord clause”. The cooperation between the two parties was originally equal, voluntary, fair, and not a special trade secret. To put it bluntly, Tesla considers itself a star company, Joyson Electronics Not influential, but cost-effective. In order to reduce the cost of making cars, Joyson Electronics was chosen, but it was unwilling to let the outside world know. This is like when Hyundai Motor revealed its contract processing cooperation plan with Apple before, and was forced by Apple to quickly delete the official announcement of the relevant cooperation. Apple considers itself an ace company, and is afraid that Hyundai Motor will lower its value, but it can’t find a partner it likes, so it is unwilling to announce it. In fact, the “friendship” between Joyson Electronics and Tesla has been established very early. As early as April 2015, Joyson Electronics issued an announcement stating that Joyson’s subsidiary, Preh, Germany, had obtained a purchase order for Tesla’s new energy vehicle battery management system sensors and related components. In 2019, Joyson Safety, a subsidiary of Joyson Electronics, set up a new safety product factory in Lingang, Shanghai, supporting all Tesla models. In 2020, Joyson Electronics began to provide passive safety products such as steering wheels and airbags for the domestic Tesla Model 3 and Model Y. According to calculations by Joyson Electronics, the new order amount for this project is 1.5 billion yuan, and the life cycle is about 3 to 5 years. The supply will start in 2020. At present, the total order value of Tesla-related products is 7.5 billion yuan. Along the way, it is clear that Truss recognizes Joyson Electronics’ technology, but it hides the cooperative relationship between the two and does not want to let the outside world know about it. In essence, Tesla’s right to speak is greater than Joyson Electronics, because Tesla has a lot of room to choose. Joyson’s products can also be provided by other companies. To put it bluntly, Joyson Electronics is insignificant in Tesla’s eyes. character of. Analyze the internal structure of Tesla: Powertrain system, including lithium battery pack, battery management system, thermal management, DC converter, etc.; Central control system, including system assembly, vision, central control screen, instrument, map, communication operator, automatic driving system, air conditioning system, inverter, etc.; Electric drive system, including motors, motor drive modules, etc.; Charging system, including charging piles, charging cables, etc.; Chassis, including electric power steering, braking system, suspension system, tire pressure monitoring, etc.; Body, including body structure, doors, airbags, steering wheel, shock absorption, seat belts, etc. Exterior decoration, including exterior parts, bumpers, front and rear lights, etc.; All in all, there are thousands of suppliers of parts and components companies involved. It’s normal for Truth not to take these little soldier crabs seriously, because it is highly substitutable and there is no uniqueness. Although objectively, these unknown people did participate in Tesla. 02 From the low-threshold Pan Jixing stalls to make friends with Mou He Looking back at Joyson Electronics’ past and present life, this company was founded in 2004, the founder is Wang Jianfeng, located in Zhejiang, a typical family business, the early manufacturing of plastic air intake pipes, air-conditioning outlets and other products, the typical low Threshold Pan Nii Xing Dan Liao ChenoJi Sugar Ye Xing The cost of this kind of functional parts is almost no need for research and development. Even if the cost is invested in research and development, it is easy to be imitated by copycats and difficult to enlarge. The sudden financial crisis in 2008 scarred Europe, and many German auto parts companies were turbulent and even on the verge of bankruptcy. In 2009, a Sino-German joint venture parts company, Shanghai Huade Plastics Products, was sold at a low price. Joyson’s insightful eyes and beadings, income in the bag, doubled its assets, changed its head and became one of the largest auto parts companies in the industry. One. In 2010, Joyson went public through a backdoor listing and embarked on an M&A journey. In 2011, Joyson acquired German Preh, an established auto parts company. Preh not only opened up the market for Joyson, but also provided technical resources. In terms of market, Preh’s main customers are BMW, Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce and other European luxury car brands. Joyson has obtained a channel to enter Europe’s top brands with Preh. In terms of technology, Joyson has lingered on automotive plastic parts for too long. It has low gross profit and is easy to imitate. If you don’t jump out of this quagmire, you will never be able to do so much. Preh’s automotive electronics obviously has a higher technical threshold, and it has In the unmanned era, the prospects are much broader. In February 2016, Joyson Electronics acquired TS, a German car navigation technology company; Acquired EVANA, an American industrial robot manufacturing company, in May; In June, Joyson Electronics completed the acquisition of KSS, a US supplier of active and passive safety technology. In November 2017, Joyson’s subsidiary KSS announced the acquisition of Japan’s Takata; that month, Joyson Electronics’ subsidiary, Preh, Germany, acquired ePower, a power electronic system company under the Norwegian Kongsberg Group, which was aimed at the layout of its battery management system. . In addition to the merger, it also cooperated with Microsoft to help the field of Internet of Vehicles. As one of the global technology giants, compared with companies such as Google and Apple, Microsoft’s layout in the automotive field has not been clear, but its global influence, universality and emphasis on safety, does not have to be a bigwig. Say more. The cooperation between Joyson and Microsoft is a match made in heaven. In Microsoft’s contribution to the global transformation and upgrading of Joyson Electronics, one of the most important functions is to unify Joyson Electronics’ global IT architecture and business contracts under the same framework through Microsoft’s technical means to achieve cost savings and unification of architecture. ,power enhanced. In addition, Microsoft has also made up for Joyson’s shortcomings in the Internet of Vehicles (smart cockpit, autonomous driving assistance, etc.). The office in car jointly created by the two has shown its muscles at the Frankfurt Motor Show, providing services such as office work and conference calls. Landing in intelligent driving. Microsoft itself also has a vertical team in the global automotive industry, and its technical capabilities should not be underestimated. Joyson Electronics, through its cooperation with Microsoft, is able to feed back its own shortcomings in the field of Internet of Vehicles. At present, Joyson has 40 R&D centers and nearly 80 production bases in 30 countries around the world. Its main business covers four major sectors-automotive safety, automotive electronics, automotive functional parts, and smart car linkage. Through a series of outbound mergers and acquisitions and integration of German Preh, U.S. Baileys, and Japan’s Takata assets, as well as a marriage with IT giant Microsoft, is Joyson’s waist straight now? not at all. In front of Tesla, Joyson is still the role of the younger brother. This is not because of the logic of “customers are God”. It is also the superior supplier of car companies. The Ningde era and Huawei are very emboldened. On the contrary, they are car companies. The object vying to hold the thigh. In fact, the relationship between the whole vehicle and its parts is really subtle. In the way of survival, although the two are in a relationship, no one can do without each other, but the right to speak can only be biased towards one side. Concluding remarks The right to speak is the supreme business card of an enterprise. Author Hui Ze Li Author | Huize Lee Edit | lala

]]> 27241 From the darkest to the brightest, Tesla’s “behind the scenes” and “behind the scenes” https://en.spress.net/from-the-darkest-to-the-brightest-teslas-behind-the-scenes-and-behind-the-scenes/ Thu, 24 Jun 2021 06:10:15 +0000 https://en.spress.net/from-the-darkest-to-the-brightest-teslas-behind-the-scenes-and-behind-the-scenes/ Author / Luo Jing Edit / seal into On the one hand, it is surrounded by negative news, and on the other hand, Model Y’s sales are skyrocketing. Catfish Tesla’s every move always attracts the attention of the public. As a staunch supporter of renewable energy, Musk has spared no effort to promote electric vehicles to the public. But long before Tesla was born, there were electric cars in the automotive industry. In the 1920s, in economically developed cities such as New York in the United States, London in the United Kingdom, and Paris in France, more electric vehicles were driven on the streets than fuel vehicles. At that time, these vehicles used lead-acid batteries. But it was not until the advent of the internal combustion engine reversed the competition between fuel vehicles and electric vehicles, and the assembly line invented by Henry Ford made mass production possible. When one assembly line can produce 1 million cars, a car that originally cost $4,700 will drop to $380. Even ordinary blue-collar workers can afford a car. In 10 years, almost all electric cars on the street disappeared. History is always surprisingly similar. 100 years later, what happened to fuel vehicles is re-interpreted in electric vehicles, but the footnotes have undergone earth-shaking changes. Lithium-ion batteries, autonomous driving, on-board sensors, OTA…a series of new technologies are changing the definition of cars, and Tesla is undoubtedly the initiator and leader of this change. The Tesla model scares traditional car companies. The CEO of Volkswagen Group, the traditional car company, has publicly admitted that Tesla is leading the way in the field of autonomous driving software. Volkswagen needs to catch up. After all, no one wants to be the next Nokia. To this end, the world’s largest traditional car company has established a “Digital Car&Service” department, determined to become a software-driven company to meet the challenges of software-defined cars. And without the burden of fuel vehicles, Tesla has been in the electric vehicle industry since its inception in 2003, constantly pursuing mass production and reducing prices, and has developed a business model that is different from traditional car companies. With these two, Tesla can let more people buy cars, and the more users can buy cars, Tesla can use a large amount of user data to help optimize and iterate back-end autonomous driving algorithms and software Service, thus forming a positive feedback. Tesla is relying on sales, price, and technology to form a solid “iron triangle” to help Tesla, which is taking the route of pure visual algorithms, build a high wall that latecomers cannot overcome. 01 Price reduction is king Tesla loves to cut prices, it is obvious to all. The domestically produced M3 has been priced at 355,800 yuan since its release in May 2019, and has dropped 5 times in less than two years. Currently, on Tesla’s official website, the price of the lithium iron phosphate version of M3 + standard battery life + subsidies is 249,900 yuan, a decrease. Nearly 1/3 of the original. Another model, Model Y, also cut prices. At the beginning of the year, Tesla announced that the price of MY is about 150,000 lower than the imported version. Recently, it has been reported that Tesla will launch the Model Y equipped with lithium iron phosphate in July this year, and the price of Model Y is likely to fall further by then. Explore. Frequent price cuts have also made Tesla a frequent visitor to the headlines. The latter likes to call Tesla’s price cuts again and again as “cutting leeks.” But the actual situation is far from the conjecture of these media. Because since the day Musk took over Tesla, mass production and price reductions have been carved into Tesla’s bones. For the time being, back to 2006, Tesla, which has just completed its Series A financing, launched its first electric car, the Roadster, at the Santa Clara Auto Show in California. This is a niche and expensive two-seater roadster. At that time, Tesla’s weak financial resources made the company’s efforts to create two Roadster concept cars, one red and one black. As the only electric supercar in the audience, Roadster also lived up to expectations. , Attracted the attention of a large number of media and celebrities. At the press conference, Tesla announced that each Roadster car is priced at $90,000, and it can last 250 miles on a single charge. On the same day, 30 people promised to buy Roadster cars on the spot, including Google co-founders Brin and Pei. Odd, there are many billionaires in the field of science and technology. But man-made electric cars for the rich are only the first step of Tesla’s ambitions. Musk really wants to popularize clean energy and build an electric car that the public can afford. Only one month after the auto show, Musk proposed Tesla’s development roadmap “Master Plan”: 1. Build a sports car (Roadster); 2. Use the money earned to build a cheaper car (Model S/X); 3. Use the money earned to build a cheaper and best-selling model (Model 3); 4. While achieving the above, it also provides zero-emission power generation options. Automobiles are a typical technology and capital intensive industry, and countless start-ups have become cannon fodder. The fledgling Tesla is difficult to compare with traditional car companies in terms of manufacturing technology, supply chain management, and corporate branding. In addition, at that time, the entire electric vehicle industry chain was immature, the industrial supporting facilities were not perfect, and the battery cost was also high (10 times the current price). To be a popular and cheaper electric vehicle, both economically and practically It is very difficult to land in terms of operability. That being the case, it’s better to launch high-end electric sports cars for high-income groups from the very beginning, subverting people’s perception of electric vehicles with short cruising range and poor performance; when the time is right, they can reduce costs, mass produce, and promote cleanliness. Energy and other strategies. But even so, Roadster still encountered mass production problems, and the production cost exceeded the expectations of the Tesla team. Due to the lack of economies of scale in supply chain procurement, Roadster’s production costs have risen from an estimated US$65,000 to more than US$100,000, while Roadster’s price is only 90,000. In other words, every time a car is sold, Tesla will have to reverse the price. Ten thousand U.S. dollars. The heavy cost pressure put Tesla on the verge of a desperate cash flow break. The leaks happened in the night. In 2008, the global financial crisis broke out. Another Musk company, Space X, also failed to launch rockets one after another, unable to support Tesla. This electric car upstart unknowingly came to the brink of bankruptcy. Unexpectedly, the helping hand came from Tesla’s rival, the German auto giant-Daimler Group. In 2009, Musk received 50 million dollars from Daimler to renew his blood. At that time, Daimler Group was looking for a power battery provider for its Smart electric version. Musk heard that he directly bought a Smart and converted it into an electric version, and invited Daimler engineers to test drive. The electric car was amazed. After the contract was concluded, another US$50 million was invested in exchange for a 10% stake in Tesla. But this amount of money is really a drop in the bucket for Tesla, a “black hole”. At that time, Tesla’s annual revenue was only US$147.6 million, but business expenses were nearly 400 million, and a net loss of US$260 million. In addition, Tesla also needed a lot of funds to support the development and production of the second car Model S. The fire-fighting water still comes from the US federal government. After Tesla won the Daimler order and showed off the Model S concept car, the US federal government gave Tesla a low-interest loan of 465 million to encourage research and development of alternatives. Energy vehicles. In addition, Tesla also raised 226 million US dollars through the listing. After slowing down, Tesla won an order for an electric version of the RAV4 battery from Toyota, and at a low price of 42 million US dollars from Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, Toyota and General Motors jointly built a car processing plant (now Fremont factory). It is reported that this factory is not only close to Tesla’s headquarters at that time, but also has an annual production capacity of 500,000 vehicles, laying a solid foundation for Tesla to control the cost of car production. The mass production and delivery of the second model Model S is on schedule. Compared with the first Roadster, the price of this four-door coupe is only 57,400 US dollars (standard endurance version), which is 63.7% of the Roadster, but it is not inferior in hardware performance, with the fastest acceleration of 4.4 per hundred kilometers. Seconds, the cruising range can reach up to 483 kilometers. More importantly, Model S creatively introduces a 17-inch central control touch screen, which integrates the entire vehicle’s information query, navigation, music, game and other functions on a single panel, which is like installing an iPAD for this type of car. , Users can enjoy the OTA over-the-air upgrade service of in-vehicle software on a regular basis just like enjoying the upgrade of a mobile phone upgrade system. This can ensure that each car owner can enjoy the latest software services, such as the Autopilot automatic driving assistance function launched by Tesla in 2014. Not surprisingly, ModelS sales far exceeded expectations, becoming Tesla’s first mass-produced car in the true sense. At the end of 2012, the pre-ordered Model S had reached 15,000; in 2013, Tesla delivered a total of 22,477 Model S. Compared with 2,500 Roadsters, Tesla’s mass production delivery capacity has increased by nearly 10 times. Relying on the great success of Model S, Tesla turned a profit in 2013Q1, but Model S is still a sports car, and the price is still high. The competitors it dropped are old luxury cars such as Mercedes-Benz S-series and BMW 7-series. The Model X that was launched in 2015 was not enough for civilians, and the price was around $50,000, so Musk also needed more affordable electric vehicles. It was not until March 2016 that Tesla launched the Model3, and Tesla ushered in a truly explosive model. Model3 Standard Edition starts at USD 35,000 and has a range of 354 kilometers, which is extremely cost-effective. Since its delivery at the end of 2017, Model 3 has continued to surpass traditional luxury fuel vehicle brands such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Audi. At the same time, it has taken the first place in the market among similar new energy vehicle brands. According to statistics from EV Sales, from January to September 2020 The monthly global cumulative sales of new energy passenger vehicles was 1.784 million, of which Model 3 is the world’s best-selling model, with cumulative sales of 238,000, accounting for 13.4% of the world’s total. So far, the three-step strategy “MASTER PLAN” proposed by Musk in 2006 has basically been realized, but it is not enough. Comparing the prices of Tesla Model 3 and Model Y before subsidies and the selling prices of other top ten models in the US auto market, the price of Tesla cars is still 17%~31% higher. In other words, Tesla is still one step away from the price that the public can afford to buy a car. In February of this year, it was reported that Tesla would launch a Model series car with a price of 25,000 US dollars (160,000 RMB), which undoubtedly aimed directly at the current best-selling models on the market. On Tesla Battery Day 2020, Musk once said that starting with the heart battery of electric vehicles, he will reduce costs and increase efficiency in cell design, battery production, cathode materials, anode materials, PACK, etc., so as to reduce the cost per KWh. 56%, which in turn provides profit margins for price cuts. The Huachuang team calculated that after the price of Tesla Model 3 was cut by 23,900 yuan in October last year, it would need a sales increase of 20%-27% to obtain the previous total profit. Some investors also asked Musk at Tesla’s 2020Q3 investor conference, when the result of the price cut is that the company cannot achieve its profit margin target, will the company still cut prices? Musk said, “We hope that Tesla’s cars will be affordable to users, and we have to separate the concepts of affordability and cost-effectiveness. If the car is too expensive, consumers cannot afford it, regardless of It doesn’t matter what value proposition you have, so it’s important to be able to afford it…” It is not difficult to see that Musk is more concerned about the sales performance of the car than the price. And each price cut really stimulated Tesla’s sales. According to data from the Federation of Passenger Transport Associations, the domestically-made Model 3 lowered its price to 249,900 yuan from October last year, and its sales in October, November and December reached record highs, reaching 12,000, 22,000 and 24,000 respectively The domestic Model 3 2020 annual sales volume reached 135,000, in other words, Q4 single-season sales accounted for 42.96%. The same is true for Tesla’s full-year sales performance in 2020. Q4 sales exceeded 180,000 in a single quarter, accounting for 36% of the annual delivery of 499,647 vehicles. The side effects of the price cut are also obvious. The gross profit margin of Tesla’s automotive business in Q4 was only 24.1%, a decrease of 3.6 percentage points from the previous quarter, which was the lowest level in the year. The net profit attributable to the parent was US$270 million, which was in line with market expectations of 7.63. Billion dollars, far away. After the Q4 financial report was announced, Tesla’s stock price fell in response, and its market value shrank by nearly 60 billion U.S. dollars in one day. Since then, it has continued to fall. It has fallen to a March low of 539 U.S. dollars per share before stabilizing, and a total of 346 billion has evaporated. The trillion-dollar market value that once approached Apple has also become a bubble. Just when the public believed that Tesla was returning to a reasonable valuation range, many people believed that Tesla was undervalued. They said that Tesla will surpass Apple in the future to become the world’s largest company. The reason behind this is that Tesla is far from An ordinary car manufacturer, but a technology company with Saas service attributes. 02 The Meaning of Drunkard Selling a car is the face, and the software is the lining. For a long time, the automobile industry has relied on the manufacture and sales of new cars for profit, and automobile selling points have been focusing on the three major aspects of performance, appearance and brand. However, under the wave of electrification and intelligence, as a new dimension, in-vehicle software has become a new aspect of user purchase and profitability of auto companies. In other words, sales are transformed from purpose into means, and eventually flow to payment for in-vehicle software. When Tesla was the first company to run through this business model, the market’s perspective on this type of emerging car company changed. It was no longer the valuation of traditional automakers, but with SaaS service attributes. Valuation model for technology companies. Although the Tesla Model series will continue to reduce prices in 2020, Musk has also frequently increased the price of the on-board software FSD. Its Auto-Assisted Driving Software Package (FSD) has entered the price increase channel since January 2019, and has been gradually increased from the original US$6,000 to US$10,000 (or 64,000 yuan), which is equivalent to 1% of the price of the standard battery life version of the Model. /3, and the price increase momentum remains unabated. In order to inspire more car owners to use FSD, Musk changed the original one-time payment model and introduced a monthly subscription fee model ($100 per month). In the FSD that Tesla provides to car owners to purchase, it includes functions such as automatic assisted navigation driving, autonomous assisted lane change, autonomous parking, and smart calling. Among them, automatic driving technology is the top priority. In the “Key Points for Standardization of Intelligent Connected Vehicles in 2020” issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, autonomous driving technology is listed as a key element of the standard formulation and evaluation mechanism for intelligent connected vehicles. The research and development of autonomous driving is a typical artificial intelligence research and development engineering system, which is mainly based on three elements: algorithm, computing power and data. The algorithm solves the problem from zero to one, and the organization and optimization goals of the subsequent overall data engineering system. , Computing power is the physical basis for the realization of the model, and better algorithm efficiency and energy consumption indicators can be obtained through self-developed acceleration chips. But for autonomous driving, data is the core. Robin Li once proposed that the AI ​​era needs to switch to a new “AI thinking”. AI is different from the core of traditional software R&D system in that the implementation of traditional code functions is handed over to data and algorithms. Among them, the algorithm gap is easier to make up through open source and talent mergers and acquisitions, and data is the core barrier to differentiation. “Data spike algorithm “It is becoming the consensus of the industry. As the first electric vehicle brand to be equipped with an automated assisted driving system, Tesla also has the world’s largest assisted driving fleet, and has a huge first-mover advantage in terms of driving data. Beginning in 2019, sales of Tesla models have surged, and Tesla Autopilot’s mileage has ushered in explosive growth, from 1.73 billion kilometers in January 2019 to 4.828 billion kilometers in April 2020, doubling in a year, far exceeding Other competitors. The huge amount of real data makes Tesla’s data accumulation in high-precision maps and obstacle recognition significantly ahead of its competitors, and it is also more conducive to iterative algorithm updates. In contrast, other autonomous driving companies have been left behind. Behind. Musk himself announced on Twitter that the latest version of FSD Beta V9.0 has completed a new round of iteration. This time, the millimeter wave radar will be removed and become a complete pure vision solution, which is expected to be realized only by vision algorithms. Autonomous driving at L5 level. However, the new plan did not get the market’s appreciation. Instead, it attracted many doubts, believing that Tesla was too aggressive. Due to the low accuracy of camera sensors, there are some inherent shortcomings, such as poor night effects and susceptibility to extreme weather. Many experts believe that to achieve L4/L5 level of automatic driving, higher-end vehicle sensors such as lidar are needed. to realise. Lidar has high accuracy and detection range of up to 0-200m, which can greatly reduce the difficulty of software and hardware analysis, and can accurately predict objects at night. The day after Tesla’s official announcement of the withdrawal of the radar news, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) revised the Model 3 and Model active safety feature labels; after that, the authoritative third-party review magazine “Consumer Reports” It also announced the suspension of listing the 2021 Model 3 as a “recommended”. As public opinion continues to ferment, Musk has to explain to the public through the EV vertical media Electrek that even if there is no radar, the camera can achieve the work done by the radar to ensure the safety of autonomous driving. NHTSA is currently retesting the new model (without radar). In fact, Tesla is not the only company that takes the purely visual route for autonomous driving. The top players in the autonomous driving field, Mobileye and Baidu Apollo, both have products that are positioned on the purely visual route, SuperVision and Apollo Lite. Mobileye is an Israeli company. Tesla’s first-generation autopilot solution was handed over to Mobileye. However, after the death of autopilot in 2016, Tesla and Mobileye parted ways. But looking at the field of autonomous driving, Mobileye is a recognized top supplier in the industry. Its EyeQ series of chips have been adopted by 27 automakers, many of which include traditional car giants such as General Motors, Volkswagen, and BMW, as well as other car manufacturers such as Weilai and Ideal. New forces. Just last September, Mobileye 360° pure vision sensor solution SuperVision debuted at the Beijing Auto Show for the first time, serving the Geely Group’s high-end car brand-Lynk & Co Electric Vehicle Zero. It is reported that the solution is equipped with two EyeQ5 chips with a 7nm process and a computing power of 24TOPS. It is equipped with seven long-range cameras and four parking cameras. There are no sensors such as lidar and millimeter wave radar. Baidu, which has been using lidar, also launched its own pure-vision autonomous driving solution Apollo Lite at CVPR in 2019. From the multi-sensor solution to pure vision, the sudden change of Baidu made the public feel puzzled. At the meeting, Wang Liang, chief of Baidu’s Autopilot Committee, said: “Many sensor fusion scheme designs are more complicated, and technicians often design algorithms from the perspective of quickly solving problems. In this process, it is inevitable to use the respective advantages of heterogeneous data to complement each other to avoid difficult problems.” “Although the multi-sensor fusion scheme designed based on this idea can circumvent the problems that the single-sensor scheme is difficult to solve in the short term, in the long run, the design of deep coupling between data and strategy is not conducive to providing real redundancy for the environmental perception system.” “In the traditional strategy of lidar-based and vision-assisted, the problems and deficiencies of visual perception itself are not sufficiently exposed under the cover of radar perception. Therefore, the problem of visual perception needs to be independent to be better solved.” At the same time, Wang Liang also expressed his views on the camera: The camera is a relatively mature sensor. In addition to the advantages of light weight, low cost and compliance with vehicle regulations, the development trend of imaging technology with high resolution and high frame rate (imaging frequency) means that the image contains more environmental information, and the video data is also It is most similar to the real world perceived by the human eye, but compared with three-dimensional point cloud data, the information in two-dimensional images is more difficult to mine, requiring the design of more powerful algorithms, the accumulation of large amounts of data, and longer-term R&D investment. A brief summary of the above is that there are potential risks in taking the multi-sensor fusion route. The pure visual route can make up for this defect, but the pure visual route requires a large amount of data accumulation and long-term research and development to train the background algorithm, and data acquisition and algorithm deduction are extremely barriers. It is difficult for most car companies to adopt in the short term. It can be seen that the pure visual route is the kind of difficult but correct thing that everyone often says. At present, Mobileye and Apollo have both pure vision solutions and multi-sensor solutions such as lidar. Tesla has chosen a way to go to the dark. One example is the removal of millimeter wave radar. The “courage” behind Tesla is From: self-developed chip FSD, self-supervised learning neural network algorithm, supercomputer Dojo. Someone once helped Tesla calculate an account. At present, there are more than 820,000 Teslas equipped with HW 2/3 hardware driving around the world. The average user drives about an hour per day (8 cameras per car). ), the fleet generates approximately 196.8 million hours of video every month. The huge amount of data puts high demands on the computing power of autonomous driving chips. Before self-developed FSD, Tesla had used the Mobileye EyeQ3 chip and the NVIDIA Drive PX2 chip, but their computing power could not meet Tesla’s needs. Therefore, in 2015, Musk personally found Jim Keller, the chip god who just resigned from AMD, and asked him to develop Tesla’s self-driving chip. The importance of self-developed chips is to achieve deep adaptation of software and hardware to achieve minimum energy consumption and optimal performance. Among smart phone brands, Apple, Huawei, and Samsung all do this. The biggest feature of FSD’s self-developed chips is that they “only serve one customer-Tesla”, while chip companies such as Mobileye and Nvidia have many downstream customers and have to make a general chip solution. At present, the computing power of the FSD platform is 144TOPS, the computing power of a single NPU reaches 72TOPS, the preparation process is 14nm, and it is equipped with HW3.0. But just in Q4 of 2020, TSMC said it will take Tesla’s 7nm order and use the latest InFO_SoW packaging technology. At that time, the computing power of FSD is expected to increase by 4 times, and the probability of increasing to more than 500 TOPS is very high. In addition to the chip, Tesla trains a set of neural network algorithms that can be self-supervised learning. As of April 2020, Tesla’s true road test mileage has accumulated to 4.8 billion miles. If these data are all manually labeled for algorithm iteration, it will undoubtedly be a huge expense. To this end, Tesla’s senior AI director Andrej Karpathy launched the “Operation Holiday” data automation plan. Tesla’s deep neural network will directly mine the characteristics of the data itself, instead of manually labeling the data set, so as to carry out the perception algorithm. Continuous iteration, the ultimate goal is to complete full automation, without human intervention throughout the process. Just when everyone was wondering why Tesla supports huge data for deep learning, the cloud training supercomputer Dojo behind it also surfaced. Generally speaking, supercomputers are national-level special equipment, providing super-fast computing speed and super-large storage capacity for the high-tech fields and cutting-edge technology research needs of various countries. Among the top 10 supercomputers in the world in 2020, Japan’s Fujitsu topped the list with a peak performance of 0.415 exaflops; the second place in the United States was Summit with a peak performance of 0.148 exaflops; China’s Shenwei Taihu Light ranked first Fourth, the performance is 0.093015 exaflops. How does Tesla Supercomputing Dojo perform? Musk once said that the peak performance of the Dojo supercomputer should reach the level of exaFLOP per second, which is a trillion floating point operations. (Original words: A truly useful exaflop at de facto FP32.) At that time, Dojo will surpass Fujitsu of Japan and become the world’s number one supercomputer. These bold remarks aroused countless speculations by the public, and at the 2021 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Conference on Monday, Karpathy disclosed some of the operation of Tesla’s latest version of Supercomputing, which will serve as the development prototype of Dojo. . It is reported that the current Tesla supercomputing operating speed is 1.6Tbps per second, and the peak speed per second is 1.8Eflops. Karpathy said: “If you count FLOPS, this supercomputing can rank fifth in the global supercomputing rankings. This position is currently occupied by Nvidia Supercomputing Selene. This cluster has a similar architecture to Dojo and a similar number of GPUs (4480 vs. 5760 for Dojo).” This supercomputer has helped Tesla process more than 1 million videos of about 10 seconds, and marked the distance, acceleration and speed information of 6 billion objects in the video. The data storage space has reached 1.5PB. This new version of supercomputing is not the ultimate version of Dojo. Tesla’s supercomputing is still iterating and evolving. Musk’s goal of computing power to reach 1exaflops of Dojo is expected to be unveiled on Tesla AI Day at the end of July this year. . 03 The future is here Tesla’s various layouts for autonomous driving have long gone beyond the scope of traditional car business, and subverted the latter’s perception of cars. In 2018, the American authority “Consumer Report” pointed out that Tesla Model 3 has the problem of too long braking distance, so it did not recommend it. Tesla engineers upgraded the system through OTA (Over-the-Air Technology), shortening the braking distance by 6 meters, and solved the problem in just a few days. It is almost unimaginable that the replacement takes place in traditional car companies, because the solution of traditional car companies is most likely to be through large-scale recalls, or replacement of parts through 4S stores, which requires car owners to wait a long time. OTA is not a new thing. It refers to remote application management of mobile terminal devices through the network. Most people can experience it on their smartphones, such as mobile phone system upgrades and application software updates. Analogous to mobile phones, car OTA can also be divided into two categories: FOTA (Firmware OTA) firmware update and SOTA (Software OTA) software update. Most traditional car companies can implement SOTA, which can remotely update car map display, audio, video and other infotainment systems, but like Tesla, it can’t do anything to update the brake system. The latter involves rewriting the firmware program to realize the car. Renewal of power system and chassis system. Behind this can and can’t, reflect the deeper reasons, the difference between the electrical and electronic architecture (Electrical/Electronic Architecture) at the bottom of the two. Cars have many functions, ranging from the control of lighting, wipers, and windows to the ABS (brake) system, assisted driving system, map display, audio-visual player, etc., all handed over to Electronic Control Units (ECUs) to realise. The electrical and electronic architecture is the layout of these ECUs, which can be roughly divided into three categories: distributed, domain centralized, and centralized. Under the traditional distributed EEA architecture, each ECU has a corresponding relationship with the realized function. The hardware and software functions are deeply coupled. When the car has more functions, it also means the number of ECUs and wiring harnesses, which greatly increase the weight and cost of the car body. . These ECUs come from different suppliers and have different embedded software and underlying codes. The computing power cannot be coordinated, and the OEM has no right to maintain and update the ECU. In addition, different ECUs may have overlapping functions, leading to mutual redundancy and increasing unnecessary costs. In this context, traditional cars want to update their technology or firmware and rely more on the iterative completion of the model. That is to say, consumers need to keep changing new cars to enjoy the latest technical services, especially when it comes to chassis and power system updates. Distributed architecture is undoubtedly a big shackle for the intelligent upgrade of automobiles. In this regard, for the first time, Tesla adopted a centralized electronic and electrical architecture, using the central processing unit to uniformly manage different domain processors and ECUs, decoupling hardware and software, and opening up all hardware resources, including firmware and Complete vehicle OTA including software. Under the framework of centralized electronic appliances, automobiles are moving towards wheeled computers. Su Jing, head of Huawei’s autonomous driving product line, once said: “Traditional automakers think that the base of a car is a car, and try to embed a computer on the basis of the car. We think that the basis of the car is a computer, and the car is a computer-controlled exterior. Assume.” As early as June 2012, Tesla carried out an OTA upgrade to the first production car Model S. In 2017, Tesla implemented a centralized EEA architecture for the first time in Model 3 models. Since then, Tesla has carried out more than 120 OTA updates, including software OTA for autonomous driving, entertainment applications, and batteries. Firmware OTA for management and improvement of brake horsepower. In 2019, the foreign automotive media Top Gear released a performance test comparison video between Porsche’s Taycan Turbo S and Tesla Model S Performance in the tubing. The Taycan Turbo S accelerated at 402m, 0-96km/h, and 0-161km/h. Win the test. Some netizens questioned the rationality of the test, saying that the model tested by Top Gear is not Tesla’s latest Model S, but an old model from 2017, and the newly released 2019 new model has a significantly improved drive system and endurance. . Musk replied to the comment, agreeing, and let Tesla engineers optimize the motor control of Model S, and increase the peak output power of Model S by 50 horsepower through OTA. The upgraded Model S will be able to ensure that it is 402m. , 0-96km/h, 0-161km/h acceleration test, beat the Porsche Taycan with a greater advantage. Smart cars represented by Tesla are reshaping the definition of “cars” in the automotive industry. In the past, the completion of the delivery of a new car has meant the beginning of depreciation. The biggest change that Tesla has brought is to continuously improve the performance of the car through frequent use of data collected from the OTA (Over the Air) interface. In the process of using the car, a large amount of data and demand will be generated, which will be fed back to the car companies. On this basis, the car companies will continue to optimize and iterate their products, and then synchronize them to users in the form of vehicle OTA to continuously improve user experience. This is very similar to smart phones, and it also gives Tesla the same characteristics and core advantages as Silicon Valley technology companies. Through mass production and price cuts, Tesla continues to attract more car owners into its self-built ecosystem. The large amount of data in the user’s use process helps Tesla deep learning and continuous improvement of products. It is updated and upgraded through vehicle OTA. Software and hardware, adding new ones, replenishing old ones, and constantly improving. end Although the performance of new energy vehicles in the policy and investment market is turbulent, the actual situation is that new energy vehicles have not yet reached the stage of rapid growth. In 2020, the global penetration rate of new energy vehicles is less than 5%, and the domestic penetration rate is 5.9%. There are many factors that hinder the high volume of new energy vehicles, such as battery safety, technological level, and completeness of supporting facilities such as charging, and another is price. In China’s 100,000-200,000-price range car market, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles is obviously not as good as other ranges, but this group accounts for 43.2% of the total. This part of consumers is more about the extreme price-performance ratio of the car, and the current electric car The cost of the power battery is still relatively high, so the price is significantly higher than that of fuel vehicles of the same level. On Tesla’s Battery Day in 2020, Musk announced to the audience that he would cut the cost of battery production in half, and plans to launch models priced at about US$25,000 (about 160,000 yuan) in the next three years. By then, it remains to be seen whether the catfish Tesla can wave its tail again and stir the market. references: books Ashley Vance “Iron Man of Silicon Valley: The Adventure Life of Elon Musk” Hamish Mackenzie “Tesla Biography: Realizing the Impossibility” Research report Guojin Securities “160,000 “Model 2″: Realization Path and Industrial Chain Impact” Guosen Securities “Discussing Tes Based on the Perspective of Business Model Reform” Tianfeng Securities “Tesla: From monthly data charges to SAAS-like business model, subverting the traditional auto industry” Industrial Securities “It is an electric car, but also a smart car. Tesla series report (4) detailed automatic driving system” Open Source Securities “Domain Controller-The “Brain” of Smart Cars” Zhongtai Securities: “Intelligent Driving Topic: Discussion on the Commercialization Path, Industrial Evolution and Investment Opportunities of Automobile Intelligentization” News Quasar Channel: Dojo super counts, Tesla challenges the visual limit Quasar Channel: Why Tesla “ditched” millimeter wave radar Quasar Channel: Baidu Mobileye Tesla, the “revival” of the pure visual route of autonomous driving? EV Vision: Model S will get another 50 horsepower performance improvement through OTA CICC’s finishing touch: new trends in automotive electrical architecture, in-vehicle communication welcomes changes

]]> 27205 Electric car manufacturer US agency investigates Tesla accidents The US traffic safety agency NHTSA has investigated 30 accidents with Tesla models since 2016. It is examining whether the use of Tesla’s assistance system for automated driving has influenced the accidents. https://en.spress.net/electric-car-manufacturer-us-agency-investigates-tesla-accidents-the-us-traffic-safety-agency-nhtsa-has-investigated-30-accidents-with-tesla-models-since-2016-it-is-examining-whether-the-use-of-tesla/ Tue, 22 Jun 2021 19:10:12 +0000 https://en.spress.net/?p=26788

Electric car manufacturer US agency investigates Tesla accidents

Status: 06/18/2021 10:49 a.m.

The US traffic safety authority NHTSA has investigated 30 accidents with Tesla models since 2016. It examines whether and how the use of Tesla’s assistance system for automated driving influenced the accidents. In recent years, accidents involving Tesla models have repeatedly raised the question of the extent to which there is a connection with the assistance system for automated driving. Does the US electric car manufacturer’s autopilot pose any particular dangers? To find out, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is currently investigating 30 accidents involving Tesla models. The accidents have occurred since 2016 and claimed a total of ten deaths. The NHTSA has now published an official list with details of the accidents investigated for the first time, as reported by Reuters news agency.

04/23/2021

Deadly accident How dangerous is Tesla’s “autopilot”?

A Tesla Model S hits a tree in Texas.

Sensational accident in Texas

Accordingly, eight new investigations have been initiated since March 2021. In three of the 30 cases, the involvement of the autopilot in the accident could be excluded, according to the NHTSA. Two final reports are ready.

An accident in Texas in April caused a sensation in which a Tesla Model S hit a tree and immediately caught fire . Two men died in the accident. It is believed that neither of them had been behind the wheel. The authority is currently investigating six other incidents from other manufacturers in which assistance systems may be involved.

Problems in china

The US electrical manufacturer Tesla is repeatedly confronted with all kinds of safety concerns, most recently in the important Chinese market.

05/21/2021

Autonomous driving Nap behind the wheel

Germany wants to become an international pioneer in autonomous driving.

For example, an event at the Shanghai auto show in April caused a sensation. A woman at the Tesla booth got into a Model 3 from the manufacturer and complained screaming about brake failure. It was taken away by security guards while the videos were spreading online. The Chinese market supervisory authority then intervened, and state media called for an investigation into Tesla.

Tesla is the best-selling electric car in China. The group has also been producing in Shanghai since 2019. A quarter of all Teslas now roll off the assembly line there

]]> 26788 “Casino” Binance issued a new token linked to Tesla’s Binance coin, the market value rushed to the world’s third https://en.spress.net/casino-binance-issued-a-new-token-linked-to-teslas-binance-coin-the-market-value-rushed-to-the-worlds-third/ Fri, 11 Jun 2021 02:42:06 +0000 https://en.spress.net/casino-binance-issued-a-new-token-linked-to-teslas-binance-coin-the-market-value-rushed-to-the-worlds-third/ On the occasion of the listing of the first digital currency exchange Coinbase, another overseas digital currency exchange Binance announced the launch ofTeslaLinked equity tokens.
The Tesla Equity Token is priced, settled and secured in BUSD, the base currency issued by Binance. BUSD is a stable digital currency pegged to the U.S. dollar launched by Binance in 2019. It is directly purchased or redeemed at a 1:1 ratio with the U.S. dollar.

Binance official documents show that users can purchase a digital token that represents one percent of Tesla’s single-day stock price, instead of buying the entire stock. This equity is held by a custodial portfolio of underlying securities representing the issued tokens. Yes, based on Tesla’s share price of $760 per share, Binance investors can buy the equity token at a minimum price of $7.6. Token holders may also receive relevant dividends. To some extent, Binance users invest in Tesla shares in a “disguised form” by buying this equity token. However, the equity token cannot be exchanged for Tesla’s actual stock, it is just a tradable stock token. Binance stated that this move is aimed at solving the problem of after-hours trading of U.S. stocks by overseas users. U.S. brokerages provide after-hours trading, but for investors outside the U.S., stock tokens can allow them to access the country’s $47 trillion stock market anytime and anywhere without having to overcome regulatory barriers or jet lag. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a statement that stock tokens demonstrate how the company can achieve a more seamless value transfer and reduce the cost of accessibility without compromising compliance or security. . It should be noted that digital tokens have clear regulations in China. The Central Bank of China clearly stipulated in the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on the People’s Bank of China (Revised Draft for Solicitation of Comments)” in October last year, Any unit or individual is prohibited from making and selling digital tokens. Binance Coin has risen by 53% in the past seven days In addition to the equity token BUSD, the blockchain currency “Binance Coin” (BNB) issued by Binance has also continued to surge this week. Stimulated by the news of the Coinbase listing this week, Binance Coin has risen by 53% in the past seven days and has a market value of 580 billion yuan. It ranks third in the global digital currency market value after Bitcoin and Ethereum. Powell: Digital currency is a tool for speculation However, the recent continuous surge in digital currencies has also attracted regulatory attention. On Wednesday, Eastern Time, Powell said in an online interview with the Forum Washington Athletic Club, “ Cryptocurrency is actually a tool of speculation. They are not really actively used for payments. “ This is Powell’s reference to the speculative use of cryptocurrency again. During a hearing in the U.S. Congress last month, Powell said, The private cryptocurrency represented by Bitcoin is more suitable for speculation and cannot be used as a substitute for the US dollar. The completely private digital dollar system is not reliable. Powell’s evaluation of cryptocurrencies is consistent with his predecessor and former Fed Chairman Yellen who is currently the U.S. Treasury Secretary. In February of this year, Yellen stated that Bitcoin is a “highly speculative asset” and that digital currency may bring a faster and cheaper payment experience, “but there are many issues that need to be studied, including consumer protection and anti-money laundering.” . She also said that using Bitcoin for transactions is an “extremely inefficient way” and that processing these transactions consumes astonishing energy. Regarding the regulatory stance, Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken, the world’s fourth largest digital currency exchange, warned that Governments may begin to restrict the use of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, “maybe there will be some crackdowns.”

]]> 22586 Sideline businesses pump up Tesla’s profit https://en.spress.net/sideline-businesses-pump-up-teslas-profit/ Thu, 29 Apr 2021 18:57:08 +0000 https://en.spress.net/?p=10324 For the seventh time in a row, the electric car manufacturer Tesla is profitable. Without the sale of emission certificates and Bitcoin speculation, however, the result would not look so impressive.

By Thomas Spinnler, tagesschau.de At first glance, the Tesla growth story looks completely intact. In the first quarter, sales rose by 74 percent to 10.4 billion euros. The bottom line was that the group earned 438 million dollars, which corresponds to 362 million euros. In the first quarter of 2020, Tesla had only made a profit of $ 16 million. Tesla made just under $ 600 million operationally from January to March. The US group delivered 184,877 electric cars – a new record and more than twice as many as in the previous year.

Lucrative side business

However, the result once again benefited in particular from trading in emissions certificates. In the first quarter, Tesla turned over $ 518 million. That is 46 percent more than a year ago. Trading in the cryptocurrency Bitcoin also had a positive effect on the result. Tesla had acquired bitcoins for $ 1.5 billion. The group had sold 300 million again and made gains of more than 100 million in the process.

New Tesla cars are in a showroom in Berlin | JENS SCHLUETER / EPA-EFE / Shutterst Side business for Tesla In order to force the auto industry to build more climate-friendly cars, many US states and the EU have issued criminally enforced climate protection guidelines. Manufacturers who are above the limit values ​​can buy emissions certificates from competitors who meet these emission standards in order to improve their emissions balance.

Since Tesla only manufactures electric vehicles, the fleet’s eco-balance is so good that the Californian company has considerable leeway here and can trade with the lucrative certificates.

“A bit more opaque”

“The profits in trading with emission certificates and with Bitcoin speculations have to be deducted from the operating result,” explains the Nord LB economist Frank Schwope tagesschau.de . “Basically, Tesla still doesn’t make any money selling cars.” Bitcoin trading in particular makes the Tesla business model a bit more opaque, said the expert. Tesla boss Elon Musk is considered a great advocate of Bitcoin, who recently made positive comments about the cryptocurrency via Twitter. This should not have harmed the price development – for his own benefit and for the benefit of Tesla. Customers can now also pay for their Tesla model with Bitcoin . “Higher emissions certificates, lower taxes and bitcoin sales drive earnings,” said Craig Irwin, analyst at Roth Capital Partners. If these factors were excluded, the figures would be a disappointment, according to the expert.

Investors dissatisfied

This also explains the negative reaction from investors. Despite the record profit, the Tesla paper has lost more than two percent today. Because investors are of course aware that the profits made through bitcoins and emissions certificates are not sustainable. After all, the competition is noticeably catching up with electromobility. And the more electrical and therefore more climate-friendly the competitor’s fleets become, the less money Tesla will be able to earn through certificates. In addition, it is uncertain in which direction the Bitcoin price will develop in the future, especially in view of the ongoing discussions about possible regulation.

“Quality takes precedence over speed”

The start of production at the new Tesla factory in Grünheide is also uncertain. The final environmental approval is still pending. “The first car will roll off the assembly line when the final approval is in place and the plant has been built,” said Brandenburg Minister for Economic Affairs, Jörg Steinbach (SPD) today. When the approval process will be completed, he could not give a specific date. The principle of quality over speed applies. So far, the start of production was expected in the middle of this year. According to the information in the annual report, production is expected to start late in 2021.

]]> 10324 Short seller: bet on Tesla’s share price crash https://en.spress.net/short-seller-bet-on-teslas-share-price-crash/ Mon, 26 Apr 2021 18:45:07 +0000 https://en.spress.net/short-seller-bet-on-teslas-share-price-crash/

2021 is the year when almost every family in the United States is familiar with the term “short seller”.

Correct GameStop (NYSE: GM) The short-term squeeze, driven to a certain extent by greed and dissatisfaction, has become an unforgettable cultural moment. For many people who bought GME stock in this populist clamor, this is the first time they have heard the term “short seller.” No one is more enthusiastic about putting shorts on his knees than Elon Musk. Elon Musk saw a storm of support in the process of pushing GameStop higher. Musk runs Tesla, one of the most controversial companies, and has been the focus of short sellers for many years.

Now, after losing tens of billions of dollars, Tesla’s short sellers seem to have given up. Although this stock is still controversial (Bloomberg data shows that among the 41 analysts studying Tesla, 15 are buying, 14 are holding, and 12 are selling-the number of recommendations for buying and selling The difference is very small), but most of the short positions have disappeared.

According to “Barron’s Weekly”, even David Einhorn, who is short on Tesla’s Greenlight Capital (Greenlight Capital), seems to have changed from a large-scale short to a small short (“Barron” Wrote that Greenlight Capital did not respond to reporters’ request for comment on its position).

Today, Tesla’s short-term interest rate is about 6%, which is higher than the average, but far below the astonishing level of 25% three years ago. However, although the bears may have taken a winter break, some people say that given Tesla’s valuation, the negators who bet on Tesla’s share price will not disappear.

]]> 9100 Tesla’s self-driving function was found to have fatal flaws https://en.spress.net/teslas-self-driving-function-was-found-to-have-fatal-flaws/ Sun, 25 Apr 2021 16:56:07 +0000 https://en.spress.net/teslas-self-driving-function-was-found-to-have-fatal-flaws/ The Autopilot function on Tesla electric vehicles can be activated and used even without the driver’s seat.
In a test conducted by Consumer Reports (CR), a safety hole in Tesla cars is discovered when the Autopilot function can be activated even if no one is behind the wheel.

To do this, a Consumer Reports expert used a chain to hang a heavy object at the bottom end and tie it to the steering wheel to simulate the presence of a human hand on the wheel. At the same time, the seat belt is also installed pretending that someone is using the driver’s seat. Then, the driver moves to the extra seat and activates Autopilot driving assistance mode. As a result, the Tesla Model Y ran for hundreds of meters on the test track without giving any warning about no one in the driver’s seat. The Tesla Model Y is deceived that someone is behind the wheel and operates in Autopilot mode. Screenshots. Through this test, an expert from Consumer Reports found that Tesla’s system does not use seat sensors and small cameras to track the driver’s eye movement like other manufacturers. Such systems are recently introduced in some Subaru, Ford and General Motors vehicles. Instead, Tesla uses sensors at the steering wheel and seat belts to detect if someone is behind the wheel. Consumer Reports’ experiments have shown weaknesses of this practice. Last weekend, a 2019 Tesla Model S crashed into a tree in the Houston suburbs, Texas (USA), killing two people on the car. Police said they believed that one person was in the front passenger seat and the other was in the back seat at the time of the accident. Before this serious incident, Elon Musk, the CEO of the electric car company, explained on Twitter that the recovered data records showed that the Autopilot was not activated and the car that had crashed did not purchase the Full Self Driving feature. fully self-driving). Tesla believes the car’s Autopilot function won’t be activated without the driver’s seat. But according to Consumer Reports’ testing, it seems that the system is quite easy to be “deceived”. Police said that no one was in the driver’s seat when the Tesla crashed in Texas. Photo: Matt Dougherty. Currently, Autopilot only offers level 2 autonomous functionality, which only adds active safety features to limit collisions. The driver when activating Autopilot is always warned to put his hand on the steering wheel to intervene when the software does not work as expected. Still, many Tesla owners still find ways to make their cars drive themselves, putting their lives in danger.

]]> 8551 Tesla provided the data, then?Five questions about Tesla’s rights protection incident https://en.spress.net/tesla-provided-the-data-thenfive-questions-about-teslas-rights-protection-incident/ Sun, 25 Apr 2021 05:58:24 +0000 https://en.spress.net/tesla-provided-the-data-thenfive-questions-about-teslas-rights-protection-incident/ Behind the data provided by Tesla, there are still many questions to be solved. For example, what do these data say? With data, can the truth of the incident be restored? Which institutions can do a comprehensive analysis and testing of the data?

At the Shanghai Auto Show three days ago, a female car owner from Anyang, Henan rushed to the roof, and Tesla rushed to the forefront of public opinion.The owner of the car complained of “brake failure” in the Tesla car he purchased.

In the past few days, the incident has continued to ferment, and the central media and regulatory agencies have voiced one after another. Tesla’s attitude has changed from “uncompromising” to an apology from the beginning, and expressed its willingness to provide vehicle data. On the evening of April 22, Tesla provided the original vehicle data half an hour before the incident to the car owners who defended their rights.

This is a positive beginning for Tesla’s “brake failure” incident to restore the truth and solve the problem. However, behind the data provided by Tesla, there are still many questions to be solved. For example, what do these data say? With data, can the truth of the incident be restored? Which institutions can do a comprehensive analysis and testing of the data?

One question:

What is the problem with the vehicle data before the incident?

On the evening of April 22, Tesla provided the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter with one-minute data on the previously questioned “brake failure” accident. Tesla said that because the data belongs to the privacy of the car owner, it is not convenient for Tesla to disclose more data unless the car owner publishes it himself.

According to Tesla’s description, in the 30 minutes before the accident, the vehicle had more than 40 records of depressing the brake pedal.

Tesla said that when the driver stepped on the brake pedal for the last time, the speed of the vehicle 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, and the brake master cylinder pressure reached 92.7 bar. The front collision warning and automatic emergency braking function were activated (the maximum brake master cylinder pressure reached 140.7bar) and played a role, reducing the amplitude of the collision. 1.8 seconds 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, and before the collision, the speed decreased to 48.5 kilometers per hour.

Tesla said that the vehicle was driving at a higher speed, and the driver began to depress the brake pedal lightly. After that, the automatic emergency braking function was activated and played a role, increasing the braking force and reducing the impact of the collision. The braking system is normally involved in the work and reduces the speed of the car.

According to the owners of rights defenders, after the accident, they found that Tesla asked for vehicle data without being satisfied. With the attention of the regulatory authorities and public opinion, Tesla expressed its willingness to provide the original data of the vehicle before the incident to the owner.

On the evening of April 21, Tesla issued a statement stating that it was willing to provide raw vehicle data half an hour before the incident. On the afternoon of April 22, Tesla responded to the Beijing News Shell Finance reporter that the company has actively contacted Zhengzhou Zhengdong Market Supervision Bureau and reported the progress. On the same day, it will provide the original vehicle data of the vehicle half an hour before the incident to the owners of Anyang.

Tesla said that the vehicle’s identification and testing content is mainly the analysis of the cause of the traffic accident and the identification of brake quality. The identification materials are the vehicle itself, the accident certificate, and related audio-visual materials. The inspection of the automobile brake system will be carried out by a combination of actual vehicle survey and vehicle data. All qualified domestic appraisal agencies have the appraisal and inspection capabilities and permits for the above-mentioned content.

The cousin of the activist car advocates lady previously publicly stated that she was worried that the “brake failure” vehicle has been repaired by Tesla, and that Tesla will automatically clean up the previous fault information after the system restarts, causing the third-party testing agency to fail to detect the truth. result.

In this regard, Tesla said that the vehicle data is that the vehicle gateway reads the signals of various components in the vehicle and stores them in encrypted driving. The stored data is recorded using encryption technology, and related data cannot be directly read, modified, or deleted. In the event of product quality disputes, Tesla will provide true and complete vehicle data in accordance with the law.

Second question:

Who will be the third party to inspect the Tesla accident vehicle?

On the evening of April 21, Tesla announced the progress of the rights protection incident on Weibo, and also urged the Zhengzhou Municipal Supervision Bureau to designate an authoritative and qualified third-party testing and appraisal agency to carry out testing and appraisal work to restore the truth as soon as possible. , “No matter what the test result is, we will accept it.”

According to Ms. Zhang’s previous introduction, on February 21, the Tesla driven by Ms. Zhang’s father had a car accident due to a brake failure and his parents were hospitalized. Ms. Zhang later requested a refund of the car, but Tesla asked the insurance company to repair the car and sell the car.

Ms. Zhang’s cousin previously stated publicly that Tesla had provided a 5.09-second background driving data showing that the Tesla’s speed reached 118.5km/h at the time of the accident, while Ms. Zhang’s cousin stated that the incident occurred at the time of the incident. During peak off hours, the 341 national highway has a speed limit of 80km/h, so the above data provided by Tesla is disagreeable.

Because of this, Ms. Zhang also refused to conduct third-party testing.

The response of the head of the Press and Publicity Department of Zhengzhou Market Supervision Bureau also confirms this point. According to reports, the Zhengdong New Area Market Supervision Bureau organized three mediations between the complainant and Tesla Motors Sales Service (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd. on March 15, March 18, and March 24, respectively. The complainant disagreed with the third party’s technical appraisal and requested “provide complete driving data half an hour before the accident occurred”. Tesla Motors Sales and Service (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd. refused to provide relevant data because of concerns that the data would be used by the parties for hype and publicity. Due to the large differences between the two parties, they could not reach an agreement.

On April 22, Zhengzhou Municipal Supervision Bureau and Zhengdong New District Municipal Supervision Bureau of Zhengzhou City both stated to reporters that as a mediation agency, the Municipal Supervision Bureau will not designate an appraisal agency. The appraisal agency is mainly composed of the complainant and Tesla. From time to time, third-party testing agencies with testing qualifications are all within the scope of options, not limited to Zhengzhou, as long as the two parties negotiate well, “anyone nationwide is possible.”

Three questions:

Can the identification test find out the truth of the incident?

Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Joint Council, told reporters that the institutions currently on the market basically only test mature and long-running technologies. Tesla’s software and systems are relatively new to some institutions. It is difficult to detect, and even if it can be detected, the process is relatively long.

On April 22, a reporter from the Beijing News Shell Finance and Economics randomly called a number of automobile testing agencies. The other parties said that they can perform hardware testing for vehicles, but if there is a problem with the software or system, the existing technology of the agency cannot be guaranteed. Detected.

“Tesla has its own brand protection and has set restrictions on private data, which cannot be read by the outside world.” The service personnel of one vehicle and one inspection told reporters that it is more difficult to detect whether Tesla really has brake failure. .

The other party explained that if the vehicle brakes fail, it is generally not a hardware problem, most of which are software problems, which can be identified through OBD computer testing and read engine and gearbox data, but Tesla uses its own internal Sensors and monitoring equipment obtain data and send it back to the headquarters, which cannot be done by external technical means, “even the approximate (data) cannot be read out.”

The other party further stated that if Tesla is willing to provide historical data, such as stepping on the brakes on the highway but not decelerating, and the brake lights are on but not decelerating significantly, these data may prove that Tesla may have a brake failure problem. , But this can only be provided by the brand.

“In this case, it is still recommended to find a manufacturer.” The service staff of Pony Testing Group told reporters that if a certificate of entrustment of the car 4S shop is issued, the car can be inspected in the group, but the group can only test for hardware problems, if it is a system problem Manufacturers are required to issue data and test reports, and the group cannot conduct tests in this regard.

“We have no way to detect, because we need to use Tesla’s special computer.” The service staff of the car inspector also told reporters that the company had done vehicle inspections for Tesla before, but it was mainly in terms of hardware and software. , The company uses OBD whole-vehicle computer testing. Because Tesla has many functions, OBD testing cannot be used. “Tesla’s battery and brakes are all controlled by software, and we can’t test it”.

The service staff of the car inspector told reporters that the software inspection is not completely related to the background data, and the Tesla software cannot be inspected because the inspection agency does not have the equipment. The service staff of Pony Group also said that if you get the background data, you can directly let the manufacturer analyze it.

Four questions:

What’s the current situation of car owners who defend their rights?

On April 19, at the Tesla booth at the Shanghai Auto Show, Tesla advocated that women wear “brake failure” shirts and stood on the roof yelling “Tesla brake failure”. The incident caused crowds to watch. . The woman involved was then taken away by the staff.

The next day, the Shanghai police notified that at about 11:24 on April 19, 2021, Shanghai Qingpu Public Security Bureau received a report that someone was making trouble in a booth at the Shanghai Auto Show. The police immediately rushed to the scene for disposal. After investigation, Zhang (female, 32 years old) and Li (female, 31 years old) went to the auto show on the same day to express their dissatisfaction due to a consumer dispute with the brand company. During the period, the two people used arbitrary noise in the booth area, which once caused chaos on the scene. Zhang also ignored the staff’s dissuasion and forcibly climbed onto the roof of a show car, causing damage to the vehicle to a certain extent. Currently, Zhang has been sentenced to administrative detention for five days for disrupting public order, and Li has been given an administrative warning for disrupting public order.

The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter learned from the relatives of the female car owner that she is currently in detention and will be released the day after tomorrow (April 24).

On the afternoon of April 22, when Tesla disclosed the latest progress, it said that it would provide the original vehicle data half an hour before the incident to the car owner. Given that the female car owner is currently in detention, it can provide an electronic version or mail it to the female car owner’s husband.

Five questions:

What is the latest statement of the regulatory authorities?

As the Tesla owner’s rights protection event fermented, official voices also appeared.

On April 20, Xinhua News Agency commented that as a “star” brand in the automotive industry, Tesla’s self-requirements for quality and commitment to users must match market expectations in order to gain more consumer trust and favor. . For enterprises, it is the right way to provide high-quality products and services.

Subsequently, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the State Supervisory Committee commented on the rights protection of Tesla owners and stated that companies must abide by the law, respect consumers, and respect the market. The Central Political and Legal Committee Chang An Jian also issued a document saying that Tesla must face the torture of Chinese customers. What is the responsibility? Where are you responsible?

On the night of April 21, the State Administration of Market Supervision issued a document stating that the rights protection of Tesla owners at the Shanghai Auto Show has attracted widespread attention. The State Administration of Market Supervision attaches great importance to it and has instructed the market supervision and management departments of Henan Province, Shanghai and other places to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers in accordance with law. At the same time, it is emphasized that enterprises must earnestly fulfill their main responsibility for quality and safety, and provide consumers with high-quality and safe products and services.

The China Consumers Association also issued a document stating that the first prerequisite for business operations is to respect consumers. Enterprises should implement product quality responsibilities in accordance with the law and take effective measures to protect consumers’ safety rights and interests. Enterprises are obliged to produce evidence to prove product safety, take measures to improve the quality of products and services, and show sincerity to resolve consumer demands involved.

Prior to this, the Zhengdong New Area Market Supervision Bureau ordered Tesla Motors Sales and Service (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd. to unconditionally provide the rights defending vehicle Ms. Zhang with complete driving data half an hour before the accident.

After a series of voices of supervision and public opinion, Tesla began to go from “uncompromising” to an apology, and then to providing vehicle data to cooperate in restoring the truth.

Writing | Beijing News reporter Lin Zi

Edit | Zhao Ze

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