Redd

I think ZF just manufactures the mechanical transmissions. While "Mechatronics" in the larger outside world means "mechanical and electronic hybrid systems" i.e. the transmission, plus the electronic modules or computers controlling it. (Probably Bosch?)

So if the gearbox was physically fine, it could just need an electronics control board, to properly power up the solenoids that replace clutches, or throw clutches. But in Audispeak...You can charge the customer so much more for "Mechatronics" that for something like a "computer". Which the customer knows is $299 at Best Buy. [sic]

Mike_k

Tesla has a nationwide network of fast chargers that cost nothing to use, or at least up until recently they didn't. The newer Model 3s will have to pay a nominal fee to use them.

Mike_k

I don't know about the specific story you're talking about but I do know that Tesla has been the victim of several smear campaigns. Not really because people want to see them fail but more along the lines of what happens with Apple. Tesla stories equal page views. Tesla scandals equal TONS of page views. Go back and look through the history of the iPhone. Remember antennagate? It was a non-problem. You had to hold your phone in a painfully awkward way and it would eventually lose it's signal until you adjusted your hand. But it was a huge scandal and Apple ended up giving everyone bumpers to stick over their phones to prevent the problem. After those bumpers came out did every phone have them? No, most didn't. But did people still complain about the antenna problem? No, because it never really was a problem that would occur in real life use. The same goes with the purple flare in some photos on recent phones. That was a huge scandal for a few days and then fizzled.

Top Gear famously had the original roadster run out of electricity on their track even though it didn't run out of electricity. They just thought it would be a good story and since Top Gear is fiction, the courts sided with them. The point is it's not beyond reason that people are making problems up or embellishing them. I've had three Model S's. My first was a salvage car that was fixed so I don't count it for problems but it didn't have any anyhow. My second was a 2013 early build car. The car itself was awesome. Everything Tesla made was amazing. Everything they didn't, sucked. The key wouldn't read much of the time, it always told you it's battery was dead, the tire pressure sensor system had to be reprogrammed something like 6 times before Tesla eventually ripped the entire thing out of the car and retrofitted one from a newer car. And I'd later find that Elon said that for the older cars they couldn't get the top tier suppliers to take them seriously and so they were forced to go to lower tier suppliers who gave them substandard products. I'm happy to say that my 2015 P85D has been a peach. It hasn't had a single problem, error code, door handle not presenting, etc. Nothing. It's an amazing car.

Tesla is already accomplishing things that people insisted would never happen and could never happen. I've been watching stories for years about the problem of the day and what will become their undoing this time. A couple years ago it was the drive units on the early Model S's. It's always something. As long as people click the headlines there will be problems.

And I'd tell them not to buy an electric car right now. Wait. Innovative technology draws in early adopters who pay a premium for it and subsidize innovation which eventually adds features that others were holding out for. The Model S subsidized the Model 3. The Model 3 will subsidize even more charging infrastructure. Look at the iPhone (2 iPhone comparisons in one post!). The first iPhone couldn't even receive picture messages or cut and paste and people swore it was junk because of that but it was actually still cutting edge. And as those features trickled into the phone with each subsequent new model, more naysayers were brought in and bought. That's how this will go. Eventually it will be ubiquitous. But these things happen exponentially. That charging network is going to be here (and everywhere) before you know it and faster than you ever thought could happen. That said, for 3 years now my S has been it in terms of cars. Our other is an i3. I've never had to rent a car because the S couldn't take me anywhere.

For some reason nobody can make these. BMW has similar issues with the mechatronics on their cars for years.

I'm a car enthusiast. I love cars. I love German cars. I loved my A8's, I loved the 6 or so various 5 series I had and this Q5 is an absolutely delight to drive. All that said, I'd rather have a Tesla with 150,000 miles on it than an Audi with 50,000. Simplicity is the name of the game for high mileage and the amount of over-engineering, combined with Audi's inability to use plastic that doesn't turn to dust after 100,000 miles conspires to make high mileage Audi ownership a challenging proposition. It's the same reason I don't own an M5. I love the car and have tremendous respect for the engineering behind it but in terms of cost proposition, it just doesn't make sense to own. Maybe the problem is that I need more money! :-D