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Tesla scraps its plan for a $25,000 Model 2 EV
(arstechnica.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
So instead of trying to compete with BYD, they are leaving that space open for Chinese domination, and instead they are trying to catch up to the Waymo-Uber-Lyft race where Tesla has not even tried to compete yet.
To me, it just seems that Musk just doesn't believe in market capitalism and competition. Or that he's exceptionally terrible at it.
I believe a huge chunk of Tesla's valuation is based on their automation tech, despite having very little real success towards full automation. So they have to focus on that and try to prove they can deliver.
But I'm guessing they won't succeed, as there are fundamental flaws with the technology itself, that can't be solved by throwing more sensors at the problem.
But can it be solved by throwing less sensors at the problem? Cause that's what he's been doing. Removing sensors from the newer versions that were in the older ones.
Drop the cameras, add lidar instead. That's true 3d vision, which no amount of cameras can replace.
Someone told them the problem was just "too many variables", so they figured by taking away sensors, there are fewer variables. Therefore, better self-driving.
But people drive with just eyes, why can't cars drive with just eyes? Someone in Tesla accountint probably...
Elon has literally said exactly this so many times. I think it is probably possible to make a car drive with just vision, but you make the task monumentally harder by not having things that ground you in reality, ie. lidar.