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choripan

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  1. I agree completely. MB getting level 3 actually on the streets and available to consumers for personal vehicles (contrasted with robo-taxis) is great work. I limited the scope to US because it's not something I feel confident enough to speak on with authority. My understanding is that MB would be with or a tiny gap behind GM/Cruise, but I don't want to get "gotcha'd" down thread if I'm off because I overstepped my knowledge on it.
  2. This. My wife is [redacted] at [redacted], one of the leading thinktank/policy-type journals on AVs. She is also [redacted] at [redacted], one of the handful of leading test sites/fake "cities" where AVs are tested. She is an academic and not affiliated with any brand, like Tesla, MB, Ford, GM/Cruise, Google/Waymo, etc. At least in the US, it is Google/Waymo <gap> GM/Cruise <large gap> Ford and Tesla. The way I hear it talked about at dinner parties, mixers, etc., Tesla is not a serious contender to reach level 4, let alone level 5, and there are serious doubts that it can ever be level 3 with a camera only approach.
  3. Uh, that's the whole point, be careful in order to not to put the innocent public in danger, like Tesla does.
  4. Good example of why no system that only uses cameras can be safe, or why Tesla is getting lapped and is stuck at Level 2. With a proper system and sensor fusion, you would have caught the kid in time. Radar? Nope, not metallic enough. Cameras? Nope, obviously. LIDAR? Yep! That's why you need all three. They serve different roles to fill gaps in the capabilities of the others.
  5. Lot of cases, especially relating to tax treatment, where a lease makes sense. Especially for business owners. In our personal case a few months ago, we leased a PHEV Jeep Wrangler in order to get the full $7500 EV credit, and then bought it out as soon as we could get a payoff from the leasing company. That's thousands of dollars in our pocket thanks to leasing
  6. I mean, the Catera led to the Alpha-platform cars (CTS-V and ATS-V, and now CT4/CT5), which are one of the few cars you can meaningfully track and put four people in that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I hate Musk as much as the next guy, by the way. I'd also add that I'm anti-proprietary just-about-anything, and the closed-off charging network drove me berserk, not unlike Apple's lightning cord or the way they used to do iTunes songs... But ... I don't think I agree with the dominant sentiment here that going further down- and mass-market beyond the Model 3 is the play. I follow the auto industry at a distance, and there's a reason that many companies have dropped sedans and cheap cars -- they just don't make enough money per unit of capacity. And while I get the argument about cheap cars bringing customers to a brand for their future loyalty, the data don't indicate that customers are loyal enough to make it worth it and I don't think it's enough to offset making thousands than hundreds per car sold. I think the play for Tesla is not diluting the bread-and-butter of the brand too much by going downmarket, and refreshing their current vehicles. But at the end of the day, I think Tesla is a one-trick pony (very-arguably cool tech, big promises, cachet, and fast acceleration set against shoddy build and poor per-dollar performance in anything but a straight line) and others are catching up to their trick while they have no ability to create something "new" again.
  7. It's tough to say which I dislike more. Musk/Tesla or the new M3 brought to you by Bucees.
  8. Sooo fuckin' close to justifying billionaire defended, but I think it's more that the person didn't do their research rather than being like "fuck it, MAGA hat on wheels but now I gotta flimsily justify it."
  9. On the reliability issue, it's important to distinguish between issues that don't matter hugely and are easily fixed, like infotainment glitches, and serious issues, like steering wheels falling off or murderous and falsely-advertised full-self driving systems. Point being, IIRC Consumer Reports does not distinguish based on severity (infotainment vs. drivetrain, for example) when measuring incidents/reliability. May be JD power, though?
  10. I prefer to worry about rip currents, sharks, and (lately) especially orcas.
  11. For a real ass-puckering bridge adventure, may I suggest taking an iced-over Mackinaw Bridge on a cold, windy day? 200 feet above the water and 5 miles in total with a longest span around 3/4 of a mile long.
  12. Because other things may be unsafe, *my* thing is not unsafe? Am I following the logic here?
  13. Another datapoint. Sent my son's passport and passport card to State on Feb 3rd. March 15th, we get a letter in the mail saying that they can't process it because we need to send in the old passport card to get a new one. We have a picture of our packet with the passport card and passport and all that jazz attached just before dropping it in the envelope. Sigh. Same day, we filled out some form saying the passport card was "lost" (by them) and send that in. March 20th, we get an email that says "Application Status: Information Received, In Process Again." We shall see.
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