Electric Cars: Chev Bolt seems to be the first practical one.

[xring100]

Tesla's autopilot features seem to be miles ahead of anyone else, there's no comparison and I would like to eventually own one. Actual road use of the cars on the road today was what that article covered and as I said, I was surprised Bolt compared so favorably.

GM is serious about bringing a fully autonomous vehicle to market first and be the technology leader. This will one up the tesla autopilot as you just have to give the car a destination and it will do the rest.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tran...logy-capability-scale-mary-barra?sf88146273=1

My wife does not want to be the first guinea pig out of the shoot but with her 130 mile round trip commute she would love it as it would allow her to relax.

 

[Redneck in training]

Unfortunately all of us taxpayers will be paying for the infrastructure required for those people that want to text or watch movies , or work on computer while car is driving . I don't like my taxes being used for that . The winners will be the insurance companies, Google and Tesla companies , the losers will be the tax payers that like to drive and already drive safely. What a waste !!! Learn to drive , learn to enjoy driving, learn to get off the cell phone and time management at work , and leave the rest of us have our tax money used for better things . just my two cents

There is no infrastructure associated with self driving cars. The Autopilot is stand alone system. If you don't like it you don't need to buy it or you can turn it off.

 

[houstonscott]

Anyone know about spark ignited diesels with high pressure air injection.

 

[MossRoad]

There is no infrastructure associated with self driving cars. The Autopilot is stand alone system. If you don't like it you don't need to buy it or you can turn it off.

Well, while there's no infrastructure needed, sooner or later its gonna be mandated, and you/we won't have a choice to buy it or not and probably not a choice to turn it off or not. Just like seat belts, ABS, air bags, 5mph bumpers, daytime running lights, crumple zones, tire pressure sensors, traction control, stability control, inside-the-trunk escape latches....

 

[MossRoad]

Anyone know about spark ignited diesels with high pressure air injection.

They suck!


There, I beat everyone to it....

 

[California]

you might get a kick out of this- i did , Tesla model X pulling a boat up a hill

@ 6:20 even some passing

Model X towing 225 kg/5 lb boat+trailer up the mountains - YouTube

I watched that, and said to myself the guy is nuts. He's pulling some 5,000 lbs uphill.

But its not as bad as it looks. It looks fast but he had his speed control set to 50 mph (80kph) maximum and slowed to 25mph at the corners. When he reached the summit and pulled over, he commented that the cooling fans soon switched off, they didn't run as much as they did after high speed autobahn cruising. So he seems to be operating within the specified limits of the vehicle.

Then just now I found this. Tesla is towing Airstream 'showrooms' around, writing sales orders at each stop. So apparently towing is both approved and promoted by Tesla.

 

[houstonscott]

I watched that, and said to myself the guy is nuts. He's pulling some 5,000 lbs uphill. But its not as bad as it looks. It looks fast but he had his speed control set to 50 mph (80kph) maximum and slowed to 25mph at the corners. When he reached the summit and pulled over, he commented that the cooling fans soon switched off, they didn't run as much as they did after high speed autobahn cruising. So he seems to be operating within the specified limits of the vehicle. Then just now I found this. Tesla is towing Airstream 'showrooms' around, writing sales orders at each stop. So apparently towing is both approved and promoted by Tesla.

Love the Airstream.

 

[California]

GM is serious about bringing a fully autonomous vehicle to market first and be the technology leader. This will one up the tesla autopilot as you just have to give the car a destination and it will do the rest.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tran...logy-capability-scale-mary-barra?sf88146273=1

I want one. But then I read through the following article and learned this new batch of 130 vehicles is only a test fleet. They won't be available to the public for several years.

Electrek article.

"The company is expected to start transitioning its test fleets to actual services for customers, likely first through the ride-sharing firm Lyft, in the next few years."

Bah humbug. I was ready to go write the check.

 

[vvanders]

I'm more intrigued with the autopilot than with having an electric car. On the Tesla S, it's an $8,000 option, so we'll see. I'm planning to sign up for a test drive, once the Tesla 3 is available.

Don't wait for the Model 3, they're happy to let people do test drives just to help raise awareness of EVs and Autopilot/etc. At least they were a few years ago when we bought ours. The guy giving the test drive was a retired lawyer who liked what Tesla was doing so much that he decided to donate his time for test drives/etc.

Autopilot is nifty but they've still got a ways to go. That said what they have now works really well, however the killer feature isn't bombing around at 75+mph, it's rush hour traffic. Being able to sit in stop & go without needing to constantly adjust gas/brake and instead just focus on exceptional circumstances(someone cutting in, etc) is a huge boon. Happy to answer any questions about it, we've had it for ~40k miles now and probably 1/3 of that is AP.

Also I'd be surprised if anyone other than Google or Tesla wins the autonomous car game. Tesla and Google are both software companies at their heart which has a completely different mindset then an auto company. GM doesn't have nearly the experience in ML, dealing with large data sets or the software engineering background to pull it off. Heck, you still can't even get over the air updates on their cars(despite most of them having OnStar/wifi) when something goes wrong with the software, you still have to drag it into the dealer.

 

[Redneck in training]

Well, while there's no infrastructure needed, sooner or later its gonna be mandated, and you/we won't have a choice to buy it or not and probably not a choice to turn it off or not. Just like seat belts, ABS, air bags, 5mph bumpers, daytime running lights, crumple zones, tire pressure sensors, traction control, stability control, inside-the-trunk escape latches....

You have to create obsolescence someway:laughing: to keep car makers in business.