James May shows why Tesla engineers are so smart, they come full circle to being fantastically stupid.

[MrPlow]

I think every automotive engineering team needs to have a mechanic to slap them with a giant, wet fish every time they come up with some sort of "genius" idiocy like this.

If I owned this car, and had to do this, even once, I would be so full of rage that I would go to Taco Bell and mumble curse words while eating my burritos. (that's pretty high on my rage scale, btw )

 

[Wylie6G72]

The oversights and afterthoughts are amazing.

 

[edyvw]

I said this few years ago: TESLA will need decades to catch up to other know-how stuff that took 100 years.
Cannot open car and hood unless battery OK? It is so dumb that it is an actual achievement!

 

[oggb]

Most hybrids are the same way. If the 12V battery on a Gen 2/3 Prius goes completely dead you have to crawl into the back of the car and pull a manual release to open the hatch in order to get to the battery.

Granted Toyota does give you jump points under the hood and the hood is a regular mechanical release inside the car...

Edit: as shown in this video it would seem that on the Model S there are jump points behind a panel on the front bumper.

 

[edyvw]

Most hybrids are the same way. If the 12V battery on a Prius goes completely dead you have to crawl into the back of the car and pull a manual release to open the hatch in order to get to the battery.

Granted Toyota does give you jump points under the hood and the hood is a regular mechanical release inside the car...

I bet others do have this, but BMW had jump points in the mid-1990s under the hood.
But, Elon.....

 

[Oillover]

Driving the vehicle more often would prevent the battery from dying in the first place.

 

[Passport1]

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.”
― Albert Einstein

 

[edyvw]

Driving the vehicle more often would prevent the battery from dying in the first place.

I know. Don't go anywhere so your TESLA doesn't die. Forget life. Life revolves around Elon and TESLA.

 

[CKN]

The biggest seller of sedans in the U.S.........

 

[edyvw]

The biggest seller of sedans in the U.S.........

This video tells you who buys TESLA. Jaguar parked in front.
The same goes in my neighborhood. Three actual vehicles, and then TESLA as a pet.

 

[Job]

Most hybrids are the same way. If the 12V battery on a Gen 2/3 Prius goes completely dead you have to crawl into the back of the car and pull a manual release to open the hatch in order to get to the battery.

Granted Toyota does give you jump points under the hood and the hood is a regular mechanical release inside the car...

Edit: as shown in this video it would seem that on the Model S there are jump points behind a panel on the front bumper.

The new version Prius has the battery under the hood. My question always has been on all of them, why not use the main battery? They already charge the 12v off the main battery. All of them have a buffer on the main battery, not sure about Tsla but others do. So there is always plenty of power to make the 12v. There must be a reason, and it's probably simple.

 

[DougR]

Don't buy the first year of a new model. In this case, perhaps do not buy in the first decade?

 

[oggb]

The new version Prius has the battery under the hood. My question always has been on all of them, why not use the main battery? They already charge the 12v off the main battery. All of them have a buffer on the main battery, not sure about Tsla but others do. So there is always plenty of power to make the 12v. There must be a reason, and it's probably simple.

I've wondered the same thing. I assumed that for the Prius powering up the battery controller, DC to DC converter, etc. is a big enough parasitic draw that the car couldn't sustain it for days at a time but who knows. For a plug-in hybrid like a Prius Prime or EV like a Tesla that argument really doesn't make much sense though. It's literally plugged into the wall. No reason they couldn't run the converter like a trickle charger. It's probably some liability thing where when the car says it's off, it's really and truly off.

I saw they moved the battery back under the hood in the Gen 4 but to be honest I sort of prefer it being in the trunk. The terminals don't corrode (as much), it's less stuff in the way in the engine bay, etc.

 

[Job]

The Volt has charging points under the hood, the hood can be opened like any car, the home charger keeps the 12v fully charged (I think), and the 12v battery, under the rear trunk floor, is not that hard to access. Plus there are plastic windows that enable the 12v to be charged in the trunk.

 

[Wylie6G72]

Electric door latch actuators.....another solution for which there was no problem. I first saw them on a CTS years ago, and wondered what you'd do if the battery died. So now they've engineered workarounds that any common thief can take advantage of. Well thought-out.

 

[edyvw]

Electric door latch actuators.....another solution for which there was no problem. I first saw them on a CTS years ago, and wondered what you'd do if the battery died. So now they've engineered workarounds that any common thief can take advantage of. Well thought-out.

Vehicles developed by people who hate vehicles.
These issues always remind me of that exchange between (I think) Richard Wagooner and Bill Gates about "what would happen if vehicles were developing as computers" when Wagooner said: it would ask you: are you sure you want airbag to open."

 

[cpayne5]

Humorous presentation by Captain Slow, but not a deal breaker for me.

 

[Job]

The biggest seller of sedans in the U.S.........

I don't know, looking at first quarter of 2020 I see Toyota and Honda sedans outselling all Tesla models combined. I guess if picking out one model and forgetting about the others, Tesla did sell more. The Camry and Civic alone were very close to the Model 3. I forgot what Corolla did, but it wasn't low. Not sure about now.

 

[ecotourist]

There are a number of ways for Tesla to solve this problem:

The regular battery is being charged when plugged in, independent of what is happening with the main battery.
The main battery keeps the regular battery topped up.
Do away with the regular battery entirely (maybe not that good an idea - as what happens when the main battery fails or is completely discharged?)
Have a mechanical way to open the doors and the frunk.
Put a plug-in somewhere to enable trickle charging the battery.

 

[edyvw]

There are a number of ways for Tesla to solve this problem:

The regular battery is being charged when plugged in, independent of what is happening with the main battery.
The main battery keeps the regular battery topped up.
Do away with the regular battery entirely (maybe not that good an idea - as what happens when the main battery fails or is completely discharged?)
Have a mechanical way to open the doors and the frunk.
Put a plug-in somewhere to enable trickle charging the battery.

Yes, but that would require TESLA to give a lot of independence to people interested in developing vehicles, not iPods. As once one Google executive who was working on EV's and autonomous driving said: I hope my child won't need DL. So the guy who is developing vehicles hopes his child won't need to drive?
TESLA and similar start-ups are going to have these dumb issues for years to come. You can't wake up one day and say: yeah, I know the rest of you make cars for 100 years, but let me show you how it is actually done.