FSD: It's Neither Full, Nor Self, Nor Driving

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[00:00:23] Hello everyone and welcome to Kilowatt, a podcast about electric vehicles, renewable energy, autonomous driving and much, much more.

[00:00:53] My name is Bodhi and I am your host and on today's episode we have some Tesla news that I promised you. And I just want to remind everybody this will be my last news show before taking the month of March off, which if you're an astute listener, it's March 2nd when I'm recording this. So I'm not taking the entire month off apparently. I still have a lot of editing to do and I have to post all that stuff.

[00:01:19] So yeah, it's my wife, my wife has been very understanding and very patient with me. And so is the rest of my family. So I appreciate that. All right, let's go ahead and dive into our Tesla news. Our first story is super fast here. It's just a little update. Tesla has officially started deliveries on the new Model Y in China. And that's the launch edition.

[00:01:43] Tesla has also opened up orders for the standard range rear wheel drive and the non launch edition all wheel drive. And if you order the Model Y rear wheel drive in China, they have a delivery estimate in two to four weeks in China. So that led Electrex, Fred Lambert to ask, is there a demand problem for the new Model Y?

[00:02:09] And my standard answer to this is maybe. We won't know for sure until Tesla releases official numbers. And if the demand is low, I doubt that they're going to tell us that the demand is low. And they also hide Model 3 and Model Y, you know, sales or delivery numbers together. So, but anyway, my point is rather than speculate, let's just wait to see the numbers.

[00:02:33] Moving on, Motor Trend has awarded the North America Charging Standard or NAX adapter its Best for Public Charging System award. So if you remember in like 2023, November of 2023, Tesla opened up their charging connector, previously known as the Tesla connector. And they called it the North America Charging Standard, which at the time I thought was very arrogant.

[00:03:02] Now, maybe not so much. But at the time I was like, you know, you're just assuming everybody's going to adopt this. But they opened it up for for other companies to adopt and adapt their vehicles to. And then soon after opening up, GM and Ford jumped on board. And then a bunch of other automakers and charging companies have jumped on board with this as well. And then the Society of Automotive Engineers adopted it and named it the J3400 EV Coupler.

[00:03:32] So if you hear J3400, that's the NAX adapter. Now, this is predominantly in North America because other regions have their own type of charging standard that they use CCS2, for example, in Europe.

[00:03:45] But I think everybody who objectively owns and or works in the EV space can acknowledge that the North America charging standard is way better than the CCS1 or the J1772 for level two charging and level one charging, I guess. So just not a not a great solution. The two of them. Yeah. So moving on.

[00:04:10] Elon, Elon recently said that Tesla would launch unsupervised self-driving in Texas and California in the second quarter of 2025, which we are now in. We know that Tesla is currently working with the city of Austin on being approved to operate the robo taxi service in the city and around Giga Texas. I guess you could see these robo taxis driving around. It's got a steering wheel.

[00:04:35] It's not driving on its own, but you can see them traveling around the area that Tesla owns, you know, on the property. We've now learned that Tesla has applied to operate their ride hailing service in California. Now, remember, Elon said that it would be unsupervised self-driving in Texas and California in Q2 2025.

[00:04:55] I said that might be their aspirations, but they're going to have to have somebody sitting in that driver's seat because the city leaders in Austin and whatever cities they're going to operate in California are not going to take the risk of approving. A new technology on the road without a driver. They're just not going to take that hit, even if some of these politicians were really like risk forward and like, yeah, let's move this this technology forward.

[00:05:24] They still wouldn't want to kill their constituents or people traveling through their areas. So my thought was they would have a driver. And based on the application sent to California is that they will have a driver for the unsupervised self-driving, the feature that they are promising for robo taxi. So I would imagine that if everything goes well, they can remove that driver like Waymo does.

[00:05:52] But for now, I think Tesla needs to prove that everything's going to go well. And it'll be interesting to see what that timeline looks like. All right. So we've talked about robo taxi. Let's talk about full self-driving. And actually, that's what we have for the rest of our stories, which is interesting.

[00:06:11] Tesla's full self-driving technology was recently approved in China and Tesla owners in China that are actually utilizing the service are getting hit with fines because of the FSD system. So I should note when I say Tesla's FSD technology or full self-driving technology, it's not called FSD or full self-driving in China.

[00:06:39] It's called Autopilot Automatic Assist Driving on Urban Roads. That's that's what it's called. It's not a great name. Maybe in Chinese it sounds better, but in English it sounds terrible. But what's happening is in China, you know, they have cameras places and they have automatic ticketing systems. So when a driver commits a moving violation, they get a ticket in the mail or notified somehow. I don't know if it's actually in the mail. There might be a more sophisticated system than that.

[00:07:05] Anyway, according to electric one Tesla driver received seven tickets during one drive. Not not like not like one drive multiple outings. You know, he didn't go to the grocery store and then to the restaurant and then, you know, to a friend's house and he got seven tickets. It was during one drive he received seven tickets while operating on China's version of full self-driving.

[00:07:31] Um, this is because the car drove into bike lanes and made illegal maneuvers. And this isn't the only person like I guess Chinese social media and Chinese websites are just kind of full of these videos of these cars just doing really silly things in China. Even still, though, if I'm going to take a more fairer approach to this Tesla drivers in China are impressed with how natural full self-driving feels.

[00:08:00] Here are just a few things that the system is doing. Um, it is. Swerving into or turning into shoulder and bike lanes on turns. So in China, the way I understand it is you have to you have to give room for bicycles. You can't just cut like you can't hear in the United States. You could you can't just cut that bike lane off. You have to actually give them some room. So that sounds like that's one of the things that is happening.

[00:08:27] Um, the other thing is like bus lanes. Uh, Elon talked about this on a recent earnings call. You know, sometimes the, uh, bus lanes are, uh, something that you can drive in during certain times of the day. And then, uh, during other times of day you can't. And I guess it's difficult to figure out when those times of the day are. And then there's, you know, things like being in a left or right hand turn only lane and the car going straight. So that's obviously a problem.

[00:08:57] I wonder what the ramifications will be for the folks using this technology and getting these tickets, because it's not just a financial burden. And I hope Tesla is paying those, those bills. But China has a social credit system. Um, so if you rack up enough violations for littering or, um, playing your music too loud or whatever, there's, there's a whole list of things.

[00:09:23] And I've did a podcast about this not too many years ago that, you know, on the social credit system, but you could pay more for a train ticket or a bus ticket, or you could be excluded. Like if you have a bad enough social credit rating, maybe you can't take the train and you have to take the bus if you're traveling a long distance. And that would, that could take significantly longer, obviously.

[00:09:45] So I wonder how these fines affect the individual driver's social credit score. Um, it could, it could be very serious. Uh, I haven't read anything to this point, so I'm guessing maybe it doesn't affect it, but yeah, I hope Tesla is taking responsibility for, uh, the, the infractions that are incurring when full self-driving is activated. Now, the other thing here is how do you know full self-driving is activated when this happens?

[00:10:15] That becomes a little bit harder to prove, but, uh, yeah, we'll definitely keep an eye on it. And then if you're curious about where regulatory approval is for full self-driving in Europe right now, Tesla said they're just, they're just waiting on it. They they've submitted all the paperwork. They're just waiting on approval to start rolling it out. And our final story, it's a quick one. There wasn't a lot of news, uh, that wasn't political in our finals news.

[00:10:45] There's a new class action lawsuit in Australia against Tesla, Australia and Tesla us over claims of hardware three defects. So the law firms that are putting this class action suit together, they, uh, they're recruiting anyone in Australia who owned or leased a model three or model Y from, uh, May of 2021 to February of 2025.

[00:11:10] And there are three specific issues that, um, they think are defects in hardware three first. And I'm reading this straight from the, the lawsuit. Actually, I'm reading it straight from the article that took it from the lawsuit. Tesla vehicles have the propensity to autonomously engage automatic emergency braking abruptly in inappropriate circumstances leading to a risk of collision. That's true. I've had that happen.

[00:11:39] Uh, they lack the ability to achieve or even come close to achieving the advertised maximum range or the range displayed on the vehicle's dashboard when the battery is greater than 50%. And, uh, I say that's true, except for when you put in, uh, if you, if you navigate, I have found, uh, that it gives you an accurate reading of what your range will be when you get to your location or when you get to your charger.

[00:12:08] So I, I, I, I'm not saying I don't agree with that. I'm just saying, and there's a lot of unknowns when you get in your car and, uh, you're, you're going to be traveling to X, Y, Z spot. I don't know why Tesla does this. You know why they say they, you have more range than you do. And then as you, you know, get closer to, you know, that 0% number, it becomes more accurate. It seems like they could probably fix that if they wanted to.

[00:12:35] And their final issue that they are, um, suing over is despite statements or representations to the contrary, the hardware on Tesla vehicles is incapable of fully autonomous or close to autonomous driving. And, and this is accurate in 2016. Elon said it was at the hardware to event.

[00:13:00] Elon said that Tesla vehicles, uh, produced from here on out from 2016 all the way, you know, till the end of time would be capable of full self-driving. And, and they just weren't. Elon also said on a, uh, I think it was an earnings call just after that, that Tesla would be, um, doing a coast to coast trip with zero interventions. I think it was like in a model S or model X at the time with hardware too.

[00:13:28] And that was, you know, when, what were we saying? 2016, I will give Elon credit and say it was in 2017 that he said this, although I think it was still in 2016. He said it, uh, we're still, we're still waiting on that, uh, coast to coast trip that had zero, um, interventions. So we'll, we'll, we'll see if we find that. I mean, he has, uh, we'll, we'll give him two more years to make that claim accurate.

[00:13:56] Um, although he said it would happen by the end of whatever year he originally stated it. So yeah, that that's, uh, definitely a problem. I do want to take a moment and thank all of our patrons. So we're going to start with our ACAST plus members, and then we'll move on to our patrons. And I think, I think we're going to start with our OG patrons first. So for ACAST plus, let me pull that up here.

[00:14:24] We're going to start with 2023 and that is Sean. And then in 2024 we have, and I'm just going to use your nicknames here because I don't have your actual names. Cause ACAST plus it's not very, uh, transparent when it comes to this kind of stuff. So, um, in 2024 we have GeoHull, Analytical Agnostic, and 2025 we have Bike Swimmer. And those are all our ACAST plus members.

[00:14:54] And then when we get to Patreon, we're going to start with 2018. And, uh, we still have our number one patron, James, who is, uh, he's the host of, uh, True North EVs. And I would highly encourage you to go check out what James doing at True North EVs. And then we have Mark, Nate, Cameron, Dawn, Dale. And then that brings us to 2019.

[00:15:26] Excuse me. Chris, B, Chip. Those are the folks who have been with us since 2019. And then we have in 2020, Tommaso. And that's actually it for 2020. Tommaso is, is the, the holder there. And then 2021, we have Rolando, Bruce C, Howard, Isaiah, Bruce W, Steve S, Jerbo, Joseph B.

[00:15:56] And that gets us into, let's see here, that gets us to 2022. FriendlySleet66. AlkiBob, Alex F, Stephen E. I'm almost reading your last names here. Christopher R. And that is all for 2022. And then 2023, we have Don M, Jamie H, Chris B. In 2023.

[00:16:26] Gene R, Scott R, Electron Raceway Fabricator. And Charles F, just another Nick. And John B, Paul, S-S, Charles S. And that gives us to, that gets us to 2024. Steve K, KiwiGram, Jerbo again.

[00:16:56] Jerbo. So, Patrick 44, Brad W, Fallen in C, Brian S, Frank P. And that gets us to 2025, which is Lynn Y, Dave L, and Bruce M. And I just want to say, whether you've been here since the beginning or you're a more recent supporter of this show, doesn't really matter to me.

[00:17:25] Thank you very much for supporting the show. It means a lot. All of these folks that contribute to the show help keep the show going. It's not overly expensive to do this show, but it's not cheap. So, your contributions are not lost on me. I appreciate each and every one of you for contributing. If you'd like to join these folks, you can go to patreon.com forward slash kilowatt or support kilowatt.com. Or if you don't like Patreon for some reason, you can always go and check the show out on ACAST+.

[00:17:54] There's links in the show notes. Thank you, everybody, for listening. I hope you all had a good month, and I will see you in April. Please don't stop subscribing. I promise you I have good content. I worked through January and February, and in one case December, to make sure to bring you this content so that you would have something when I took a break. And it was something of substance. So, I hope you all enjoy the shows in March. All right, everybody. Have a great March.