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Dave Rahardja

This is excellent reporting. Reuters somehow got their hands on seven years of internal service records, as well as internal communications from service technicians and engineers.

What they found is pretty shocking to me. Repeated catastrophic failure of suspension parts. Power steering suddenly disabling itself. Evidence of denying warranty coverage. Failures that forced a recall in China that continued to be shipped in the US.

Pretty damning stuff.

“Tesla blamed drivers for failures of parts it long knew were defective”

reuters.com/investigates/speci

20 Dec 2023 at 20:07 | Open on sfba.social
28 comments
Diane 🕵

@drahardja

I really hope some less scummy companies can reliably make electric cars soon.

Like there's a promising looking suburu/toyota car but it's also on it's first generation of full electric.

20 Dec 2023 at 20:11 | Open on octodon.social
Dave Rahardja

@alienghic My eyes are on the Germans. VAG, BMW, and especially Mercedes are coming up with really compelling and (true to German automotive heritage) over-engineered EVs that should be quite reliable.

My eyes are also on Hyundai. Their IONIQ line of cars are proving to be very good.

It’s disappointing to see Toyota and Honda hemming and hawing and reluctantly dipping their toes in, instead of embracing the tech. I don’t expect anything great to come out of Japan any time soon in the EV department.

20 Dec 2023 at 20:21 | Open on sfba.social
Steve Canon

@drahardja @alienghic It sounds like Toyota is moving aggressively now that they think they have a good enough battery roadmap. It'll take a few years for that to translate into real cars, but they seem to be actually doing it now.

Don't sleep on the Chinese, either.

20 Dec 2023 at 20:41 | Open on discuss.systems
Dave Rahardja

@steve @alienghic I’m actually partial to Toyota’s PHEV plan, and I think the Prius Prime is the most practical everyday car available in the US today. But they do need to embrace EVs to capture the growing market. Glad they’re finally trying to do it right.

I’m bullish about the Chinese company Geely because it’s a majority owner in Volve/Polestar and Lotus, and those companies are producing really compelling electric platforms on which to build new vehicles.

Other domestic-only Chinese EV companies seem to struggle with quality and reliability issues as they seem to lean too much on flashy features and not enough on the fundamentals, probably to keep costs extremely low. I don’t see evidence that they’re going to break into the global market any time soon.

@steve @alienghic I’m actually partial to Toyota’s PHEV plan, and I think the Prius Prime is the most practical everyday car available in the US today. But they do need to embrace EVs to capture the growing market. Glad they’re finally trying to do it right.

I’m bullish about the Chinese company Geely because it’s a majority owner in Volve/Polestar and Lotus, and those companies are producing really compelling electric platforms on which to build new vehicles.

20 Dec 2023 at 21:14 | Open on sfba.social
Diane 🕵

@drahardja @steve

I thought AC propulsion's liquid fuel engine trailer was a neat idea.

Why carry around an engine when you don't need it most of the time.

evnut.com/rav_longranger.htm

It'd probably be even better if something like that was available and we could drop the size of the battery packs some.

Though if the new rapid recharge battery chemistries work out maybe it wont matter.

20 Dec 2023 at 21:41 | Open on octodon.social
Dave Rahardja

@alienghic @steve The problem in the US is the awful state of the charging infrastructure. Doesn’t matter what your car can do if you can’t find a charger to give you the juice.

20 Dec 2023 at 21:43 | Open on sfba.social
Diane 🕵

@drahardja @steve

The charging infrastructure is reportedly better in North America than South America.

electrek.co/2023/12/17/the-fir

And the high recharge rate batteries Toyota was teasing are still several years away, so there's still more time to build out chargers before it matters.

20 Dec 2023 at 21:54 | Open on octodon.social
Ewen Bell

@drahardja

"Other domestic-only Chinese EV companies seem to struggle with quality and reliability issues as they seem to lean too much on flashy features and not enough on the fundamentals, probably to keep costs extremely low."

Well put. Have ended up with a few rental cars made by lesser known Chinese makers and you don't realise how much refinement and functionality is missing until you're behind the wheel. In some cases the flashy tech is dangerous, getting in the way of driving.

20 Dec 2023 at 23:01 | Open on photog.social
Diane 🕵

@drahardja

I was also looking at Mozilla's review of car company privacy policies and the South Korean companies are pretty bad.

foundation.mozilla.org/en/priv

KIA's privacy policy says they can collect data like sexual orientation and religious or philosophical beliefs.

Hyundai's list of data collected isn't quite as bad though " “disability status” and “citizenship” to waaay more broad ones like “medical information,”" isn't great.

Hyundai also has had some pretty bad information security blunders including using a private key from a public posted example

From Mozilla's perspective BMW was the least bad car company available in the US. (Renault was a bit better, but they also only sell cars in the EU, and so the GDPR is working as intended)

@drahardja

I was also looking at Mozilla's review of car company privacy policies and the South Korean companies are pretty bad.

foundation.mozilla.org/en/priv

KIA's privacy policy says they can collect data like sexual orientation and religious or philosophical beliefs.

20 Dec 2023 at 20:43 | Open on octodon.social
Dave Rahardja

@alienghic Ohh yeah that’s that. Can’t wait for my Hyundai to tell them about my sex life.

I’ll stick with the BMW i4.

20 Dec 2023 at 21:09 | Open on sfba.social
moggie

This makes me grateful I no longer drive.

@alienghic @drahardja

21 Dec 2023 at 0:41 | Open on sfba.social
Diane 🕵

@EverydayMoggie @drahardja

If you can pull it off there are many advantages to not using a car.

21 Dec 2023 at 1:45 | Open on octodon.social
Jonathan Wright

@EverydayMoggie

I'm glad I don't drive either.

This and so many other benefits, in spite there being the obvious disadvantages of it being more difficult to get around, and of buying larger/heavy items from the store (I have to pay to get them delivered, and have the inconvenicens of staying in all day waiting arrival).

21 Dec 2023 at 5:17 | Open on mastodon.world
Jonathan Wright

@alienghic @drahardja

Another reason I'm glad I don't have a vehicle. That said, I'm certain my personal data is collected in many other ways.

I walk everywhere, or use public transport if I really must. If I can't get where I want to go using either of these methods, I simply don't go. I am contemplating getting a pushbike.

"So sad" you say, but I believe car drivers are the sad ones. They've become slaves to them, and simply can't imagine life without them.

21 Dec 2023 at 5:14 | Open on mastodon.world
Aaron - Looking For Work ✅

@drahardja Kinda sorta almost seems like Tesla isn’t exactly great at building cars or running a healthy (except for shareholders) company.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

20 Dec 2023 at 20:36 | Open on social.aaroncrocco.com
Carsten Franke

@drahardja wait, the guy running a crappy dishonest social networking site is running a dishonest crappy car company?

20 Dec 2023 at 20:46 | Open on mastodon.social
Fisher

@carstenfranke @drahardja Suddenly I hear the sound of Starlink satellites crashing through the neighborhood’s rooftops

21 Dec 2023 at 4:54 | Open on infosec.exchange
bouriquet

@drahardja Junk.
A disservice to acceptability of EVs

20 Dec 2023 at 23:00 | Open on mastodon.social
DB
Ferfer72

@drahardja
Wait. Are we saying that Elon Musk is evil? I'M SHOCKED!

21 Dec 2023 at 2:18 | Open on mastodon.social
jay 🌺

boost with CW: Tesla (leaks, deception)

21 Dec 2023 at 4:05 | Open on weirder.earth
Carl T. Bergstrom
Dave Rahardja

@ct_bergstrom Yes. I was going for “That’s incredible!” as in a positive way, but I can see how that can be misconstrued.

21 Dec 2023 at 4:48 | Open on sfba.social
Rob Vanwey

@drahardja imagine... the world's biggest fraud's biggest money maker is, itself, a fraud. robertvanwey.substack.com/p/th

21 Dec 2023 at 4:36 | Open on mastodon.sdf.org
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦

@drahardja

> Failures that forced a recall in China that continued to be shipped in the US.

One of the major ironies of life is that the horrible, mean, nasty, evil Chinese government (and I'm only being a little bit sarcastic: the Chinese government *is* vile in many ways!) offers its citizens far better consumer protection than does the good guy (totally sarcastic here, mind) USA.

This leads to an interesting, and unexpected, phenomenon.

(1/2)

21 Dec 2023 at 5:19 | Open on mastodon.online
🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦

@drahardja

To the surprise of many, Chinese products sold in China are often more expensive than the *identical* products sold in the USA. Why? Because the consumer protection laws in China make companies have to service or accept returns where in the USA the fallback on almost everything is "caveat emptor" so it's no risk of returns.

(2/2)

21 Dec 2023 at 5:20 | Open on mastodon.online
remote procedure chris

@drahardja i can't even make a post dramatically exaggerating the absence of regulatory action against tesla at this point. "next year we're gonna find out they just randomly explode" like there's just nowhere left to go

21 Dec 2023 at 5:21 | Open on tech.lgbt
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