Tesla Teardown Reveals Driver-facing Electronics Built By iPhone 6 Suppliers 158
Lucas123 writes: The Tesla Model S gets attention because it's an EV that can go from from 0 to 60 mph (96 km/h) in 4.2 seconds and can travel 265 miles on a single charge. But, a teardown of the vehicle by IHS Technology has also revealed that Elon Musk avoided third-party design and build routes used traditionally by auto makers and spared no expense on the instrument cluster and infotainment (head unit) system, which is powered by two 1.4Ghz, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra processors. IHS called the Tesla's head unit the most sophisticated it's ever seen, with 1,000 more components than any it has previously analyzed. A bill of materials for the virtual instrument cluster and the premium media control unit is also roughly twice the cost of the highest-end infotainment unit examined by IHS.
two or three Tegras? (Score:5, Informative)
"powered by two 3, 1.4Ghz, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra processors"
Couldn't find those details in TFA, but from (the much more readable) article at: http://recode.net/2014/10/14/w... [recode.net]
seems to imply that should read:
"powered by two 1.4Ghz, quad-core NVIDIA Tegra processors"
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No no no, it's a new processor running at PI GHz. It's the autocorrect software that messed up the punctuation.
And it takes forever for the system to figure out the correct clock speed...
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And it takes forever for the system to figure out the correct clock speed...
That will come in handy if your Tesla ever gets taken over by the spirit of Jack the Ripper.
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Value (Score:5, Insightful)
So it's expensive, but at least you get what you pay for.
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TFH says it was built by Foxconn, but TFA does not. TFA says it was built by a third party like the way Foxconn builds for Apple.
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Re:Value (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what I was thinking. Sure beats some manufacturers, whose idea of a "premium" vehicle is a base model with nicer trim and a few extra parts.
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Like GM.. Add shiny plastic, crap leather and call it the "premium" version.
Nothing says luxury... (Score:4, Funny)
Nothing says luxury like simulated wood grain accents.
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Nothing says luxury like simulated wood grain accents.
... and Bose stamps on your cheap Chinese speakers.
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Nothing says luxury like an exclusive price that the nobodies can not afford. From wine to clothing, price defines quality and egoistic gullibility defines worth. Luxury is no longer about any values other than exclusivity where excluding the majority from it and being able to pose with it, is what it really is all about.
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I think this is so true, and to a large extent I think it's what helps drive the growing wealth gap.
Capitalism and technology over the last 40 years have gotten so good at delivering high quality consumer goods at low prices it has become much more difficult for the wealthy to differentiate themselves with material goods.
In order to do so, they have to pursue quantity and quality of goods at extremes beyond I think what was historically necessary. To do so requires a lot of money and I think shafting the
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Unfortunately it also generates large amounts of pollution and waste a huge amount of resources. It also corrupts the economy resulting in huge wasteful losses. It affect nothing says luxury like psychopathy.
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Luxury is no longer about any values other than exclusivity where excluding the majority from it and being able to pose with it, is what it really is all about.
And when was luxury ever not like this?
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A nomadic tribe comes across a hot spring and bathes in it's waters, the whole tribe shares in this experience, now that's a luxury for the whole tribe. The same with any other special treats upon their nomadic routes, shared treats, not psychopathically exclusive treats.
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Cadillac Cimmaron?
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I like the Dodge approach - build one level of trim, then strip out the customer facing "cool stuff" to make the base model... all the underpinnings are still there, base model probably costs about the same to make as the premium.
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I'd say that's actually WORSE for the consumer, since now I'm sort of subsidizing the premium model, and not getting the benefit.
I'd expect the lower cost models to cost significantly less to make!
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The safest car the NHSTA has ever tested, for one thing?
Re:Value (Score:5, Informative)
No. The question was 'what is Tesla bringing to the table that you think makes it more than "nicer trim and a few extra parts"?'.
And, frankly, if you need to ask what Tesla brings to the table, you haven't been reading much /. lately. A week doesn't go by without 5 Tesla articles.
What Tesla brings to the table are:
A complete electric drive train
Performance to rival a sports car/supercar (depending which options you get)
Free charging at their superchargers for the life of the vehicle
Battery sizes that are considered best in class, if not best in any class
A modern UI on the dashboard with free updates both to the UI as well as the mapping system (so far)
A good warranty (8 year, unlimited mile?)
Handling that's adjustable, from as smooth as a Lexus to as stiff as a sports car
[I'm sure there's more that I can't think of currently]
As for what makes it a luxury car, I'm not really sure. Probably it's price.
The leather quality isn't as good as other luxury cars I've been in
Ditto the stitching
Other than that, I can't think of anything that's considered standard in a luxury car that the Tesla doesn't have.
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Free charging at their superchargers for the life of the vehicle
Probably a very big plus. But I still can't afford one.
Also, this reminds me: How is road tax collected? (aka, "Road Vehicle Fuel Tax" that you pay "at the pump" when refueling a non-electric vehicle)
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I suspect that will be addressed in the near future.
In the short term, I am OK with gas cars subsidizing electric cars if it encourages more EV powertrain development.
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A number of states are pondering how to deal with this -- checking odometers, for example.
Mine currently considers it part of the incentive to go electric and we skate on it.
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The Tesla has a different powertrain and by the nature of being an EV powertrain it has better infotainment systems.
Actually, I disagree with this part. What does the EV powertrain have to do with the infotainment system? For one thing, the Tesla (all electric) Roadster didn't have a particularly good infotainment system. Other electric cars don't have the large customizable screens. Also, other luxury cars have LCD displays that show more than the map. Internal combustion engine cars are coming out now with iOS integration.
Tesla just does better than the rest (for now).
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Wait, what?
The entire body is built in a different way. The primary body components are a "sled" with the powertrain and battery packs. This rigid sled makes the vehicle's center of gravity substantially lower than any other vehicle and makes the passenger compartment substantially more rigid. Both of these things result in a much higher safety than any other vehicle on the road.
Second, the vehicle is entirely drive-by-wire, which may scare the luddites, but is really the future of automotive technology.
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This "sled" looks exactly like an old-fashioned chassis, as used in trucks and the VW beetle.
So the roof of the Tesla is not structural: Does this mean we can expect to see home-modified "convertible" Tesla-Ss in future, as we did for the Beetle?
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Perhaps when they start to cost what a beetle did people will start hacking them up like they did to beetles.
Given the way the car is designed though, it's probably far easier to do that then with most other cars.
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>you get what you pay for
you get >100W power consumption when IDLE because they couldnt figure out a way to boot it fast enough for the user to not notice that his dash display doesnt work right away after entering the vehicle.
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Of course it's not perfect. I seem to recall hearing about that issue. I wonder if they considered giving people a choice. I think most users would rather see boot-up messages scroll by than have the equivalent of a bright incandescent burning in their garage all night long.
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Of course it's not perfect. I seem to recall hearing about that issue. I wonder if they considered giving people a choice.
I don't think it's a real problem. Any laptop on the market today can go from sleep mode to fully usable in less than a second; barring implementation bugs, why shouldn't the electronics in the Tesla computer be able to do the same?
Booting up is something that only needs to happen if the batteries ever completely drain.
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I don't think it's a real problem
it was, Tesla used to burn 3KW per night, they fixed it
(some) cars are gadgets now (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh, wait, people aren't supposed to keep cars that long any more.
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Tell you what... let's wait till the self-driving model comes out, and then you can complain about not playing the latest games on the instrument cluster.
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The self driving model is out, it just needs a software update to actually have the autopilot functionality. All cars delivered today have the hardware and will be able to get the update.
I thought I'd also mention the top model now does 0-60 3.2 seconds (P85D), the 4.2 mentioned in the summary is the older P85. Probably an older article?
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1. Any car can be self-driving. SUCCESSFULLY self-driving is something entirely different. Does the Telsa have the full suite of sensors (including LIDAR) that the Google self-driving vehicles have?
2. The new "autopilot" feature will NOT be available on the existing base - it's just for cars being built now and in the future:
"Every single Model S now rolling out of the factory includes a forward radar, 12 long range ultrasonic sensors positioned to sense 16 feet around the car in every direction at all sp
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1. It doesn't use LIDAR which is way too expensive. Just cameras, ultrasonic sensors and forward radar. The self driving capabilities are modest for now: lane keeping, changing lanes on command, distance keeping, etc. Many of those capabilities already exist in other cars, it's just an evolution of existing technology. It now actually allows you to take your hands off the wheel. Not as good as Google's cars, but those are many years away from the market while Tesla's simpler solution should be ready in a fe
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1. Their autopilot does look great, but it's quite a way from actually self-driving. Personally, I'd be worried about getting one of those systems - get used to it, and the next time I travel and rent a car, I'd then proceed to rear-end somebody on the highway! Certainly not Telsa's fault, not sure if I trust myself enough. :)
2. Got it, reread your post, and realize what you meant. At least as much my misreading as your misphrasing.
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The car clearly lacks enough sensors to become truly self driving. How is it going to avoid changing lane in front of a faster moving car, when it has no rear facing sensor with longer range than 12 ft? How is it going to tell the difference between a pole and a child on a bicycle before doing a right turn, when it only has simple sonar sensors in that direction?
They could at the very least have added more cameras. Cameras are cheap. Why not let the computer have 360 degree view of what is happening around
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Well Elon has said that legally speaking the car can't self drive. Technically speaking it can and he's said that if you fall asleep at the wheel you shouldn't get into an accident and most likely will just keep driving until you wake up (not sure if navigation is enabled if it can then take exits). But due to legalese one part of the autopilot is limited to private property (though it'll be interesting to know how the car determines if it's on private property or not). Namely you can exit the car and it'll
Re:(some) cars are gadgets now (Score:5, Insightful)
..with 1,000 more components than any it has previously analyzed.
Is that good? That's 1000 more things that could fail.
Re:(some) cars are gadgets now (Score:5, Funny)
Oh, wait, people aren't supposed to keep cars that long any more.
Cars don't last like they used to. I have seen several 100 year old Ford Model-Ts. I have never seen a 100 year old Tesla.
Re:(some) cars are gadgets now (Score:5, Funny)
You can see a 100 year old Tesla if you're prepared to do some grave digging.
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my 2000 honda accord lasted 12 years and 200k miles. and it ran great and was in great condition. it only went to the graveyard because I put it into a tree.
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You're absolutely right! The best known Tesla I'm aware of died at age 78:
http://earthenergyreader.files... [wordpress.com]
I'm not sure if there are any that made to be 100.
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Cars don't last like they used to. I have seen several 100 year old Ford Model-Ts. I have never seen a 100 year old Tesla.
I see a 21-year-old Ford Escort almost every day...
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The Ford agency does escort service now?? COOL!!!!!
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You think they just started now? So naive...
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Oh, wait, people aren't supposed to keep cars that long any more.
Cars don't last like they used to. I have seen several 100 year old Ford Model-Ts. I have never seen a 100 year old Tesla.
Would you accept 87 years old [sarajevo.co.ba]?
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But you can buy a 100 year old Baker Electric..... with original batteries that still work!
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Cars with 2G connections back tot eh mother ship are going to go dark soon as those system go off the air. It is hard to see a lot of manufacturers keeping servers alive for the whole 20 years car life for a lot of these features. Now GM is sticking wifi and 4G into their rigs. I'm a luddite for sure, but I just want a good reliable and fun car. Beyond the basic instrument cluster I really want any additions to be thought of on a couple decade scale.
To jazz things up for me, cars should come with:
1) A s
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for me, a car should come with:
mechanical door locks.
no radio - in fact, put a smooth plate over the DIN hole.
manual everything.
as little electronic jiz as possible. Hell, the only reason for a battery in a diesel is to turn the starter motor. It's not needed after that.
It's a mode of transport, not a fucking bling statement. Bling statements are targets for theft.
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The diesel car's battery is used for some pre-heating before start up?
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In the cold yes.
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preheating isn't needed with modern diesel mixes. Some pump oils (such as used on the Dalton) will start at -35C. #1 diesel turns to wax at -40C and will still turn over in a fairly well maintained engine at -20C. Should you find yourself in a situation of needing to start an engine in -50C like they do at the far North end of the Dalton after dropping a load of pipe or whatever, additives such as ethanol (which freezes at -114C) are added to the fuel in the tank to prevent it waxing.
Figures: http://www.af [energy.gov]
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Haha, not quite. If I forget to let the glow plugs do their thing, my Jetta will crank forever in cold weather. And I'm talking only around freezing (0C)
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Arguably also to control the fuel injectors (though they could be controlled mechanically I suppose)
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True enough with the injectors but you gain a lot from having them electrical. The fuel solenoid *could* go mechanical. Some diesels may not start without glow plugs but plenty can so that is not necessarily an objection.
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I have a 45 year old Land Cruiser that fits your requirements.
It's fun to drive, once in a while.. But gets old real fast.
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paying total attention to the road and not being distracted by the radio, GPS or anything else with flashy buttons and blinkenlights never gets old. And you don't talk to the driver. My bus, I'm God.
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Hell, the only reason for a battery in a diesel is to turn the starter motor.
Too lazy for crank-starting, eh?
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arthritis.
2G-wireless GPSs (re: rant.) (Score:2)
My Garmin Nuvi had some cool features that depended on 2G, like using Google search instead of just built-in, and also checking movies, weather, etc. It also used that to get traffic data, instead of whatever other traffic data services are available. Now the 2G wireless is going away, since the carrier won't renew the contract, so there's no more traffic data :-( But at least it's a separate GPS, so I could replace it if I wanted to. (Instead, I use the AM radio you dislike to listen to Traffic Every 1
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Oh, right, I never owned a 90s car :-) My wife's 1985 car lasted until 2001, my 1987 van lasted until 2012 (with one engine replacement), and I never played with the digital busses on either my 2012 car or my wife's 2001 car (which IIRC only had the dumber version of OBD, not the current CAN bus.) I suppose I should try that some time. Both of those cars have the electronic speedometer with analog readout you refer to.
Um, how is this news? (Score:5, Informative)
"Two NVIDIA Tegra processor modules are at the heart of the electronic components in the Model S, which "command a sizable price tag," according to Rassweiler. Here is a look at how they work."
Um no... Nearly all of Tegra3's design wins (including 2012 Nexus 7) were due to it being cheap...
Also, how is this news? It's been known for ages that the Tesla HU used Tegra3. http://www.theinquirer.net/inq... [theinquirer.net] (March 2013) - and I've seen documentation dating back as far as 2012 that Tesla was using the T3.
Re:Um, how is this news? (Score:4, Insightful)
because there hasn't been a Tesla Advertisement (news) within the last 24 hours.
also bitcoin
inB4... (Score:2)
... you're driving it wrong
Too many discrite components (Score:2)
The head unit has more than 5,000 discrete components...
That's characteristic of small-volume production. If Tesla were making enough units, they'd have more custom ICs made to get the parts count down.
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I'm currently designing a new product, and it's so integrated that it only has half an IC.
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I am not sure what the fascination over high component count. Does that mean all we have to do is make the next music player out of a million discrete 74xx IC and we will get a write up saying how good our product is?
This to me is beyond a small product run. It is a prototype designed over a weekend.
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You'll probably sell a ton to the bozos buying vinyl, tube amps, and expensive cables, because they think they're better.
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You forgot to tell all us whippersnappers to get the fuck off your lawn, grandpa!
No, that is what I tell the 6 digit UIDs to do.
Re:Too many discrete components (Score:2)
I'd expect most of them are sensors for the various battery and motor things, or components to connect the sensors safely to the other electronics (opto-isolators, etc. to keep potentially high random voltages and currents from frying the whole system.) Once you've turned the analog data into bits, even with small-volume production it'd be fairly easy to use an FPGA or programmable microcontrollers to do the rest, rather than building lots of custom discrete parts.
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You bring up an interesting point. Replacing your in dash computer system is probably ridiculously expensive.
I'd disagree about their target market being throwaway devices. They are quite vocal about trying to become the dominant electric car player.
That's not going to happen if 5 years after sale all the boards are fried, and the car doesn't work anymore.
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Yeah but when you buy a car, resale value is a HUGE thing people look at.
If Tesla really wants to be a good automaker, they need a good resale value.
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http://www.teslamotors.com/for... [teslamotors.com]
Ob (Score:2)
Those are for systemd.
Headline seems misleading (Score:2)
Luxury auto makers suck in electronics. (Score:5, Interesting)
Why wouldn't they just provide a simple docking station, allow the docked device access to the car speakers and stay away from building their own navigation and music players? They still think they can hold their customers up for ransom by demanding 1800$ for an integrated navigation system or 1200$ for the music player. No, just put in good speakers and allow us to bring our own devices into the car.
The lack of imagination of the auto makers is astounding. WiFi is what 15 years old? iPod is 10 years old? Why didn't they build a car with WiFi that will connect to your home, down load daily news, weather, traffic reports into the hard disk 10 years ago? After missing the boat then, now they are coming up with walled gardens of WiFi, memory storage in the car etc.
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lame (Score:3)
let me guess... the car doesn't run if you unplug the radio?
I cant stand the way they integrate radios so far into a car now that you have no option to replace it should you want to. I don't care how good this system is, many people who buy the car wont want it. I should be able to swap it out for anything I want. When I replaced my fords "Microsoft Sync" radio a while back it killed my entire dash. I had to spend $200 on a translation computer to replace the bit of the radio that controlled the dash.
Seriously, there's already an industry standard for car radios, screens, audio data, remote control, everything. Do us all a favor and follow industry standard.
What is this ad for? (Score:2)
Not sure if this "news" is an ad for Tesla or for iPhone.
Help, please?
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Except a lot of people here who think Musk can do no wrong absolutely hate Apple...
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It had better be reliable! (Score:5, Interesting)
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You do the same thing you do with mechanical parts, you buy OEM replacement parts (federal requirements require that a certain number of each part be produced for every x vehicles sold), buy a non-OEM compatible part, or you rebuild or replace the failed component. In the case of the computer controlled battery controller you would install a Tesla spare, a rebuilt Tesla part, another electronically controlled fan, or a simple thermostatically controlled fan with sufficient safety margin to not risk an overh
Doesn't have to be OEM (Score:3)
Also those that just have to have OEM p
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Uh, the neighborhood parts store is the epitome of the above in my original post, they stock or have access to stock of OEM, non-OEM compatible, and rebuilds for just about everything including cars that are out of manufacturer support. Thanks for supporting my point =)
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Very few cars made since 1988 do not rely on a single computer (or a group of computers) to run properly.
If you have a problem with computer-controlled cars, you need to keep your 1944 Ford running.
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Apparently TESLA headlines weren't getting enough clicks, so they had to shove IPHONE in there too.
This site is fucking pathetic.
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That was exactly my thought too. But at least it's better than the original headline, which was trimmed due to length: "Tesla teardown reveals driver-facing electronics built by suppliers for the iPhone 6, made by Apple, who uses Foxconn, home of underage mistreated slave laborers who kill themselves."
But the bigger question is, will a Tesla blend?
Re:What does this have to do with Apple/iPhone??? (Score:4, Funny)
Natalie Portman nude photos (Score:2)
It has nothing to do with nude photos of Natalie Portman either.
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Not even with hot grits?
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Only when reading Slashdot on a Tesla Model S.
Yes, that is possible. So is watching porn videos...not that it would be distracting or anything for the driver.
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oh they would be happy if they could just get away with shoving two tablets (300 bucks) into the instrument cluster and calling it a day.
tegra3?yeah, that's some sizeable price tag right there. not.
Re:Auto deals worried? Luxury Cars, biz models (Score:2)
No, besides disliking competition in general, auto dealers and car makers have two big reasons to try to block Tesla sales