This article is from the WeChat public: autocarweekly (ID: autocarweekly) , author: Karakush
The 315 party will be late, and the 315 spirit will last forever.
Recently, Tesla has been criticized by various circles for chip reductions.
The thing comes from the car owners have been exposed on the Internet, the domestic Tesla Model 3 they bought, equipped with HW2.5 (Automated driving hardware 2.5) chips, not the HW3.0 (Automatic Driving hardware (Hardware 3.0) chip.
Evidenced goods are not on the right board.
Under the focus of various exposures, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology interviewed Tesla on this issue last week, and ordered it to rectify immediately, effectively fulfill the corporate responsibility, and ensure production consistency and product quality and safety.
Tesla can hardly blame it. It is officially certified.
Everyone’s fair words are very reasonable. (please understand literally, don’t demonize the word) , here we will not I’ll go into more details, and more talk will become the right nonsense.
Only during the period of continuous fermentation, a large number of people rushed to criticize the situation of off target, and looked very sad. Not only do you have to scold you, you have to scold your ideas first.
Repeated with attitude and respectAh … it’s too much. To be a business, you must first return to the laws of the enterprise. Resby is not the first productive force.
In contrast, Tesla ’s past is that as a company, it has always been comfortable in the comfort zone of the spiritual age of three, and has not kept up with the growth of the user base in terms of architecture design. . For example, this time, rather than reflect on what went wrong, “Three-year-old” is still immersed in his three major illusions.
Illusion 1: The epidemic made me unable
The official response of Tesla to growing complaints on March 3 is to blame the outbreak. “Tesla’s Shanghai Super Factory resumed production and resumed production on February 10. During the period, based on the supply chain conditions, some of the standard endurance upgrade Model 3 installed hardware is HW2.5.”
This is a chicken thief. When the epidemic cap was buttoned down, it seemed as if there was a difficulty that everyone on earth could understand.
But supply chain problems have been around for a long time .
Introduced FSD (Tesla Autonomy Day) label = “Remarks”> (Fully autonomous driving) After the hardware HW3.0, Musk specifically said that models that will be mass-produced after April will be equipped with HW3.0.
We do n’t care if the man ’s mouth is a deceiving ghost. In fact, HW3.0 and HW2.5 have been mixed since then. This is true overseas as well as domestic imports.
Combining previous reports and discussions from various places, Tesla usually guarantees thatUsers who install FSD have arranged HW3.0. As for those who do not have the option, they are dropped randomly, and they are not all dimension-reduced. Of course, there are still HW2.5 mallets when the FSD is installed.
The reduction is indeed a reduction, but compared with the reduction of ordinary people, Tesla’s reduction is more pure. Because it does not save costs from the book. The hardware price of HW3.0, according to the official statement, is actually lower than HW2.5, which is 80% of the latter. Based on this, according to a report in the Economic Observer, some in the legal profession believe that Tesla is not motivated to deliberately deceive consumers.
It’s not expensive, why is Tesla doing this? New media travels proposed a hypothesis in November last year that could be a hindrance to the trade war.
Since 2018, Trump has imposed a 25% tariff on a range of goods imported from China, including electronic components. Tesla’s supply chain for autonomous driving hardware has been affected. For example, its “vehicle brain” Autopilot ECU (automatic driving control unit) module was assembled by hardware manufacturer Quanta Computer in Shanghai, China.
According to a report by TechCrunch in May last year, Tesla had applied to the US government to waive additional tariffs on purchases from China, stating that a 25% tariff would seriously damage competitiveness. However, there were no successful exemptions, as these components were considered to be “strategic” for the “Made in China 2025” plan.
In its application, we can see some dilemmas for Tesla.
First, there is no spare tire. Tesla claimed that they could not find a U.S. manufacturer that could replace Quanta, with the necessary expertise and the ability to produce ECU 3.0 with the required specifications and scale within the time plan.
Second, finding spare tires is too difficult. Tesla said that the entire process of the new Autopilot computer from development to production took six months. Because time is so tight, there is no room to test inexperienced suppliers. Choosing any other supplier requires time to lay out clean rooms, verify production lines, train employees, etc., delaying the entire project by 18 months.
In addition, the proportion of affected parts is not small. Tesla pointed out that more than 75% of the value of printed circuit boards for new computers comes from outside China. In other words, about 25% is from China and may be burdened by tariffs. Its cost advantage is not as obvious as HW2.5.
Tesla once stated in its defense that “imposing tariffs will force us either to find new suppliers, or to transfer cost increases to end users, or to reduce the operating costs of our internal operations.” Therefore, reducing HW2 .5, perhaps the comprehensive result of input-output accounting of the supply chain.
The trade war is not over yet, and new crown epidemics are coming one after another. From this perspective, Tesla seems to be the unlucky victim who was knocked down by a serial black swan.
A sting may be the problem of the goose; a continuous sting is the problem of Tesla. From last year to this year, the desperate supply chain was exposed. Although it is highly efficient, it is vulnerable to risk. Global sourcing is a carefree strategy in a liberal atmosphere. Especially in the uncertain international situation, the more custom-made and unique components, the greater the pressure on the global market.
For example, the new neural network chip in HW3.0 is produced by Samsung at its Austin, Texas plant. It is manufactured using Samsung’s 14-nanometer process and is packaged on a 260 square millimeter silicon chip. 100 million transistors.
Even our domestic Tesla, we have to import it. Not to mention others, after all, China is not yet capable of producing. China’s first 14-nanometer production line was formally launched by SMIC South Plant earlier this year.
Because the chip is specifically designed for Tesla’s own cars, many common functions have been stripped from the chip, leaving only the hardware needed by Tesla. And this kind of too specific design is more dangerous to the chip circle. For example, The Verge quoted expert opinions at the time and pointed out that the development of the AI field is very rapid. With the development of new autonomous driving methods, is Tesla’s internal design chip flexible enough to adapt to new algorithms?
This is another question about Tesla’s in-house preferences. For some people, there should be sub-children who make cars, and there should be sub-children who make chips. For example, HW2.5 is a drive PX2 computing platform customized by Nvidia and is dedicated.
In-house production has its own benefits, such as better control over quality. But not always good results. One failure case was Tesla’s acquisition of automation equipment maker Perbix in 2017 to automate production. As a result, the following year, Musk turned his head and said that he was too dependent on the assembly robot to cause the production capacity to fail …
But the latter considerations are a little further away.
Illusion 2: It’s too bad for consumers
From 3.0 to 2.5, the difference is five, and the error is thousands of miles away.
Musk once called 3.0 “objectively speaking” “the best chip in the world.” And not only is it better to be a little bit, but a big lead. In a word, the hardware computing power of HW3.0 is 21 times that of the old HW2.5.
From the perspective of consumers, as a high-tech product, Tesla has reduced its allocation at its core selling point, which has failed the consumer decision. Tesla has repeatedly emphasized that if there is no optional FSD function, using HW2.5 and HW3.0, there is basically no difference in driving experience and safety; and installing FSD will help you upgrade to HW3 for free. 0.
Only technology, I’m afraid Tesla is right.
Many people simply list the differences in hardware, and rashly conclude, “How can there be no difference.” For example, if you look at streaming on the screen, will it bring fluency above microseconds? Promotion.
Actually, there is no boundary.
On Tesla, the self-driving computer and the centrally controlled large-screen computer are two independent organizations. The big screen operation depends on the hardware version of the MCU (Media Control Unit) , and it has nothing to do with whether you are HW3.0 / 2.5.
At present, HW3.0 is more than HW2.5. It mainly adds visualization functions and can recognize ice cream cones. It must be equipped with HW3.0. Later, there will be more FSD functions, such as identifying traffic lights, automatic driving assistance in urban streets and other advanced functions, which are also only available in HW3.0, HW2.5 does not support.
But the premise is to buy FSD.
If you don’t order FSD, your basic AP looks like this …
This is almost equivalent to nothing. Needless to say HW2.5, even the earlier HW2.0 version, can be competent.
Tesla’s veteran user and opinion big V @ 小 特 叔叔 commented, “I don’t think there is any big difference for the time being, HW2.5 or even 2.0 can avoid placing standard ice cream cones. I prefer HW3.0 hashrate. Therefore, a layer rendering effect has been added. “
If analogy, it may be equivalent to the current concept of 4G / 5G. The performance must be different, but if you use it to send a WeChat message, it is difficult to say that there will be a qualitative difference.
The question is how many consumers can tell the difference.
There is a view that it is not clear that communication with consumers is not well established and lacks an effective public relations mechanism.
It does, but it is not. In a saying, if the communication is useful, what is the police doing? Any super-level communication is a patch for the operation of Sao, in fact, it already means that somewhere is broken. In a society ruled by law, the contract comes first, and the contract itself is even more important than the contract spirit. Breaching is the point that Tesla can’t wash it out, even if it is correct.
Aside from this, Tesla may be most confused about why the rational education of users that was useful in the past is now ineffective?
Because the current user base has joined unexpected crowds, they are the market where Tesla wants to eat, but not the people that Tesla has dealt with in the past. After all, since the delivery of the first electric vehicle Roadster in 2008, Tesla has been selling cars for 12 years, and the 1 millionth electric vehicle went offline a while ago. How to toss, the core population should also be saturated.
The thinking mode of the new user subject is different from the previous leek with faith and has its own value orientation. They are more concerned about the absolute value of the issue than the point-of-scene discussion. This is not the case for theoretical communication.
By contrast, Tesla’s eyes on this session are almost “Diaomin.” But it ’s worth recognizing the reality that if you want to continueExpansion, more “Diaomin” is imperative . Above the product, this technology company may need a reinvention from market strategy to after-sales system. Like every technology giant, he needs to experience the transformation from small to popular.
Illusion 3: Ao Jiao is still the capital of revolution
First of all, it may be the oligopoly system that has everything and only has Musk at its core. This makes Musk a concentrated and uncontrollable risk exposure.
For example, in this incident, Lao Ma’s Twitter responded: “Strangely, the owners of the complaints did not actually order FSD. Maybe they did not know that if they ordered FSD again after the vehicle was delivered, the on-board computer would You can upgrade for free. “
—— It’s not very bought. There are even counterproductive effects of intensifying contradictions. Because Tesla has received preferential treatment in China before, many users have worried that Tesla will swell particularly in China and cheat customers. This is misunderstood. Speaking of which, Tesla swelled regardless of location.
It turned out to be quite cooperative.
According to the information from the Economic Observation Network, after the interview with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Tesla plans to order domestic Model 3 users regardless of whether FSD is installed or not. Users, according to their wishes, decide whether to deliver the car first, then upgrade or cancel the order. Free upgrades will start in April.
This is a treatment not available in other markets, and it is also a manifestation of our government’s right to speak. You can refer to the imported version of Model 3, or from the second quarter, upgrade HW3.0 for all customers who have installed FSD for free.
What’s scary is that under the situation of almost getting out of control, even Tesla did not have a second voice to come forward to maintain stability.
In Musk’s eyes, others are probably equal:
Musk is still that Musk. But the original Musk is not enough. A cute word like Ao Jiao can no longer cover the arrogance and pride beyond everyone’s tolerance, it is a signal.
As a company grows, its founders will gradually develop their personal requirements. This is not very logical at all, but people cannot stop themselves from becoming enthusiastic about the god-making movement, just as they cannot stop themselves from bundling the image of a representative character with the quality technology of a brand car.
From the production system to the spiritual core, Tesla urgently needs a comprehensive growth.
This article is from the WeChat public: autocarweekly (ID: autocarweekly) , author: Karakush