This week as always Tesla Motors was in the news. This week it was for former employees, investigations, AutoPilot, Tesla 3/X and batteries.
NHTSA Warns Tesla Motors
NHTSA is investigated the suspension failure on the Tesla Model S. It is reported that Tesla asked customers who had problems with the suspension to have their vehicle repaired and sign a confidentiality agreement which could imply that customers should not report the repairs to government agency The organization reprimanded Tesla and ordered it to refrain from encouraging customers not report safety concerns to the agency.
“The agency immediately informed Tesla that any language implying that consumers should not contact the agency regarding safety concerns is unacceptable, and N.H.T.S.A. expects Tesla to eliminate any such language. Tesla representatives told N.H.T.S.A. that it was not their intention to dissuade consumers from contacting the agency.”
Elon Musk Tweeted that 37 of the 40 NHTSA suspension complaints were fraudulent.
Volvo Tsk Tsks Tesla AutoPilot
Dr. Peter Marens of Volvo research says that he thinks the Telsa Model S AutoPilot system is dangeroug. He says anyone who says we have systems that are better than human drivers drivers is lying to you. Companies that are moving too quickly are risking the entire autonomous industry. He beleives Volvo is the safety brand and the company is taking things slowly until the systems are better than good human driver Volvo go there.
Oh Romeo Romeo Wherefore Art Thou Tesla Employees?
Porter Harris a former battery expert for SpaceX/Tesla and a battery architect for Faraday Future has joined a new startup for battery pack designs for electric vehicles and home battery storage called Romeo Power. Harris also has a former Tesla engineer Arun Gunaskaran and Taryn Battram who worked as a marketing consultant for Tesla. Romeo Power is in Santa Monica California
The Shady Side of Telsa X Panoramic Roofs
There is a problem with the panoramic windshield for the Tesla Model X.It lets in too much sunlight Tesla Model X owners will be getting a free sunshade. The front upper windshield sun shade that blocks two-thirds of the light and heat coming from the upper windshield. It can be easily removed and installed on the interior of the windshield. After removal, the sunshade collapses and is a stored in a pouch
New S Model with Less kWh
Tesla announce a new model S 60 with a different price and different features starting at $66,000. It has a new software configuration and pricing model the car has the same battery but it has software on it that reduces the kilowatt-hours to 60 kWh as opposed to the 75 kWh and expected to get 210 miles per charge . The customer can pay to upgrade to the 75 kilowatt-hour battery pack but cannot go down to the lower wattage.
Employees Go to Head of Telsa 3 Order Line
Almost 10,000 of the Tesla 3 Model reservations reportedly are from sSace X and Tesla employees who were given priority when the reservations became available.
Crash Testing Tesla
There was another crash with a Tesla vehicle. This time, a Model X ran into a store in Irvine, California. The owner claimed that the car accelerated on its own. Tesla claims that the data shows that the crash was caused by the driver.
Power to Telsa’s Batteries
Panasonic will be the supplier of the battery cells for the model S 3 and X
Plug in America 3 Model S survey has found that the model S battery pack generally only loses about 5% of its capacity within the first fifty thousand miles and then she generally credited to grade addition and slows down with only 8% of degradation at a hundred thousand miles.