Corporate Misrepresentation as Usual
During the 2021 SuperBowl, GM paid $15 million dollars to run one TV ad as a Hail Mary Pass because they see they will be losing a ton of marketshare to EV-only manufacturers, especially to Tesla. So GM puffed out its collective chest and tried to make everyone watching the ad believe that it will GM that leads the way with the best EVs. The company's CEO even had the nerve to say that GM "pioneered the electric car" (they did have the first large scale EV fleet – the EV1 – which they developed in case their efforts at stopping California's EV law was unsuccessful). But when their lobbying efforts resulted in GM not having to produce a mass market EV, they recalled all 1000 of them, and crushed them, even though those who were leasing the cars wanted to buy them, even with no warranty.
So GM effectively killed the electric car (and this act is what lit a fire under Elon Musk). But now that GM sees that EVs are going to be the future, and that companies like Tesla will eat their lunch, they will try and BS their way into people's driveways running ads for EVs they haven't even made yet (and not mentioning in the ad the one EV they are selling, because it's not selling well, because compared to other EV's, it's a piece of crap).
But this issue of Tesla News is about another arrogant company (Waymo/Google) that realizes it lost the autonomous driving war to Tesla, so they are doing the same thing as GM... proclaim that THEY have the best autonomous driving system in the galaxy, hoping that their loud pronouncements will stick.
Waymo doesn't bother explaining that the reason they rank at the top in self-driving rankings is because their cars can compete in this category because there is no driver in the front seat. Never-mind that there is a driver "behind the wheel" ready to take over, and he sits at a console at Waymo Central; because there's no driver in the car, they can compete. But since Tesla's self-driving system still requires a driver behind the wheel being attentive (because the software is still in beta testing), Tesla can't compete. Not officially. Oh, and Waymo also fails to mention that their cars are self-driving in geofenced areas... mapped areas where the computer knows everything about where it will be driving. Tesla's vision-based system can drive anywhere, without having to map anything. A distinct advantage in the real world. But shhhhh, don't let that get out... Waymo doesn't want anyone to know.
In an unofficial head-to-head test, sorry, but you lost Waymo/Google
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite recently went head-to-head against the self-professed leader in the autonomous driving race. The two self-driving systems were tested, twice, using destinations that are frequented by commuters. In both instances, the results proved quite surprising, especially on Waymo’s part.
The Tesla owner opted to see how Waymo’s driverless taxi compared to his Model 3’s FSD software when tasked to drive to two destinations: a Taco Bell and a Safeway grocery store. During the drive to Taco Bell, both Tesla’s FSD Beta and Waymo’s driverless taxi completed the task without any untoward incidents. However, Waymo ended the ride by dropping off the Tesla owner at the wrong side of the road, despite the destination clearly indicating the restaurant’s exact location. This resulted in the passenger walking several minutes to reach the Taco Bell. Tesla’s FSD Beta completed the drive well, dropping off the Model 3 owner at the restaurant, and on the correct side of the road.
A second test to a Safeway grocery store ended with equally-interesting results. This time, Waymo’s autonomous taxi dropped off its passenger in the correct location, and the same was true for Tesla’s FSD Beta. However, there were differences between the two drives, with the Model 3 owner stating that the Waymo took a more roundabout way to reach its destination. Ultimately, Waymo completed the drive in 8 minutes, while Tesla’s FSD Beta was able to do the same drive in 5 minutes. Tesla can take a more direct route, but Waymo can only drive on mapped roads.
And sorry Waymo, but your lidar-based system makes for one ugly ass car. But I guess it's okay for a Robo-Taxi Fleet.
Elon Musk has stated, on many occasions, that lidar isn't the way to go for autonomous driving. It needs to be vision-based to be the safest system. The eggheads at Google disagreed because there was already lots of lidar-based system development to buy. Tesla started from first principles and developed from scratch what would be the better system, if they could make it work, and it looks like they can. Oops!
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Elon
Musk We’re upgrading all Neural Networks to surround video, using subnets on focal areas (vs equal compute on all uncropped pixels) & many other things, so more time needed to write & validate software. Maybe something next week. This is evolving into solving a big part of physical world AI. |
If you want to see a Tesla Full Self Driving "stress test" that had no interventions from the driver, click the link below, scroll down to the video, click the PLAY button, click the video's "Full Screen" button, mute the music, and watch the two minute video, twice... the first time from the driver's point-of-view, and the second time, just watch the screen to see what the computer is seeing as it drives around (there's a squiggly line that emanates from the front of the car, this is the computer's planned route and it shows you what it's thinking about doing, just like we do).
teslarati.com/tesla-fsd-beta-extreme-stress-test-edge-cases-video/
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GM CEO Lies, in Plain Sight!
The NY Times interviewer says to Mary Barra, CEO of GM, "In terms of the electric vehicle market, you have about nine or ten percent of the market. Tesla has about 63% of the market. Five years from now, if you succeed – but everybody else has there own success in this space – what does that pie chart look like?"
And this is what the typical CEO bullshit artist said...
We're the leader today?!! Mary, it was just pointed out to you, two seconds ago, that Tesla is the leader. But you don't care what the truth is. All you care about is lying to the viewers in the hope that they will hear what you are saying, and not what the interviewer just said.
We've been the leader in the United States?!! Mary, do you think you can lie on National television, in plain sight (because the interviewer just said that you are NOT the leader), and people will believe that GM is the leader in the EV space? Are you delusional, or are you simply employing programming techniques (say a lie often enough, to enough people, and it will be perceived as the truth, even though it's a lie). I don't think she is delusional. She is the stereotypical BS artist who lies as easily as you or I tell the truth.
| But wait! President Joe Biden agrees with Mary! He said, from a podium, on camera, that GM is the leader in the EV market, and that Mary is single-handedly electrifying the EV market here in the United States! Well, to be fair, Joe might not know about Tesla. But the person who wrote his speech probably does. And people at the Department of Transportation who were responsible for coordinating that event certainly do. And yet, Tesla's CEO Elon Musk wasn't invited to "EV Day" at the Whitehouse, and Tesla wasn't even mentioned, even though they are an American car company who makes cars right here in the U.S. and who has more EVs on the road than all other car manufactures combined. Maybe GM has some influence over our government? [UPDATE: Due to pushback, Biden eventually did mention Tesla.] |
Do you want to buy a car from Mary Barra's company, or from a company whose CEO is straightforward with people and actually cares about people, and not about personal wealth?
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But wait! The CEO of another huge auto manufacturer, Ford, said this:
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A car purchase is a LOT of money, and I care who I give that money too. And I don't give it to profits-before-people lying sacks of crap if I can help it. (That's right, I'm mad. I'm sick of people being lied to.)
Oh, and Mary, what does this say about GM when your EVs are prohibited from parking at airports (because they can spontaneously catch on fire)...
Chevy Bolt history: GM buys the batteries for their Chevy Bolts from a third-party vendor. They didn't want the best batteries because they cost more money which equals less profit, so they went with cheaper batteries. When these batteries started catching on fire, GM told all Bolt owners to bring their cars into a GM service center for a software update in the hope that the update would fix the problem (the hope?!). It didn't. Bolts still caught on fire even when not charging. (By-the-way, Tesla EVs can do over-the-air software updates to deal with issues.) GM had to pay out billions in court case losses. Tesla on the other hand buys the best of all the third-party parts they use, and they do validation testing on the first of those parts to make sure they met Tesla's specs and are made properly (safely), and Tesla does intermittent tear-down type testing of third-party parts to make sure the quality is consistent. That's an expense that other carmakers do not incur because they are profit first, safety second. Tesla is the opposite.
So now, GM is the self-proclaimed leader in the EV market yet they are not selling any EVs (they had to recall all Bolts and can't sell any until they resolve the battery issue). But Tesla sold almost a million EVs in 2021. Yes, there were a few Tesla car fires, but these were due to severe crashes due to driver error, and the rate of Tesla car fires is less than it is for gas-powered cars (because Teslas get in less accidents per capita because of their safety features that other cars do not have).
And by-the-way, you didn't hear about all the Chevy Bolt fires on the news because GM gives a ton of money to those networks for advertising, and those networks are also a profits-before-people business model so they will not bite the hand that feeds them. The old adage, "Let the Buyer Beware" is more true today than ever.
[If you want to hear Mary Barra lie with your own ears...]