[cma]

> large expensive panel like Tesla

Tesla used non automotive-grade panels to keep costs really low. They started delaminating and the solution was to have everyone's cars run the air conditioner even when the car is unoccupied, causing a big negative impact on effective mileage in the city, but it actually got great response from fans with slick marketing around it. It saved Tesla a lot of money in recalls, but is not great environmentally.

[sandworm101]

The interior couldn't handle the heat of being parked in the sun? This is a very basic standard. Every BMW, ford, Ferrari or Honda is tested in a chamber with heat lamps. I cannot imagine any Honda engineer suggesting that the car run the AC in order to protect the interior parts.

And it isn't all about the customer. Would one of these teslas survived on a used car lot? Could it survive being transported across the country on the back of a truck? A car that cannot survive direct sunlight is a logistical nightmare.

[ashtonkem]

That’s the difference between screens designed for cars and what Tesla picked. Consumer grade LCD panels that might be used in monitors or TVs aren’t designed to sit in 150F heat repeatedly, while a LCD panel for a car absolutely should be.

[woobar]

In my BMW the navigation screen started to peel after 4 years (small area in the corner about 2mm x 6mm). They have replaced screen assembly under the warranty, list price was $2,500+

[detaro]

A lot of what's "very basic standard" for other car companies gets ignored by Tesla. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad.

[sandworm101]

I understand the need to break conventions, but there is a heat advisory in my area today. My Honda gets parked outside. And when things go wrong I occasionally do 15+ hour shifts. I'd be screaming mad if I came out after one of those days to find my car's battery was dead and the screen delaminated. But that is why I bought a Honda. I cannot sync my ipod list with my google cloud account, but it always starts when I ask it to.

[detaro]

Another example in the "bad!1" category is the flash chips in one of the control units. They had logging enabled, and over time the control unit killed its own flash chips by overwriting them too often. Needs the entire unit changed, or finding someone who'll solder fresh chips in.

Where a traditional design would have taken care to run entirely from a read-only storage, and if there is logging needed, to log to an extra partition that doesn't stop the system from working if it becomes unavailable.

[catalogia]

Ah yes, I recall something about this. They tried to pretend the fans were a safety feature to keep kids/dogs safe in parked cars, except the fans didn't automatically turn on until the car was already hot enough to be lethal.

[ashtonkem]

I’m genuinely surprised that never killed anyone. Marketing that as a “pet and child mode” just seemed to beg for problems.

[Tostino]

Don't own a Tesla, and am just going from memory. I believe the "pet mode" was implemented the same time the interior protection feature was. So the pet mode was a user option to allow the car to be kept at a reasonable temp for pets / kids, whereas the interior protection feature would automatically kick in if it got too hot regardless of what the user wanted.