ALL THINGS EV - FSD - ROBOTAXIS, ETC. - ALL CONTENT - NO HATE

[Crasher]

This received bugger all coverage but I found it after digging when someone told me about it as it was local, apparently a simple rear end shunt and the Tesla just spat its dummy out

Vehicles on fire cause significant damage to A1 near Newark

A van and a Tesla car collided and caught fire near Newark, eyewitnesses said.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Uwe]

Is Angstrom Automotive trying to protect Tesla customers from themselves????

If Tesla owns the tooling, and the article makes it sound like they do, that's outrageous. Owning the tooling that a vendor uses to produce parts is not unusual. For example, we own the molds that are used to produce the OBD-II connectors and back-shells for our interfaces. Those molds reside at a plastic injection molding company. If that company were to close, we'd certainly expect them to return our tooling to us so that we could find someone else to make those parts for us. In fact, we did change vendors some years ago; not because the the original vendor closed up, but because they got too busy and became relatively unresponsive to our needs, so we asked for our tooling back. That vendor had made the molds for us, but we paid for them and owned them, and they gave us no grief at all about handing them over. Anyway, based on what I read in that article, Tesla is in the right there.

-Uwe-

 

[Bruce]

Is Angstrom Automotive trying to protect Tesla customers from themselves????

This is going to end up being about money. Is it possible Tesla negotiated that the molds/dies were to be funded by the supply of parts to Tesla? That Tesla does not in fact own the tools? On large cost tools, agreements are sometimes written in this manner.

Understand, the tools they are disputing cost millions... I am sure of it. So, big bucks at play here.

When the new company took over, and decided the plant was to be shut down, I speculate that Telsa was notified - no soup for you! Telsa panicked and wanted "their tools". But are they actually theirs? This will get settled in the courts....

I say, stay tuned... follow the money.

 

[RGH0]

Yes often tools costs are initially paid for by the moulding company that makes them for the client and then that cost is amortised over a defined usage and the company purchasing the product only owns the tools when this defined usage is reached.

 

[Crasher]

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[RGH0]

Yes often tools costs are initially paid for by the moulding company that makes them for the client and then that cost is amortised over a defined usage and the company purchasing the product only owns the tools when this defined usage is reached.

One key point I missed. Normally the contract will specify what happens to the tools ownership if the purchaser fails to order the agreed quantify to amortise the tools or if the supplier fails to deliver the required quantity. I suspect the legal dispute is due to poor contract drafting which would not surprise me given Musks attitude to business i.e. move fast and break things.

 

[BlueR32]

This is not good...

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/us-auto-safety-regulator-probes-12-million-tesla-vehicles-over-suspension-2026-07-31/

 

[BlueR32]

Caught in the act...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/03/driver-claimed-electric-jaguar-accelerated-on-its-own/

 

[BlueR32]

Did it EVER make sense????

Lotus Says Its $233K Electric SUV No Longer Makes Sense To Sell In America | Carscoops

The electric Lotus SUV was meant to be a performance bargain, but soaring import duties had other plans for the price

www.carscoops.com

 

[Uwe]

Did it EVER make sense????

Has any Lotus ever "made sense"?

-Uwe-

 

[RGH0]

Has any Lotus ever "made sense"?

-Uwe-

The first time you turn into a corner on a winding mountain road you understand the sense they make. But I am biased as I have 3

 

[BlueR32]

Has any Lotus ever "made sense"?

-Uwe-

Lotus is OK. I just don't think there is a huge market especially in the U.S. for a $233K SUV.

 

[RGH0]

Yes I don't think a Electric SUV is really in the Lotus mould and certainly not a large market anywhere for it.

 

[BlueR32]

Returning to the streets... for better or worse.

Waymo robotaxis are starting to return to freeways

The freeway pause — and its restart — comes amid increased scrutiny into Waymo and other robotaxi operators, particularly over how these self-driving vehicles behave in certain high-traffic situations and around emergency responders.

autos.yahoo.com

 

[Crasher]

I still don't get it, what is the point in a robo taxi?

 

[Uwe]

I still don't get it, what is the point in a robo taxi?

Not having to pay a driver.

Are you old enough to remember elevator operators?

-Uwe-

 

[Crasher]

I am old enough to remember petrol pump attendants. Not having to pay a driver isn't relevant when it comes to an owner operator taxi driver and someone still has to pay for the machine and its maintenance. The question I have over autonomous vehicles is why we can't have driverless trains? After all, they don't need steering wheels and they operate in a highly controlled sterile environment. The answer, socialist unions.

 

[Uwe]

I am old enough to remember petrol pump attendants.

Not having to pay a driver isn't relevant when it comes to an owner operator taxi driver and someone still has to pay for the machine and its maintenance.

What if the owner/operator is a corporation? Or what if the owner/operator makes enough money to be able to afford the a second cab? I don't know what percentage of the total operating costs of a cab the cost of the driver is, but I bet it's a significant share.

The question I have over autonomous vehicles is why we can't have driverless trains?

In certain environments, we do. BART (San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit) has had them for several decades, as have various airports.

The answer, socialist unions.

Well yes. This is also why in Pennsylvania, we still have "State Stores" that are the only legal source for distilled spirits, and why the Pennsylvania Turnpike still had human toll collectors right up until the they were all told to stay at home during the unpleasantness that started in the spring of 2020. There was already plenty of automated tolling in place then, but it was politically impossible to get rid of the unionized humans who collected cash from people who wanted to pay cash.

-Uwe-

 

[BlueR32]

Fire sale before even being released????

https://www.autoblog.com/news/audi-is-already-discounting-its-new-q9-flagship-suv

Maybe it's necessary due to that Mack Truck front grille???

 

[NZDubNurd]

Fuck that's ugly.

I thought the new BMWs were bad, but that looks like a pedestrian crossing got scraped off the road by a snow plow.