According to recent press coverage, Tesla will both be bankrupt within the year, while killing every driver that attempts to use Autopilot; and at the same time be the savior/catalyst of the automobile industry, bringing electric and self-driving vehicles to the masses.

Can we ratchet down the Tesla hysteria a few notches?

"By 2020" -> "By 2025" -> "By 2030". It's all vaporware marketing announcements meant to gloss over the fact that the only pure EV they currently sell is the laughable i3.

That's hogwash. I can pre-heat my Tesla from my iPhone, with it's heated seats and heating steering wheel, without risk of killing my family from carbon monoxide, all while it's plugged in and not drawing any power from the battery. Our family just took it on a 2000 mile road trip in sub 10 degree temps from the east coast to the midwest and back, and I have the one with the small battery, the Model X 75D. Yes the range is reduced 20-30% but it's completely predictable. An "auxiliary fossil fuel heating systems" sounds like a truly terrible idea.

As Tesla Powerwalls and similar home battery systems become widespread, it will be easier than ever to self-consume the majority of your energy needs.

Chevy Bolt is 240 miles..

My Ford F150 with a 36-gallon tank is around 550 miles.

Congratulations, you win this week’s Unsolicited Non-Sequitur Award. We return you to our discussion of electric cars, already in progress.

A 4 door Solar car can do a 3,000++ mile range. But, surprisingly people care about other things.

https://solarteameindhoven.nl/stella-vie/

Shhh... that's the not the example they're wanting :)

VP of Autopilot Software at Tesla

Yes the car already performs a handshake with the supercharger and verifies the car's eligibility. At some earlier point they sold lower-end Model S's that did not come with Supercharger access. Presumably they can lock out stolen cars, etc.

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I have been developing iOS apps using Swift & Objective-C for 7 years (very excited about working with Swift), as well as doing backend and full-stack application development mainly using Python (currently learning Go). Co-founder of Project Noah. Several published apps on the app store. Looking for senior full-time or contract roles.

Right, 1 accident. Have we banned air travel due to all of the crashes?

The statistics aren't in yet, and it's too soon to make a reasonable comparison.

That said, I think GP will be proven right in time. Risk compensation[0] is a well-documented phenomenon and this seems highly likely to trigger that sort of behaviour.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_compensation

As the system gets incrementally better, paradoxically it could get less safe, because drivers will get more used to relying on it and stop paying attention.

Except the less human drivers the safer the overall system. Less people to crash into others.

Right, but the problem with these partial systems is that they still require the driver to be fully attentive.

Such as?

If you're a heavy user (probably with an EV) you can sign up for a Time of Use rate plan, which will give you access to lower rates for off-peak charging (and higher peak rates).