What We’re Reading

August 31, 2022

• New-Vehicle Tech is a Double-Edged Sword: Risky to Satisfaction - Yet Necessary for Future Adoption, J.D. Power Finds (J.D. Power, August 25, 2022)

  A new Tech Experience Study released by J.D. Power suggests that advanced technologies have a high incidence of problems, but the industry group cautions that the results should not hamper innovation. 

  A J.D. Power representative explained: “Innovation is non-negotiable. The fact that the average PP100 [problems per 100 vehicles] for a technology is high should not discourage automakers from innovating, as there is often a wide range of total problems experienced for a technology across the brands. . . . Automakers should consider benchmarking brands that innovate well for a technology, which would allow them to identify and then integrate best practices.”

  One of the highest-scoring technologies in the study was the phone-based digital key, with the fingerprint reader performing the lowest.  The highest-ranking premium brands were Genesis, Cadillac, and Mercedes-Benz; high-ranking mass market brands included Hyundai, Kia, Buick, GMC, and Subaru.  Tesla was not officially included in the rankings because it “does not allow J.D. Power access to owner information in the states where that permission is required by law.”

  The study included 35 advanced technologies and was based on responses from nearly 85,000 owners of new 2022 model-year vehicles after 90 days of ownership.

• California phasing out gas vehicles in climate change fight (Associated Press, August 25, 2022)

  California’s clean air agency, the Air Resources Board,* adopted “the world’s most stringent rules for transitioning to zero-emission vehicles” last week when it committed that all new cars, trucks, and SUVs in the state will be electric or hydrogen by 2035. The new rules are “likely to reshape the U.S. auto market, which gets 10% of its sales from the nation’s most populous state.”

  Although the switch will have significant environmental benefits, it also will require significant resources to increase charging capacity and prevent wide-scale power outages due to the increase in car charging. “A plan released by the air board earlier this year predicts electricity demand will shoot up by 68%. Today, the state has about 80,000 public chargers. The California Energy Commission predicted that needs to jump to 1.2 million by 2030.”

  The rules are opposed by the oil industry, as well as some business and other interest groups who fear that the rules will create disparities and put unnecessary pressure on already under-resourced residents.  OEMs also caution that factors outside of their control may make compliance difficult.

* NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff recently announced that he will leave the administration to become the CEO of this state agency.

• Elon Musk deploys team of lawyers to scrub damaging Tesla self-driving video from internet (Yahoo Finance, August 26, 2022)

  Tesla’s lawyers have sent a cease-and-desist letter to The Dawn Project demanding it pull videos it previously released purporting to show a Tesla in FSD mode failing to stop for a child-sized mannequin.  The videos went viral a few weeks ago and prompted numerous copycat experiments by both Tesla fans and critics.  At least one publication has since called into question whether the Tesla in The Dawn Project’s video actually was operating in FSD.

  Tesla claims the videos are defamatory: “The purported tests misuse and misrepresent the capabilities of Tesla’s technology, and disregard widely recognized testing performed by independent agencies.”

  The Dawn Project’s Dan O’Dowd responded on Twitter and in a public statement, refusing to remove the videos and calling Musk “another crybaby hiding behind his lawyer’s skirt.”

  Indeed, as this article highlights, despite his free speech stance, Musk is well known for efforts to shut down criticism of his projects and his unorthodox public beta testing. For example, when one Tesla Owners club founder tweeted that FSD 10.69 "needed a lot of work, the Tesla CEO snapped.  Musk, who never objects to effusive praise about FSD posted to social media, told [the club founder] he shouldn’t have volunteered to test the beta if he had a problem with it.”