RE:RE:RE:RE:$0.60 energy cost to drive 100 milesRegarding FSD, if you went to a party, and had too much fun and far too many drinks, can the FSD car legally drive you home?
Now that would be a great selling feature.
I know of a friend some time ago that got an impaired conviction not driving, but just sleeping in the car with the keys in his pocket. Had he thrown the keys on the lawn before climbing in, he would have been OK.
Obscure1 wrote: Good question.
In the early stages of development, battery life was an issue.
Today's EV's (at least for Tesla) have battery warranty for 8 years. However, the "fail rate" is so low that it is almost zero. Of course there is no such thing as zero but the reliability is now quite incredible.
A more important issue is the ability of a battery to hold a charge as batteries decay over time. From what I have been reading, the batteries still hold above 90% of their charge at 150,000 miles, which is the average life of an ICE vehicle.
Today, the Tesla batteries supposedly remain effective for a million miles. Yup, you read that right. That is why there is such high hopes among Tesla shareholders for the business opportunity that will become available when they FINALLY get their FSD (Full Self Drive) perfected and approved. It is anticipated that Tesla will sell you a car that you use as needed (to get to work for example) and then Tesla takes over the car for the day acting as a driverless taxi. When work ends, your car comes and picks you up and takes you home. Once you are finished using your car, Tesla takes over again for the evening before returning it to your garage. Who knows, maybe it won't even be your own car that picks you up.
It is anticipated that EV's using FSD will be utilized up to 5x as much as what the average car is used (as in 50 to 60 hours per week as opposed to the 10 to 12 hours that the average car owner uses their car per week) If an EV owner allows the participation of their car in the "Tesla taxi" pool and the owner might expect up to $1,000 of passive income per month from their car.
Finally, the cost of batteries has come down about 85% in the last 10 years. The cost is expected to drop another 50% in the next 5 years. The point is that batteries are getting a lot less expensive over time.
Nobody can possibly know for sure if Elon will pull all of this off. I wouldn't bet against him despite the fact that ever Tesla accident gets reported as if the end of the world is coming. The fact is that self driving is already much safer than human drivers and the factor is expected to become 10x safer as more data is accumulated.