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Staff work on the Tesla Gigafactory in Shanghai, east China, Nov. 20, 2020. U.S. electrical automotive firm Tesla in 2019 constructed its first Gigafactory outdoors the USA within the new Lingang space, with a designed annual manufacturing capability of 500,000 items.
Ding Ting | Xinhua Information Company | Getty Photos
Underneath strain to hit fourth-quarter gross sales targets whereas dealing with widespread semiconductor shortages, Tesla determined to take away one of many two digital management items which might be usually included within the steering racks of some made-in-China Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y vehicles, in response to two workers and inner correspondence seen by CNBC.
Tesla didn’t disclose the exclusion, which has already affected tens of 1000’s of autos being shipped to clients in China, Australia, the U.Ok., Germany and different components of Europe. It was not instantly clear whether or not Tesla would make comparable modifications to vehicles manufactured in or shipped to the U.S.
The omission signifies that Tesla needed to make modifications past what the corporate has publicly revealed to maintain its factories and gross sales going from the ultimate weeks of 2021 on, because the world confronted an ongoing chip scarcity that has affected all the things from vehicles to laptop computer computer systems. It additionally means Tesla cannot flip all its current vehicles into driverless autos with a mere software program replace, undercutting what CEO Elon Musk just lately mentioned on an earnings name:
“My private guess is that we’ll obtain Full Self-Driving this 12 months at a security stage considerably better than an individual. So the vehicles within the fleet primarily changing into self-driving by way of software program replace, I feel, would possibly find yourself being the most important enhance in asset worth of any asset class in historical past. We will see.”
Internally, Tesla workers mentioned that including “stage 3” performance, which might enable a driver to make use of their Tesla hands-free with out steering in regular driving eventualities, would want the twin digital management unit system and due to this fact require a retrofit at a service go to. In addition they mentioned that the exclusion wouldn’t trigger questions of safety, because the eliminated half was deemed a secondary digital management unit, used primarily as a backup.
On the time this manufacturing change was underway in Shanghai, CEO Elon Musk wrote in a tweet: “Oh man, this 12 months has been such a provide chain nightmare & it isn’t over!”
Tesla has struggled with manufacturing challenges all through its historical past, however the completion of its Shanghai manufacturing facility in 2019 helped it enhance manufacturing, develop margins, and acquire market share past North America. This newest choice reveals new pressures as the corporate pushes additional into the mainstream, and goals to ship on Elon Musk’s guarantees of a self-driving future.
What the omitted half does
The precise merchandise omitted is an digital management unit within the electrical energy assisted steering programs, which translate steering wheel actions into wheel activates the road.
Earlier than vehicles used so many digital elements, autos would depend on a pump, steering rack, and pinion to translate steering wheel actions into turns.
Richard Wallace, principal advisor for HWA Analytics in Ann Arbor and veteran transportation security researcher, explains how that is modified.
“There’s nonetheless a mechanical part after all. However in at present’s autos, whenever you ‘flip the wheel’ you’re offering an digital sign telling your automotive to go left or proper.”
Electrical energy assisted steering programs at present additionally allow driver help options, Wallace notes, like the power to robotically maintain a automotive within the heart of a lane.
Tesla eliminated the part as a result of engineers deemed it redundant, primarily put in as a backup. Omitting the management unit may even save Tesla cash near-term, so long as no issues come up because of the altered system.
There’s some precedent for the corporate eradicating choices or elements for enterprise causes. For instance, final spring, Tesla eliminated lumbar help from passenger seats in Mannequin 3 and Mannequin Y autos to decrease prices.
On January 26, 2021, Musk mentioned throughout an earnings name that Tesla had confronted down a “chip hell of many chips” in 2021. The corporate had a tough time acquiring “the little chip that permits you to transfer your seat backwards and forwards,” he famous, together with different “primary chips.”
He didn’t point out the altered energy steering programs.
Different automakers have taken comparable steps, however sometimes make short-term cuts to choices that are not a part of a automobile’s core performance.
For instance, in March 2021, General Motors said it was building some of its 2021 light-duty pickup trucks without a fuel management module, a move that hurt those trucks’ fuel economy. It blamed the chip shortage for the move.
Tesla’s self-driving future
Tesla currently offers several levels of driver assistance functionality in its cars. A basic version, dubbed Autopilot, comes with every car. Drivers can also buy a more advanced version, called Full Self-Driving, or FSD, for $12,000 or $199 a month (in the U.S.).
When Tesla made the decision to exclude an electronic control unit from its steering racks, there was an internal discussion about whether to notify customers, two employees told CNBC. These people asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to speak on behalf of the company.
Employees also discussed whether omitting the part would degrade any functionality in or reliability of customers’ cars. They worried whether the “depop,” or exclusion, of this component may interfere with customers’ ability to use FSD features.
Ultimately, they decided the tweak did not rise to the level of customer notification — at least until Tesla is ready to launch “level 3,” or hands-free driver assistance features.
Tesla vehicles can still use the current “level 2” versions of its driver assistance systems, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (or FSD), without the dual-control steering system.
But employees told CNBC if Tesla launches a more sophisticated FSD update, owners with the affected cars who use that premium system will need to get a steering rack retrofit from a Tesla service center.
Generally, Tesla relies on service technicians to install missing parts or to repair or replace broken parts, before a car is delivered to a customer, making service a kind of extended arm of Tesla manufacturing.
Most of the cars with the single electronic control unit were going to customers in China initially, where FSD is not seeing significant uptake. According to internal communications seen by CNBC, just over 1% of all Tesla customers in China opted for the premium driver assistance package at the time they placed an order for a new car.
More recently, tens of thousands of the affected vehicles were exported to customers beyond China, including in Australia, the UK, Germany and throughout Europe, employees told CNBC.
The safety question
CNBC asked HWA Analytics’ Richard Wallace whether removing an electronic control unit from a power steering system in a modern vehicle could pose a safety risk.
“If something like a chip or an ECU is not providing additional functionality, if it is truly redundant, you may be able to turn it off or leave it out. With chips and software, there’s a little bit of wiggle room. I can reassign stuff here and there,” he said.
Much depends on a vehicle’s computing architecture, said IHS Markit Senior Principal Analyst Phil Amsrud.
He said, “I cannot think of a case where an automaker would say ‘You know what? We’ll take a component out of that module, even though it was there for a good reason and we’ll hope nothing happens.’ Going from a dual chip to a single chip variant in a vehicle can make a system simpler and make it better in some cases. But they’d really need to do a lot of validation.”
Most automakers would spend 1,000 hours on testing or more to make any big changes, he estimated. That can take upwards of four months. It can also take years for quality or safety issues to become clear after changes are made.
Tesla employees told CNBC that the company spent less than a few weeks discussing the change before moving ahead and didn’t view it as a big deal — more of a chip-famine survival tactic.
The company had previously produced earlier models that featured a power steering system with only one electronic control unit, and that gave them greater confidence. So too did Tesla’s frequently touted ability to push software updates “over-the-air” to vehicles to refine their functionality if needed.
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