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> They want 60k for cars which have nothing in them. Other companies have now ripped the software and the iPad, so they have nothing unique

You are not wrong about Tesla's base models like the 3 and Y being light on traditional 60k car features, but the second part is much more debatable. With the exception of some Chinese car manufacturers, almost no Western car makers have managed to match Tesla's software stack.

I can't think of another car brand that makes its own silicon, ships OTA updates weekly, runs an in-house OS that isn't an outdated Android skin, and tightly integrates media, navigation, charging, and energy management all in the same platform. Most legacy automakers still rely on their old infotainment vendors, release update slowly (if at all!), and struggle with fragmented software architectures. Their driver assistance systems are improving very slowly, and they are behind Tesla even for basic features like lane-keep assist. And that's even before getting into self-driving ambitions, where no brand has been able to ship anything similar AFAIK.

Rivian and Lucid are closer philosophically and technically, but they're still quite tiny players compared to Tesla, and haven't proven they can execute at Tesla's volume and pricing.


Seriously, I don't need my car to get weekly OTA updates. And my 8yr old nissan qashqai had lane assist, it's hardly revolutionary. Tesla is pretty much dead in Europe, mainly due to Musks personality, but the quality of its product is also poor.

> I can't think of another car brand that makes its own silicon, ships OTA updates weekly, runs an in-house OS that isn't an outdated Android skin, and tightly integrates media, navigation, charging, and energy management all in the same platform.

VW (ID software 3/4/5), Mercedes (MBUX).

They don't update weekly (I don't think so, anyway), but I don't see how that would be inherently positive. They should be able to update weekly (e.g. security patches), sure, but car software should probably not be changing week-to-week for years on end.

That being said, since the US is basically a captive and stagnating market for EVs now, it seems most models from European makers are not available in the US anyway.


My personal bet is on nvidia. They always show advanced selfdriving capabilities based on ML.

They are also forefront of ml simulation. 3D, weather pattern etc.

Tesla also had plenty of missshapes like Dojo or cybertruck and the sitll not finished FSD.

My Car OS from Ford Mustang Mach-e works completly fine. No clue why this is some advantage Tesla should have? BMW just launched their new Gen 6 incl. their new os.

All the advantages of that fully integrated 'platform' also just works in my car?

BMW is very good in lane keeping, Mercedes can drive more km in germany autonomes than BMW and BMW can drive more km than Tesla.

I of course focus on german brands because i'm from germany. But XPeng and others working on all of that too.


Some other brands rely on Mobileye for driver assistance. It’s clear from demos that Mobileye is on the same level as Tesla, the difference is that the don’t use end users as beta testers. I suspect that when actual full self driving is possible, other car companies won’t be as far behind as you’d think based on the features Tesla has in their cars now.

They mostly only work on pre-mapped highways. They're also not commercially available.

There's currently no other DA other than Tesla's FSD available in the US that will work on city streets and highways.


I'm going to assert that Tesla's FSD™ does not, in fact work on city streets and highways.

Or, if you want to loosely define "work", Ernst Dickmanns had self driving in the 80s, and put in on the autobahn in the 90s. I'd rather define it more tightly as "statistically at least as safe to be in _and_ to be near, as a human driver".

Tesla claims to have achieved that, but I don't believe them. That's because the data they report 1) omits a fair bit of critical info, and 2) frequently changes definitions. Both serve to make comparisons difficult. If it was clearly safe, I think they'd put effort into making the comparison transparent.

Bear in mind that Musk has been claiming "Full Self-Driving" since at least 2016, and people involved have asserted that he wasn't wrong, he was lying.


Rivian recently moved away from mobileye in their newer models, because mobileye is are far behind and limited. The progression of their new in house driver assistance since then is already proving that was a good choice.

Why do cars need weekly software updates? Or - more specifically, what sorts of new software-enabled features (or bug fixes) besides FSD are rolling out weekly in Teslas? Genuinely curious! Is there downtime?

A couple of recent software additions to my ‘23 MY: * Dynamic speed profiles for Autopilot/FSD

* The ability to specify individual drop-off locations for FSD arrivals (curbside, parking lot, driveway, etc)

* Grok as a voice assistant for the infotainment system

* iOS live activity viewer for the Dog Mode camera feed

* Speed/steering/control statuses being overlaid on dashcam footage

* “Santa Mode” which revamps the UI with Christmas theming for the holiday season

* Automatic HOV lane routing based on vehicle occupancy status

* Vehicle alerts/chimes when exiting, if leaving your phone within the vehicle

* Location-based individual charge limits

* 3D visualizations of supercharger locations, synced with active availability/occupancy per stall

* The SpaceX docking simulator ported as an in-vehicle game, playable on the infotainment screen

These are all additions from just the most recent update, and I can confidently say this is the only vehicle I’ve had that consistently gets better and better in terms of its software features over the course of ownership. Each update takes anywhere from 20-45 minutes during which, unfortunately, you’re not able to utilize the vehicle at all.


I own a Mustang Mach-E and I do not want to have weekly updates to my car software.

If you look at your updates, the FSD one is clearly a beta thing now for so long, of course you need to update regularly if you still change that much. Btw. Musk said 2014 that FSD will allow you to sleep in your Car while driving in 2023. Soooo?

Something like Grok was also added OTA in my Ford car. So yes they can do it apparently too.

Everything else just feels like gimicks I wouldn't want to have. I drive my car i do not play with my car. My car is not a gimmick.


Okay I was sceptical going in but those updates seem legit.

some sound good, but:

> The SpaceX docking simulator ported as an in-vehicle game, playable on the infotainment screen

Really? People want that? I know that Elon Musk would think that it would be great to play a video game about Elon Musk's companies, but are Tesla owners similarly afflicted?


Lunar Lander was all the rage back in the day ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_Lander_(video_game_genre...

Yup, and I played it back when it was new. at an arcade, not in my car.

To me it is like someone saying, "Honey, I'll be on the garage watching Football in my Tesla all afternoon." Yeah, you can do it, but is a car really where you want to do that? The second aspect is it is a game glorifying Elon's "genius". What is next, a FPS for your Tesla where you have a chainsaw and you run through federal buildings trying to get the highest body count?


Honestly, i know a few Tesla users and at least for them their Tesla is more than just a car. Its like a gimmick.

Driving to tesla meetups, adding certain accessories for led light stuff, its (sry to say) just weird.

I get the basic idea of telling the internet about some issue and getting faster feedback than from the manufacturer, but I never had the feeling i needed any of this for my non Tesla EV.

And as i mentioned in my comment: I would hate all the regular updates. As long as everything works as expected, pls do not change anything.


Can you imagine an ICE vehicle having "Location-based fill-up limits" or "3D visualizations of gas station locations, synced with active availability / occupancy per stall" ? And of course, such useful features as a spacex docking simulator, which every vehicle needs (I guess).

And you wonder why Tesla is heading the way of the dodo? Wasting the SW talent to deliver drek.


FWIW the “location based charge limits” are entirely up to the user; for example, I may want a full-charge at home but a limited charge at the office (where it might be paid).

> Why do cars need weekly software updates?

Because musk has been over promising and under delivering for years. What do you want to bet those updates still haven't put the "self driving" in FSD? Classic bait and switch. They give you a little thread of hope that one day your car will be better, and give you goofy infotainment features instead of autonomous driving.


Why not?

why are they making cars at all of the software is what they are good at?

Because traditional car companies aren’t interested in buying software that they can’t get built by cheap contractors. Tesla actually hires high end engineers to build software, and that’s not cheap.

Mercedes appears to have the best infotainment system, but it's not a US company.

I wonder how much of this was driven by public/media interest in the H-1B program rather than technical policy concerns.

For instance, there is still no action taken about the L-1B visa classification, which is a lot more open to abuse than H-1B is. It has no cap on how many visas can be issued every year. It also has no obligation to pay the employee a prevailing wage, no requirement for a bachelor's degree to qualify, and it cannot be transferred to a different employer (which means employees are stuck with their sponsor until they qualify for a green card).


$100k fee is a good start. Trump doesn't know L-1B exists.


I’m not entirely sure what it is, but my Alexa devices hit subdomains within it very frequently based on my local DNS history. That’s probably why it made the top of the list.


Just apply for jobs, and the immigration attorneys hired by your prospective employer will figure it out. U.S. immigration by employment is sadly almost entirely based on petitions filed by your employer. The choice of which visa pathway to pursue is not up to you.

If you're curious: the vast majority of Europeans currently moving to the U.S. for tech jobs typically do so on L-1A or L-1B visas. To qualify, you must work for at least 12 months at the European subsidiary of a U.S. company before being transferred to a U.S. office. There are the occasional O-1 cases but you need significant work experience and recognition to qualify. Lawyers will definitely ask you questions to determine whether you are a good candidate for it.

In the past, H-1B was a way more common route, especially when there was no lottery or at least when selection odds were higher. However, with current lottery odds at just 10-15%, many companies now prefer hiring you abroad and then going for an L-1. As long as you satisfy the foreign work requirement, you are more or less guaranteed approval for an L-1 and there is no uncertainty.

Companies also love transferring employees on L-1 because unlike H-1B it is an employer-tied visa. This means you cannot switch to a different employer, effectively locking you in for the duration of your employment until you obtain a green card, if and when that happens. Keep that in mind if you are offered an L-1: you should carefully consider the green card pathways offered by your employer before you move.


There are no newspaper ads involved in the H-1B program. There is a separate process (LCA) to ensure the H-1B worker is paid the prevailing wage in the location where they're hired. It relies on the Department of Labor making such determination.

Newspaper ad is required for PERM, which is part of the green card process.


> an H-1B holder is legally bound to the hiring company and can't seek work elsewhere

That's not really the case. An H-1B visa holder is not strictly bound to their employer, and is allowed to transfer to a new employer. Unlike visas such as the L-1, which are employer-tied, the H-1B allows for this flexibility. Transferring does require the new employer to file a new H-1B petition, but that process is straightforward and any big tech company will gladly complete that as part of the hiring process.

The main exception arises only when the H-1B holder has just started pursuing a green card. The first step of the green card process, known as PERM, typically takes 1–2 years to complete. During this time, the worker may feel more committed to their current employer because switching jobs would restart the PERM process, potentially delaying their green card timeline.


Yes, the data does include petitions filed for renewals:

> The H-1B Employer Data Hub has data on the first decisions USCIS makes on petitions for initial *and continuing* employment


They're probably referring to the certificate verification that happens when you open any notarized application. Unless something changed recently, the system phones home to ensure its certificate wasn't revoked.


It doesn't do that on every app launch; there's a cache. It does it on the first launch of a binary from a new team.

(So multiple binaries with the same team don't check either.)

And I'd expect all logging is disabled on the CDN.


It does kind of suck if the binary is frequently updated, big and you have a slow internet connection. So some program which normally takes seconds to open can take 20 or more seconds to open after an update. Or if you don't use that program frequently, you always get a very slow start of a program.


I have no reason to expect that it is.


Tailscale runs its own local DNS resolver on your computer at 100.100.100.100, if you have enabled that in settings. Your DNS queries don't go to any Tailscale servers. By default, the client simply forwards all queries to the system DNS resolver, providing some added conveniences like automatic DNS over HTTPS upgrade when available. Also, you don't really have to use Tailscale for DNS if you're comfortable reaching your devices using their 100.x.y.z IP address. See https://tailscale.com/kb/1081/magicdns for more details.

And yes, Tailscale keeps a connection open to its servers to allow other devices to reach you when you're behind a firewall and direct connections can't be established.


L-1A also requires the employee to have worked at the foreign subsidiary of the US company for at least 12 consecutive months.


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