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7.0 in Australia

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This morning Australia time (20 March 2015) the CEO of Tesla, Mr Elon Musk, announced the new 6.2 software update. That is expected to air in 10 days' time. But he also mentioned the new features that are expected in around 3 months' time. That will be a major update, ver 7.0 and apparently the whole of the interface will change. It will introduce a lot of the autonomous driving features. Surely, that is much more exciting!

Now true it is, many of us may say 'meh' and figure that they have no real intention of letting the car drive them around. After all they bought the car for them to drive. But that is missing the point. What is the point I hear you ask?

The point is, that it is a dream come true for cars to be able to do this. It was unthinkable in our parents' day. It is still almost unthinkable today. It is a science-fiction breakthrough. Any kid who ever dared to dream would want a fully autonomous car. It's the stuff of which Terminators are made (and without the meaningless violence). And every Tesla driver is a kid at heart - you would have to be to want to have one. I really do commend Mr Musk as a true visionary pushing this line for Tesla to take. It is almost as if the profits are secondary. The fulfilment of the dream being the primary consideration. Us geeks (come on, we all are deep down, admit it) will want it and provide the market push behind it.

So what can we expect in 7.0? Well they said that the driverless features have been tested from San Francisco to Seattle. That is a distance of around 1300km. Considering Sydney to Brisbane is a mere 950km, that is quite a claim. Musk says that very little driver involvement was needed. And that is all we want to hear. He said, quite understandably, that it is still unsafe in suburbia. Obviously, in slow city driving, pedestrians are more prone to jump out in front of the car. At slow speeds, all sorts of unpredictable things occur and programming a computer to deal with that is understandably problematical at best. That bit will require more time. But at fast highway speeds - there are obviously less unpredictables. The lanes are bigger. The cars are relatively slower around each other (all moving at around the same relative speed). The stuff of which programming is made!

But there is something I find even more exciting. The idea that you can summon the car to come to you from your smart phone or ipad. I would love to be able to run an app in the morning and call the car out of the garage, and to come and greet me at the front door. If that comes out in ver 7.0 then I'll be a monkey's uncle. But if I read the CEO correctly, that is what is on the cards. And then to be able to tell the car to go put itself to bed - well then that too is exciting. (No wonder they need to invent the snake to plug itself in... bit silly to have to follow it into the garage to plug it in yourself afterwards. I always thought the car should drive onto a magnetic plate that charged the car by induction like an electric toothbrush charges - but I aint no engineer).

For my part - I can't wait.
 
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The garage bit needs Homelink. We don't get Homelink in Australia.
AND, are the Canberra nannies going to allow this at all? We don't get a browser now, let alone a car that steers itself!!


I don't really see Homelink being a real problem. Not applicable for carports. And it only remotely presses a button to open the garage door for you when the car nears it. The driver can press the button from either inside the house when he or she summons' the car, or press it before getting out of the car and ordering it to go park itself.

As for the Canberra nannies - the way I read the Australian Road Rules, if it is not prohibited, then it is legal. And there is currently nothing prohibiting the auto-steering of the car. Of course it will be no excuse for a driver to not be in control of the car and take responsibility for an accident. The Statement of Claim against the driver will allege the usual, "Failure to control the car", "Driving in a speed excessive in the circumstances", "Failure to steer the car so as to avoid the accident" etc etc... and all of those particulars are practically admitted if the driver tries to say it wasn't me, it was Elon Musk! So no one is trying to avoid legal liability. Surely the principle liability always rests with the Captain of the Ship who has to take responsibility for the car's actions. In my view, that kind of talk is a sidetrack to the main issue anyway.

Still terribly exciting to have the car be able to do all that though. And if readers don't believe me - just ask yourself WHY DID YOU GET THE TECH OPTION?? That was a significant expense. But I dare say that most people went with that option....and given the choice, most people would prefer ver 7.0 than mere 6.2! Now tell me I'm wrong! We live in interesting times.
 
It would be great to have the car summoned to me from its parking spot in a shopping centre, but even better if it could drop me off and go and find its own parking spot. Maybe that comes with v8.0?


Yes that would be truly remarkable. That is how we should dream I think. My initial thoughts were that for the car to go park itself in the usual carport spot at home - you would need to do it a few times to "teach" the car what you want. There would need to be some 'learning' involved. So getting the car to go park itself at Westfields Shopping Centre while you went to Maccas, now that is truly higher order stuff. But the only impediment is programming time and attention - and so that will come! I mean what computers and smart phones do these days is inconceivable to the times when we had punch-card computers. And I still can't get over the flat screen LCD - and truth be told - that was a major factor in me deciding to even buy the Tesla. I wanted a touch screen as the main dashboard! So yes - going to park itself in a shopping centre - bring on ver x.y
 
The browser isn't missing because of the Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, ... nannies - it's missing because of the Tesla/Telstra prices/deal.

Are you sure about this? Because it doesn't make much sense. Audio streaming and google maps are far more bandwidth intensive than website browsing, especially as you can't watch videos through the browser. Basic browsing hardly takes up any bandwidth.

From what I understand speaking to the Tesla guys it's more about it going against what the road authorities want.

I can't wait for auto steer. I bought the car to drive, but sometimes when I've driven the route dozens of times I'd love to be able to relax a bit and let the car drive itself. I know other high end cars already have similar features.
 
I agree with Timpoo... Can't wait for it.

Also it's no big deal to use 4G on the car already. Just have a 4G phone and turn it into a wifi hub. Then connect the car to it through wifi. Voila, 4G speed using the wifi connection. No biggy.


On my BMW i3, the web page is disabled when the car is in motion. Nanny state requirement.

Surely there should be an Aussie hack to make the web browser work. Perhaps an app that just projects the phone display to the centre console and allows you to use the phone from the LCD keyboard. That would be cool. Could watch flash videos then.
 
Are you sure about this? Because it doesn't make much sense. Audio streaming and google maps are far more bandwidth intensive than website browsing, especially as you can't watch videos through the browser. Basic browsing hardly takes up any bandwidth.

From what I understand speaking to the Tesla guys it's more about it going against what the road authorities want.

It's not to do with what someone wants - it's to do with what is the law. This is (I think) being used as an excuse.
One web page (with images) can equal three audio tracks.
 
Just be careful about expectations. I see the 7.0 as enabling lane hold. The route Elon took probably involves limited access roads i.e. no traffic lights or stop signs. I know traffic light detection has been demonstrated but I would expect 7.0 to be something more akin to adaptive cruise control together with lane holding. Both are available today on other cars albeit with restrictions. The Hyundai system disengages if you stop touching the wheel for more than a few seconds. There is a video (Hyundai : The Empty Car Convoy - YouTube) showing the Hyundai system. Note the text saying that disengagement was turned off.
 
Just be careful about expectations. I see the 7.0 as enabling lane hold. The route Elon took probably involves limited access roads i.e. no traffic lights or stop signs. I know traffic light detection has been demonstrated but I would expect 7.0 to be something more akin to adaptive cruise control together with lane holding. Both are available today on other cars albeit with restrictions. The Hyundai system disengages if you stop touching the wheel for more than a few seconds. There is a video (Hyundai : The Empty Car Convoy - YouTube) showing the Hyundai system. Note the text saying that disengagement was turned off.

Great video. There is a big difference between keeping the lane automatically and mere "Lane Keep Assist" which just nudges the steering wheel when you cross the lane without indicating. The former is pretty much autopilot right there as shown in that video. In future updates the car will change lanes and negotiate traffic automatically at the touch of the indicator stick.

I suppose the next question is whether there will be a dead-man's-switch needing to be held constantly by the driver to assure the car that the driver has not dozed off or become catatonic. If released the car could, well... answering that one is not simple actually.
 
Great video. I almost bought a Genesis before I realised Tesla was coming to Australia. Fortunately, the Genesis didn't offer CarPlay and so I decided not to get one. Nice car and good value but the Tesla is more exciting.

I just had to Google what "CarPlay" was. Does the Tesla have that? Does that mean you can surf the web and play video as you drive using CarPlay with your iPhone being the engine? Makes me want to buy an iPhone.
 
I just had to Google what "CarPlay" was. Does the Tesla have that? Does that mean you can surf the web and play video as you drive using CarPlay with your iPhone being the engine? Makes me want to buy an iPhone.

No, the Tesla does not support CarPlay but that's probably OK even for someone like me who didn't buy the Genesis because it lacked it. CarPlay is just a simplified front-end for the iPhone that appears on car screens providing access to standard apps like Phone, Messages, Music, Maps etc.

The Tesla screen and interface is good enough that it does almost everything one would want to do with CarPlay with some exceptions.

1. I don't think the Tesla interface handles Messages i.e. no easy way to access and play texts.
2. The Tesla interface isn't extensible e.g. third-party apps can support CarPlay like Spotify.