On this week’s show : Some suggest the Tesla
Model X is a lemon, Nissan plays a bit of
soccer, and are we really ready for the world
of autonomous cars?
These stories and more, coming up next, on
TEN.
Enjoying today’s show on Youtube and want
to read the stories we’re referring to today?
Just head to our website at Transport Evolved
dot com forward slash TEN, where you’ll
find today’s show notes -- as well as links
to the latest future car news, buying guides,
tech primers, and car reviews.
It’s Friday, May 27th twenty sixteen, I’m
Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield, and I’d just like
to announce that thanks to those of you who
make a monthly contribution to our site via
Patreon dot com, we’re in the first stages
of moving our office from my dining room into
a proper office.
Squee!
It’s so exciting.
We start today’s show with the Tesla Model
X luxury electric SUV -- or rather some of
the continuing problems owners of the high-end
car are experiencing with their new rides.
As regulars will know, Tesla has been fighting
an ongoing quality control battle for many
months at its Fremont facility, where high-end
executives -- including Tesla CEO Elon Musk
-- have been putting in long hours on the
shop floor in an attempt to personally quality
control as many cars as possible.
But even though more and more Model X reservation
holders are finally getting their cars, some
owners are now so fed up with their cars that
they’re taking legal action.
Take long-time Tesla owner Barrett Lyons for
example.
Having owned both Tesla Roadsters and the
Model S, Lyons was as eager as any other fan
to get his hands on his Model X.
But since owning it, he’s suffered a long
laundry list of problems, ranging from paint
defects through to unexpected door behavior
and dangerous Autopilot operation.
And now, after none of the attempts from Tesla
to fix it have worked, he’s taking the automaker
to court in California under the state’s
Lemon Law, suing for the car’s full sticker
price of one hundred and sixty-two thousand
dollars.
He’s not alone either.
Earlier this week, another Tesla Model X owner
took her frustration with her car online,
after the car’s trademark falcon wing doors
failed to operate properly.
“Feeling like I fell in love with a hot,
perfect man and he just gave me herpes,”
she frustratedly wrote.
Um…
Yeah…
I got nothing.
Court cases shouldn’t be the only thing
worrying Tesla this week either: attempts
to beat it at its own game should be too.
That’s because this week, German luxury
brand Mercedes-Benz -- one of the main automakers
to lose sales to Tesla in the past few years
-- has announced its intent to accelerate
development of a quartet of new long-range
all-electric models.
Details at the moment are sparse, but we can
say that these won’t be like the Mercedes-Benz
B-Class in production right now.
They’ll be specially-designed, brand-new
models based on C and S-class sedans -- as
well as the GLA and GLC crossovers -- with
custom body panels, interiors and badging
to differentiate them from their fossil-fuel
counterparts.
Naturally, Tesla is Benz’s primary target
with these new models, but the reason behind
the acceleration of plug-in development isn’t
just down to Model 3 orders.
According to sources close to the company,
the recent announcement from the German government
that it would invest in plug-in car incentives
for the first time in its history had a major
impact on the decision-making process of Benz’s
parent company Daimler.
Here at Transport Evolved, we’ve no doubt
the company can match and exceed Tesla’s
build quality and interior design, but we’re
unsure if it will be able to match its over-the-air
software update system, autonomous technology
and charging provision.
Let us know if you think it can in the comments
below.
Mercedes-Benz may have its eyes set on Tesla,
but over in Wolfsburg Germany, troubled automaker
Volkswagen is setting its sights on more modest
targets: the recently-refreshed 2016 Nissan
LEAF and upcoming refresh to the 2017 BMW
i3.
As we reported mid-week, the automaker has
just confirmed that its 2017 Volkswagen e-Golf
-- a car due to launch this fall -- will come
with a larger 35.8 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion
battery pack which will give it a real-world
range of around 125 miles per charge.
That’s more than the 107-miles offered by
the 30 kilowatt-hour, 2016 Nissan LEAF and
slightly more than 121 miles of EPA-range
we’re expecting for the 2017 BMW i3.
We should point out here that some outlets
are quoting 186 miles as being the range of
the mildly-refreshed e-golf: a figure which
is calculated using the overly-optimistic
NEDC test cycle.
That range is also the figure quoted by Volkswagen
sources over the last few months in reference
to a new, eighth-generation Volkswagen e-Golf
due to launch some time in 2019, but since
we know that model will be based on the same
platform as the Budd-e concept car we saw
at CES in January, we’d guess that it will
have a real-world range closer to 300 miles
per charge.
Still confused?
We’ve explained it all over at our site,
so head on over to find out more.
Volkswagen isn’t the only automaker with
plans to expand its plug-in vehicle range
this week either.
So too is Hyundai, which confirmed mid-week
that it plans to bring two new longer-range
models to market in the next four years that
will ensure it becomes competitive in the
plug-in marketplace.
As you might expect, we don’t have videos
of these cars yet -- because they haven’t
been made -- but Hyundai, which has previously
focused primarily on hydrogen fuel cell vehicles,
says it plans to offer a 200-mile electric
car by 2018 and a 250-mile electric car by
2020.
Given the fact that it hasn’t even launched
its new, 110-mile per charge twenty seventeen
IONIQ EV yet -- and automotive products tend
to stay in the marketplace for at least five
years before being replaced -- we’d guess
both the 200 and 250-mile models will be brand-new,
ground-up vehicles rather than incremental
updates to the IONIQ, but Hyundai hasn’t
confirmed one way or the other.
What it has confirmed -- and we know because
we checked -- is that the ratings given are
calculated on the EPA test cycle.
And that’s great news for anyone wanting
to buy one, because the EPA test cycle is
generally agreed to be the closest cycle to
real-world driving as we can get.
Naturally, we’ll keep you posted of developments
to these two models as we get them, but given
Hyundai’s growing reputation as an automaker
-- and its seven-year warranty program -- we
can’t help but think Nissan, Chevrolet and
perhaps even Tesla will need to watch their
backs in the affordable electric car marketplace
very soon.
From trying to beat each other in the marketplace
to beating each other on the field now, with
a time-appropriate story involving football
next.
No, I don’t mean American football -- which,
let’s face it, is more like rugby than anything
else.
I mean good old-fashioned, kick-a-ball-about
football… or as those in the former colonies
like to call it… soccer.
Anyway, this weekend it’s the UEFA Champions
League final in Milan, where Real Madrid and
Athletico will duke it out on pitch in an
all-Spanish showdown.
Why are we covering football on Transport
Evolved?
Well, while we’re sure some of you are fans
of the sport, it’s because Japanese automaker
Nissan, as official UEFA Champions League
sponsors, will be sending an entire fleet
of Nissan e-NV200 electric minivans and Nissan
LEAF electric cars to Milan to be used as
official transportation for the event.
In total, more than 100 electric cars will
be used to shuttle dignitaries and special
guests to the match, as well as perhaps encouraging
sports fans to dump the pump and go electric
in the process.
Will it encourage those multi-million dollar
sports stars out of their lamborghinis?
That’s a completely different question,
but one we’re eager to find out the answer
to.
Shifting gears now, we’re getting particularly
nerdy next with the news that the Society
of Automotive Engineers -- or SAE for short
-- has released a new set of guidelines determining
best practices for the wireless inductive
charging of electric vehicles.
The standards, quietly released last week,
should make it easier for electric car manufacturers
to both design and implement wireless charging
systems for their cars, although as we’ve
acknowledged here before, many in the industry
believe a push to wireless charging is a little
premature when electric cars still have such
a small market share.
The latest agreed-upon standard -- catchily
known as TIR J2954 -- lays out a common wireless
charging frequency of 85 kilohertz that SAE
says should be used to charge ‘light duty’
vehicles -- that’s cars and small pickups
to you and I -- at rates from 3 kilowatts
all the way up to 22 kilowatts.
As always, there’s room for interpretation
in the standards, but it does make a future
where you never have to plug in a more achievable
reality.
Do we need it?
That’s a different question, and one we’re
trying to answer ourselves with a six-month
trial of a Plugless Power wireless charging
system.
Head to our site to find out how we’re getting
on after six weeks.
We’ve only had one Tesla story thus far
this week and so we’re guessing you were
expecting at least another one, so here you
go.
Except this time, we’re talking about Tesla
the automaker -- not the cars themselves.
That’s because this week we’ve seen increasing
pressure applied to Tesla from the Union of
Automotive Workers -- the trade organization
which represents hundreds of thousands of
automotive industry assembly staff at factories
across the U.S.
It wants Tesla -- the only U.S. automaker
to not have a unionized work force -- to allow
UAW to set up representation within the factory,
essentially becoming the workforce’s representatives
when it comes to negotiating pay and conditions,
bonuses, and perks.
As you might expect, this call isn’t exactly
new: the UAW has been trying to unionize the
Tesla workforce since Tesla began Model S
production at Fremont in 2012.
But while the UAW wants to bring representation
to Tesla’s workforce, alongside collective
bargaining rights, Tesla has responded by
saying that “Changing the world isn’t
a 9-to-5 job”.
Things right now seem at an impasse, but if
they change, we’ll let you know.
From Fremont California now to London, England
via China.
Or rather to Coventry via China and London..or…
look… somewhere near the Greenwich meridian.
Why?
Well, we’re off to the London Taxi Company,
which is preparing itself to develop and build
the TX5, its first ever Plug-in hybrid taxi.
And in order to raise the money to do that,
parent company Geely -- a Chinese firm which
also happens to own Volvo cars -- has announced
its intent to raise bonds worth £276 million
($400 million) to develop these cars.
It’s all part of a plan to ensure that as
a manufacturer of London’s iconic Taxi cab
-- a design that really hasn’t changed much
in the last thirty years or so -- the company
is ready to comply with regulations coming
into force that will ensure all taxis in operation
on London’s streets will be zero emission
capable by 2020.
What’s more, companies Frazer Nash and Ecotive
Ltd -- London Taxi Company’s biggest rival
-- already have a plug-in hybrid vehicle that
it’s already testing out on the streets
of the nation’s capital.
It’s remarkably similar in design and has
actually been the subject of a court case
in which Geely tried, and failed, to sue for
trademark infringement.
Either way, those zero emission cabs need
to start hitting the street in just two years’
time as those new regulations start to slowly
roll in -- so both companies had better, to
put it bluntly, hurry up.
Would you feel comfortable behind the wheel
of an autonomous car?
Or more importantly, would you trust your
life to one without any traditional controls?
Those are the types of questions that were
asked in a recent study conducted by researchers
at the University of Michigan’s Sustainable
Worldwide Transportation department and, as
we told you this week, the answers indicate
that while the technology is nearly ready
for mass adoption, car buyers really aren’t.
The study, conducted at the start of the month,
follows previous identical studies carried
out in the past few years, and suggests that
despite more publicity surrounding autonomous
vehicles -- not to mention the rollout of
Tesla’s Autopilot system -- the average
car buyer either doesn’t understand autonomous
vehicle technology or doesn’t trust it.
The study is bad news for pretty much every
automaker rushing to bring autonomous vehicle
technology to market and even worse news for
Google, whose end goal is to produce pod-like
car sharing cars that lack any traditional
control surfaces.
Like electric car mass adoption however, we’re
guessing that attitudes will gradually change
over the coming few years.
It’s going to be an uphill struggle however
and despite the advantages of having fully-autonomous
cars, don’t expect them to be commonplace
any time soon.
Which brings us to our final story -- and
perhaps one which illustrates that perhaps
autonomous vehicles aren’t quite ready for
prime time anyway.
As those who frequent the site might remember,
we’ve featured several stores over the past
few weeks involving Tesla Model S and Model
X cars which have… misbehaved… when being
driven with autopilot engaged.
Usually, the fault can be traced to human
error rather than machine error, but this
week a video popped up online showing a Tesla
model S hitting the back of a stationary van
parked in the fast lane with its hazard lights
blinking.
Now before I get hate mail, I should note
here that since we first noticed the video
it has been pulled down offline.
And regardless of the reason -- either legal
or otherwise -- for the video being removed,
it’s worth noting here that we do need to
have a discussion about autonomous vehicles
and specifically autopilot, because we’re
seeing an increase in reports of people claiming
that autopilot has either caused an accident,
or failed to help.
I should point out too that there are equally
as many videos showing autopilot preventing
crashes or keeping occupants safe in some
pretty terrifying situations, so this isn’t
a clear-cut Tesla bad or Tesla good situation.
What is clear, and I’m not going to put
my ranting hat on, is that, as the previous
story demonstrated there’s still a general
lack of understanding over how autonomous
systems work.
Which may, sometimes, mean that people are
either not paying attention or not setting
the system properly.
And while Tesla does warn customers that Autopilot
is a beta feature and should be used as such,
indemnity from fault does not equal appropriate
training.
Which brings me to the question I want you
all to answer before next week’s show.
Should we have to pass a test before we can
drive a car with autonomous features?
After all, pilots flying planes have to take
different tests depending on if they’re
flying by sight alone or with the aid of advanced
instrumentation and flight aids.
Shouldn’t the same be true of cars to minimize
human error?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
I’m looking forward to the discussion.
And on that note, I think we’re done for
the day.
Another ten stories and another long show,
but I hope you all liked it.
If you did, give us a thumbs up and share.
If you didn’t, give us a thumbs down and
tell us why!
I’ll be back next week at the usual time
with another episode of TEN.
In the meantime you can find all the news
that’s fit to print at our website at transport
evolved dot com, catch up with us on twitter
at transport Evolve, or check out our latest
shows on our usual YouTube channel.
And if you liked what you saw today, please
consider keeping us independent and impartial
by supporting our Patreon crowdfunding campaign
over at Patreon dot com forward slash transport
evolved.
We’ve just found an awesome office space
we would like to rent as an official Transport
Evolved studio -- complete with really fast
Internet -- so any help you can offer is the
difference between being able to afford it
or not being able to afford it.
And if we’re going to grow, we need to get
out of my dining room.
Honestly.
As always, there are lots of stories we didn’t
manage to fit into today's show, including
a long list of things you’ll have to agree
to in order to become an official Tesla owners’
Club, Ontario charges up its green car advocacy
with a slew of new electric car incentives,
another Toyota RAV4 EV joins the Transport
Evolved fleet courtesy of the Walton-Elliotts,
and a guy who may -- or may not-- have been
asleep behind the wheel of his Autopilot-engaged
Model S.
So when we’re done, be sure to head to our
site to read them all.
Thanks for watching, I’m Nikki Gordon-Bloomfield,
have a great weekend, and until next time,
keep evolving!
