AUTOPILOT
Elon Musk founded his electric car company, Tesla, around the promise that it represented the future of driving — a phrase on the automaker’s website. Much of that promise centered around the Aupilote. Time and time again, Mr. Musk has said that truly autonomous driving is almost within reach and that capability will be pushed to drivers via OTA updates.
While this approach has raised safety issues, including many debates over what hardware to use, it’s clear that Tesla is one step closer to fully autonomous driving. In Europe, even the Autopilot is a device combining adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assistance, all working thanks to sensors and cameras. For these functions, the Teslas are the ones that perform best. The EV chain has conducted numerous tests on this; each time, Tesla comes out on top.
In the United States, it’s a big deal, since it is possible for some Tesla drivers in the United States to take advantage of the beta version of the self-driving capability. Concretely, customers who wish and who have obtained a sufficient safety score proving that they have a safe driving can buy this option and use it. The data is then communicated to Tesla, which can therefore continue to improve its device and make it accessible to everyone once its development is finalized.
So, it seems to be on the right track. Even if this system always requires a certain vigilance on the part of the driver, who must be able to regain control at any time, it allows you to travel everywhere, including in town.
ELECTRICAL EFFICIENCY
When we talk about electric cars, we are talking about autonomy. The two subjects are linked, because it is the anxiety of drivers. And it’s completely legitimate: no one wants to end up with an empty battery in the middle of a journey. This is already the case with a telephone, which has become a vital object in our daily lives. When it is easy to anticipate a full tank of gas (except in the event of a shortage) with a thermal vehicle, a 100% electric car requires a completely different organization, more focused on foresight.
The consumption of an electric car is expressed in kWh per 100 kilometres, i.e., concretely, the energy the vehicle needs to cover these 100 kilometres. For a thermal vehicle, we are talking about liters of fuel consumed. The pattern is the same: the lower the fuel or kWh consumption, the longer the car will be able to drive.
To get the best efficiency, you don’t have to have the biggest battery. Quite the contrary. You can go through visible equipment (such as aerodynamic rims) or invisible (a heat pump, which recycles hot air for better management of the temperature of the cabin). There are levers to move efficiency in the right direction.
On this point, Tesla is really one of the very good students since the Model 3 Propulsion is one of the electric cars that consumes the least energy. Combining this efficiency with fast charging speeds results in an electric car that provides the utmost peace of mind for long journeys.