On February 8, there were media reports that according to the exposed tesla internal letters, Tesla has decided to remove some of the domestic Model Y and one of the two electronic control units in the Model 3 bogie. In response to the supply shortage, Tesla Motors has made several downsizings, no doubt, and so on.
Officials have not publicly disclosed the news, but the decision has affected Tesla vehicles sold in China, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and other regions, and it is unclear whether it will affect models sold in the United States. Some analysts pointed out that Tesla's allocation reduction is to ensure the smooth sales of the last quarter of 2021. However, this reduction should not last long, until the supply returns to normal.
The electronic control unit in the electric power steering system is an important link between the steering wheel and the wheel steering, and its main role is to translate the driver's steering instructions into wheel steering. Previously, the steering of the car mainly relied on hydraulic pumps, steering racks and other mechanical parts, and was directly connected with the steering wheel, the advantage was that the response was timely, the bad place was inconvenient maintenance, and the driver usually needed to spend a lot of effort to make the vehicle turn.
Manufacturers often need to spend a lot of time testing and verification before making major changes in the car to ensure that the changes do not affect the normal operation of the vehicle, but Tesla's internal employees said that the company only spent a few weeks to discuss and make a decision, and did not pay attention to the consequences of the reduction, more for the temporary strategy of dealing with the shortage of supply.
Under normal circumstances, Model 3, Model Y and other models will be equipped with two steering electronic control units, but Tesla internal engineers believe that only one control unit is needed when the vehicle is running, and the other is only used as a "spare tire", which usually does not play a role and is relatively redundant.
Xiao Lei does not think so, the electronic control unit is the core part of the vehicle control, "one master and one backup" is to control the damage of the components, the driver can also operate the car normally. Now the "spare tire" is gone, and once the main unit has a problem, the safety impact on the owner is very large. It is worth mentioning that Tesla's Autopilot and FSD functions will use electronic control units.
Of course, Tesla's reduction is not once and a half, in order to save costs to castrate lidar, airbags and so on. Castrating the electronic control components, Tesla cars can indeed save a production cost, or produce more new cars, but the price is still user safety, in Xiao Lei's view, instead of sacrificing safety in exchange for sales, it is better to sell a few less to change the reputation.