22/02/08
Lead
Tesla employees revealed that the company had spent less than a few weeks discussing the feasibility of the change and concluded that it was not a major safety matter.
Author 丨 North Shore
Responsible editor 丨 Xu Jinkai
Edit 丨 Chic
According to an internal letter seen by internal employees, in order to cope with the increasing chip crisis and the established sales target for the fourth quarter of 2021, Tesla has "reduced the allocation" of some Chinese-made models.
It is reported that for some Chinese-made Model 3 and Model Y, Tesla decided to remove one of the two electronic control units in the vehicle bogie. Under normal circumstances, a total of two electronic control units will be installed in the standard configuration of the above models.
Tesla did not disclose this "reduction" plan in advance, and the related operations not only affected new cars sold in China, but also affected tens of thousands of cars exported to Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and other european countries and regions. It's unclear whether Tesla will build or sell new cars in the U.S. with electronic control units minus them.
This shows that Tesla's above operations are actually confidential to the outside world, and in the face of thorny problems such as chip supply shortages, the company has to implement changes beyond the scope of public disclosure to maintain the normal sales of its front-line production. Especially in the second half of 2021, the U.S. electric vehicle maker, like other peers, felt the urgency of the chip crisis.
This component is an electronic control unit in an electric power steering system that converts steering wheel movement into wheel turning.
The component was removed because Tesla believed that the removed part belonged to the vehicle's "secondary electronic control unit," two electronic control units, one of which was installed primarily as a backup function. Subtracting one can save Tesla money in the short term without creating safety issues.
Insiders revealed that Tesla has had internal discussions about whether the removal of related parts should be made public. In addition, whether removing parts will affect the safety and reliability of the vehicle, Tesla has also discussed within the company.
Initially, Tesla was more cautious about removing the electronic control unit because the company feared that the move would affect the normal use of the vehicle FSD (Full-Self Driving).
The result of the discussion is that if the L3 autonomous driving function is to be realized, then the vehicle needs to have a dual electronic control unit system, and removing one of them may affect the realization of L3 level automatic driving.
Finally, musk decided to not announce the details of the "reduction" to the outside world for the time being before Tesla launched the L3 level automatic driving function, of course, consumers can not get the relevant news at the first time.
Tesla has some precedents for removing parts for business reasons. For example, in the spring of 2021, Tesla removed the lumbar support from the passenger seats of the Model 3 and Model Y models to reduce costs.
As early as January 2021, the head of Musk said on the company's earnings conference call that Tesla will face many problems from chips last year, and he pointed out at the time that tesla is difficult to obtain "small chips that can make seats move" and other chips that are standard for vehicles. But it is worth mentioning that Musk at that time did not mention that the power steering system also had a lack of chips.
Tesla has struggled to meet manufacturing challenges throughout its history, but the completion of its Shanghai factory in 2019 helped it increase production, expand profit margins, and gain market share outside of North America. This latest decision reveals new pressures as the company moves further into the mainstream and aims to deliver on Elon Musk's promise for the future of autonomous driving.
Given the chip shortage, other automakers have taken similar steps, often choosing to cut components that don't affect the core functionality of the vehicle.
For example, in March 2021, GM said that it was manufacturing a batch of 2021 light pickup trucks without a fuel management module, which would affect the fuel economy of trucks. And the reason for the "reduction", the Detroit manufacturer blamed the chip shortage.
Most of Tesla's new cars with a single electronic control unit initially flowed to Chinese customers, but now tens of thousands of affected vehicles have been exported from China to Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany and other European markets.
Phil Amsrud, senior principal analyst at IHS Markit, believes that if you want to discuss whether Tesla's "allocation reduction" will affect the vehicle's functions, it will largely depend on the vehicle's computing architecture and need to do a lot of verification .
He estimates that most automakers will spend 1,000 hours or more testing before they can make important decisions that take into account the potential impact. Upfront testing alone can take more than four months, and potential quality or safety issues can take years to become clearer after parts are changed.
Tesla employees revealed that the company had spent less than a few weeks discussing the feasibility of the change and concluded that it was not a major safety matter. It is worth mentioning that Tesla also produced a power steering system with only one electronic control unit in the early days, and such a precedent also gave the company greater confidence.
North Shore
A sommelier who doesn't love cars is not a good editor.