Tesla quietly turned to the ECU and reduced the allocation.
Because of the chip shortage, Tesla has reduced one of the ECUs in the steering control unit on the domestic Model 3 and Model Y models. The response given by Tesla engineers is that the electronic control unit that has been "decommissioned" is a superfluous component that will not affect the normal use of the vehicle.
That said, what was eliminated on the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y was a redundant device. When new energy products are doing double redundancy and triple redundancy, Tesla is reducing redundancy.
What impact will this reduction have on the vehicle?
Cut an ECU, is this okay?
The fundamental reason for Tesla's allocation reduction is because the chips are not enough, and the vehicles that have been reduced have entered the European market such as China, Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany. Whether the US market will also reduce the allocation is inconclusive for the time being. The official response is that after the reduction of this redundant device, it will not affect the current Tesla L2 level of automatic driving function; if Tesla launches L3 level of automatic driving, this batch of reduced models can go to reload accessories.
What parts are being delisted? The actuator of the steering mechanism steers a piece of ECU (Backup Power/Function Module) of the rack, and the reduced model is initially aimed at the Chinese market.
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y have always used EPS electronic power steering system, and we will mainly rely on mechanical steering system when we drive every day. The EPS system component consists of steering columns, steering gears, speed sensors, torque sensors, electric motors, reducers, ECUs, and lines and power supplies.
The underlying logic is that the torque sensor and the steering shaft or steering rack are connected together, the torque sensor begins to work when the steering wheel is rotated, and the angle of torque generated by the torque input from the steering wheel becomes an electrical signal to be transmitted to the ECU, and the ECU finally completes the steering according to the new decision of the torque sensor and the speed sensor.
Tesla Model 3 and Model Y on the EPS mechanism before the reduction is a dual ECU mode, in the EAP and FSD automatic assist driving function is not turned on, the second ECU will not start the work, when the automatic assist driving function is turned on the second ECU will start to do redundancy.
Daily driving and AP function mode, because only adaptive cruise, lane keeping function is involved. Even in the case of EPS function failure, the operation can be carried out by artificial control of the mechanical steering structure.
If it is in the EAP or FSD function under the automatic lane change, automatic assisted navigation driving, automatic parking, intelligent summoning more to high-speed driving, unmanned driving functions, if one of the EPS ECU failure can also use the second ECU to start the redundancy program, but now after the reduction, Tesla Model 3, Model Y EPS only one ECU component, that is to say, there is less than one redundancy scheme, for users there is indeed a certain driving risk.
Therefore, in the daily or L2 level assisted driving function, the cancellation of an ECU does not have much impact, the second ECU is mainly to the steering to do redundancy without human driver intervention; but if it is L2 or above the more advanced driving assistance function, the EPS steering system is less than a steering ECU to do redundancy, may face some safety issues.
Disappearing ECUs that exist only for FSDs?
Tesla did not officially announce the reduction, but the follow-up said that the reduction does not affect the normal use of most vehicles at this stage, so there is no need to notify users at this stage.
But tesla's EPS has always been validated and mass-produced in dual ECU mode to ensure that the vehicle does not have problems during autonomous driving, and even if there is a problem, there are redundancy solutions available. However, if you don't buy EAP or FSD on the current production model, there is only one turn to ECU, which is relatively less redundant. However, the reduced ECU module is mainly used for redundant backup of the automatic driver assistance function, that is to say, if you do not use the auxiliary driving function, the ECU is basically 0 for your use.
In addition, if the user purchases EAP and FSD, he can go to the Tesla service center to reload the ECU of the transformation module. As mentioned above, the models with ECU modules reduced are mainly facing the Chinese market, and the opening rate of FSD in the Chinese market is only about 1%, and the FSD function has not been tested/landed in China, so cutting off an ECU module that makes redundancy for this function I think users will not be affected when driving in daily life.
But although Tesla has now reduced the hardware equipment for the Model 3 and Model Y to turn to the ECU, the price has not been adjusted, and it will be reloaded after the user selects EAP or FSD, but it leaves us with two questions, will the reload be additional? Does using EAP and FSD functionality mean there is no redundancy space without reloading?
If the ECU is not retrofitted, when the high-speed/unmanned environment driving mode is turned on, the only steering ECU unit in the EPS fails, and the only remaining redundancy scheme is the traditional mechanical steering mechanism, which must be taken over artificially. Theoretically, cutting out redundant backup ECUs for FSDs has no impact on everyday driving.
summary
Tesla, after removing the front seat waist support on the Model 3 and Model Y models, this time has set its sights on the transformation of the car. It's just a little different, one is the functional configuration and the other is the execution layer configuration, which is also mentioned above, although the cancellation of an ECU does have an impact, but it is not large.
We have several questions worth paying attention to, the first point, Tesla is really because of the chip problem, or because of the low FSD opening rate to reduce the chip? Second, after the cancellation of an ECU, if the EPS of a single ECU can respond to the needs of the Chinese or European market, and can operate reliably and safely, will it become the mainstream configuration? Third, will an ECU module cause some users to activate FSD or EAP functions? Both are worth noting.