I don't know about that. Sure, the F-150 is a nice option but what is Ford doing in terms of self driving. Tesla is tackling multiple issues at the same time, most car companies playing catch up usually just care about the EV part but not the self driving aspect. In 5 years Tesla will still be the dominant EV imo because feature wise their cars will be so far ahead of everyone else.
> Sure, the F-150 is a nice option but what is Ford doing in terms of self driving.
In 5 years time, Tesla won't have solved self-driving, there'll be few distinguishing features between Tesla's self driving and whatever Ford will call its advanced driver-assist tech. If self-driving is completely solved by then, Ford will have the option of licensing Waymo's Driver platform (I predict that Waymo will not venture into large-scale vehicle manufacturing)
I think the main goal of EV's is to be more environmentally friendly. Self driving doesn't contribute to that goal and i don't think it's a thing that will make or break these other manufacturer's efforts.
The trailing manufacturers aren’t building EVs primarily to be environmentally friendly. They are trying to compete for revenue of the growing market.
And also self driving does allow for resource efficiency, which is environmentally friendly. Self driving cars have the potential to drive closer, making better use of limited road surface area and reducing traffic (which reduces emissions of other cars in the same jam). It also allows for fewer cars to serve more passengers.
I think it will be a big factor. Yes, they are two separate things in the car industry. But if I have a choice between two EVs, one with self driving and another with no self driving you bet I'm going to pick the one with self driving. And I'm willing to bet a lot of others will too.
Closed charging networks with proprietary plugs don't help you as a driver. It's just dumb, incompatible infrastructure.
Imagine if you had different electrical sockets for every different brand of appliance in your house. Imagine if you had to used branded fuel for your particular brand of ICE vehicle. It'd be stupid.
Tesla already uses CCS type 2 combo in Europe. They've released a CCS type 1 combo adapter in Korea, but the adapter will not charge as fast as having a CCS inlet on the car.
With the addition of CCS plugs on their chargers in North America and with the eventual availability of the CCS adapter to support legacy vehicles, hopefully Tesla will join the rest of the industry and start putting CCS type 1 combo inlets on the cars in North America soon.
They already offer it to a lot of manufacturers but they mostly refuse. Prime example of this was Porsche. I still can't believe they turned down that offer.
