Every major player in the automotive industry is probably further along in development than this product is. They've probably been running cars on the road with similar capabilities for about a year or more now.
So I'm not clear if their complaint was slow model development cycles or new models coming to market. One is, it takes us too long to go from idea to off the line, the other is we don't have enough new car ideas.
Also 12 years is not a long time for industry that looks further than single quarter. Which the German auto-industry certainly can do at times. Rather soon if not already they will need to look at what to do for that year in models, design and so on.
Keep in mind that people routinely overestimate change in the short run but underestimate it in the long run.
Changing those traditional carmakers is difficult, which makes them appear fall short of your expectations of the short run. And I do expect many won't make it. But those that can change will be a force to be reckoned with in the long run.
Fundamentally, what is it that prevents the established auto makers from making changes mid lifecycle? Seems like Tesla keeps pulling it off; why can’t GM?
Is it that the component specification+acquisition cycle you describe is optimized to take as long as the development cycle of a new car?
By the time you finish the product design and manufacturing pipeline the chip shortage will be long over, and the market for a car without any modern amenities is not actually that big.
Is that because it's literally impossible to buy other cars since they have a chip backlog though? Is it worth redesigning a car for a trend that will be gone next year?
I have a feeling that while they implement 20 modifications per week, they will not roll out differently speced cars from week to week. It just doesn't seem possible with the regulation and testing that is mandatory.
As the Pontiac Aztek has shown, design by committee is not necessarily an effective approach and can lead to awful results due to the lack of a unified vision or goal. I imagine this will end similarly
That may be a compelling HN argument about the heroism of Elon Musk, but for a competitive car company, "pulling the rest of the industry forward 10 years in the span of 1 year" is a very bad thing.
Sadly, that's not the case. Car companies are just trying to catch up with whatever seems to sell at the moment. And if there's a new model, it is usually related to a some "successful model" from the past or an existing model is given a crossover look. And even these new cars have too many issues.
“They could create an EV Camry/Accord-killer tomorrow--actually, I'm surprised they haven't already.”
The fact that they haven’t tried is the root of the problem. And, I suspect, the problem that will continue to plague them for at least a few more critical years.
6 years is really long for many fields e.g. software. It may be really short for cars though, especially if you are up against incumbents. The massive demand probably doesn't help either.
It's not like it's intentional... It's simply the best there is currently and it's competing against idealized thoughtforms. Of course reality can't match the perfection of what can be thought.
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