New feature ideas

[Dids]

I assume Rivian will make a truck... they have the money but so many get so close and then never deliver. It actually amazing Tesla managed so much with such great products.

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[ajdelange]

I assume Rivian will make a truck...

I surely hope so. I've given them a $1,000 deposit on one.

...if they ever decide to make them.

This was in reference to the "electric Jerry can" - not the trucks.

...or to allow one R1x to charge another ...

It occurred to me that this might be confusing. Rivian has hinted that one Rivian vehicle will be able to charge another. No details are available on this.

 

[Quicksilver]

As a practicing Luddite this is all very confusing to me. I need to make a phone call but I don't have any change.

 

[ajdelange]

Just heard about a new use for the API. An insurance company in the UK pulls data from the vehicle and charges you according to how many miles you drive. Makes sense. More miles on the road, more exposure, more risk. Now here's where things might get interesting. AFAIK the premium is based solely on miles driven at this point. But is is clear that company is exposed to less risk if the miles are driven at conservative speed in the "better" parts of town during daylight hours than if they are traversed after midnight at high speed in a shadier part of town. All that additional information is available through the API. Hmmm.

 

[Quicksilver]

"Just heard about a new use for the API. An insurance company in the UK pulls data from the vehicle and charges you according to how many miles you drive. Makes sense. More miles on the road, more exposure, more risk. Now here's where things might get interesting. AFAIK the premium is based solely on miles driven at this point. But is is clear that company is exposed to less risk if the miles are driven at conservative speed in the "better" parts of town during daylight hours than if they are traversed after midnight at high speed in a shadier part of town. All that additional information is available through the API. Hmmm. "

It has been said that "technology is a marvelous servant but a terrible master". Every day we cede more control to the government and business/industry. You can bet the insurance companies would love to be able to access this info to determine your risk factor other than using you driving record (accidents, tickets). This can be a double edged sword depending on how safe a driver you are. If you are in an accident and the data reflects you were driving too fast for conditions your insurance company could use that info to raise your rates or drop you as a customer. It might also be used against you in a court of law or a civil lawsuit.

 

[Saskateam]

Just heard about a new use for the API. An insurance company in the UK pulls data from the vehicle and charges you according to how many miles you drive. Makes sense. More miles on the road, more exposure, more risk. Now here's where things might get interesting. AFAIK the premium is based solely on miles driven at this point. But is is clear that company is exposed to less risk if the miles are driven at conservative speed in the "better" parts of town during daylight hours than if they are traversed after midnight at high speed in a shadier part of town. All that additional information is available through the API. Hmmm.

Exposure does not directly equate to increased risk. Likelyhood and severity are better measures of risk. I drive 50,000km a year for work, have done so for 15 years. My driving record is clean and at fault accident free. I have been backed into 2 time by people who drive a small amount annually. Both times my vehicle was parked in a spot and no one was inside. There has to be something for frequency of activity drive proficiency.

 

[ajdelange]

Well sure it does. If the probability of having an accident is p per mile driven the expected number of accidents is p times the number of miles driven. If you drive 10,000 mile in a year the the insurance company will expect to have to pay out C*10000*p on your behalf where C is the expected cost per accident. To be profitable they have to charge you more than C*10000*p + O + P in which O is the overhead involved in servicing your account and P is the profit they wish to realize from you. If you drive 30,000 miles a year then they must charge you C*30000*p + O + P. The difference is that now they charge C*M*p + O + P where M is the average (over all their policy holders) number of miles driven so that you, who only drive to church on Sunday, get no reward for exposing them to less risk than a road warrior.

In actuality most insurance companies give a discount for people who drive fewer miles but it is banded (e.g. less than X miles per year, between X and Y...) rather than continuous as these folks are apparently doing. Now there are other factors. C isn't constant. It depends on, for example, the cost of repairing your car and rates do depend on that to the extent that Tesla is offering insurance as some insurance companies charge Tesla owners outrageous rates based on the relative cost of repairing aluminum bodies. C also clearly depends on things such as how fast you drive. p (liklihood) is not constant either. It depends on things like time of day and where you are driving. The point of the post was that this UK insurer can get information not only on the miles you drive but on the other risk factors too to the point that they could respond to a claim with "Sorry, you were driving 40 over the limit and that's reckless driving and it says right there on you policy that you are not covered while breaking the law".

 

[ReddykwRun]

Hope they put the TESLA logo /name on back bed not the CYBERTRUCK logo/name

I don't feel it will need ANY type of logo or branding at all, sometimes less is better in an attempt to make a statement. Somewhere I recall Elon Musk making this idea known, I will see if I can find it.

 

[Ryan95738]

I don't feel it will need ANY type of logo or branding at all, sometimes less is better in an attempt to make a statement. Somewhere I recall Elon Musk making this idea known, I will see if I can find it.

Any luck in finding it?

 

[Dids]

I don't feel it will need ANY type of logo or branding at all, sometimes less is better in an attempt to make a statement. Somewhere I recall Elon Musk making this idea known, I will see if I can find it.

Yes I saw that too. I don't remember if it was Elon or Franz that said it wasn't going to get any logos or branding. Was shortly after the reveal.