After driving the original Tesla Roadster it made me even more excited to get the 2nd generation Roadster, and I thought it would be fun to go over some of the biggest differences between the 1st-gen Roadster and 2nd-gen Roadster to really get an idea of the innovation that Tesla has shown in the past decade which is more than any other car manufacturer on the planet.
The original Roadster was produced from 2008 to 2012. It was a 2-seater sports car based on the Lotus Elise chassis and was the first highway legal electric vehicle to use lithium-ion battery cells. It was also the first EV to have more than 200 miles of range. It has a 53 kWh battery which is the same capacity as the Model 3 Standard Range Plus. Tesla only produced 500 Roadsters in 2008, and the one I drove was VIN# 351 which was cool and yes it’s the same exact model that Elon launched into space in 2018. According to the EPA, the original Roadster can travel 244 miles on a single charge and can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in less than 4 seconds with a top speed of 125 mph. The original Roadster’s efficiency was reported as 120 MPGe which is right around the same exact efficiency as a 2020 Model 3 Performance. The price of the original Roadster was $109,000. As far as the technology goes, there’t not a whole lot of tech inside the cabin. It has a normal instrument cluster behind the wheel with a very small and simple touch screen display on the left-hand side where it shows the battery level and charging status but nothing like what we see today even in the cheapest Model 3.
Less than 10 years after the original Roadster’s debut, Tesla announced their next-generation Roadster in 2017 and it looks downright incredible. I was lucky enough to see it in person at the Model Y event, and let me say this again for the people in the back: the Tesla red is just out of this world especially on this next-gen Roadster. There’s no official release date for this yet, but production should start in late 2021 with deliveries starting sometime in 2022. When it does officially come out, the next-gen Roadster will be the quickest production car in the world with a 0-60 speed of less than 2 seconds which is twice as quick as the original Roadster. That is just insane, and it will have a 200 kWh battery which is 4x the capacity of the original Roadster, and the top speed is over 250 mph. I mean, does it really matter how fast it goes at that point? Is anyone going to go that fast? Probably, but the really exciting part, if that wasn’t exciting enough, is that if the next-gen Roadster has the new 4680 tab-less batteries and the structural pack it could very possibly have 700 miles of range on a full charge which is nearly 3x the range as the original Roadster. That’s not confirmed, but Tesla said the range will be at least 620 miles, and that was before Tesla’s battery day event so we’ll see what the final number is. The base model starts at a cool $200,000 which is twice as expensive as the first-gen, and Tesla is also producing 1,000 Founders Series editions which will cost a quarter of a million dollars.
And if this car wasn’t already bizarre enough, one of the optional upgrades is called the SpaceX package which would include about ten small rocket thrusters arranged seamlessly around the car according to Elon. This package will supposedly give the Roadster dramatic improvements in acceleration, top speed, braking and cornering which I mean come on it’s just not even fair at this point. But the best part is Elon said it could even give the Roadster the ability to fly.
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This was my live panel session at Fully Charged LIVE North America 2020. Enjoy!
Transcript:
This session is going to be all about Tesla’s top 10 advantages that I believe Tesla can rely on to continue to thrive in 2020 and beyond even with no more tax credit.
First let me introduce myself, for those who don’t know me my name is Andy Slye. I’m a tech YouTuber and I’ve started creating a lot of Tesla videos since getting my Model 3. Best purchase I’ve ever made. My videos became pretty popular which led to me becoming the world’s top Tesla referrer with over 1,000 referrals so far which is incredible and still hard for me to believe. I love talking about Tesla and my Model 3 so that’s why I’m here today.
For those who don’t know about the federal EV tax credit here in the US I’ll briefly explain it. I’m not going to get into the gritty details, but basically someone who purchases a qualifying electric vehicle can potentially get a federal tax credit of up to $7500. It applies to all car manufacturers. However, once a car manufacturer sells their 200,000th electric vehicle then the tax credit begins phasing out for that manufacturer little by little each quarter until it’s completely gone. And guess whose tax credit completely ran out at the end of 2019? Tesla! So beginning January 1st 2020 Tesla no longer has the advantage of the tax credit when selling their vehicles in the US.
As a YouTuber who does Tesla videos you can imagine all the lovely comments I get on my videos. Tesla is a very hot topic and some people love Tesla and some people despise Tesla. And I’ve gotten many comments from Tesla haters over the years saying “Tesla is only surviving because of the tax payers and government subsidies. When Tesla’s tax credit runs out they will fail”
I hope you don’t take this as I only want Tesla to win. I love competition. I root for Tesla’s competition because it makes everyone better and it always benefits us, the consumer. For example, Rivian is here and I love what they’re doing, and I hope they succeed. I recently did a YouTube video showcasing Openpilot which is basically an open source competitor to Tesla’s Autopilot. But, having been a Tesla owner for almost 2 years I’ve grown to appreciate what makes their products so great and what makes them great as a brand.
One of the most popular reactions from people when they see my Tesla Model 3 is they usually ask “Does it really drive itself?” because many people associate Teslas with self-driving & Tesla Autopilot which is an advanced driver assistance system. Autopilot is synonymous with Tesla, but not many people realize that other non-Tesla cars can also have their own advanced driver assistance system added at a fairly affordable price. It’s called Openpilot, but how well does it stack up against the standards that Tesla Autopilot has set? Let’s find out.
Tesla Autopilot is designed to assist the driver with safety and convenience features such as emergency braking, collision warning, and blind-spot monitoring. Autopilot enables the car to steer, accelerate, and brake automatically for other vehicles and pedestrians within its lane. As of November 2019 when we recorded these tests, Autopilot is included on all Tesla vehicles at no additional cost. However, when I bought my Model 3 in early 2018 it was not included. I actually paid $5,000 for what they called Enhanced Autopilot at the time then I spent another $2,000 for the Full Self Driving option which provides some more advanced features such as automatic driving from highway on-ramp to off-ramp including interchanges and overtaking slower cars, automatic lane changes while driving on the highway, autopark for parallel and perpendicular spaces, and summon which allows your Tesla to drive itself to your location in a parking lot.
Openpilot is an open source driver assistance system by the startup company, Comma ai. It operates as a replacement for OEM Advanced driver-assistance systems and allows users to modify their existing car with increased computing power, enhanced sensors, and continuously-updated driver assistance features that improve with user-submitted data. Currently, Openpilot performs the functions of Adaptive Cruise Control, Automated Lane Centering, Forward Collision Warning, and Lane Departure Warning for a growing variety of supported vehicles. If your car is one of the 50 or so compatible vehicles, like Logan’s 2019 Corolla Hatchback, it costs about $1,000 to order the hardware called the EON Devkit which is sort of a glorified Android phone running dash cam software. Once you get the hardware you can install Openpilot on it then connect it to your car and you’re ready to go.
Similarities:
Both are Level 2 Partial Automation meaning the vehicle can control steering, accelerating, and braking, but ultimately a human sits in the driver seat and is responsible for monitoring the driving environment and must be ready to take over at any time. Both systems receive free software updates that constantly improve existing features + adding new features. During the time of our tests (Nov 2019) OpenPilot was on version 0.6.6 and Tesla was on version 2019.36.2.1. Both are constantly improving their own systems by tracking all users’ driving data for machine learning.
Differences:
Openpilot uses an interior facing camera for eye & head tracking to verify driver attention meaning it does not require a hand on the steering wheel but instead will alert if the driver isn’t looking forward. Autopilot does not use facial recognition but instead requires a hand on the wheel and will alert if it doesn’t detect a hand on the wheel. Openpilot disengages on acceleration or braking; it does not disengage if the driver turns the wheel. Autopilot disengages on steering or braking but not acceleration. Openpilot is labeled as alpha software while Tesla is in beta. OpenPilot currently does not have a maximum speed limit and does not use speed limit signs or map information for anything. Autopilot has no speed limit on interstates but will limit your speed to 5-10mph over the speed limit on roads with limits of 55mph or under. Openpilot is open source software so there are some slight differences in how it operates between different vehicle makes & models. Everything we reference in this video is how it operates specifically on a 2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback.
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