2022 Tesla Model S on 2040-cars

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Tesla behind lobbying push to ditch side mirrors

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration passed a law yesterday forcing new cars in the US to come with standard backup cameras by May 2018, and if Tesla has its way, this could be just the beginning of changing how motorists see out of their vehicles. The electric car manufacturer has teamed up with the 12-member Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers lobbying group (which represents major companies like General Motors, Toyota and Volkswagen) and filed a petition on Monday asking NHTSA for permission to replace sideview mirrors with cameras.
Currently, side mirrors are required on cars in the US, and they can't legally be replaced by camera technologies filling a similar role. The petitioners' chief argument is that sideview mirrors add drag and decrease fuel economy. According to Automotive News, Tesla founder Elon Musk has been lobbying for laws that allow automakers to use sideview camera systems exclusively for the last two years, but claims it's nearly impossible for a single person to change the regulations.
Sideview cameras have been on concept cars for decades, but augmenting external visibility with cameras and sensors has been a growing trend in production automotive technology over the last five years or so. Nissan uses its Around View Monitor to supplement mirrors with a bird's eye composite view of the vehicle during tight maneuvers, and the LaneWatch system from Honda displays a rear-facing passenger-side view to eliminate blind spots during lane changes. Tesla's early Model X concept (pictured above) had small pods on the side with cameras mounted in them, but more recent versions have switched to conventional mirrors.

Supra successor may be all-electric sourced from Tesla; MR2 returning too?

Rumors of a revival of the Toyota Supra and MR2 have been swirling for years right up until just this week when high-level Toyota employees all but confirmed their return.
But now The Detroit Bureau has put together news from different sources suggesting that the next Supra might be all electric. The report cites recent comments from Toyota senior executives hinting at plans to work with Tesla on a new joint project. The FT-HS Concept (shown above) seems a logical inspiration for a new Supra.
And on the other side of the equation is Tesla's design chief Franz von Holzhausen who was quoted last year saying his company was looking at its next project, probably a sports car, that would follow next year's intro of the Model X. He went on to suggest the car would compete directly with BMW's 3 Series, which, in coupe form, could be a worthy competitor to a Supra as well.

Tesla will 'probably' raise Model S price in Europe

The price for the Tesla Model S around Europe started higher than the US price but then went down. On a recent conference call with investors last week, CEO Elon Musk said that the future price will be going up. Probably. The hike is unlikely to be major, and Musk said that it's all part of the occasional purchase price adjustments that the company needs to make: We're probably going to have to adjust the price of our car in euros upwards because there has been a 7 percent change in the exchange rates of the euro versus the dollar. So we'll periodically have to make pricing adjustments if the exchange rate band gets too wide. I would certainly encourage anyone in Europe to purchase their car soon because we probably will have to make an adjustment there. Some example Model S starting prices in Europe are 66,640 euros ($82,712) in Belgium, 65,740 ($81,595) in Germany and 59,440 euros ($73,776) in France. For now, anyway. At the beginning of 2014, a dollar got you 72 euro cents. Today, it gets you 80. That might not be a big difference when you're buying brews for your new best friends at the hostel, but as Deepak Ahuja, Tesla Motors' Chief Financial Officer, told investors that, "as the euro weakens, the effect on our revenue is immediate." You can read a full transcript of the call here and listen here.