Robust electronics

[Benjamin Nead]

At the risk of quibbling, all ICE vehicles, not all vehicles.

"While ICE-powered vehicles follow the industry standard for data extraction through the OBD port, EVs are not obliged to follow any such standard. Although electric vehicles are not required to comply with OBD-II DLC connector standards or use the OBD-II CAN communication protocol, many do – especially vehicles with hybrid powertrains." -- source​

Countless other sources say the same thing.

Interesting. I asked Google AI and, yes, you are correct. The OBD2 standard isn't required on EVs sold new in the US! But most, apparently, do have OBD2 ports today. It's later model Teslas that now have their own diagnostic port protocol. No quibbling complaint here. I appreciate being kept up to date on all this stuff.

Further investigating determines that California is asking for an industry standard for EV diagnostic ports by 2026. When it comes to cars, whatever gets adopted in California first eventually gets adopted nationwide (ICE emissions standards, etc.) What do you want to bet all the big OEMs will pick the Tesla diagnostic port, since it's been already invented. They'll will simply need to rubber stamp it and say "yeah, sure, whatever." just like the J3400 charging standard become the US standard in mid 2024 and there was remarkably little blow-back from the CCS-1 consortium.

I imagine Slate knows all of this and will debut the Truck in late '26 or early '27 with whatever diagnostic port standard has been decided upon by everyone else. Ditto with the J3400 V2L standard, which also seems to be a work in progress. I just hope all J3400 vehicles will have some sort of V2L/H/G universality among brands, as CSS-1 never did.

 

[AZFox]

When it comes to cars, whatever gets adopted in California first eventually gets adopted nationwide (ICE emissions standards, etc.)

TL;DR: OBD2 itself originated that way.

[...] Early OBD systems were primarily focused on engine management and tailpipe emissions, with the modern version dating back to 1988 when California mandated some type of onboard diagnostic capability in all vehicles sold in the state. This requirement evolved into what is known as OBD-II, which arrived in 1994 and became a federal requirement affecting all vehicles sold in the United States two years later.​

Source: Brave AI

 

[Benjamin Nead]

Yup. And my '95 Saturn, which was probably built in late '94, was among the last cars made with an OBD1 port. When I took that car to independent shops in the early 2010s, this is when I learned of the OBD2 being the industry standard beginning in 1996.

When I was learning how to work on cars in high school shop class (early/mid '70s,) we had a diagnostic computer of the day that was a big metal box on a wheeled cart. We were told it cost something like $25K. You opened the hood of the car and clipped about 5 or 6 wires to various parts of the engine to get it hooked up. Lots of big clicky knobs to turn and analog dancing meters to watch.

 

[OldGoat]

Here's what I hope the Slate's tech team's motto is "When in doubt, leave it out". Just deliver the most basic vehicle possible and then sell options and accessories with higher margins to appease those who need gadgets. One poster inferred that many new car consumer complaints are due to owners not reading their owners manual or unable to grasp the convoluted steps needed to program or change settings. TRUE!! My friend owns a bicycle shop and says half the people can't seem to master the e-bike's control system since a) the directions are on-line only. b) the screen shuts down quickly as a power saving "feature" before you've got the settings where you want them.
Had I not spent hours watching YouTube videos and reading the Mach E manual, I could have easily been one of those consumers unhappy with the vehicle in surveys. Instead it's been trouble free and pure fun but has required a lot of homework on my part to understand changing settings etc.

 

[cadblu]

The OBD2 port really isn't needed. I'm sure there is a diagnostics screen hidden in a Service Menu that will show alerts, faults, and other relevant data. Tesla strongly advises against playing around in the service menu. You can really screw things up... not covered by the warranty if you mess up.!

 

[Benjamin Nead]

Well, this is why I'm interested in a vehicle like a Slate that will hopefully allow me to someday plug in a third party Bluetooth-linked diagnostic reader onto a tablet or phone to monitor such things as individual cell status of the traction battery. An authorized service technician would be equipped with dedicated reading device connected to that same port, but with access to things the typical vehicle owner shouldn't be messing with.

I'm sure there's going to be yet one more connector in the cab: a single USB-C that will integrate phones and tablets to infotainment/entermation stuff that people will want when they're driving around.

But, yeah, a dedicated electronic service port should be provided on any EV sold new in the US. The physical design of the port is inconsequential. If the 30 year old OBD2 now feels irrelevant, so be it. I'm just glad California is mandating some sort of standardization across the industry. I hope that Slate starts delivery of their vehicles with whatever standards has been agreed upon. Ditto with all the J3400 V2x stuff.