Tesla Inc - Discussion about the company and CEO.

[redpoint5]

What does a grease monkey know about "impressive" engineering? Sure, it's possible the autobody guy knows something, but it isn't likely. At any rate, the consensus does seem to suggest the body is the least well engineered system, which is fortunate because it's the most superficial.

Speaking of superficial, I wouldn't back into my garage in the first place, but if I did, I'd probably live with whatever superficial damage occurred since it's likely to happen again, and doesn't affect my enjoyment of the vehicle.

Should I decide to fix superficial damage, I'd do it myself. Worst case I'd hire someone handy with bondo and a paint sprayer. There's no scenario where I drop $6k on aesthetics, or allow my insurance premiums to skyrocket.

Someone backed into the front end of our Prius and caused a grand in damage to the bumper cover and some other little bits. There's a fist size hole now, but an extra grand in my bank account. Wish I could get that lucky more often.

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

What does a grease monkey know about "impressive" engineering? Sure, it's possible the autobody guy knows something, but it isn't likely. At any rate, the consensus does seem to suggest the body is the least well engineered system, which is fortunate because it's the most superficial.

Speaking of superficial, I wouldn't back into my garage in the first place, but if I did, I'd probably live with whatever superficial damage occurred since it's likely to happen again, and doesn't affect my enjoyment of the vehicle.

Should I decide to fix superficial damage, I'd do it myself. Worst case I'd hire someone handy with bondo and a paint sprayer. There's no scenario where I drop $6k on aesthetics, or allow my insurance premiums to skyrocket.

Someone backed into the front end of our Prius and caused a grand in damage to the bumper cover and some other little bits. There's a fist size hole now, but an extra grand in my bank account. Wish I could get that lucky more often.

Oh I agree, I'd pocket ANY damage claim and fix whatever myself to however I want it for a fraction of what shops charge. The problem is, this on most any other car would have been a $2-3000 hit being generous. What that means is insurance is going to cost more as these averages "pile up". Pun intended.

I do think mechanics know way more than you might give them credit for and he's outside the control of Tesla or any car maker for that matter so I trust his partiality. I think part of any automotive mechanical engineering degree should be at least one summer at a mechanical repair shop, one summer at a body shop, and one summer on the assembly line. Then we might get some well engineering cars.

[redpoint5]

Can't disagree with any of that. Part of vehicle design is ease of repair and maintenance. I think insurance premiums have been shown to be higher for Tesla, probably partially due to cost to repair.

Experiencing the thing you are designing for is important regardless of what it is. I've often thought it would be good if judges spent 24hrs in prison so when they say someone deserves a particular sentence, they have some context for asserting that, and also have a better understanding of the environment which usually is not conducive to rehabilitation.

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by JSH

A friend of mine has a 2016 Model X. She paid $8000 for Autopilot + Full Self Driving. She was promised an over the air software update in 2-3 years that will turn her car into a fully autonomous vehicle. How long should she have to wait before Tesla is forced to refund that $8000?

Does she have something from Tesla stating that they'll turn her car into a fully autonomous vehicle in 2-3 years? If not, it'll be hard to force a refund from Tesla.

[JSH]

Originally Posted by roflwaffle

Does she have something from Tesla stating that they'll turn her car into a fully autonomous vehicle in 2-3 years? If not, it'll be hard to force a refund from Tesla.

Musk likes to leave a twitter trail. This is just one tweet:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/823727035088416768

[redpoint5]

Twitter is an entertainment platform, not a news outlet. As such, users know that absolutely anything on there should be for entertainment value, and not for making important life decisions. Twitter's usefulness beyond entertainment probably doesn't extend much further than announcing when a party starts for a large audience.

That said, the context of the "6 month" reply was in this question:

At what point will "Full Self-Driving Capability" features noticeably depart from "Enhanced Autopilot" features?

That is a subjective question. What is the definition of "noticeably"? If the full self drive package received any update in which someone noticed the change, and it was not offered on the autopilot version, then it would be easy to argue that the Tweet was fulfilled technically, even if it missed the spirit of the question. In other words, it doesn't constitute a legal obligation.

I'm not saying Tesla/Musk is ethical, just saying that the other side of the picture is that consumers chose to "invest" in something which is not guaranteed, and have some responsibility for setting their expectations accordingly.

If some company said "we're definitely going to double battery capacity by the time your car is built", I wouldn't pre-purchase the car. It would be ludicrous for me to do so because implementing new technology or finding breakthroughs isn't a predictable thing. We all know that you should see something demonstrated before investing in it; but an abundance of enthusiasm clouds our judgement... and perhaps that enthusiasm is exactly what it took for Tesla to stand a chance of viability.

[roflwaffle]

Originally Posted by JSH

Musk likes to leave a twitter trail. This is just one tweet:

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/823727035088416768

As much as I want it to, "noticeably depart" != the car driving itself while someone sleeps in the back.

[JSH]

I got a chance to look at the SEC filing.

First the good:

• Tesla's accounts payable went down. This means that they are paying their suppliers instead of delaying payment to try to show a profit. (Like they did in 3Q2018)
• Tesla expanded their supercharger network by 33%

Then the bad:

• Solar installations dropped 38% YoY
• Powerwall installation dropped 39% YoY
• R&D spending dropped YoY and QoQ
• Captial spending dropped YoY and QoQ
• Tesla not only burned through $1.5 billion in cash they also added $385 million to their debt.

YoY = Year over Year
QoQ = Quarter over Quarter

[aerostealth]

All this first quarter numbers reporting I am seeing here is just wrong. See attached link to Now You Know report on the Tesla first quarter financials.

https://youtu.be/dBCSA5voamQ

[JSH]

Originally Posted by aerostealth

All this first quarter numbers reporting I am seeing here is just wrong. See attached link to Now You Know report on the Tesla first quarter financials.

https://youtu.be/dBCSA5voamQ

Why would you go to youtube when you can go to the source?

https://ir.tesla.com/static-files/b2...5-050eb29dd42f

It is only 10 pages long.