2017 Investor Roundtable:General Discussion

[SPadival]

For what's it worth, I showed my wife a video of the Model 3 prototype interior and commented how minimalist it looked. She responded "It looks like a spaceship". No prompting from me, honest !!

So there you go.. minimalist interior for a TSLA enthusiast is a "spaceship like" interior for at least one layperson.

 

[erthquake]

This whole thing started when someone speculated based on Elon's "spaceship" comments, that there may be a HUD involved. Fact is, the Tesla fan community (myself included) kind of built up this expectation for a HUD, but the company never said anything about that. They always showed a single screen in the middle and at least 300k people who reserved after the reveal did so knowing that.

Also, there have been many cars in the past (like my grandma's Yaris, which I have driven quite a bit), probably some currently as well, that only have a single instrument cluster in the center. The question will be, how well the screen is placed for the key data, like speed, to be easily readable by the driver and how the final version of the UI looks? (The version shown during the reveal seemed a little spartan and cluttered at the same time, but that was a year ago).

It wasn't just the spaceship comment, but it was also borne out of our reaction that the single display might not be enough to safely help us keep our eyes on the road. The Yaris's display is higher and further away from the driver than the Model 3 display. I'm concerned that even the top left corner of the Model 3 display isn't within useful peripheral vision.

 

[Sparky]

......But given that the Yuuuuge & Bigly potential for the share price launch well before the likelihood that we would see our fully equipped Model 3, we are once again full of excitement today because it is increasingly clear that we will simply upgrade our Model 3 reservation for a new Model X when shares lift off, and pay cash for it instead from our long-position. It is a no-brainer for us. I love when Elon's 3-D chess game results in us being able to successfully play our life planning in 3D chess as well. Who would ever go back to playing 1D chess or checkers after following the Tesla car/solar/battery story?

Yup.

I was all primed for a December delivery of my Model 3 PxxDL+ with full glass roof, AP2, HUD, Hyperloop attach points, etc. etc. This morning I was disappointed Model 3 res holder, realizing that most of those are not V1.0 options.

By noon, as an investor, I was feeling pretty damn good about the simplified rollout. I recalled that many of the Model 3 res holders I know, want exactly what Elon has been "sketching" via Tweet. That is: a scaled down Model S, with great range, Supercharger options, and AP; that's it.
It seems Tesla is all about volume and market share with the 3 and keeping all the cool stuff (except self-driving) for the S & X. But volume and market share will catapult the stock price.

Now, instead of buying one Tesla, we will probably buy 2-3 over the next 2 years.
Model 3 with basic range and AP2 for my wife because her LEAF is exhausted and she needs something soon.
Then, Model X 100D, 5 seater, perhaps CPO because I know my wife and I know she really misses her SUV but she won't drop that kind of coin now.
Then in early 2019, Model 3 PxxDL+ with etc, etc for me because I still kind of miss driving a Porsche and I deserve a medal for riding the TSLA rollercoaster over the last year without once kicking my dog.
3-D chess indeed. Tesla just sold me 3x as many cars as I had planned . Well played Mr. Musk.

 

[MartinAustin]

This whole thing started when someone speculated based on Elon's "spaceship" comments, that there may be a HUD involved.

There have also been hires from companies working on augmented reality products e.g. HoloLens from Microsoft, and someone from Skullcandy I think (trying to find the info on that)

If you are REALLY SAYING that Elon's tweet that said "wait 'til you see the real steering system" referred to Elon's view at the time of the current prototype interior as debuted very clearly during the reveal event, IMO you are crazy. Maybe you are right and I am wrong, but I believe Elon was referring to something else quite different when he tweeted, and we have not seen that yet.

I wouldn't be surprised if he wants to debut a car with no steering wheel - but something else instead that is less intrusive during self-driving.

 

[sundaymorning]

Before the digital age, a HUD is necessary, but now that the digital age has arrived, you don't need two displays.

 

[MartinAustin]

...many of the Model 3 res holders I know, want exactly what Elon has been "sketching" via Tweet. That is: a scaled down Model S, with great range, Supercharger options, and AP; that's it.

Reservation holders can either wait until the AWD etc. is available, or buy an early Model 3 with the "spartan" feature set. If they opt for the early car, they will be able to sell it when they order their new car 9 months later. Model 3 resale values will be very good during the period when Tesla is still working through the 400,000+orders, and probably better than average anyway. So... buying and enjoying an early Model 3 for up to a year won't be a terrible financial move.

And the 2nd Model 3 will have all the bugs worked out of it.

I'm actually happy that Tesla are approaching Model 3 sales in this way. The encumbent strategy was to sell fully-loaded cars for maximum profit, but this confines the sales price to $70,000+ which is hardly the province of the mass market. Selling a lot of $35,000 cars will really drive demand (via word-of-mouth and physical experience) into lower socio-economic brackets. (lower than "very wealthy," I mean)

 

[Ovulation]

For what's it worth, I showed my wife a video of the Model 3 prototype interior and commented how minimalist it looked. She responded "It looks like a spaceship". No prompting from me, honest !!

So there you go.. minimalist interior for a TSLA enthusiast is a "spaceship like" interior for at least one layperson.

For me as an investor the important thing is that people will buy the thing, the good news is that the model 3 without a HUD will probably eat less from the model S and X demand. But to be honest I think the iPhone approach (the minimalism) for the interior design that Tesla is taking doesn't work for cars, or in other words the weak point of Tesla is the interior, they get away with it because the global warmists right now have no other choice than Tesla, that might change when Mercedes, Jaguar, Volvo pumps out their luxury cars 2018-19. For the model 3 the competition comes even later. Bottom line, I will stick to my Land Rover and wait till Tests is able to put out a nice interior.

 

[larmor]

For me as an investor the important thing is that people will buy the thing, the good news is that the model 3 without a HUD will probably eat less from the model S and X demand. But to be honest I think the iPhone approach (the minimalism) for the interior design that Tesla is taking doesn't work for cars, or in other words the weak point of Tesla is the interior, they get away with it because the global warmists right now have no other choice than Tesla, that might change when Mercedes, Jaguar, Volvo pumps out their luxury cars 2018-19. For the model 3 the competition comes even later. Bottom line, I will stick to my Land Rover and wait till Tests is able to put out a nice interior.

The upcoming generation of drivers, or should we say passengers, are all about Tesla. I don't think energy and resources into the interior will be a benefit to the company.

 

[paulch]

Tesla hires an augmented reality/HUD expert for its Autopilot program what is this guy doing all day at tesla I wonder?

@16:00 some good nuggets here too.

Tesla probably already have HUD ready, but maybe they want to add HUD to Model S/X first (Elon said S/X will get the best technology first), otherwise, it will hurt the sales of Model S/X, and since their focus is on Model 3 for now, they don't want to introduce hardware upgrade to Model S/X before Model 3 is done. I guess Tesla will introduce HUD to Model S/X before holiday season of 2017 to fuel the Model S/X order, and then add HUD to Model 3 in 2018.

 

[geneclean55]

 

[Mike Smith]

Sounds like total chaos at Uber's self-driving division.

Inside Uber’s self-driving car mess

 

[KLC13]

Regarding no info cluster or HUD:

I dont think seeing the speed on the landscape screen may be too bad. The speedometer is placed at the top left edge so it may not be as bad as looking down on the radio display in a regular car. I'm going to check how different it is to look at the info cluster vs glancing next to my right hand while I drive tomorrow to see the human factors of this design.

If we look back at the Test ride videos, most of the people had this question about 2nd screen and Tesla engineers made it absolutely clear that it was only going to be a single screen for all your info. I think Tesla had finalized most of the design decisions back then, even though they said interior is not done. That is a good thing

Another reason I am not too concerned is that the people during the test rides genuinely seemed to like the interior and left feeling happy about the car. I know we fans don't criticize Tesla much but you can make out when someone is disappointed and that didnt seem to be the case in any of the test ride videos I saw.

And finally, the top left info modal seems to show speed, cruise and autosteer. The only other thing I would like to see is range, so if the UI guys can add a battery % like on mobile phones, I think thats we will be set.

Tl;DR: absence of HUD may not be as much of a concern as it seems now. As a reservation holder, I'm happy with everything except waiting for AWD

 

[RobStark]

We were told Model 3 would compete favorably with BMW 3 Series and Audi A4 not a Yellow Cab Prius.

 

[Snapdragon III]

I personally think the single center screen will be a total non issue for the stock, and for customers. After reading endless posts here about it I recently did a long drive in my Toyota Sienna which has a normal steering wheel cluster, and a small center display for the heater/clock (Which is way farther to the center than the top left corner of the Model 3 screen). I spent several hours on the freeway looking at each of the two displays endlessly, and came to the conclusion that the ways your eyes work you have to take your focus completely off of the road to look at either of them. The idea that you can look down at your speedometer, and keep your eyes on the road at the same time is BS in my opinion. Your peripheral view of the road while looking at the display was almost exactly the same looking at the two, except you have a little bit less peripheral view to the left when looking at the center. It didn't seem like it took any longer to glance at the center display than the center one. Especially with the automatic collision avoidance features built into the car, even if it did take you s split second more to look down it will be a non issue. As far as monitoring what the status on the self driving system is doing, I suspect that people would be much safer just looking out the window to make sure it is on the right path. I could easily imagine a scenario where you are looking down at the screen, thinking "That isn't right" while the car proceeds to crash its self. Especially as the self driving gets more advanced, and is using all the cameras, radar, and sensors, it will be too much going on for our human brains to process anyways in real time, and we will be safer just watching out the window. The only thing that seems like it really needs to be on the dash to me is turn signal indicators, so the self driving car turning, or changing lanes doesn't surprise you, and a visible warning light to notify you to take over immediately from the self driving. Those two things could easily be accomplished by something as simple as LED lights embedded in a crease in the dash.
As others have mentioned, this reminds me of the iPhone 7 no headphone jack drama. I bought an iPhone 7 and thought the lack of a headphone jack kind of sucked, for about 6 weeks, until my back ordered AirPods showed up, then I changed my mind and decided I will never use another pair of corded headphones again. I expect it to be the same with the Model 3 display.

 

[ZsoZso]

Ah, the spaceship-like interior was not referring to HUD.
Just watch it, next week Nintendo makes the announcement, that Tesla has ordered 400k Switch controllers from them, and THEN you realize what the new control scheme will be instead of the old and boring steering wheel. And who needs a HUD when you have the touch-screen in your hand ?!?!



Nintendo Switch™ - Official site – Nintendo gaming system

 

[erthquake]

Ah, the spaceship-like interior was not referring to HUD.
Just watch it, next week Nintendo makes the announcement, that Tesla has ordered 400k Switch controllers from them, and THEN you realize what the new control scheme will be instead of the old and boring steering wheel. And who needs a HUD when you have the touch-screen in your hand ?!?!



Nintendo Switch™ - Official site – Nintendo gaming system

Pssshh. Playstation only up in this house:

 

[RobStark]

Tesla will not have a massive powertrain and charging network advantage forever. Especially in Europe where private CCS networks are expanding quickly and in China where the national government will expand their standard quickly.

At some point Tesla will have to have competitive interiors. Better now than later.

Tesla has been upgrading their interiors. They are not the same as in 2012. With exposed unfinished USBs. With flat hard seats. No consoles.

Alcantara trim, standard consoles and Recaro seats. Same as in E Class, not S Class seats but major improvement. And Gen II vehicles offer freaking instrument clusters AND APII hardware.

Demand for Model 3 is so large, Bolt EV is so crappy and LEAF 2.0 is likely not to be too much better, that Tesla Model 3 will beat all the kids on the short bus.

But long term this is a bad idea. Having large numbers of buyers buy reluctantly because all the other options are crap.

 

[schonelucht]

There have also been hires from companies working on augmented reality products e.g. HoloLens from Microsoft, and someone from Skullcandy I think (trying to find the info on that)

I have no doubt they have a team working on augmented interfaces. And maybe even at some point they gave Elon a demo and he said, we need this in the Model 3 and tweeted about it as 'the real controls'. But maybe that time also ran out of time wrt to the July deadline or ran out of budget wrt to the $35k overall. And as an investor I am glad that Elon then took the executive decision to say : "sorry, but both time and price of launch are more important than your interface, we are going without you"

 

[SwTslaGrl]

Uber self-driving car flipped here in AZ

Tempe Police: Self-driving Uber vehicle involved in rollover

 

[JBRR]

@1:50
I think a lot of people missed this.

"we're having this debate, how adventerous do we want to be with the model 3. The simplest thing would be to make it a smaller version of the model S - but then we could also try to do something more radical. I think we're gonna do something more radical."