2017 Investor Roundtable:General Discussion

[Bobfitz1]

My guess is that Elon realised that he needs to shut up about this because it is likely going to be one if if not the most valuable parts of the company. A 10x improvement in manufacturing would lead to an unassailable lead in vehicle cost. Also, it would be a large moat becuase other companies would take significant amounts of time to be able to innovate in the same way, all why they have to either lose money or sell more expensive vehicles.

Elon doesn't need to shut up about AD progress and plans. He just has more than enough to publicize about products that customers will actually buy one day. The ICE companies aren't going to invest billions to make their soon to be obsolete IC vehicles 5 x faster.
Neither will they invest additional billions to make new EVs five times faster when they don't have battery cell supply to reach a few million collectively before 2025.

 

[sundaymorning]

Highest vin # now at 1131.

Highest Production VIN seen

 

[Bobfitz1]

EM: Please read and consider: Elon Musk Needs His Own Tim Cook to Take Over Tesla’s Operations Thanks: Your friend, AlMc

A great case could be made that EM needs a Tim Cook. Or a few. However the mess of a FUD article you linked to does not.
In some ways JB Straubel seems to function as a defacto COO. If EM found another exec he trusts as much as Straubel he might appoint such a person to be COO. For now the COO function is split among a small number of the top people, with Musk as the cerebral cortex making the key operations decisions then letting the others handle delegation within their respective organizations. Musk's vision for where Tesla goes in the next 10+ years is two orders of magnitude over Jobs goal with iPhone, etc. So far despite speed bumps they seems to be doing pretty well.

 

[Oil4AsphaultOnly]

A great case could be made that EM needs a Tim Cook. Or a few. However the mess of a FUD article you linked to does not.
In some ways JB Straubel seems to function as a defacto COO. If EM found another exec he trusts as much as Straubel he might appoint such a person to be COO. For now the COO function is split among a small number of the top people, with Musk as the cerebral cortex making the key operations decisions then letting the others handle delegation within their respective organizations. Musk's vision for where Tesla goes in the next 10+ years is two orders of magnitude over Jobs goal with iPhone, etc. So far despite speed bumps they seems to be doing pretty well.

Actually, EM needs another Gwynne Shotwell.

 

[Waiting4M3]

Say what? There was no production automation for the original roadster. Lotus built the 2400 gliders and Tesla hand assembled to add motor, battery etc. As you described, M3 production line is a substantial step up in complexity and speed from the S/X assembly line.

I think you misunderstood my analogy that Tesla is at the same point of the learning curve in learning production automation, as when they were learning how to build EVs in the Roadster 1 days.

 

[3Victoria]

Actually, EM needs another Gwynne Shotwell.

I am sure if they can clone her or find someone equally competent, they would be hired. As it stands the COO function is shared and that is be more effective than putting that power into one person.

 

[electracity]

EM: Please read and consider: Elon Musk Needs His Own Tim Cook to Take Over Tesla’s Operations


Thanks: Your friend, AlMc

What is often missed is that Jobs worked a low level operations job for Nolan Bushnell at Atari in the early days of that company. Jobs probably gained an early respect for the importance of getting the routine operational stuff right. In contrast Musk tried to make operations exciting with "alien dreadnaught".

Would jobs have discovered that the pack building process was broken AFTER the model 3 was claimed to be in production? Even minimal project management in the gigafactory should have signaled to senior management that development deadlines were being missed. The most likely explanation is that employees have learned not to give Musk bad news. This is probably how Musk in 2015 claims FSD by 2017.

 

[sundaymorning]

A great case could be made that EM needs a Tim Cook. Or a few. However the mess of a FUD article you linked to does not.
In some ways JB Straubel seems to function as a defacto COO. If EM found another exec he trusts as much as Straubel he might appoint such a person to be COO. For now the COO function is split among a small number of the top people, with Musk as the cerebral cortex making the key operations decisions then letting the others handle delegation within their respective organizations. Musk's vision for where Tesla goes in the next 10+ years is two orders of magnitude over Jobs goal with iPhone, etc. So far despite speed bumps they seems to be doing pretty well.

Tim Cook deals with IPhones where the amount of parts are clearly not as complex to manufacture. If Elon and Co. can ramp M3 up to speed as they’ve indicated for Q1 2018, then I don’t think any Cooks or Zukerbergs are necessary.

 

[TradingInvest]

A great case could be made that EM needs a Tim Cook. Or a few. However the mess of a FUD article you linked to does not.
In some ways JB Straubel seems to function as a defacto COO. If EM found another exec he trusts as much as Straubel he might appoint such a person to be COO. For now the COO function is split among a small number of the top people, with Musk as the cerebral cortex making the key operations decisions then letting the others handle delegation within their respective organizations. Musk's vision for where Tesla goes in the next 10+ years is two orders of magnitude over Jobs goal with iPhone, etc. So far despite speed bumps they seems to be doing pretty well.

The current Tesla setting is perfect. Shorts want to paint a picture that Elon is not competent.

I saw another article wrote by the same author Travis Hoium, published yesterday. It's titled "Why Tesla Semi Faces an Uphill Battle".
He claims he has no position in Tesla. The way he wrote the Tesla Semi article makes me think he probably is paid to spread FUD. I will add my reasoning when I get time.

 

[JRP3]

Performance upgrade to P100D finally happening Tesla to begin Model S, X P90DL to P100D performance upgrade on eligible cars

More than a year after Tesla first introduced its flagship Model S and Model X P100D, and offered P90DL owners the opportunity to transform their cars to “World’s quickest production car” status, the California-based electric car maker is finally making good on its promise on the performance upgrade.

 

[skitown]

Highest vin # now at 1131.

Highest Production VIN seen

We’re almost through.

 

[Gerardf]

We’re almost through.

Yes, 1131 is almost as close to hell as possible.

 

[Hogfighter]

Yes, 1131 is almost as close to hell as possible.

3 deliveries are still about as fast as Gary

 

[Lessmog]

3 deliveries are still about as fast as Gary

Yeah, but my Boring hat is in the mail, they say.

 

[skitown]

Yeah, but my Boring hat is in the mail, they say.

My hat made it to the wilds of Idaho. If it can make it here, it can make it anywhere...

 

[dalalsid]

The current Tesla setting is perfect. Shorts want to paint a picture that Elon is not competent.

I saw another article wrote by the same author Travis Hoium, published yesterday. It's titled "Why Tesla Semi Faces an Uphill Battle".
He claims he has no position in Tesla. The way he wrote the Tesla Semi article makes me think he probably is paid to spread FUD. I will add my reasoning when I get time.

If you start looking at every outlet as basically writing for click generation, you'll realize that not everyone needs other ulterior motives. Doesn't apply to comment trolls.

 

[zmarty]

If you thought the press is disrespectful of Tesla now, check out how they were treating Amazon then:

And now Amazon is among the biggest companies in the world.

 

[Lessmog]

If you thought the press is disrespectful of Tesla now, check out how they were treating Amazon then:

And now Amazon is among the biggest companies in the world.

Great find! Amazingly prescient questions too -- probably meant another way, but really showing Bezos' genious and insight. Hindsight is BIG. Thanks for those 12 minutes.

 

[skitown]

If you thought the press is disrespectful of Tesla now, check out how they were treating Amazon then:

And now Amazon is among the biggest companies in the world.

Awesome post. So good to have the Amazon story replayed for folks. Aren't the parallels sweet? The interviewer was nearly hyperventilating at one point over the idea of Amazon's market value.

 

[uselesslogin]

Awesome post. So good to have the Amazon story replayed for folks. Aren't the parallels sweet? The interviewer was nearly hyperventilating at one point over the idea of Amazon's market value.

I think it is worth pointing out that the stock as hitting like $120 in that video - which would have later split to make it $60. A few years later the stock would be under $10. While it would rally and get back to $60 in 2003 it really didn't grow much for the 5 years after that. I say this because I think a lot of people don't really get how much a stock like this can move - even if the company continues to execute on the long term vision.