General Discussion: 2018 Investor Roundtable

[Curt Renz]

We lost Wozniak

'I don’t believe anything Elon Musk says anymore' — Steve Wozniak goes on an epic rant against Tesla

Wozniak hasn’t done anything of note in quite a long time. It’s akin to having Bob Lutz comment on things. Once upon a time they did cool things, but they don’t any more.

I interviewed Steve Wozniak for a half hour in the mid-eighties for my show on KSTS-TV in San Jose, California. It was within one of his bouts away from Apple during which he was attempting to initiate another company. He said similarly disparaging things about Apple and Steve Jobs compared to what he is now saying about Tesla and Elon Musk.

In 1981 Wozniak crashed a plane he was piloting resulting in head injuries and temporary amnesia. He still did not seem quite right when I met him. I suspect his rants are due to real or imagined personal snubs among Silicon Valley multimillionaires. They're still human beings who can get petty, but their disputes become public.

BTW, today is the fifth anniversary of my first purchase of TSLA shares at $37.96.

 

[scaesare]

I interviewed Steve Wozniak for a half hour during the mid-eighties for my show on KSTS-TV in San Jose, California. It was during one of his bouts away from Apple during which he was attempting to initiate another company. He said similarly disparaging things about Apple and Steve Jobs compared to what he is now saying about Tesla and Elon Musk.

In 1981 Wozniak crashed a plane he was piloting resulting in head injuries and temporary amnesia. He still did not seem quite right to me when I met him. I suspect his rants are due to real or imagined personal snubs among Silicon Valley billionaires. They're still human beings who can get petty, but their rants become public.

BTW, today is the fifth anniversary of my first purchase of TSLA shares at $37.96.

I've read iWoz and I agree that his current viewpoint has been skewed by a number of events over time.

Wozniak was a genius at some very specific things, but I'm not sure I agree with many of his broad viewpoints.

 

[jhm]

All these windmills remind me of Wind Energy missing from TE portfolio. Hope Tesla can carve out some solid partnerships with Neon, Vestas.

Well, Tesla Powerpacks are being integrated with wind farms. A notable example is the 100MW Hornsdale Power Reserve in South Australia.

I do wonder if Tesla engineers might have any useful ideas for improving wind turbine drivetrains.

 

[jhm]

Locking 10 monkeys in an airtight room while hooked up to the exhaust of a VW TDI Beetle. I am already fed up with VW after going through the TDI debacle with them. If this is true, I hope it costs them dearly.

I suppose they could have locked another 10 monkeys in a room hooked up with the exhaust of a Model S to at least have had a proper scientific control.

But still, gassing monkeys is not a good PR move for VW. What the heck were they thinking?

On second thought, put the monkeys in a Model X with full biohazard filtration and let them drive around town with whatever exhaust other vehicle leave behind. This would be a much better experiment.

 

[RiverCard]

how can any other form of dilution, such as just issuing more shares or employee incentive shares, boost EBITDA? I don't get it. Generally such issues would boost the market cap, but should not directly affect revenue either. Only secondary effects like putting new capital to good use, or incentivizing workers, should boost revenue or earnings.

Adjusted EBITDA in the grant adds back stock based compensation.

 

[Starno]

NFLX already up more than TSLA entire 2017 year ...

 

[EinSV]

All these windmills remind me of Wind Energy missing from TE portfolio. Hope Tesla can carve out some solid partnerships with Neon, Vestas.

The South Australia big battery is a Neoen project and I believe there are more projects with Neoen in the pipeline.

Vestas announced a couple months ago that it was partnering with Tesla (and other battery manufacturers) on projects Vestas Joins Tesla to Combine Wind With Batteries
and has announced some specific projects with Tesla like this one: Tesla and Vestas Partner in $160 Million Australian Project

There have been other wind/Tesla projects announced including a plan by Deepwater Wind to build offshore wind/Tesla batteries (40MWh) off the coast of Massachusetts that would serve 80K homes. Tesla Joins Effort to Pair Batteries With Offshore Wind Tesla and Deepwater Wind are bidding for a massive new energy storage and wind power project

My impression is that Tesla is all over this.

 

[AudubonB]

I suppose they could have locked another 10 monkeys in a room hooked up with the exhaust of a Model S to at least have had a proper scientific control.

But still, gassing monkeys is not a good PR move for VW. What the heck were they thinking?

On second thought, put the monkeys in a Model X with full biohazard filtration and let them drive around town with whatever exhaust other vehicle leave behind. This would be a much better experiment.

This gives me an idea - and, as it's not always clear with my posts, I'm serious about this one:

Someone clever in blog-videos ought to tape an experiment wherein a Tesla is placed on dyno test rollers in a small, closed garage, and have it run at 60 mph for an hour with some accompanying monkeys, rabbits and canaries...perhaps some meerkats and other typical fuzzywuzzies,
while from the adjacent glassed-in observation room, the white-coated technicians with their clipboards frustratingly watch...nothing.

The video ought not to state the obvious - just let the viewer connect the dots.

Who's on?

 

[aubreymcfato]

Does anyone know how much Tesla is spending on its own electricity bill?
I'd be curious to know how much they would save, eventually, with the GFs full of panels and the whole network of Superchargers too.

 

[elasalle]

Moody's Assigns Provisional Ratings to Tesla Auto Lease Trust 2018-A Notes

it's all mumbo-jumbo to me

 

[mongo]

This gives me an idea - and, as it's not always clear with my posts, I'm serious about this one:

Someone clever in blog-videos ought to tape an experiment wherein a Tesla is placed on dyno test rollers in a small, closed garage, and have it run at 60 mph for an hour with some accompanying monkeys, rabbits and canaries...perhaps some meerkats and other typical fuzzywuzzies,
while from the adjacent glassed-in observation room, the white-coated technicians with their clipboards frustratingly watch...nothing.

The video ought not to state the obvious - just let the viewer connect the dots.

Who's on?

What about the vehicle on/ idling and trapped in a bubble test?

Edit: random extra letters

 

[Words of HABIT]

SpaceX sets February launch date for Falcon Heavy. Here's what you need to know

SPACEX Falcon Heavy launch set for February 6th. TESLA in space!

 

[DragonWatch]

My take on this article, and I did not want to hijack others comments, is I thought we won WWII? German carmakers backed studies exposing people and monkeys to toxic car exhaust :-(
But then. . .

I will volunteer to be one of the monkeys or lab coat guys as long as I can drink during filming my Why Bother Latte’ At my age it is hard to tell which position I would fill best My wife might be willing to encourage me outside the basement too

 

[ZsoZso]

We lost Wozniak

'I don’t believe anything Elon Musk says anymore' — Steve Wozniak goes on an epic rant against Tesla

His main gripe seems to be about Autopilot promises and he claims other companies are way ahead of Tesla in self-driving, but this sentence is very telling:

Everything I’ve read told me that every other car manufacturer in the world - Audi and BMW - are actually ahead of Tesla for self-driving cars.

So he never actually tried any of those "better" systems! He complains about Tesla autopilot and says others are better without having any first-hand experience with them to really compare.

 

[AudubonB]

The "Tesla-in-a-bubble" is, I think, too abstruse. A viewer is far more likely to connect with the "lab animals" concept than with the "vehicle trying to combust its own combustion vapors" concept.

BUT...how about this? A duplicate experiment in the "next room over" so to speak, should be that of an ICE....the only lab rat that we could have in there, though, would be a Terminator-like robot who tries to escape, only eventually to collapse with COx and NOx over-exposure. Could have those glowing red eyes slowly extinguish...

Who owns the rights to the Terminator robot? Friend or Foe?

 

[ZsoZso]

Its even worse... today a report came out that they tested Nx fumes even at humans.

Stickstoffdioxid-Experiment: Autoforscher sollen auch an Menschen Abgase getestet haben - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Wirtschaft

I could support human-testing if the test subjects were the VW executives
Have a taste of their own medicine...

 

[jhm]

How will Musk drive Tesla over the next ten years? Nominal, Sport or Insane? Blind Faith has a Renewal Movement. Now with your choice of cool-aid.

Blind Faith Price Targets

 

[WarpedOne]

Nominal, Sport or Insane?

Maximum plaid is lower bound.

 

[Bet TSLA]

If that last line in the article is true, Wozniak must feel very bitter about Tesla. Not a objective point of view anymore, unfortunately from a person who gets a lot of press airtime.

I'm pretty sure Woz is way past his "sell by" date.

 

[JRP3]

I could support human-testing if the test subjects were the VW executives

Or certain TSLA shorts.