Guesses on "token of appreciation" for line waiters tweeted by Elon Musk

[Garlan Garner]

I think it would be nearly impossible to completely identify the 'line waiters' vs those who reserved on Day 1 or reserved before the reveal. I suspect that the group will be larger than just those who were in line. And I'll be happy for all.

It would be extremely easy to tell those who waited in line from those who didn't.

First of all. The car didn't allow for online reservations until AFTER the reveal that night...right? The stores were closed by that point. So, Tesla could use time.

Secondly every line waiter had a sales rep and store location attached to their reservation. Online folks don't.

 

[kmngq]

How many people do you guys think waited in line? Out of 180K firs day reservations, how many waited in line?

I don't know where this "day one reservationist" term came from, but we aren't talking about that. We are talking about line waiters as Elon quoted.

How many "line waiters" do you believe there were?

i think during the reveal, Elon said 115k had reserved. (Tesla Had 115,000 Reservations By Time of Model 3 Reveal - HybridCars.com)

Line waiters, I would probably cut off around noon local time.
If you reserved after 12pm local time, you probably didnt have to wait in line.

So in the big scheme of things, probably around 60k-70k? this is purely just a guess obviously.
But its not that big of a number.

 

[McManX]

It would be extremely easy to tell those who waited in line from those who didn't.

First of all. The car didn't allow for online reservations until AFTER the reveal that night...right? So, Tesla could use time.

Secondly every line waiter had a sales rep and store location attached to their reservation. Online folks don't.

Online reservations opened slightly before the reveal began (whether intentional or not, it happened)

 

[Garlan Garner]

i think during the reveal, Elon said 115k had reserved. (Tesla Had 115,000 Reservations By Time of Model 3 Reveal - HybridCars.com)

Line waiters, I would probably cut off around noon local time.
If you reserved after 12pm local time, you probably didnt have to wait in line.

So in the big scheme of things, probably around 60k-70k? this is purely just a guess obviously.
But its not that big of a number.

I like your number. Lets go with that.

Lets say that Tesla gave away a gift to line waiters that cost them $1 to 70K line waiters. That would be $70K. ( Elons lunch bill ).

How about something that costs Tesla $10 per 70K line waiter? Still much less than a million dollars. Hmmmmm

NOW!!!! How much would Tesla have to pay to give line waiters a gift for something they rarely have to pay for?

Tesla is increasingly able to make businesses pay for the electricity delivered by its Superchargers

 

[MorrisonHiker]

i think during the reveal, Elon said 115k had reserved. (Tesla Had 115,000 Reservations By Time of Model 3 Reveal - HybridCars.com)

Line waiters, I would probably cut off around noon local time.
If you reserved after 12pm local time, you probably didnt have to wait in line.

So in the big scheme of things, probably around 60k-70k? this is purely just a guess obviously.
But its not that big of a number.

The line in Colorado was estimated to be over 1000 people long. It was perhaps the longest in the country and lasted throughout much of that snowy day in March. It didn't magically disappear at noon local time.

Instead of arbitrarily choose a time to determine if someone stood in a line or not, I would just choose to include the ~115,000 or so who ordered before the reveal.

As for the gift, they could make it an exclusive option as others have already mentioned. If it was a paint color, badge or minor software feature, the buyer would be paying for it so it wouldn't really cost Tesla anything.

 

[bonnie]

It would be extremely easy to tell those who waited in line from those who didn't.

First of all. The car didn't allow for online reservations until AFTER the reveal that night...right? The stores were closed by that point. So, Tesla could use time.

Secondly every line waiter had a sales rep and store location attached to their reservation. Online folks don't.

I reserved online at the reveal event, but before the reveal.
Others reserved online before the reveal - no store location or sales rep associated. (And I don't think any reservation has a sales rep associated...)

Better to err on the side of generosity & include all who reserved on Day One or before the reveal, then to have a few people left out and angry.

 

[ummgood]

Line waiters, I would probably cut off around noon local time.
If you reserved after 12pm local time, you probably didnt have to wait in line.

This isn't true where I reserved... I got in line around 7:45a.m. I was number ~100 in line. It took the store 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to me. When I left there were at least 300-400 people after me still trying to reserve. So at 75 minutes per 100 at the same rate it would have taken an additional 4 hours roughly to work through the line. So 3:00pm maybe? So cutting it off at 12p.m. would exclude more than half of the line in Austin.

 

[Garlan Garner]

I reserved online at the reveal event, but before the reveal.
Others reserved online before the reveal - no store location or sales rep associated. (And I don't think any reservation has a sales rep associated...)

Better to err on the side of generosity & include all who reserved on Day One or before the reveal, then to have a few people left out and angry.

I agree with you about people feeling left out... but Elon said nothing about Day One anything. Line waiters is what he said. Its like people who bought a Tesla one day that ordered/paid for ventilated seats and then the next day....ventilated seats were no longer available or free. Tesla has done that kinda thing a lot.

 

[Max*]

I think it would be nearly impossible to completely identify the 'line waiters' vs those who reserved on Day 1 or reserved before the reveal. I suspect that the group will be larger than just those who were in line. And I'll be happy for all.

I agree, it would be nearly impossible to completely identify, but you can get very close.

I'm assuming reservations are time stamped and location stamped. If so, look at the delta of reservation times between concurrent reservations at each location, once the delta goes over a certain threshold over a predefined timeframe (to resolve the case of a computer going down, people taking too long, etc.), chances are the line is over.

Give a little more buffer to the "threshold" and "predefined" and you can come pretty damn close to guaranteeing that you hit every line waiter, and few of the non-waiters may get happy surprises too.

Might backfire on TMC though "He didn't wait in line but got a present, why didn't I?" But it doesn't really matter.

 

[Garlan Garner]

This isn't true where I reserved... I got in line around 7:45a.m. I was number ~100 in line. It took the store 1 hour and 15 minutes to get to me. When I left there were at least 300-400 people after me still trying to reserve. So at 75 minutes per 100 at the same rate it would have taken an additional 4 hours roughly to work through the line. So 3:00pm maybe? So cutting it off at 12p.m. would exclude more than half of the line in Austin.

You can't cut anything off at 12PM.

Online reservation opportunities didn't start for another 6 hours. So...every order before 6PM or 7PM depending on where you where had to be a line waiter. Tesla stores were the only place to reserve before the online store opened.

 

[Max*]

So...every order before 6PM or 7PM depending on where you where had to be a line waiter.

Still wrong, I reserved at like 1 or 2pm, and I wasn't a line waiter.

 

[bonnie]

I agree with you about people feeling left out... but Elon said nothing about Day One anything. Line waiters is what he said. Its like people who bought a Tesla one day that ordered/paid for ventilated seats and then the next day....ventilated seats were no longer available or free. Tesla has done that kinda thing a lot.

I will be happy with whatever Tesla does.

I was only pointing out that there is not a clear cut line to pull out all the line waiters and no one else but line waiters. If people who waited in line are unhappy if anyone else receives something (not that I know they will), that would be a shame. Elon was touched by the number of people who reserved sight unseen.

 

[kmngq]

I will be happy with whatever Tesla does.

I was only pointing out that there is not a clear cut line to pull out all the line waiters and no one else but line waiters. If people who waited in line are unhappy if anyone else receives something (not that I know they will), that would be a shame. Elon was touched by the number of people who reserved sight unseen.

me as well, anything extra is a bonus. its just that some people are saying that all 500,000 should get something and that would cause the bottom line to take a hit. i'm just stating that 500,000 isnt the number that should be considered if Elon were to provide something extra.

 

[WileyTheMan]

...Elon was touched by the number of people who reserved sight unseen.

See that's the key right there. Reward those who had faith enough to order the car before the first reveal. I was a line waiter, but I think everyone (online orders too) that fell in this category should receive whatever "token" there is.

 

[Bad Horse]

The easier solution instead of worrying about who waited in line or not, which is arbitrary by site anyways, would be to make it be those who signed up in store the day of before the reveal occurred or not, which takes the concept of who waited in line or not away.

(This selfishly includes me, who did a drive by at the opening time of 10 AM and saw about 150ish people in line and determined I wasn't going to wait an hour or so in line when I still had some work to do, so I worked until about 11:30, drove 10 minutes, saw the line was 0 and signed up then).

 

[TimM.]

I was not a line waiter (well, not the original line I don't think).. I got to my SC at 2:30pm and it was about 20 mins (30 people) or so at that point.

What I do know is that people who reserved in the morning on the east coast have estimated delivery dates one month earlier than my central US position later the same day (and pre-reveal). So I'm assuming they grouped people and I may not be considered a line waiter.

 

[JP Bark]

Priority supercharging stations that can only be used by "line-waiters" since we already waited in line!

I had a similar thought, line waiters could override another model 3 at the supercharger stations. It would activate the self driving in the other charging car and move it to another spot. This could be done as you arrive, and when another stall opens the car that moved can just move back.

 

[Max*]

I had a similar thought, line waiters could override another model 3 at the supercharger stations. It would activate the self driving in the other charging car and move it to another spot. This could be done as you arrive, and when another stall opens the car that moved can just move back.

By the time the Model 3 is truly FSD, most of the line waiters will be onto their next cars.

 

[JeffK]

a comment from a Tesla owners says you can opt out data collection but that means disabling auto pilot

The video you linked to said nothing of the sort. I'm under the impression that you can always opt out of data collection without disabling autopilot.

 

[Garlan Garner]

I will be happy with whatever Tesla does.

I was only pointing out that there is not a clear cut line to pull out all the line waiters and no one else but line waiters. If people who waited in line are unhappy if anyone else receives something (not that I know they will), that would be a shame. Elon was touched by the number of people who reserved sight unseen.

Indeed. Its great that you will be happy either way.

My only point is that its extremely easy to separate day one line waiters from everyone else.

The only people who waited in line on day one were the ones who placed orders before the online store was open. That's it. The stores were closed before anyone online could do anything.