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Musk: Tesla vehicles are now ’appreciating assets’ due to self-driving
- Thread starter electronblue
- Start date
So if Tesla increases the prices of their cars, that means I'll get more for my car when I trade it in than when I paid for it? I'm pretty skeptical.
Woohoo I can finally trade in my car 2x its original msrp!
I watched the interview and the remark was made in connection to the autopilot improvements through updates. I am sure it was a tongue-in-cheek remark and even though it felt funny at the moment he kind of stuck with it.
Tesla cars are not appreciating assets until they become vintage and you can actually sell it for more than you paid for.
Tesla cars are not appreciating assets until they become vintage and you can actually sell it for more than you paid for.
TaoJones
Beyond Driven
When you have a depreciating asset and it gains in value for other reasons, it does not mean that the overall value will go up. In other words, if the value of FSD is so high that used Tesla’s will basically not depreciate, this would be the same as an appreciating asset. Obviously Elon does not mean that used Teslas will be worth more than new Teslas. A used car that generates income and does not lose value it most definitely is an appreciating asset.
Errr... so worse than I even thought.
The whole appreciating asset thing is just a sort-term cash-generating drive prior to May 1st.
Say it with me... DEMAND LEVER!
Here is my suggestion to Musk:
1) Eat some humble pie and re-think prior assumptions
2) Do a capital raise, the market is still willing - this buys time
3) If need be, reshape the company to match current demand and readjust demand expectations if it is lacking
4) Re-think the marketing, advertising and sales channel so that demand can be driven in more convetional ways in the future
It would still be a great product with such adjustments and arguably it would be a better company.
1) Eat some humble pie and re-think prior assumptions
2) Do a capital raise, the market is still willing - this buys time
3) If need be, reshape the company to match current demand and readjust demand expectations if it is lacking
4) Re-think the marketing, advertising and sales channel so that demand can be driven in more convetional ways in the future
It would still be a great product with such adjustments and arguably it would be a better company.
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diplomat33
Average guy who loves autonomous vehicles
1) Humility is always a good trait to have.
2) Not sure this would work. Those investors don't give away their money for no reason. They expect something in return.
3) Demand has been great for the Model 3 so I am not sure what you are getting at here. Demand has never been the problem.
4) So Tesla should be like the other auto makers and use car dealerships? No thank you. Or are you thinking of something else?
@diplomat33
2) I am convinced Tesla could raise capital on the markets, barring a legal reason against it (which would be worrying given the legal reasons that might preclude it).
3) Tesla’s continued pricing and other antics are clearly motivated by driving demand, so inherent demand does not seem to be there in the numbers they’d like. One way would be to re-adjust demand expectations to a more realistic level and re-align the company to those. The capital raise would help buy time for this and help with any possible cash crunch.
4) If demand needs to be driven, the current way should be reconsidered. It is all fine and well to complain about the old ways when they are worse but the current price change, model change and sales model changes hell we are in is eroding trust in the company and is arguably a worse way than the old way. Replacing some of those current antics with, say, simply advertising would calm things down while still enabling demand driving.
2) I am convinced Tesla could raise capital on the markets, barring a legal reason against it (which would be worrying given the legal reasons that might preclude it).
3) Tesla’s continued pricing and other antics are clearly motivated by driving demand, so inherent demand does not seem to be there in the numbers they’d like. One way would be to re-adjust demand expectations to a more realistic level and re-align the company to those. The capital raise would help buy time for this and help with any possible cash crunch.
4) If demand needs to be driven, the current way should be reconsidered. It is all fine and well to complain about the old ways when they are worse but the current price change, model change and sales model changes hell we are in is eroding trust in the company and is arguably a worse way than the old way. Replacing some of those current antics with, say, simply advertising would calm things down while still enabling demand driving.
SDRick
Active Member
In a manner of speaking, Musk is spot-on....
I "appreciate" my Tesla every day!
I "appreciate" my Tesla every day!
But how will the driver get to the car? And how will you get it back?
If I am at work, or at home, will the customer somehow get to my house, or workplace? Then drive to let’s say the airport and then I have to be lucky enough, that someone wants to again drive to my workplace/home to bring my car back?
So basically I can rent my car out to my neighbors and colleagues, but now we have an integrated billing system, where Tesla (probably) gets a cut? Sounds very reasonable...
All good questions. In the @Bladerskb theory thread this was ”solved” by fixed pick-up/destination points that would at least limit the places where the car can end up and help ensure a new customer may reach it and perhaps help keep it closer to you too.
Another theory, perhaps more related to Tesla’s own Tesla Network cars, was the Tesla Network might employe safety drivers while still be semi-autonomous. In this — rather far fetched musing — the safety driver would of course to do this bit.
I know, it is out there. Just a theory.
All good questions. In the @Bladerskb theory thread this was ”solved” by fixed pick-up/destination points that would at least limit the places where the car can end up and help ensure a new customer may reach it and perhaps help keep it closer to you too.
Another theory, perhaps more related to Tesla’s own Tesla Network cars, was the Tesla Network might employe safety drivers while still be semi-autonomous. In this — rather far fetched musing — the safety driver would of course to do this bit.
I know, it is out there. Just a theory.
Yea, but even the pickup spots only really work with a fleet, not with cars owned by individuals.
If you have a car, you usually use it to get somewhere. Some locations are only visited so briefly, that renting your car out doesn’t make sense, like grocery shopping, dinner etc.
Destinations where you stay for a longer amount of time are usually just your workplace, or home. Now I guess people aren’t willing to drop off their car somewhere and walk a mile to work. And if you make a lot more drop off locations, it’s more likely, that your car won’t end up in the right one.
Sure, you could just get another car to pick up yours, but then that drive can’t be monetized, otherwise you really can’t make any money from renting out your car. And Tesls has to plan ahead, otherwise you want to pick up your car and there is no free rental to pick up yours.
In the end it takes really clever logistics, to minimize the need for you to pick up a car somewhere else. Unless you only rent it out for roundtrips.
But to get maximum efficiency out of it, you need to be car agnostic. You don’t have to care if car A is in the same spot it was, after a certain amount of time has passed. For that you need a fleet of shared vehicles.
And car sharing fleets aren’t a new thing. Having some level 2 driving assistance on them really isn’t the big revolution.
True. That said, I could see it being possible to sign your car up to the fleet — with the caveat that it might be on the other side of town or something shoud you need it.
Or maybe this is just a silly theory.
And then, do you take an Uber, or the Tesla of another person? Because in the end the Uber might be the financially better idea for the Network.
The problem can be explained very simple, by imagining we had 3 locations, the airport, bakery and cinema, where you can place your cars.
You work at the bakery and along with 4 other people you place your car at the bakery. 5 other people work near the cinema, maybe in the cinema, or the hotel next door. And the pilot drives his car to the airport.
Now one of your customers, who lives near the bakery, takes your car to the airport and takes a plane. Later you leave work, take another car to the airport, to pick up your car and drive home. Now the next car is at the airport. So now another person wants to go home, finds that his car is at the airport and takes the next car. That goes on until the last person has no car to go to the airport and pick up their car. So that person has to call an Uber to get to their vehicle.
Meanwhile a person who is in town for business has taken the pilots car to drive to the cinema, since the hotel is next to it. When the pilot comes back, his car is at the cinema and he, too, has to take an Uber to get to the cinema.
The next day the person staying at the hotel drives back to the airport and the whole thing happens again with the 5 cars parked at the cinema. And the last person has to use an Uber again. In the meantime the person who lives near the bakery takes the pilots car to the bakery, where the pilot has to take it back via Uber.
Now in the end on each day 2 people used the Tesla Network and 2 people payed for an Uber. Additionally 4 people had to drive to either the bakery, or the cinema with a Tesla network car to pick up theirs.
So how would such a network even generate income for the participants? Each customer would have to pay the full Uber price, plus whatever the other 4 people would want as a payment, for taking their cars back from the airport. In the end it cannot be cheaper, than an Uber, if anyone wants to make money on it, or even just pay for electricity for their car.
Sure, this could be avoided, if Tesla added one additional car to the airport, bakery and cinema. But then the private people's cars wouldn't even be needed anymore. No, the Tesla network only really works, if the car is able and legally allowed to drive to you with no passenger inside. And I know, it seems like I used the worst case scenario, in the best case scenario it surely works, but we only had 3 stops and 2 customers, the more stops you have and the more customers you have, the weirder it gets.
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