Off topic galore

[betstarship]

Amazing finding. EBV = Epstein Barr Virus.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1481772805024800769

 

[ggr]

As of today the installation is finished. It was supposed to take 4 days but actually took 10 (working days, including a Saturday). They blamed most of the delay on missing parts. It was too dim to take a final photo, will do so on the first sunny day. A couple of teething problems with the controller and Powerwalls, still being worked on.

Working correctly now.

 

[Jack6591]

Just a little a little shout out to the good people of Tonga…

This is catastrophic. Hopefully all are well..

 

[mongo]

Yet anyone can go to a salvage yard and access the same parts, only possibly damaged. I'll also point out that anyone can open up the breaker box in their house and access live 240VAC. For those who don't know AC causes muscle contraction which can make it impossible to let go while DC will push you away.

More likely 120VAC in North America. Unless you manage to touch both phases simultaneously before ground.
Bad version of Operation .

 

[JRP3]

Unless you manage to touch both phases simultaneously before ground.

Sure, the two wires right next to each other on any 240V breaker, also right next to the neutral/ground bar. If the insulation is stripped back a little too far a misplaced screwdriver could make the connection. But yes 120V fun is more likely, and also deadly.

 

[Krugerrand]

Agreed. But it shouldn’t happen to Teslas. Our expectations, at least mine, are higher.

We laud all their deserved accolades for the innovations and ingenuity that distinguish from legacy auto. Likewise, I don’t expect them to repeat the errors of others.

An exec at Teradyne used to say “our *sugar* doesn’t smell any better than theirs”.

Bash away.

Meh. Tesla isn’t trying to be like Legacy, but that doesn’t mean Tesla has suddenly figured out how to battle extreme and ever changing weather with their NEW technology. You didn’t expect there might be an unexpected problem or two along the way?

IMO, Tesla already has improved Legacy venting in cars and also vastly improved temperature control and been able to significantly reduce the time to heat or cool cabin air. But gosh darn it, they can’t solve, nor be expected to solve, every bloody problem right off, especially if they didn’t know the problem existed in the first place/were unable to anticipate there being a problem. Titanium shield anyone?

I’ve owned several vehicles over the decades and not one had solved extreme cold. There wasn’t one I didn’t have to drive now and again in full winter regalia with the windows cracked and the vents blowing subzero air. Every one required a block heater on a timer to ensure starting in the winter and even then there were a few times it was touch and go.

The whole ‘I expect Tesla to be so much better than all who came before’ is eggnog. It’s people getting more for less and it never being enough. The higher Tesla raises the bar, the higher people want to push the bar and the less tolerant they become of anything they perceive as less than perfect.

Just add that attitude to the long lists of reasons for no invites to the mountain.

 

[dm28997]

Even with 14 F at night our Tesla is so much more dependable than our old ICE vehicle and much safer. Skiing in style

 

[scaesare]

No one should be touching any part of the HV system of an EV unless they are trained in some manner. I know of at least two people killed working on an EV and one was a hybrid mechanic. I have also personally witnessed a few close calls. HV systems are incredibly dangerous because they are DC, HV and have incredible energy.

Meh. I've no "training", but am smart enough to know I need to educate myself in dealing with potentially dangerous tech. I've repaired my car's onboard chargers twice, and ripped the DC-DC converter open to address air-conditioning (a HV system) failure. I've read up and know enough to know what I can tackle, and what I shouldn't.

Then again, I have no official training, and work on the brake systems, fuel systems, and drivelines of my ICE vehicles. I also often repair my own A/C appliances. I wired my basement, and have run 240V circuits. I've run natural gas line.

Are all of the above potentially life threatening? Yes. Should everybody do such things, especially those who don't take the time to educate themselves? No.

Should anybody (including you) make blanket statements stating no one should without "training" work on such? Definitely not.

 

[mongo]

ah, I see. Well, it seems my memory has failed me in this instance then because I swear there was a video of Sandy Munro tearing apart one of the first Model Ys and he suggested they add in a heat pump....don't have time right now to go back and search for that specific video....good to know though. thanks.

You may be thinking of Sandy's disappointment that the Y still had a normalish 12V electrical system.
He also brought up adding a sound deadening cover to the compressor.

 

[Artful Dodger]

OTG Direct:

Elon liked this video on Twitter: ♫ Da-Da-Da-Da Davos ♫

Cheers!

 

[Artful Dodger]

OTG Direct:

Elon liked this video on Twitter: ♫ Da-Da-Da-Da Davos ♫

Cheers!

Doh! Wrong video link posted above! Here's the "Davos Reset" music video parody:

Cheers!

 

[mongo]

Demand for EV delivery vehicles is huge and most are built by companies using 3rd party rolling chassis (Ford, Freightliner, Navistar).
Bollinger can get a lot more volume with a lot less effort by leaving the body/ electronics/ certification to someone else.

 

[JRP3]

Yeah Bollinger was an ambitious project, an expensive niche target market that would never have the volume to drive costs down. I'm sorry to see them give up on the B1 and 2, I'm not sure what expertise they bring to the EV delivery market. They had interesting designs for the body, (full length pass through for long cargo), and their machined transfer cases and portal axles, none of which seems to transfer to their new business model.

 

[mongo]

Yeah Bollinger was an ambitious project, an expensive niche target market that would never have the volume to drive costs down. I'm sorry to see them give up on the B1 and 2, I'm not sure what expertise they bring to the EV delivery market. They had interesting designs for the body, (full length pass through for long cargo), and their machined transfer cases and portal axles, none of which seems to transfer to their new business model.

Chassis are needed more than innovation.
(I've been out of loop a few years though)

 

[Artful Dodger]

R.I.P. Meat Loaf

(WGHP) — Legendary singer Meat Loaf died Thursday at the age of 74.

Friday morning, TMZ reported that Meat Loaf had been diagnosed with COVID-19 recently and had been “seriously ill” prior to his passing.

• Rock superstar Meat Loaf dies at 74 ​

The singer and actor, born Marvin Lee Aday, had been outspoken about COVID, specifically railing against vaccine mandates, according to TMZ.

No cause of death was given in the announcement of his death on his official Facebook page.

“Our hearts are broken to announce that the incomparable Meat Loaf passed away tonight with his wife Deborah by his side,” the post said.

 

[TSLA Pilot]

To the questions regarding service on Ask, I sure as Hell hope that they don't give it lip service (again). There are also some obvious policy changes needed at Tesla as well; they're just getting to be friggin' rude these days . . . that's unbecoming.

Rich Rebuilds latest is likely just the tip of iceberg. What used to be the outstanding service of years ago, with easily available loaners and quick repairs is now often a three-week crap shoot just to get an appointment, with 4- or 5- or 6-year beat to heck Tesla trade-ins as Service Loaners, or Uber credits.

It takes years to build a reputation; it can be ruined in days; watch and cry:

 

[Knightshade]

To the questions regarding service on Ask, I sure as Hell hope that they don't give it lip service (again). There are also some obvious policy changes needed at Tesla as well; they're just getting to be friggin' rude these days . . . that's unbecoming.

Rich Rebuilds latest is likely just the tip of iceberg. What used to be the outstanding service of years ago, with easily available loaners and quick repairs is now often a three-week crap shoot just to get an appointment, with 4- or 5- or 6-year beat to heck Tesla trade-ins as Service Loaners, or Uber credits.

It takes years to build a reputation; it can be ruined in days; watch and cry:

Look, as someone who has remarked in the past Tesla hasn't invested enough in service- even I think that's a pretty garbage video from a dude who is mad to realize when he tried making content without the word Tesla in it his views dropped like a rock so he's now compelled to keep making Tesla content to pay the bills even though he's upset about it.


So anyway after Rich just rants for a while about nothing in particular for like 6 minutes- then we get an "interview" with an unhappy customer... he complains about parts shortages... which EVERY car brand has pretty publicly had these days...

Car Dealerships Face Parts Shortage And Workforce Challenges

However, digital tools may help to satisfy customers.

gmauthority.com

57% of all legacy dealers have staff shortages, and 58% have significant parts delays. So a majority of all dealers have these same things going on.


Then it goes to another dude mad that a video of his mentioning he had a service issue got dislikes... and that it took THREE WHOLE WEEKS to fix his car during a pandemic... ISN'T THAT CRAZY he asks? Well, not really. See again everybody's got slow service right now.

Then the guy goes into the second-in-the-video Porsche commercial (Rich himself already did one earlier)

Hilariously Rich seems to realize people might notice a theme and runs a "This is not an advertisement for Porsche!" scroll underneath to disclaim it.

And it's not like Porsche doesn't also have delays with service like this or something...

Poor Porsche Service - Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums

991 GT3, GT3RS, GT2RS and 911R - Poor Porsche Service - Its really dissappointing that porsche can build a GT3 in 5 days but they dont know how long to build a PCM. I got delivery from Porsche Scottsdale a GT3 with a defective PCM. I would not recommend this branch as they should have checked...

rennlist.com

Guy had his GT3 delivered with a bad engine computer. After 10 days of the car being in service dealer had no idea how long to get a new one.

5 more owners post on thread (different models) with same problem...

OPs last post says dealer now told him it'd be another 3 weeks for the part. So longer in service than the PORSCHE IS AWESOME dudes Tesla repair took. (plenty more examples out there).



Ok, continuing-

Now we get to a dude upset that while his car was in for service he was still being billed for an FSD subscription (which is monthly billing)

The rep, correctly, tells him if he wants to stop the subscription at any time, for any reason, you just log into your tesla account and turn it off.

When you sign up BTW it explicitly tells you there's no refunds for the subscription, but this guy apparently makes multiple calls demanding one anyway
because he didn't "remember" to cancel it.

He also claims he didn't cancel because he didn't want to "lose" the remaining time for the month he paid for in case he got the car back from service while that month was still going. This, too, is absolute nonsense on the complainers part

If you cancel, you KEEP the remaining time on the month you paid for, you just don't get billed again. This, too, is explicit in the terms given to you.

So basically he didn't read anything he signed up for and is now REALLY MAD the customer service person is pointing out he didn't bother to do so.




So- I still think Tesla needs to improve service- speed, staffing, number of locations, and especially communication. They very much do.

But that video is an embarrassingly bad argument on that side of the debate.

 

[JRP3]

To the questions regarding service on Ask, I sure as Hell hope that they don't give it lip service (again). There are also some obvious policy changes needed at Tesla as well; they're just getting to be friggin' rude these days . . . that's unbecoming.

Rich Rebuilds latest is likely just the tip of iceberg. What used to be the outstanding service of years ago, with easily available loaners and quick repairs is now often a three-week crap shoot just to get an appointment, with 4- or 5- or 6-year beat to heck Tesla trade-ins as Service Loaners, or Uber credits.

It takes years to build a reputation; it can be ruined in days; watch and cry:

Also superfan channel Nowyouknow calls out the issues Service and communication (out of main)

 

[Ogre]

Look, as someone who has remarked in the past Tesla hasn't invested enough in service- even I think that's a pretty garbage video from a dude who is mad to realize when he tried making content without the word Tesla in it his views dropped like a rock so he's now compelled to keep making Tesla content to pay the bills even though he's upset about it.

YouTube is a mess. “Influencers” will say whatever it takes to keep them at the top of the algorithm.

There is no YouTube pay bonus or even a metric for truthiness, accuracy, or quality. They get paid to drive traffic. That often means the lowest quality content gets promoted. It often means influencers plug their nose and plunge nose first into clickbait and sensationalism.

 

[StealthP3D]

Look, as someone who has remarked in the past Tesla hasn't invested enough in service- even I think that's a pretty garbage video from a dude who is mad to realize when he tried making content without the word Tesla in it his views dropped like a rock so he's now compelled to keep making Tesla content to pay the bills even though he's upset about it.


So anyway after Rich just rants for a while about nothing in particular for like 6 minutes- then we get an "interview" with an unhappy customer... he complains about parts shortages... which EVERY car brand has pretty publicly had these days...

Car Dealerships Face Parts Shortage And Workforce Challenges

However, digital tools may help to satisfy customers.

gmauthority.com

57% of all legacy dealers have staff shortages, and 58% have significant parts delays. So a majority of all dealers have these same things going on.


Then it goes to another dude mad that a video of his mentioning he had a service issue got dislikes... and that it took THREE WHOLE WEEKS to fix his car during a pandemic... ISN'T THAT CRAZY he asks? Well, not really. See again everybody's got slow service right now.

Then the guy goes into the second-in-the-video Porsche commercial (Rich himself already did one earlier)

Hilariously Rich seems to realize people might notice a theme and runs a "This is not an advertisement for Porsche!" scroll underneath to disclaim it.

And it's not like Porsche doesn't also have delays with service like this or something...

Poor Porsche Service - Rennlist - Porsche Discussion Forums

991 GT3, GT3RS, GT2RS and 911R - Poor Porsche Service - Its really dissappointing that porsche can build a GT3 in 5 days but they dont know how long to build a PCM. I got delivery from Porsche Scottsdale a GT3 with a defective PCM. I would not recommend this branch as they should have checked...

rennlist.com

Guy had his GT3 delivered with a bad engine computer. After 10 days of the car being in service dealer had no idea how long to get a new one.

5 more owners post on thread (different models) with same problem...

OPs last post says dealer now told him it'd be another 3 weeks for the part. So longer in service than the PORSCHE IS AWESOME dudes Tesla repair took. (plenty more examples out there).



Ok, continuing-

Now we get to a dude upset that while his car was in for service he was still being billed for an FSD subscription (which is monthly billing)

The rep, correctly, tells him if he wants to stop the subscription at any time, for any reason, you just log into your tesla account and turn it off.

When you sign up BTW it explicitly tells you there's no refunds for the subscription, but this guy apparently makes multiple calls demanding one anyway
because he didn't "remember" to cancel it.

He also claims he didn't cancel because he didn't want to "lose" the remaining time for the month he paid for in case he got the car back from service while that month was still going. This, too, is absolute nonsense on the complainers part

If you cancel, you KEEP the remaining time on the month you paid for, you just don't get billed again. This, too, is explicit in the terms given to you.

So basically he didn't read anything he signed up for and is now REALLY MAD the customer service person is pointing out he didn't bother to do so.




So- I still think Tesla needs to improve service- both speed and especially communication.

But that video is an embarrassingly bad argument on that side of the debate.

The myth that Tesla has terrible service is an attack that is popular and pretty easy to get traction on for a number of reasons:


1) Every brand has horror stories, just find those, focus on them and try to portray them as the norm rather than the exception.

2) Tesla is growing faster than any other brand This means they have a higher rate of hiring and a higher percentage of new employees to experienced hands.

3) You can test drive a car or ride in a co-worker's car to learn it's not junk. But you can't really try out Tesla Service until you actually buy the car. That makes an attack on the quality of service more effective and more difficult to debunk.

4) CV19 really has impacted supply chains and availability of quality employees. This is across all brands but that doesn't stop people from using it to focus on Tesla right now and act like it's specific to Tesla.

5) Tesla has strict policies their Service Reps are supposed to follow that are logical and make sense. So, when a spoiled customer who goes by the motto "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" tries their usual spoiled rotten BS to get Tesla to bend over backwards for them, they are shocked that it didn't work. Tesla doesn't "kiss ass" and some people just aren't accustomed to that They expect they will always be treated as if they are right. So they will vocally complain to anyone who will listen how terrible Tesla Service is. I saw some of that right here on TMC from earl Model S owners who are now long departed.

6) Tesla do not need a lot of regular service so when someone credible tells another owner how bad it's become it's easiest to just believe them (not having had any recent service experiences themselves that contradict that).

7) It's easy for people to forget how much BS they experienced at legacy auto dealerships. People just block negative experiences from their mind and go to another dealership.