Speculation on what Tesla is still hiding

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Why?
Because the company is barely surviving and just one key piece of bad news could push the company over the edge into bankruptcy.

 

[JonathanD]

Beta testing? I thought beta testing was over.

Don't worry, it's never over

 

[Garlan Garner]

Beta testing? I thought beta testing was over.

Don't worry, it's never over

LOL......

 

[McHoffa]

While there is nothing wrong with what Tesla does as long as the employees were told of the terms beforehand (and I am sure they were), the difference here is the employees are paying for the product with their own money, the product has been launched publicly and apparently are even allowed to order for family.

This is the big difference in this and any other beta testing of software. If I'm a beta tester of anything, I'm not paying for it.

They obviously can't make any production changes at this point without delaying the car, so it could only be software, but they are allowing people to buy it. The delivery event was a joke. I was expecting so much more, but they didn't even show off the cars.

It just feels... weird...

I can't wait to get mine ASAP though!

 

[Garlan Garner]

Why?
Because the company is barely surviving and just one key piece of bad news could push the company over the edge into bankruptcy.

Tesla is never going to go bankrupt. Its not just a car company. The energy side is doing fantastic. The SpaceX side is doing great. The automotive side is so close to sustaining itself. The solar side is questionable.

They will be just fine.

 

[Garlan Garner]

This is the big difference in this and any other beta testing of software. If I'm a beta tester of anything, I'm not paying for it.

They obviously can't make any production changes at this point without delaying the car, so it could only be software, but they are allowing people to buy it. The delivery event was a joke. I was expecting so much more, but they didn't even show off the cars.

It just feels... weird...

I can't wait to get mine ASAP though!

Indeed that delivery event was a joke. I agree 100%.

I just cant believe for the life of me how Tesla has reached production of this mass market car - which is built into their number one objective - and is now anti selling it. The public bought in full scale. Investors bought in. Vendors bought in.

What's the problem? Tesla isn't ready? If not....they shouldn't have had a reveal event.

 

[jaguar36]

The SpaceX side is doing great.

SpaceX is a separate company, not a side of Tesla.

This is the big difference in this and any other beta testing of software. If I'm a beta tester of anything, I'm not paying for it.

That's not the way the world works anymore. People pay for beta software all the time. Heck tons of people paid for software that wasn't even in Alpha yet.

They obviously can't make any production changes at this point without delaying the car, so it could only be software, but they are allowing people to buy it. The delivery event was a joke. I was expecting so much more, but they didn't even show off the cars.

Sure they can, it may have negative effects on production rate and quality, but they make a ton of changes on the S. I can't imagine how many changes they are making on a daily basis to the 3.

 

[WileyTheMan]

Clearly they are not falling in step with the car industry's definition of a production car. They are using this time for insider and employee deliveries to fine-tune the car's hardware and software so it's more refined when they start external deliveries. They are not "hiding" anything, other than tempering customer's expectations by limiting information about current experiences with the car.

It's frustrating to those trying to shoe-horn Tesla's processes into how other car companies run things. But at the end of the day, there is no legal process Tesla has to follow for this other than ensuring they deliver on what they promise customers.

 

[North75]

Maybe it's just me. I am a French American.. I don't know anything about manufacturing like most Americans as we don't manufacture much anymore here.

I work in software cloud services. To me, we just don't call something that is being internally tested "production". "Production" implies that actual customers are using it, not a senior VP of engineering, not the founder.

To me, the car being still in testing phase, I find normal that the company prevents employees from leaking information on it. It's just the way it would be just anywhere else.

To be fair, America manufactures more than ever, we just don't need that many people in manufacturing to do it anymore. Elon's goal of reinventing the factory will be pushing this to the next level.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

Beta testing? I thought beta testing was over.

Wait a minute. What state is the Model 3 really in right now? I hear beta testing....I hear Elon talking about making 1500 this month.

Where is the Model 3 in its life? Is it born yet?

In the NICU? Post-birth, not quite ready to go home from the hospital yet?

 

[ModelNforNerd]

Tesla is never going to go bankrupt. Its not just a car company. The energy side is doing fantastic. The SpaceX side is doing great. The automotive side is so close to sustaining itself. The solar side is questionable.

They will be just fine.

Space X is a separate company.

But your main point still stands...Tesla won't go bankrupt.

 

[Snerruc]

I believe that Tesla is doing with the Model 3 launch exactly what they said they would a year ago. This isn't news. They were quite up front in saying they were using early production to find any teething problems so that regular customers would have a better experience ( Remember the X) . People thought it was a good idea then. I still do.

 

[Clomer]

Tesla is never going to go bankrupt. Its not just a car company. The energy side is doing fantastic. The SpaceX side is doing great. The automotive side is so close to sustaining itself. The solar side is questionable.

They will be just fine.

I'm not sure I agree. Even though Tesla Energy is doing fine, they have invested so much into the Model 3 (both in terms of capital and investor confidence) that a botched launch has a chance to sink the company.

Once they get over that hump, they'll be in good shape to be a long-lasting company. I do think, at this point, that the odds are in their favor, but until they are producing and selling thousands of Model 3's a week as is their intent, their continuance is not assured.

 

[gambit48]

Still think it's a combo of the anti-selling and beta testing. Tesla skipped a whole phase of the design/manufacturing process that the "regular" car companies do. So, they basically missed out on a whole phase of testing and refinement.

That's what this essentially is. I guess you can call it beta testing. So what if the employees paid for it with their own money. They wanted to be early adopters. It's not like Tesla forced them to buy it this early. Or even gave them a discount to do so. They were fairly open about limiting it to employees so they can more easily deal with issues that come up. Tesla is basically still acting like a startup. And for them, they basically still are a startup as this really is their first vehicle made under any real sense of mass production. People, including employees, are willing to "sacrifice" to help the company succeed. All the reservation people did as well, in that you gave Tesla a $1,000 interest free loan with no collateral. If you buy EAP and especially FSD, you're essentially doing the same thing.

Personally, I'm willing to live with some bugs as I want Tesla to succeed. Obviously not a ton of bugs, but a few issues here and there. Can't be that much worse than my BMW experience, and that shouldn't have had any bugs. I expect some with Tesla. But, I'm glad they're here because they're forcing the other car companies to actually get a move on with technology, rather than just sit around and come up with new ways to cheat emissions.

 

[mmd]

Yes got to show date progress since they are famous for being late. They want to be cooler than other car makers by skipping steps but really they are doing similar validation, just making employees buy the cars. They should have a real M3 handover party once "regular people" get their cars, perhaps on Dec 31

IMO, it also has to do with executive stock option vesting. Elon stands to get more than $1B in options for M3 reaching "production" status, as defined by themselves Meaning of Model 3 production may be far away from the definition used by the car industry.

Beta testing? I thought beta testing was over.

Beta testing is not over. It was simply skipped because Elon said, Tesla can do all that in software simulation. Tesla went straight to some unheard of status called "release candidates"
Yeah, sure. Tesla will be making 5k M3 in October and 20K in December, while they are still track testing the Model 3 on weekends.

 

[C141medic]

They will likely change some things in non-employee cars. In fact, that should be expected given the whole idea behind employee cars is to allow them to make such changes based on feedback from them.

I guess that makes sense, especially for the interior. Hey, maybe we'll get a HUD and alternate aero's

 

[AlanSqB]

I guess that makes sense, especially for the interior. Hey, maybe we'll get a HUD and alternate aero's

I heard when they hit VIN 999 that’s when they activate the HUD.

 

[shrspeedblade]

Ala the previous Spaceballs references, when they finally have FSD implemented it will transform into MEGA MAID and clean your house for you, too!

May the Schwartz be with us all...

 

[diplomat33]

The very first production models may have some small production flaws as they are still ramping up the assembly lines. Tesla wants to fix those flaws before the cars reach the non-tesla employees. That's my guess. Also, it is possible that they may tweak some details so they don't want too much getting out if something did change.

 

[Garlan Garner]

SpaceX is a separate company, not a side of Tesla.


That's not the way the world works anymore. People pay for beta software all the time. Heck tons of people paid for software that wasn't even in Alpha yet.


Sure they can, it may have negative effects on production rate and quality, but they make a ton of changes on the S. I can't imagine how many changes they are making on a daily basis to the 3.

There is only 1 single stock - TSLA.