Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable

[Intl Professor]

this is incredibly ignorant overall and does not belong on this forum.

as an aside, please do not equate female anatomy with weakness.

ModMode: Offending post deleted by me. I was offended, thanks to your alert here.

 

[X Fan]

That Audi e-tron recall is really bad, according to local Belgian news: Audi moet 'Brusselse' e-tron terugroepen

“Er zijn nog geen dergelijke gevallen bekend, maar toch moeten alle wagens die gebouwd zijn sinds de productiestart in september 2018 en midden maart 2019 terug naar de dealer. Omdat de herstelling tot augustus kan duren krijgen de Amerikaanse eigenaars van een e-tron gedurende die periode een vervangwagen en een kaart met 800 dollar ter compensatie. ”

Translation: All cars built since production start 2019 en mid march 2019 need to be fixed. The repair can take untill august and the (1.644 ) American e-tron owners get a replacement car and a card with 800 USD compensation.

The part in question is an out-of-spec third party part.

3 months....not to “bad” relative to the year it took Porsche to obtain enough parts in the USA to fix a fuel pump fire risk.

 

[mongo]

OT

Source?
This is the first time I hear Lidar and phantom braking in the same sentence...

"According to Uber," the agency said, "emergency braking maneuvers are not enabled while the vehicle is under computer control, to reduce the potential for erratic vehicle behavior. The vehicle operator is relied on to intervene and take action. The system is not designed to alert the operator."

NTSB: Uber Self-Driving Car Had Disabled Emergency Brake System Before Fatal Crash

I will say lidar is great for collision avoidance, which is why a scaled down version is used on factory autonomous guided carts.

 

[acoste]

OT



NTSB: Uber Self-Driving Car Had Disabled Emergency Brake System Before Fatal Crash

I will say lidar is great for collision avoidance, which is why a scaled down version is used on factory autonomous guided carts.

Yes. They turned the emergency brake off. But no one says that the lidar caused the difficulties. It is usually the radar that causes phantom braking.

 

[HG Wells]

Dragonflies do crash and crash often when compared to cars. Crashing does not usually hurt them. But a bad example as they are probably only 99.99 percent accurate. Lidar and Tesla are both better at nav then a dragonfly.

They only crash when in plaid mode.
So Teslas are safe for the next year or two.

 

[StealthP3D]

Dragonflies do crash and crash often when compared to cars.

No, they don't. They are amazing flyers, even in complex 3D environments with gusty winds. They are known to bump into glass panes and spider webs but that is only because they can't see them depending upon the lighting because they navigate using crude vision. Their favorite food is mosquitoes which they catch mid-air while in flight. And they have a fraction of the computational power of a Tesla FSD computer.

Ever heard of a "bird-brain". Birds have minuscule brains. Most species are incredible flyers in a 3D space while flying on moving air currents. The ones that live in complex environments learn how to navigate through them without crashing.

 

[dqd88]

Is this news? Feels like it's not.

Tesla Model 3 vs. BMW 330i vs. Genesis G70 Compact Luxury Sedan Comparison - MotorTrend

old news. a few weeks old.

 

[StealthP3D]

OT



NTSB: Uber Self-Driving Car Had Disabled Emergency Brake System Before Fatal Crash

I will say lidar is great for collision avoidance, which is why a scaled down version is used on factory autonomous guided carts.

Except lidar is well known for false positives and has trouble seeing flat black objects, especially in bright light and at longer distances.

 

[Curt Renz]

Illinois drops proposed $1,000 EV registration fee to $100



Seems like a more fair tradeoff, given the tax increase on gas.

Although not for someone, who hardly drives at all.
This should really be based on annual mileage + weight of car to be fair.

Actually the annual registration fee for an electric car in Illinois will be $248, not $100. That's up from $17.50 if one registers before July 1. The headline should have ended "...fee to $100 more than a gasoline car".

Indeed, it should be based on mileage and weight, which is effectively how it works out for the gasoline tax. It's quite unfair to us retirees and other low mileage drivers. Of course it is actually large trucks that cause almost all of the road damage.

Meanwhile, not being considered is the fact that electric car owners heavily consume electricity, and that is taxed. The problem is that the Illinois gasoline tax is dedicated to road repairs, while the electricity tax is not.

EDIT: They've now corrected the headline to end with $248 instead of $100.

 

[acoste]

Except lidar is well known for false positives and has trouble seeing flat black objects, especially in bright light and at longer distances.

Lidar gives false positives in rain/snow but there is already a technology to filter that out.

It was dark and the object was close. Lidar saw the object.

 

[M3Rider]

old news. a few weeks old.

You're right, should have looked for date. It was at the top, "trending"

 

[mongo]

OT

Yes. They turned the emergency brake off. But no one says that the lidar caused the difficulties. It is usually the radar that causes phantom braking.

From the article:

Investigators with the federal agency determined that the car's detection systems, including radar and laser instruments, observed a woman walking her bicycle across the road roughly six seconds before impact — likely enough time, in other words, for a vehicle driving 43 mph to brake and avoid fatally injuring the woman.

But it did not immediately identify the woman as a human pedestrian. Instead, the agency said, "as the vehicle and pedestrian paths converged, the self-driving system software classified the pedestrian as an unknown object, as a vehicle, and then as a bicycle with varying expectations of future travel path."

It was not until 1.3 seconds before impact that the car's self-driving system "determined that an emergency braking maneuver was needed to mitigate a collision," NTSB explained. Investigators added that the driver, who was alone in the car and survived without injuries, intervened less than a second before the crash and only began to brake after the impact.

Either lidar takes a back seat to radar on their system, lidar software is not as easy as some think, or Uber's software is just poor (or some combination thereof). I think trying to lidar a crossing bicycle would be a pain, narrow tubes and moving, narrower, spokes.

Except lidar is well known for false positives and has trouble seeing flat black objects, especially in bright light and at longer distances.

Sorry, should have said "in a factory environment..." it is used to prevent running into personnel or fork trucks so short range, no weather.

 

[Sparky4life]

Employees sour on Tesla amid cost-cutting, layoffs - Reuters

At jobs site Glassdoor, Tesla’s overall company rating fell to 3.2 out of 5.0 stars based on reviews written in the first quarter from a high of 3.6 in 2017, according to historical data compiled by Glassdoor at Reuters’ request. The average rating of the nearly 1 million employers reviewed on the site is 3.4.

[...]

This is from employee reviews/ratings.

Not a good sign.

No, more of an irrelevant sign. Glassdoor is a self-selecting survey and they tend to attract comments from folks unhappy in their job. Folks that are happy and engaged have no reason to go to glassdoor, so you get skewed results.

 

[Joe F]

Employees sour on Tesla amid cost-cutting, layoffs - Reuters

Tesla placed 16th on LinkedIn’s annual “Top Companies 2019” list published in April, compiled from billions of actions taken by its over 600 million users that indicate job interest and demand. It held the fifth and sixth spots in 2018 and 2017, respectively.

At jobs site Glassdoor, Tesla’s overall company rating fell to 3.2 out of 5.0 stars based on reviews written in the first quarter from a high of 3.6 in 2017, according to historical data compiled by Glassdoor at Reuters’ request. The average rating of the nearly 1 million employers reviewed on the site is 3.4.

In the first quarter, Elon Musk’s CEO approval rating dropped to 52% from 90% in 2017.

Tesla’s “recommend to a friend” rating fell to 49% in the first quarter from a high of 71% two years prior, the Glassdoor data showed.

--------------------------

Most folks here will discount this article.

But it's notable that CEO approval rating dropped to 52% from 90%. That's significant.

And it's also notable that "recommend to a friend" dropped as well.

This is from employee reviews/ratings.

Not a good sign.

That CEO rating drop is amazingly bad. Might have to do with his FSD claims.

I bet it has something to do with all the layoffs and SP.

Layoffs SP and didn’t they cut sales bonuses?*


There was a ton of stuff to drive down employee morale, this data is unsurprising.

*edit I can’t remember off the top of my head what it was exactly but they cut compensation for sales employees fairly significantly.

I would not trust anything pertaining to Tesla that Glassdoor is paid to compile. Especially not at Reuters' request.

According to Glassdoor: "The reviews are anonymous and Glassdoor says it does not verify identities or employment status."

I seriously suspect heavy TSLAQ respondents here...

 

[MP3Mike]

3 months....not to “bad” relative to the year it took Porsche to obtain enough parts in the USA to fix a fuel pump fire risk.

Did Porsche take the cars off the road for a year and give the owners a loaner while they waited for parts?

I assume they consider the risk pretty severe if they are taking the car off of the road for 3 months and giving the owners a loaner vehicle during that time. (Which will probably be an ICE, which maybe the $800 card is to cover the gas expenses.)

 

[Fred42]

Did Porsche take the cars off the road for a year and give the owners a loaner while they waited for parts?

I assume they consider the risk pretty severe if they are taking the car off of the road for 3 months and giving the owners a loaner vehicle during that time. (Which will probably be an ICE, which maybe the $800 card is to cover the gas expenses.)

Tesla should offer to provide the loaners.

 

[BornToFly]

I picked up my Raven P100DL Model S on Saturday. The new suspension is incredible. On standard mode there is still no significant body roll, but the car just eats up bumps on the road like a real luxury car. Very quiet too. When I change it to Sport setting, which matches what my previous Model S performance vehicles had, the ride is much more bumpy (you just get used to that as a driver when that is all you have). The ride of the Raven is much, much smoother and nicer than our Model 3 vehicles (which drive like go-karts). I think the new suspension will bring new customers who thought the previous Model S did not have a comfortable enough ride for a luxury vehicle.

 

[avoigt]

Some odd thinks are going on at the short market:

Ihor Dusaniwsky on Twitter

 

[EVNow]

Nav On AP on city streets is available on current build of software available to all in the fleet - if you know how to enable it

Basically the autonomy day demo. But, still WIP.

Hacked Tesla Full Self Driving - Tesla Autonomy Day to San Mateo : teslamotors

So it turns out on certain software versions, with some hacking enhanced autopilot can be enabled on all roads, and even handles stop lights and stop signs, turns and more. It's not full self driving, but it's so close.

This is entirely Nav on AP functionality, but allowed to operate on normal streets. At most intersections, it attempts to make turns, but I've had to disengage because it turns too sharply or not sharp enough.

At the end of the day, it's still my daily driver, so I erred on the side of safety.

 

[MP3Mike]

Tesla should offer to provide the loaners.

If they had ~1,700 extra cars laying around that might be OK. Then you give them the option to buy and keep it at the end. (The Audi customers might not want their e-Tron back.)