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

[Krugerrand]

View attachment 389054

Okay which one of you owns this?

Silly question. The guy with the lisp owns it.

 

[neroden]

I've been reading various reports that people were disappointed with the Model Y launch. I think the analysts are misinterpreting it as people being disappointed in the Y, when I think the actual cause for the disappointment is that there wasn't something else unveiled like the Roadster at the Semi event. People had high hopes of a model S/X refresh, or the pickup, or something, and were disappointed none of those happened.

Well, also, they launched it in poor light, wouldn't let anyone open the liftgate, and basically underplayed it. Everyone said it looked better in white (from the website photos) too.

 

[EVNow]

It's called Twitter. Is there any other company where you can get the attention of the CEO with an idea or complaint?

T-Mobile.

Except, its actually their social team and they will look into each complaint and follow up. With EM you have 1/5,000 chance of response.

ps : Actually, some companies now have bots to search through all the social media and respond to complaints - if you just mention the name of the company/brand.

 

[Cherry Wine]

I've got some pretty liberal rules on my account and I have never seen the ability to buy calls on margin. Unless perhaps you're talking portfolio margin against some other equities. Are you able to do so somehow / somewhere? I'm curious.

If your account is a mix of cash / margin and you are holding stock and would like to purchase options, some brokers will allocate the cash to your option buys and switch the margin to your stock, effectively allowing you to buy options on margin.

 

[MarcusMaximus]

Oh dear god. I think Tesla is unstoppable, but come on, the whipsawing is dumb.

Since this one buys two people 1000 miles of free Supercharging (costing Tesla an average of maybe $120) and one or two lottery tickets (*total* cost is limited to 12 Model Y and 4 Roadsters per year), it is certainly much more reasonable-cost than the previous program. They should check the legal rules on lotteries, though, which I suspect they didn't.

On the other incentive -- offering free Supercharging on new S & X for old owners with free Supercharging gets people to trade in their cars who had an incentive to NOT trade in their cars -- but only if they buy S & X, not Model 3. That seems like a very rational offer which costs Tesla nothing at all and encourages people to buy the more expensive cars (and Model S demand probably has peaked).

From Elon’s explanation on Twitter, it’s not a lottery. Goes in order of number of referrals, with that number locking to 0 for someone who gets it.

 

[neroden]

Ah, so no repeat winners.

 

[EVNow]

If they have a functioning bug database, the software department isn't using it. At all. Otherwise there wouldn't be high-priority bugs affecting thousands of angry customers which would take a couple of days to fix and haven't been fixed for five years. And we *know* they're not doing proper regression testing. The software history is way too awful and full of newly-introduced, never-fixed regressions.

Hardware department might be using the bug database; they're doing a good job.

I have no idea how Tesla works.

But, in general, it will be some business types ("product manager") who decide what the software team implements. They are the ones who should be looking at these bugs and prioritizing them. Naturally there will be conflict between implementing new features and fixing bugs - so good teams have some % (say 20%) allocated to fixing bugs.

 

[Open Interest]

I’m having trouble keeping up, so please forgive me if this has been posted. It’s a positive view of Tesla from Wolfe Research.

Tesla, GM, and Lear Look Like Good Bets on the Future of Transportation

 

[neroden]

I have no idea how Tesla works.

But, in general, it will be some business types ("product manager") who decide what the software team implements. They are the ones who should be looking at these bugs and prioritizing them

Well, they ain't doing any such thing. I doubt that they even have a database, but if they do, it's "write only memory"

Naturally there will be conflict between implementing new features and fixing bugs - so good teams have some % (say 20%) allocated to fixing bugs.

Indeed that is how well-run software teams operate. Tesla should consider trying it sometime.

 

[sundaymorning]

I’m having trouble keeping up, so please forgive me if this has been posted. It’s a positive view of Tesla from Wolfe Research.

Tesla, GM, and Lear Look Like Good Bets on the Future of Transportation

“Year end target $430.”
Beats $420..

 

[RobStark]

Cost saving measures

Eliminating Stores, Eliminating Free Supercharging, Eliminating Referral Program, Eliminating Commissions/Bonuses

NVM

Partly or Mostly rolled back.

 

[Yuri_G]

Cost saving measures

Eliminating Stores, Eliminating Free Supercharging, Eliminating Referral Program, Eliminating Commissions/Bonuses

NVM

Partly or Mostly rolled back.

Hopefully it's because costs are coming down faster than anticipated.

 

[Zaxxon]

Don’t give up hope. Data exists for 3 SC stations in permit stage for ND:
View attachment 388856

Sure, but they've been in permitting mode for a very long time. They're in stasis, effectively.

OK what are TSLA plans for GF1 for increasing battery production ... what will it need to scale to for addition of volume MY production?

Well, I did my part as a member of the longy ground force today, but security turned me away as they 'can't let anyone in without a reason,' and 'I'm a Tesla owner and fan who wants to be here' was deemed not a good reason.

Got a bad picture of the red stripe at the top of the factory from not so close as a consolation prize, tho. Woo? Fremont tour secured for tomorrow...

Slightly OT...
Auto wipers are fixed! My only gripe with my LR RWD Model 3 has been the poor performance of the auto wipers. Today I drove 10 miles in light to moderate rain on a mix of highway and local roads without touching the wiper controls. They worked perfectly. Apparently the software update last week that increased my range and power also fixed the wipers. This car just keeps getting better!

I've driven 1100 miles in the past two days, through several hours of rain/snow of varying intensity. They're definitely not 'fixed.' Better than before, but still prone to be too fast or too slow in certain conditions.

I enthusiastically agree. TeslaFi adds a lot of value for road trips, and it gives me status information and control access when I'm 5,000 km away. Like @VValleyEV I'm just a satisfied customer.

Agreed. If you enjoy being a data nerd, TeslaFi is fantastic. The dev is accessible and responsive to feedback, as well. Try it. Also, when signing up for a trial be sure to use a referral code. Doubles your trial period and gives the referrer a small renewal credit if you eventually sign up.

I won't post my referrer code here, but will say that it's not difficult to figure out. There are also threads here with other TMC referral codes.

Bringing back free supercharging as end of Q incentive....For existing model S/X owners that have it on their current cars (for purchase of new S/X ONLY)...Makes a lot of sense to me. It really was one reason why I hold onto my 2014 S......will have to consider.

False. Worst case range is 70%. With my Model S with current rated range of 253 miles, if you have to drive 177 miles, you're fine.

I think you do not understand what "range" means. It has to do with "how far can you travel in one trip".

It's certainly possible to do worse than 70% even on one contiguous trip. I did it today. Let's just say temp is generally not the only factor in play, though...

This makes me nauseous thinking this guy can get a third free roadster. View attachment 389064

*Nauseated.

 

[MarcusMaximus]

Cost saving measures

Eliminating Stores, Eliminating Free Supercharging, Eliminating Referral Program, Eliminating Commissions/Bonuses

NVM

Partly or Mostly rolled back.

While true, they seem to all be replaced with MUCH lower cost versions. Referral stuff, in particular. Costs them, at absolute most, ~$180 per referral and $400k/quarter(in reality, much less, since these are based on what they sell the things for). The reduction in cost on that is enormous vs what they had before. Probably on the order of 90% in per-referral costs.

 

[Remus]

Less than 200 give away

Cost saving measures

Eliminating Stores, Eliminating Free Supercharging, Eliminating Referral Program, Eliminating Commissions/Bonuses

NVM

Partly or Mostly rolled back.

Not really fair.
1000mile free is like peanuts, hardly any roll back.

 

[Chunky Jr.]

Hmm. Looks like Gali has come back from the brink of despair :

I find him fairly entertaining and appreciate his enthusiasm.

 

[SteveG3]

Can any one tell me why there isnt a place to go where we can suggest ideas for Tesla to use and have a system where you can upvote other peoples ideas that you like, and the engineers at tesla check the site to see the most up voted ones and decide whether they are good ideas. I have heaps of ideas how tesla could improve things and yet no where to suggest them.

lols, someone's been tweeting this idea, repeatedly, to Elon for nearly a year... both for such a feedback forum for verified vehicle owners and another for verified shareholders. said someone even tweeted this idea again a couple of hours before you posted this comment here today (after having given it a rest for a month or two).

unlike the shareholder feedback mechanism Galileo Russell later began promoting a couple of months ago, this would be a continuous feedback mechanism throughout the year (not limited to quarterly earnings calls) and, would not require your entrusting your brokerage account info to a third party. Tesla, could simply verify shareholders the same way it sends us proxies/annual reports, etc. as far as verifying vehicle ownership for that forum, Tesla already has that information noted with existing Tesla website accounts.

 

[TNEVol]

He asked for the 22nd and 10 pages; he got the 22nd and 8 pages. She had no need to grant anything at all.

Regardless, I'm really glad for this - one because it's another opportunity for Elon's team to argue its case and to have "the last word", but particularly because I'm really curious what it is that the attorneys wish to mention regarding their negotiations with the SEC. It may also give us some additional schedule clarity - they might request or waive an evidentiary hearing.

Since the only time it is important to consider what happened or intentions about negotiations is when the contract is unclear, I find this excruciatingly interesting. Sorry just lawyer fun

 

[SteveG3]

Hmm. Looks like Gali has come back from the brink of despair :

I find him fairly entertaining and appreciate his enthusiasm.

Yeah, but, I'm quite confident he's still a mile off on cash flow this quarter. Glad he realizes Tesla will be fine re cash flow, but he talks about ~$2 billion at end of the quarter, and I think it will be $3.4 billion or better. Only thing I just very roughly estimated is the charges Tesla will take in Q1 for layoffs.

 

[TNEVol]

Real Bos$ probably told everyone to speed it up

Not a fair response. Under rules this is a benefit to EM not something he was entitled to.