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

[Carl Raymond]

What are the problems at Proterra and would buses be a good line extension for Tesla?

Highly unlikely Musk cares about buses. He sees a world full of driverless vehicles where buses are rarely the right size vehicle. How often do 56 people need to start and finish in the same places at the same time? Once the driver is removed, it‘s about cost per seat and cents per km. Mass production favours smaller vehicles. 5 x 12 seaters for a lower price than one bus. With platooning you get energy efficiency.
Where I live there’s 2 buses per day. You could run a driverless 12 seater service every 15mins or on demand for less cost.

Bigger question, does public transport make sense at all if robotaxi is cheaper than a bus ticket? It may be that the cost becomes irrelevant and the deciding factor is which vehicles best utilise available road lanes. Different models for big cities, lower densities and rural.

 

[oldTAVguy]

Well this is nuts, weird, strange, goofy and stupid. But strangely entertaining...

Don't do this at home. These are professional nuts.
Ten foot wheels are near the end of the video...

 

[Ogre]

Highly unlikely Musk cares about buses. He sees a world full of driverless vehicles where buses are rarely the right size vehicle. How often do 56 people need to start and finish in the same places at the same time? Once the driver is removed, it‘s about cost per seat and cents per km. Mass production favours smaller vehicles. 5 x 12 seaters for a lower price than one bus. With platooning you get energy efficiency.
Where I live there’s 2 buses per day. You could run a driverless 12 seater service every 15mins or on demand for less cost.

Bigger question, does public transport make sense at all if robotaxi is cheaper than a bus ticket? It may be that the cost becomes irrelevant and the deciding factor is which vehicles best utilise available road lanes. Different models for big cities, lower densities and rural.

Schools, big events, etc.

As much as Musk seems to dislike buses they are definitely around for quite a while. Tesla doesn’t need to do them though, there is room for niches, or perhaps the Tesla Semi will be flexible enough to be altered to allow use cases like this.

Lots of niches for someone to fill.

 

[MC3OZ]

Schools, big events, etc.

As much as Musk seems to dislike buses they are definitely around for quite a while. Tesla doesn’t need to do them though, there is room for niches, or perhaps the Tesla Semi will be flexible enough to be altered to allow use cases like this.

Lots of niches for someone to fill.

We need to see if the Gen3 van has a "Mini-bus" mode, and what the seating capacity is.

If the van can seat 10, or more buses could be replaced by multiple vans.

For really high urban transport demand, trams and subways are better than buses.

The is still a niche for buses, but it is a smaller niche.

A group of autonomous vans "loosely platooning" almost approximates to a trackless tram. Not al carriages (vans) need to stop at every stop, those behind need to stop if the one in front stops. On average fewer stops might mean higher throughput. or the worst case is the same performance as a tram.

 

[FreqFlyer]

Well this is nuts, weird, strange, goofy and stupid. But strangely entertaining...

Don't do this at home. These are professional nuts.
Ten foot wheels are near the end of the video...

Curse of Youtube strikes again.

 

[Chenkers]

Tesla seems to be putting some effort into making Giga Berlin a pretty cool place to work. Check out the slide they've installed in the paint shop area.

Tesla on LinkedIn: Giga Berlin Slide | 38 comments

https://twitter.com/x/status/1636370039296360449

 

[InDaClub]

Given the sneering here, I wouldn't have guessed that VW is #1 with EV market share in Europe, after being behind a few years ago. And that's with Tesla's Brandenburg factory up to 4,000/week.

I wouldn't have guessed that VW is #1 either.

 

[jabloomf1230]

Speaking of German cars and user interfaces, BMW is phasing out its iDrive knob and dial mess:

BMW Doesn't Want You To Use The iDrive Knob Anymore - The Autopian

After 20 years of iDrive knob twiddling, BMW is now focusing on touchscreens first. The end of an era feels nigh.

www.theautopian.com

Some have compared the complicated iDrive UI to cilantro. To some it tastes great. To others it tastes like soap.

Here's Bmw's HUD that stretches the full width of the windshield:

The BMW Panoramic Vision: New head-up display across the entire width of the windscreen will be in series production in 2025.

The new BMW head-up display is called BMW Panoramic Vision and represents the reinterpretation of the BMW driver orientation "eyes on the road - hands on the wheel" in the NEUE KLASSE.

www.press.bmwgroup.com

 

[Curt Renz]

Big political donors drown out consumer choice. The negative comments to this tweet are unanimous.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1635767610561249282

Similar bills are now being considered by the Florida legislature. If passed and signed by Gov. DeSantis, Elon Musk may not remain as supportive of DeSantis' presidential ambitions. I emailed the governor and my two Florida legislators to state my objections to these bills. Other Floridians here may also want to relay their opinions to Florida politicians.

 

[Singuy]

Similar bills are now being considered by the Florida legislature. If passed and signed by Gov. DeSantis, Elon Musk may not remain as supportive of DeSantis' presidential ambitions. I emailed the governor and my two Florida legislators to state my objections to these bills. Other Floridians here may also want to relay their opinions to Florida politicians.

Can't Elon just "buy" every Tesla dealership for a dollar and run it as a private dealership?

 

[TN Mtn Man]

Highly unlikely Musk cares about buses. He sees a world full of driverless vehicles where buses are rarely the right size vehicle. How often do 56 people need to start and finish in the same places at the same time? Once the driver is removed, it‘s about cost per seat and cents per km. Mass production favours smaller vehicles. 5 x 12 seaters for a lower price than one bus. With platooning you get energy efficiency.
Where I live there’s 2 buses per day. You could run a driverless 12 seater service every 15mins or on demand for less cost.

Bigger question, does public transport make sense at all if robotaxi is cheaper than a bus ticket? It may be that the cost becomes irrelevant and the deciding factor is which vehicles best utilise available road lanes. Different models for big cities, lower densities and rural.

Good point, especially with Tesla's efforts at cost reduction. IIRC Proterra's busses start at somewhere around $750k. And of course, no FSD. Combine that with the fact that robotaxi eliminates the need to get to and from a bus stop to your destination (let alone subways/other forms of MT).

 

[Fred42]

Big political donors drown out consumer choice. The negative comments to this tweet are unanimous.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1635767610561249282

Can Tesla operate service centers in Mississippi? Can Tesla deliver vehicles in Mississippi with the purchase transaction processed out of state, as with Texas?

 

[jerry33]

Can't Elon just "buy" every Tesla dealership for a dollar and run it as a private dealership?

No. If he does that he opens up every state to that kind of legislation. IIRC some stats only allow because there are no dealerships. Tesla stores, galleries, and service centres are not dealerships.

 

[keydiver]

I wouldn't have guessed that VW is #1 either.

View attachment 918362

Which really makes me wonder: where are they coming up with another $200 billion over the next 5 years to expand their EV manufacturing? Or, who would be crazy enough to loan them that much money in this economic environment?

 

[betstarship]

The credit card rate is beyond concerning.

Historic U.S. credit card rates will bite

For an economy famously reliant on its indestructible consumers and their insatiable appetite for credit, alarm bells could not be ringing any louder.

www.reuters.com

Also, I'm working with mortgage lenders right now and the standards are kinda absurd to the point its quizzical and required some research on my part. Found this as a result and the uncertainty in the market makes way more sense:

Welcome - The MortgagePoint

Welcome to MortgagePoint! In our continuous effort to provide comprehensive and timely information, we've combined the strengths of DS News and MReport into one unified platform - MortgagePoint. This new platform offers a 360-degree view of the mortgage industry, including insights on loan...

themreport.com

More:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1636390785036976130

 

[Singuy]

Sooooo 4 months of Quantitative tightening was erased in 4 days? Money printer back to brrrrr?

 

[Ogre]

Here's Bmw's HUD that stretches the full width of the windshield:

The BMW Panoramic Vision: New head-up display across the entire width of the windscreen will be in series production in 2025.

The new BMW head-up display is called BMW Panoramic Vision and represents the reinterpretation of the BMW driver orientation "eyes on the road - hands on the wheel" in the NEUE KLASSE.

www.press.bmwgroup.com

BMW -> We’re making a flashy-science fiction HUD so you can drive better.

Tesla -> We’re making it so the only reason you’ll look out the window is to enjoy the scenery.

Hmm.

 

[lafrisbee]

Wow, can we lower the bar any further? Kudos for not lying?

Nothing strange going on. Typical runaway costs and lack of oversight of said costs.

It is the rarity, not the height.

 

[Chunky Jr.]

What does it mean to be a "dealership"? Can Tesla open a service center and have a few inventory cars and call it day? I wonder how low the bar is for Tesla to just say "f-- it. we'll open some dealerships"

 

[MP3Mike]

Tesla stores, galleries, and service centres are not dealerships.

Technically they are dealerships, but they aren't independent, or franchise, dealerships. Which is what would cause a problem.