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

[sparcs]

The best strategy would be to have three factories, US, EU and China, and all of them produce all mainstream cars (S, X, 3, Y). The GF1 can be used for Truck, Semi, Energy, and cell manufacturing.

S/X are far too low of volume to spread out over three factories. Note that Shanghai GF isn't expected to produce all versions of the Model 3. Likely the lowest cost standard range versions in China and then importing other more expensive versions.

 

[mekberg]

Tesla has a user interface team? Could have fooled me. I assumed they were all fired in early 2016 and not replaced, based on the evidence.

Is there any way to wake Elon up to what a bunch of incompetent clowns the current user interface team are? Now that the geographical distribution of service centers is being fixed, this

He should hire me to run this, or at the very least, the engineering side.

 

[STARR X]

Wow, so now my ability to invest my own money should be based on YOUR view of MY President? Come on, you're better than that. Sorry you're so bitter but don't let your own biases effect the maturity of your own posts.

So it seems that the prerequisite for posting here is that you must have an unabashed hatred for the man our own citizens placed in office? Look, I don't think the man is going to go down as one of the top ten US Presidents either, remember I didn't vote for the guy, but I do have a very deep respect for our Constitution and thus a respect for the office and person elected to that office.

As to the relevance to this thread, the international affairs of any US President will obviously have an impact on the stock market. Always has and always will. Childish attacks and name calling is what has no place here and quite frankly I do take offense to these attacks. Remember, the man represents the country in which the stock market this thread is all about made possible. National arrogance on my part? Maybe, but I wouldn't think of attacking anyone else's elected leaders and I take offense to those that attack mine.

Dan

I speaking out now because I live in Georgia too. People who vote Republican at the state and national level embarrass me. They don’t know they are being hoodwinked. And that even includes my mom. I can somewhat forgive her though; she’s in her mid 70’s.

 

[bdy0627]

The SCs had started replacing yellow border screens, but as of today people are reporting that service centers are now telling people that because it is just a cosmetic issue that they will not be replacing the YBS screens under warranty or goodwill. (But you can pay them to replace it if the yellow border bothers you enough.)

I'm not sure if the warranty excludes cosmetic defects or not... So we will have to see how this goes...

My wife isn't very happy with me now. She drives an X that we bought last summer. I'm rarely in it. We went out to dinner last night and drove the X. I had just read about the yellow border issue so I checked her screen. Sure enough, she's got it. When I pointed it out to her, she said she hadn't noticed it at all. Now she sees it whenever she looks at the screen.

 

[JRP3]

I do have a very deep respect for our Constitution and thus a respect for the office and person elected to that office.

You should be offended that the Electoral College, which was created to prevent someone like Trump from being elected, has been corrupted and failed to work as intended.

 

[JRP3]

Model Y in the wild
ChargePoint on Twitter

 

[Tslynk67]

Not a great news. You don't reorg team that's working great.

What if it could work better?

 

[Dan Detweiler]

I speaking out now because I live in Georgia too. People who vote Republican at the state and national level embarrass me. They don’t know they are being hoodwinked. And that even includes my mom. I can somewhat forgive her though; she’s in her mid 70’s.

Now THERE'S a comment that has no place here. LOL!

Dan

 

[MarcusMaximus]

I wish I had that confidence in demand. I'd be doubling down at this SP. I'm not at all clear that the 12k S/X performance was transient.

Well, I’m seeing tons of reports now of Model S/X ordered in April with no delivery scheduled and no VIN. Odd thing to be making S/X that there’s no demand for and then not shipping them to the people that ordered one...

 

[kbM3]

Nice video by Real Engineering on Tesla Self-Driving.

Covers the basics in a great fashion, but some of the best informed may learn nothing new here.

 

[MarcusMaximus]

Tesla has a user interface team? Could have fooled me. I assumed they were all fired in early 2016 and not replaced, based on the evidence.

Is there any way to wake Elon up to what a bunch of incompetent clowns the current user interface team are? Now that the geographical distribution of service centers is being fixed, this is the biggest problem with Tesla as a car brand.

These things are subjective, obviously, but whatever problems there are with Tesla’s UI, it’s far and away better than any other auto manufacturer’s(or 3rd party equipment provider’s). In fact, it was just rated as such by Consumer Reports. It’s not even close.

 

[Pras]

S/X are far too low of volume to spread out over three factories. Note that Shanghai GF isn't expected to produce all versions of the Model 3. Likely the lowest cost standard range versions in China and then importing other more expensive versions.

Agree on S and X. My thinking was more from trade tariff perspective. For that, having at least two cross continent plants mitigates the concerns.

 

[JusRelax]

Glad to hear this... was one of the security issues that I think definitely needed to be resolved:

EDIT: Odd, my cut/paste screenshots isn't working pasting into comments. Anyway, Elon stated on his twitter that he will be implementing 2FA into the Tesla App. Elon Musk on Twitter

 

[Anstandswauwau]

Tesla has a user interface team? Could have fooled me. I assumed they were all fired in early 2016 and not replaced, based on the evidence.

Yes, but it's a super small team of a dozen designers or so, based at Tesla Design in Hawthorne. Keep in mind that they're not only in charge of all the MCU UIs but also the Tesla website, the app, etc.! The team size is maybe a 1/10 or 1/20 of what it actually should be, compared to FB, AAPL, GOOGL, MSFT …

From what I've heard, people are overworked, tired and fed up with the fact that they're reporting to either Franz or Elon – neither have much clue about UI design. The modus operandi is a toxic, top-down "We want to ship feature X so you better make it work SOMEHOW" approach.

Their poster boy, Andrew Kim, left in December '18 to work for Apple. He was in charge to revamp the Model S/X interface for the M3 and Semi.

 

[SPadival]

I may be misremembering (or filtering), but I thought the cash flow neutral was for when they were producing robotaxis, which will not occur till next year (at the earliest). Cash flow positive till they start building their own fleet, neutral during that phase, then positive AFter.

Elon said and I quote :

I am just saying that between now and when the Robo taxis are fully deployed throughout the world, the sensible thing for us is to maximise rate and drive the company to cash flow neutral. Once the Robo taxi fleet is active, I would expect to be extremely cash flow positive

Q: So, you are talking about production

Elon: Yeah. Maximise the number of autonomous units made.

This is at 3:43:15 of the investor autonomy day video.

I agree with this decision because it satisfies both the objectives of the company - in accelerating sustainable transportation and also achieve autonomy (via increased fleet learning).

 

[MarcusMaximus]

I do have a very deep respect for our Constitution and thus a respect for the office and person elected to that office.

Fun fact: the writers of the Constitution chose the term “President” as the outcome of trying to think of a title that would bestow as little respect for the office as possible. It comes from the word “preside”, as in the President presides over the executive branch, and was decided to be sufficiently weak sounding.

They were all-consumed with trying to prevent having anything even approaching a king.

For the record, I share our Founders’ healthy distrust of the head of the executive and do not “respect” the office, any more than any other public employee office. This was as true under Obama as it is now.

 

[dc_h]

What if it could work better?

I’m hoping the reorg is for the final race to finish FSD. Am I wrong, or do they seem pretty solid in level 3 autonomy and the pace of change has accelerated.

 

[Todd Burch]

Although Tesla originally planned to make 10k Model 3s per week in Fremont, I actually like that they decided to move 3k of that production to China.

Local production reduces logistics costs, providing the opportunity for higher margins, lower prices, or both.

Local production reduces the carbon footprint of manufacturing.

Decentralized production reduces the risks of a force majeure event in one location.

Increases the varied sources of raw materials to reduce risk.

They will need local production for future vehicles as they grow.

Chinese buyers probably prefer Chinese-made products (just as Americans prefer “Made In America”).

And the icing on top: Tesla gets to keep the factory as wholly-owned.

 

[Silent Ludicrosy]

My wife isn't very happy with me now. She drives an X that we bought last summer. I'm rarely in it. We went out to dinner last night and drove the X. I had just read about the yellow border issue so I checked her screen. Sure enough, she's got it. When I pointed it out to her, she said she hadn't noticed it at all. Now she sees it whenever she looks at the screen.

Put it in night mode.

 

[Krugerrand]

Well, my family friend who is in his 60s just bought a stupid Jaguar convertible becuase "Tesla didn't have one" . Give me a break. I've been talking to him about Tesla/renewable energy/climate change since 2013 and he gets it, yet he pulls a stunt like this. So ****ing stupid.

Maybe when he drops the top and hits Ludicrous Mode his head will be blown clean off? Well, that’s how I see events playing out in my minds eye, which is ever the optimist.