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

[shootformoon]

Sometimes I feel CEOs of some huge corporations are even more stupid than politicians. Yes, most politicians have no understanding of technical details. But they still need to read tea leaves, i.e. the will of lobbyists and eventually voters. But huge corporations executive suite only need to report to the board, who are absent minded most of the time. So nobody actually holds them accountable as far as their companies still delivers the profits because of uniform motion, i.e. monopoly . And the worst could happen to them are golden parachutes. There is simply not enough incentive for them to understand.

Care to have a laugh?

(this is 3 days old and I don't know if it was already posted):

Aston Martin boss: Brexit strategy "laughable", EV policy "non-sensical", idea of full autonomy "absurd" | Autocar

Some quotes from this genius:

“EV is one route, it is not a panacea. The bit that pisses me off is when they try to pick a technological winner,” said Palmer. “The UK is trying to get on the front foot and say it wants to be a leader in electric vehicle technology but the truth is that nobody knows what the right technology is for 20-30 years time.

“Politicians can’t be taken seriously if they talk about 30-40 years ahead,” he added. “They are concerned with taking power and staying in power over a relatively short time, and they know they won’t have accountability over the much longer-term.

“Government should identify problems and set policy. The engineers should define the solutions. I am pretty sure that 40 years from now there will be solutions beyond battery-electric vehicles to consider. Why not synthetic fuels that are carbon neutral? Or where will hydrogen fit in? There are so many answers, some not even thought of yet.

“If reducing CO2 is the goal then diesel is a good solution. If it’s improving air quality then perhaps not. But which is it? They’re all mixed up. They are trying to bet on technology that they don’t understand.”

---

"Unless it is in a geo-fenced area then you are not going to get full autonomy in the way many people are describing it," he said. "The idea of full autonomy being widespread in my lifetime is absurd. Full Level 5 systems are a moonshot.

"Yes, there will be a typical automotive cycle through stages, from Level 0 upwards - albeit with the mixed section of Level 3 when the car takes control but can hand back to the driver being skipped if commonsense prevails, in my opinion - but the idea of Level 5 in somewhere that isn't geo-fenced isn't comprehensible."

---

 

[printf42]

If they don't fix this, Tesla is DEAD, and I'm not kidding. DEAD. It doesn't matter that they're in the lead on everything else. If people with problems cannot get through to a live person who can help, the company actually will see demand crash and it actually will go bankrupt.

What the HELL is going on, and can we get someone to ask about this at the earnings call? Zach Shahan? This is a very very serious risk for the company.

This is the only thing which any Tesla investor should be focused on. The only thing. Service communications are deteriorating to the point that it is threatening the viability of the company.

Could Tesla allow owners to volunteer by join their virtual call center as “user advocate” or sort?
This could solve the communication problem and filter out large amount of service calls.

 

[Tenable]

If they don't fix this, Tesla is DEAD, and I'm not kidding. DEAD. It doesn't matter that they're in the lead on everything else. If people with problems cannot get through to a live person who can help, the company actually will see demand crash and it actually will go bankrupt.

What the HELL is going on, and can we get someone to ask about this at the earnings call? Zach Shahan? This is a very very serious risk for the company.

This is the only thing which any Tesla investor should be focused on. The only thing. Service communications are deteriorating to the point that it is threatening the viability of the company.

I could not agree more. As a long time Tesla customer that knows the ropes I've become absolutely infuriated. Its an issue compounded on by the fact that I am in Texas. For the smallest issue I literally have to call a national line wait 2 hours (Yes, I literally waited 2 hours plus 3 calls in a row. I actually requested a callback from Tesla, they gave me a call back 5 hours later and then put me on hold for 90 minutes at which point my phone dropped the call) Then. Should I actually survive to speak with someone, they attempt to connect me with my nearest service center. This issue has only become worse since I left Dallas and moved to an area serviced by a mobile team. This mobile team has no phone number or way for me to contact them directly. Meaning I have to hit 3 difficult to access contact points to reach them.

Now I will say, at the end of the process, Tesla still bends over backwards to make sure everything is done perfectly. Tesla has not sacrificed on warranty work, or attempted to penny pinch on the work itself for which I am grateful. But these experiences have certainly left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[PeterJA]

They are not developing this product for Norway or Singapore.

More like sub-saharan Africa where many can't afford grass fed no antibiotics beef and are concerned with satiating hunger for today not their gut microbiome.

Sub-Saharan Africa has a long tradition of eating insects (a whole food). They don't need no stinking lab-grown processed isolated roach-milk protein. Norway or Singapore are more likely to buy it, slickly packaged as a "superfood."

Eating insects has long made sense in Africa. The world must catch up

The myth that world hunger requires high-tech engineered foods is a Big Lie by Big Food/Pharma/Chema. Traditional organic foods and farming will do, unless destroyed by corporations like Monsanto (owned by Bayer) pushing chemicals and genetically engineered "terminator seeds" that can't be saved for next year.

Seeds of Evil: Monsanto and Genetic Engineering

 

[anthonyj]

If they don't fix this, Tesla is DEAD, and I'm not kidding. DEAD. It doesn't matter that they're in the lead on everything else. If people with problems cannot get through to a live person who can help, the company actually will see demand crash and it actually will go bankrupt.

What the HELL is going on, and can we get someone to ask about this at the earnings call? Zach Shahan? This is a very very serious risk for the company.

This is the only thing which any Tesla investor should be focused on. The only thing. Service communications are deteriorating to the point that it is threatening the viability of the company.

No problems with Tesla service as of late. Has improved dramatically

 

[Sudre]

This is the only thing which any Tesla investor should be focused on. The only thing. Service communications are deteriorating to the point that it is threatening the viability of the company.

It is also the one thing that can cause Tesla to loss it's battle against the dealer associations. That falls back double hard on the thing investors should be worried about. If the dealers can prove through Tesla's own negligence that they are better, Tesla's sales method folds.

 

[AZRI11]

Care to have a laugh?

(this is 3 days old and I don't know if it was already posted):

Aston Martin boss: Brexit strategy "laughable", EV policy "non-sensical", idea of full autonomy "absurd" | Autocar

Some quotes from this genius:

“EV is one route, it is not a panacea. The bit that pisses me off is when they try to pick a technological winner,” said Palmer. “The UK is trying to get on the front foot and say it wants to be a leader in electric vehicle technology but the truth is that nobody knows what the right technology is for 20-30 years time.

“Politicians can’t be taken seriously if they talk about 30-40 years ahead,” he added. “They are concerned with taking power and staying in power over a relatively short time, and they know they won’t have accountability over the much longer-term.

“Government should identify problems and set policy. The engineers should define the solutions. I am pretty sure that 40 years from now there will be solutions beyond battery-electric vehicles to consider. Why not synthetic fuels that are carbon neutral? Or where will hydrogen fit in? There are so many answers, some not even thought of yet.

“If reducing CO2 is the goal then diesel is a good solution. If it’s improving air quality then perhaps not. But which is it? They’re all mixed up. They are trying to bet on technology that they don’t understand.”

---

"Unless it is in a geo-fenced area then you are not going to get full autonomy in the way many people are describing it," he said. "The idea of full autonomy being widespread in my lifetime is absurd. Full Level 5 systems are a moonshot.

"Yes, there will be a typical automotive cycle through stages, from Level 0 upwards - albeit with the mixed section of Level 3 when the car takes control but can hand back to the driver being skipped if commonsense prevails, in my opinion - but the idea of Level 5 in somewhere that isn't geo-fenced isn't comprehensible."

---

 

[Mike Smith]

Excellent interview:

 

[Chunky Jr.]

I have had two great experiences with mobile service in the past couple months. One to replace my 12v battery, and the other to replace the dreaded yellow border screen. All communication via text. Super easy and convenient.

 

[Pezpunk]

If they don't fix this, Tesla is DEAD, and I'm not kidding. DEAD. It doesn't matter that they're in the lead on everything else. If people with problems cannot get through to a live person who can help, the company actually will see demand crash and it actually will go bankrupt.

My recent experiences have been nothing like this at all.

I scheduled my 2 year service in a matter of seconds, and the visit couldn’t have been smoother or quicker. I was in and out in a couple hours, and that included new tires and alignment.

Then a few days later, I had a serious technical problem where the car would not drive and I was stranded. I got through to a live human within 10 minutes, and he walked me through some procedures that had me driving again within a totally reasonable amount of time, and called me back later to make sure everything went well. Also received a follow up call from Tesla the next day to make sure my experience was satisfactory. This was all about 2 weeks ago.

You need to dial back the hyperbole overall. On this subject, and on the subjects of software and self-driving, you are throwing a lot of completely unwarranted temper tantrums.

 

[Drax7]

Come on, guys (generic), I know there have been advances in miniaturization, but milking machines of that size?

Bearing in mind this is a family site, for you medieval types counting angels on pins, "how many teats on a cockroach" will be summarily moved to a more appropriate thread. Besides, speculation is a risky business for investors and is not to be an advice.

Drinking milk from another species, why not include dog milk , and/or cat milk , and as a last resort rat milk.
Milk is milk .

 

[MarcusMaximus]

I could not agree more. As a long time Tesla customer that knows the ropes I've become absolutely infuriated. Its an issue compounded on by the fact that I am in Texas. For the smallest issue I literally have to call a national line wait 2 hours (Yes, I literally waited 2 hours plus 3 calls in a row. I actually requested a callback from Tesla, they gave me a call back 5 hours later and then put me on hold for 90 minutes at which point my phone dropped the call) Then. Should I actually survive to speak with someone, they attempt to connect me with my nearest service center. This issue has only become worse since I left Dallas and moved to an area serviced by a mobile team. This mobile team has no phone number or way for me to contact them directly. Meaning I have to hit 3 difficult to access contact points to reach them.

Now I will say, at the end of the process, Tesla still bends over backwards to make sure everything is done perfectly. Tesla has not sacrificed on warranty work, or attempted to penny pinch on the work itself for which I am grateful. But these experiences have certainly left a bad taste in my mouth.

*sigh* dealing with this now. My car has a pretty severe autopilot issue. Had mobile service come out, but he wasn’t able to fix it on the spot(tried recalibration the cameras, but that didn’t help). He promised updates a couple times but has now gone radio silent. Not looking forward to another 2+ hours on hold to get yet another person for this.

 

[bhtooefr]

Everyone.

What does roach milk have to do with anything Tesla does?

I mean, SpaceX and Neuralink are off-topic (usually - I get that when trying to divine Tesla performance from Musk's public attitude, filtering out his other business's performance is needed), and they're actually Elon Musk's other businesses (in addition to Boring Company, which is less off-topic as it's a Tesla customer).

But roach milk? Seriously?

 

[Antares Nebula]

Another recent tweet on Summon:

"Parking lots are a remarkably hard problem. Doing an in-depth engineering review of Enhanced Summon later today."
Elon Musk on Twitter

Also, last week:

"Intersections with complex traffic lights & shopping mall parking lots are the two biggest software challenges. Developer branch already mostly works in these scenarios, but massive effort required to get to 99.9999% safety."
Elon Musk on Twitter

At first glance, Summon seems really easy. And it is, for simple uncrowded parking lots. But in a very busy parking lot, with many moving cars and pedestrians, where there are not even lanes or traffic lights, Summon is probably the hardest of all Self-Driving problems. Human drivers may rely on non-standard or subtle cues (for example, direct human to human communication), which are not possible in a car without a human driver (of course, Tesla can train its NN to recognize, for example, human hand gestures from other vehicles and pedestrians).

So this is going to be very interesting. What will Tesla do here? Looks like Summon is a much harder problem than initially thought. It could be quite a while till it is fully solved. Or does Tesla limit summon to non-busy parking lots (and how does Tesla determine this)? In short (IMO), be prepared for either a significant delay and/or significantly limited functionality on initial release.

 

[Antares Nebula]

Everyone.

What does roach milk have to do with anything Tesla does?

I mean, SpaceX and Neuralink are off-topic (usually - I get that when trying to divine Tesla performance from Musk's public attitude, filtering out his other business's performance is needed), and they're actually Elon Musk's other businesses (in addition to Boring Company, which is less off-topic as it's a Tesla customer).

But roach milk? Seriously?

Well, you obviously haven't seen ():

 

[PeterJA]

What does roach milk have to do with anything Tesla does?

TSLA investors concerned about the environment might be interested in other threats to the environment besides fossil fuels. According to a UN report and other studies, animal agriculture threatens the climate more than all of transportation. Tesla can't save the environment alone.

Livestock a major threat to environment

@RFernatt brought up roach milk apparently as a joke. I tried to point out that it's not really funny (except for the part about counting the teats).

 

[RFernatt]

TSLA investors concerned about the environment might be interested in other threats to the environment besides fossil fuels. According to a UN report and other studies, animal agriculture threatens the climate more than all of transportation. Tesla can't save the environment alone.

Livestock a major threat to environment

@RFernatt brought up roach milk apparently as a joke. I tried to point out that it's not really funny (except for the part about counting the teats).

Yes, I had read that article a while back and was piling on to the OT edible insect discussion as a joke, but perhaps a bit too far even for weekend OT.

 

[AZRI11]

Could Tesla allow owners to volunteer by join their virtual call center as “user advocate” or sort?
This could solve the communication problem and filter out large amount of service calls.

Or do what Amazon does. Even better, help military families Military Spouses and Caregivers

 

[bhtooefr]

TSLA investors concerned about the environment might be interested in other threats to the environment besides fossil fuels. According to a UN report and other studies, animal agriculture threatens the climate more than all of transportation. Tesla can't save the environment alone.

That's fine, and I agree! But this thread is about investing in Tesla.

Meanwhile, there's a whole subforum here just for posting about the environment: Energy, Environment, and Policy

 

[PeterJA]

That's fine, and I agree! But this thread is about investing in Tesla.

Meanwhile, there's a whole subforum here just for posting about the environment: Energy, Environment, and Policy

Thanks for the link. Hard to know what is permissible in this thread when I see posts about cats, dogs, fantasy novels, TV shows, and many jokes. I like someone's suggestion to skip over posts that don't interest one.