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

[wipster]

Consumer Reports Ask-Me-Anything is open here:

I am the Director of Auto Test from Consumer Reports to talk about top picks and reliability AMA : IAmA

Be sure to vote up any and all questions that you like. And if you see anything that hasn't been asked, by all means ask!

Karen, good on ya! Love your responses!

 

[MarcusMaximus]

Totally dodged the question of how they manage to come up with a 2/5 overall rating when all the components of the rating are 4/5 or 5/5. I mean, you'd think they'd at least explain their math.

Honestly, this is my one problem with how the questions were posted. Posting so many at once gave him cover to answer a few of the easier ones before throwing up his hands and saying there were too many. This is the one I’d like to see answered.

 

[Buckminster]

Karen > 87million Pewdiepie subscribers....
Elon's been wasting his time.

 

[SO16]

Musk out as CEO is ridiculous. Who would want him out with such great stock movement the last few years.

No sane person does since the company execution has been really good all things considered. Stock is being manipulated. But those days are numbered. Yet another short thesis disappearing this weekend.

 

[Buckminster]

VW to Invest Nearly $2 Billion in Ford Self-Driving Cars

That explains F's climb today.

I thought Ford wanted Audi's autonomous tech - this suggests the other way around. Does that mean Audi have got nada, or they are just sharing the risks - hoping someone is going to have something when the music stops.

 

[SO16]

Honestly, this is my one problem with how the questions were posted. Posting so many at once gave him cover to answer a few of the easier ones before throwing up his hands and saying there were too many. This is the one I’d like to see answered.

Can someone else ask it?

 

[dc_h]

KarenRei:

"Are you claiming that paint and trim are "reliability" issues? If so, I can sympathize, as my paint rebooted while I was driving the other day... "​

CR: "Crickets"

This was a great line of question. They said they have a value weighting, but it did not seem to have anything to do with the functionality of getting from point A to point B. In IT, you usually rate the chance of failure and the risk of failure to assign resources and estimate your overall risk level.
Example:
CPU failure and car fails completely. Odds of happening 1/100,000 (I have no idea what the number is). You would have a very low probability of happening, but a high impact, so the odds are .000001, but the impact is high.
Paint chip: Odds of happening 1/10 last June, 1/100 in November, 1/1000 today. Risk now 0.001, but impact is low.

I will grant that return trips for service are a pain in the neck and the improvements in process made this year, would not have shown up in their results. That ding may happen in the background and could have weighed heavily.

 

[printf42]

So TSLA investors jumping to a position in NIO brings focus to the EV market potential of China and that creates a boost for TSLA?

People selling NIO 60min hype and BTFD of TSLA.
At least I sold my trading shares of NIO, places limit order of TSLA but missed it, some day I might regret this.

 

[mtndrew1]

Whoever user "veganinsight" is on the Consumer Reports AMA, my kudos to them - they posted a well-phrased question and got the CR guy to acknowledge that some improvements in their methodology might be warranted:

View attachment 380742

That’s me.

 

[Zaxxon]

Side note: confirmation that Vicki Salvador was let go for violating NDA by sharing production numbers:

 

[humbaba]

I don't think auto safety glass shatters that easily. It's made to not splatter everywhere. Also I thought the cops had arrived late - car engulfed and that only bystanders had been trying to break the windows.

That could very well be. It wasn't how I understood it, but I wasn't there.

My wife thinks it is difficult to shatter: she had to try multiple times (I assure everyone it was for a good cause). In my misspent youth I may have had direct knowledge of breaking auto glass. Let's just say I was surprised by how easily it went. "How hard" you hit the glass is less important than "how sharply". It doesn't take that much force, and it helps to have it concentrated in a small area.

 

[Bobfitz1]

Tesla had already set similar guidance on their call -- Elon specifically said "Maybe on the order of 350,000 to 500,000 Model 3s, something like that this year." All the tweet did was restate something the company had already made public. what on earth do you or the SEC see here that is in any way interesting? it's absurd and a total witch hunt.

You probably shouldn't use the phrase "total witch hunt" if what you want is to convince someone an investigation is without merit.

 

[JRP3]

SA reporting that some Maxwell shareholders are suing to stop the buyout.

 

[Mobius484]

Side note: confirmation that Vicki Salvador was let go for violating NDA by sharing production numbers:
View attachment 380751

I was surprised she lasted so long actually.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Hi folks,

So, could this morning's SP runup be the result of delta-hedging* by market makers in response to price change on 01 Mar Puts at the 290 strike**?

Translation: is this a 'transient' move, or could this be sustained? Inquirying minds want to know.

Cheers!

* (I have know idea what this means)
** (or this too)

 

[Pezpunk]

That could very well be. It wasn't how I understood it, but I wasn't there.

My wife thinks it is difficult to shatter: she had to try multiple times (I assure everyone it was for a good cause). In my misspent youth I may have had direct knowledge of breaking auto glass. Let's just say I was surprised by how easily it went. "How hard" you hit the glass is less important than "how sharply". It doesn't take that much force, and it helps to have it concentrated in a small area.

Why was this person banned?

hitting the glass in the middle of its surface area going to take a lot more effort than hitting it near the frame. tempered glass is surprisingly strong. you can stand on a pinball machine without breaking the glass, for example (note: this is not investment advice).

on a side note: not generally relevant to breaking into a car, but you can easily shatter tempered glass by tapping it fairly lightly on it's *edge* with a blunt object. this is a lesson many people like me who restore pinball machines know all too well.

 

[Pezpunk]

You probably shouldn't use the phrase "total witch hunt" if what you want is to convince someone an investigation is without merit.

why's that? i've always taken the phrase to imply that the accused party is being unfairly persecuted.

 

[mekberg]

Aaaaand the AMA is over. Jake didn't answer most of Karen's questions. There were very few others so it's not like he was busy replying.

 

[CorneliusXX]

He could have done it before but did not, citing that reason so why should he now?

The short answer is because the first attempt was announced too early and caused all sorts of issues. He could do it now by lining up investors ahead of time.

It also depends on how hard the SEC turns the screws. At some point the risk of going private will be outweighed by the risk of staying public.

 

[mekberg]

At some point the risk of going private will be outweighed by the risk of staying public.

Yep. As much as I want to be an investor in TSLA the mission is of utmost priority.