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

[mars_or_bust]

Can we stop the conspiracy theories that it's about something else? Please?

For the Nth time, the row of symbols on Elon's Twitter page is a list of the companies he founded:

View attachment 521637​

Those Unicode characters represent the following companies: SpaceX (rocket), Solar City (sun), Tesla (car), Neuralink (brain) and the Boring Company (hole).

The "money bag " Unicode character:

Unicode Character 'MONEY BAG' (U+1F4B0)
View attachment 521640​

Likely represented the 6th company Elon founded: Paypal, and he probably removed it because of the ambiguous meaning.

Can we stop the conspiracy theories that it's about something else? Please?

OK, that makes sense (missed the discussion on the analysis of this - kinda hard to believe with so few posts in this thread I know ). Knew about the other symbols, completely missed the Paypal reference (what about Zip2, though? That should also be in).

 

[Fact Checking]

I just got that update, but am out of town. I’ll report tomorrow on what I see.

Note that you probably won't see much, unless you are a Tesla employee enrolled in the FSD test program.

@verygreen data-mined these icons from the firmware files, they are probably not activated yet.

(There was another rumor/leak on Twitter suggesting that Tesla is already testing the stop-signs and traffic lights networks in shadow mode in this firmware version.)

 

[UCF3]

The "money bag " Unicode character:

Unicode Character 'MONEY BAG' (U+1F4B0)
View attachment 521640​

Likely represented the 6th company Elon founded: Paypal, and he probably removed it because of the ambiguous meaning.

Can we stop the conspiracy theories that it's about something else? Please?

You have no idea what it meant, offer a theory, then try to shut down speculation of what it meant?

 

[Krugerrand]

This is the only part I really agree with. There's not really any upside. It's one of those debates that even if you turn out to be right most people will see you as being a bad guy.

Just stay out of it and start posting about model Y. I can't even phantom what reason they can have for making model Y deliveries a non event.

It is a non event if unscrupulous people didn’t write salacious articles about an employee email and walk people down the ‘look how wrong and awful a human being Elon is’. And if we didn’t then come here and parse every word printed.

As far as I’m concerned the whole thing is a non-event and people are being their usual dramatic selves. It’s why I’m the ultimate social distancer and will continue to be so on my islands. People suck.

 

[Christine69420]

We need some nice Model Y delivery pics!

Imgur user damightyj published some pictures from when he got his:

More pics here: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Bonus link to Model Y manual: https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_y_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf

 

[mars_or_bust]

This is the only part I really agree with. There's not really any upside. It's one of those debates that even if you turn out to be right most people will see you as being a bad guy.

Just stay out of it and start posting about model Y. I can't even phantom what reason they can have for making model Y deliveries a non event.

To be fair to Elon, his twitter alter ego Bored Elon Musk (it's also Elon, in case it is not known) is taking a more mature and nuanced approach

 

[CyberDutchie]

On a brighter note, @verygreen is reporting that the latest FSD firmware is showing actual stopping on red lights and stop signs logic emerge:

green on Twitter

"re 2020.12 release [...] also what looks like preparations to enable actual stopping for stop signs/traffic lights (I am not 100% sure on this point, but I think this is what the changes are shaping out to be)"

View attachment 521628
​

The first icon is the visualization of when a red light has been detected, and I believe the second icon will signal when the car has stopped on a red light.

There's also an anonymous leak that suggests that the earliest, employee version of this firmware already has this feature activated.

I suspect it's going to roll out to EAP within a few weeks, with wider release sometime in Q2: June would be my guess, to maximize the Q2 delivery push?

This is not a bad time to roll this out, the streets are empty, at least here in the Bay Area where I live. Significantly reduced traffic.

 

[Artful Dodger]

But what’s the end game?

• Bankrupt the company?
• Slow down the company?
• Make shares cheaper for some whale?
• other?

Other: could be going after the see EO comp plan.



Their strategy has been to 'play the man' not the ball since at least 2017 during the 3 ramp when Media hit jobs started coming like a drum beat. This could be their last stab at the heart.

 

[ammulder]

I can't even phantom what reason they can have for making model Y deliveries a non event.

My guess is, right now, it would hardly make a difference. When there's such chaos in the market, how can you really have any reasonable expectation that good news will have a meaningful positive impact? What if the CV numbers take a turn for the worse on the same day and the macros accidentally crush any rise on the news? Or what if they make a big deal of it and then immediately have to shut down Fremont for a couple weeks?

It wouldn't surprise me if they "make an event" out of it if things start to settle in the next few weeks. Or maybe just drop a bomb with the delivery numbers, if the virus hasn't slowed deliveries that much (yet). Or even wait for the Q1 call when they can quote then-current production numbers that look amazingly better than the Model 3 ramp.

I don't think there's any special urgency for Tesla to take action to prop up the stock right now. The news is still there, and they can pick the most favorable time to promote it.

 

[InDaClub]

Twitter users, please report this Mark B. Spiegel on Twitter

 

[traxila]

Twitter users, please report this Mark B. Spiegel on Twitter

View attachment 521650

I don’t understand why we continue to give this troglodyte attention. Congrats. You gave him exactly what he wanted.

 

[Artful Dodger]

The heat pump will increase the cool weather range a lot and the very cold, arctic-like weather range a little bit.

You've got that backwards if the heat source(s) include the battery pack (not just outside ambient air). The less heat available from outside won't matter much if the heat is being pumped from the pack to the cabin.

I guess we'll know soon enough when Sandy Munro publishes his 1st teardown (or at least has a guest appearance on Autoline Afterhours)

Cheers!

 

[printf42]

I’m looking forward to the first tear down of Model Y.

Experts:
“Wow, Tesla is making Model Y with lower costs than Model 3!”

MSM:
“Don’t buy Model Y just yet, experts said the price could drop!”

To Tesla PR:
Be prepared, this sugar will happen.

 

[Jo-]

To be fair to Elon, his twitter alter ego Bored Elon Musk (it's also Elon, in case it is not known) is taking a more mature and nuanced approach


View attachment 521641

No, it is not known to be Elon. He joked that is was his “secret troll account.” It’s a (pretty clever) parody account.

 

[lklundin]

Man, you gotta love this guy. Right or wrong, he tells it like HE sees it. I'm willing to bet time will prove him right.

Elon Musk Told Workers They're More Likely To Die In A Car Crash Than From Coronavirus

Whenever you use Google to find something such as the above news story, Google will not merely
give you the link. Rather, they give you a redirect via their own server, so they can track whether
you and also anyone you gave that link to, decided to follow it. While Google will surely argue that
this allows them to improve your searching experience, the old adage still holds:

If it's free then you are the product.

So personally, I don't post links via trackers like Google (or Apple), and I also don't follow them.

Here is the link directly from the news media that brought it:
Elon Musk Told Workers They're More Likely To Die In A Car Crash Than From Coronavirus

Btw, it's clearly written to put Elon Musk in a bad light.

 

[Drax7]

For anecdotal reference, I stopped at the Tesla Dania Florida delivery center on Thursday.
The place reminded me of an Apple store at full capacity.
Hundreds of cars, rows of trailers trucks waiting to unload, the place
Was mobbed.

These folks seemed to care less about the stock market cratering on that Thursday.
They all seemed to have a purpose and focused on the task at hand.
The intense business activity at the center may well be indicator of demand.
(No model Ys. yet)

This is the type of buzz I’ve witnessed at Apple stores
And recently at lulu lemon stores.

 

[aubreymcfato]

If you think he doesn’t know this and doesn’t respect them, then you’ve not been paying attention at all.

I've been paying attention, and this is exactly why I don't like what I'm reading about his pandemic approach.
First a dumb tweet about "coronavirus panic" (unnecessary, to say the least), then other tweets, then this Buzzfeed article.
I'd be the first to be happy if the article was false, but evidence suggests otherwise.
I speak with the only authority of someone who is living an epidemic shutdown, and witnessing an health system overload.
Feel free to believe or not. I still believe in the mission: this is why I want Elon not to underestimate this. He should do what it's in his power to guarantee the safety of his workers and their families. That, hopefully, doesn't mean shutting everything down.
If you want another more cynical argument, think that in an highly emotional situation it's very risky, PR-wise (which is also market-wise) to do the smartass with statistics and analogies on Twitter.

 

[lklundin]

You've got that backwards if the heat source(s) include the battery pack (not just outside ambient air). The less heat available from outside won't matter much if the heat is being pumped from the pack to the cabin.

I guess we'll know soon enough when Sandy Monro publishes his 1st teardown (or at least has a guest appearance on Autoline Afterhours)

Cheers!

I am not so sure. You can easily have a combination of ambient temperature + driving that generates less heat than what is required to maintain battery + cabin at the desired temperature. With just A/C like in the Model 3, you only have resistive heating (COP=1) left, while with the heat pump you can provide extra heat for less load on the battery.

 

[Hock1]

Other: could be going after the see EO comp plan.

View attachment 521644 View attachment 521645

Their strategy has been to 'play the man' not the ball since at least 2017 during the 3 ramp when Media hit jobs started coming like a drum beat. This could be their last stab at the heart.

I get the ramifications of your theory. I was thinking the same myself.

 

[Bobfitz1]

Absolutely false. I've been a member of many shareholder class actions over the years and every one, without fail, has provided specific instructions to every shareholder on how to opt-out. This is standard operating procedure for EVERY class action that has occurred, at least in the last 3 decades. It's very easy to opt-out.

Has a written notice of this class action been sent to all shareholders? I haven't seen one. Do the brokerage houses where our shares reside get involved in notifying shareholders? I'll opt-out in a minute if there is a link to a site where I can do that.