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

[willow_hiller]

Keeping with the theme of Tesla hiding things in plain sight, I noticed this morning that two recent Supercharger installations tweeted by the TeslaCharging account appear to have some sort of kiosk:

They're both in South Korea. I'm unfamiliar with any government incentives there, but if Tesla is ever required to make payment for Supercharging available outside of the Tesla App, this seems like a cheap and easy way to accomplish it. The kiosks could even be running a modified version of the Tesla App in order to take credit card payment details.

 

[DFibRL8R]

"Notably absent, though, is a dedicated software suite for Frito-Lay drivers, such as what Rivian offers for Amazon drivers in its EDV Prime van, and BrightDrop offers on the Zevo 600 for FedEx drivers. Instead, the drivers use the Tesla app on their phones as a key and rely on a PepsiCo-supplied portable tablet kept in the storage cubby on the cabin's right side..."

I really wish Tesla would start enabling the center touch screen to run more business-centric software. Just look at all the police departments now using Tesla model 3/Y, all the systems I have seen utilize an accessory laptop to run their dispatch and response software which is awkwardly installed and encroaches on front passenger space.

 

[Stretch2727]

This probably tells us that this not a simple assembly process error.

Ford suspends electric F-150 Lightning production for another week following battery fire

Ford is suspending production of its electric F-150 Lightning pickup for another week after a battery issue that resulted in one of the vehicles catching fire.

www.cnbc.com

I aways go back to the tweet where Elon warns about large pouch cells.

 

[SOULPEDL]

"Notably absent, though, is a dedicated software suite for Frito-Lay drivers, such as what Rivian offers for Amazon drivers in its EDV Prime van, and BrightDrop offers on the Zevo 600 for FedEx drivers. Instead, the drivers use the Tesla app on their phones as a key and rely on a PepsiCo-supplied portable tablet kept in the storage cubby on the cabin's right side..."

Thanks. I'm not clear what a suite does here, but Amazon and Rivian provide custom software suites for every customer? How many we talking? $$$

Considering how many customers Tesla will (likely) have for Semi, maybe the phone and tablet makes more sense. But I'm not familiar with what they're missing out on. I do think have it on the phone would be better in some ways, but I'm gonna back out of this one. My knowledge of trucking stops at "Breaker 19" with Smokey and The Bandit

 

[Max Plaid]

Analysts est'd YoY PCE was 4.4%.

Fed-favored PCE gauge shows 12-month inflation rate edging upward to 5.4%

Inflation jumps again, PCE shows, and stays stubbornly high at over 5%

The cost of U.S. goods and services jumped 0.6% in January --- the biggest increase since last summer --- in another sign of stubbornly high inflation.

www.marketwatch.com

Gee, I wonder what might have happened 12 months ago, to the say, Russia invaded Ukraine and inflation went nuts, future prints will factor this in...

Not advice

 

[jerry33]

"Notably absent, though, is a dedicated software suite for Frito-Lay drivers, such as what Rivian offers for Amazon drivers in its EDV Prime van, and BrightDrop offers on the Zevo 600 for FedEx drivers. Instead, the drivers use the Tesla app on their phones as a key and rely on a PepsiCo-supplied portable tablet kept in the storage cubby on the cabin's right side..."

Rivan sells their van mostly to one customer. Writing this software is not a big deal. Tesla will shortly sell to many customers. Not a big deal times 1,000+ is.

 

[unk45]

The issue here is that Tesla's prices are transparent. Other manufacturers work through dealers where every car is sold at a different price, so it appears that the price from the manufacturer is stable when in reality it changes just as often, or more often, than Tesla's price. (there are some rare exceptions)

AFAIK, the only OEM exception is Tesla. Specific models have huge dealer differences in pricing, including Charlie's heroic BYD. Check out BYD new 2022 model prices now. Corollary: List price increases do not equal sales price increases.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Keeping with the theme of Tesla hiding things in plain sight, I noticed this morning that two recent Supercharger installations tweeted by the TeslaCharging account appear to have some sort of kiosk:

View attachment 910742

They're both in South Korea. I'm unfamiliar with any government incentives there, but if Tesla is ever required to make payment for Supercharging available outside of the Tesla App, this seems like a cheap and easy way to accomplish it. The kiosks could even be running a modified version of the Tesla App in order to take credit card payment details.

This will help in Canada, where the Gov't has just in the past week allowed L3 fast charging providers to charge for energy delivered (ie: per KWh) instead of by time spent charging. The new rules require a onsite display of energy dispensed be provided effective in 2024.

Measurement Canada approves per kWh billing for Tesla's Supercharger network and other DC fast charging providers - Drive Tesla

BTW, this change took more than 26 mths for the Gov't to grant approval. "Accelerate the transition..." Yeesh. But this is another one in the win column for Tesla.

Cheers!

 

[AndrewZ]

Gee, I wonder what might have happened 12 months ago, to the say, Russia invaded Ukraine and inflation went nuts, future prints will factor this in...

Not advice

Inflation really is multifactorial and the main sources heavily debated. Many point the finger at the pandemic QE + low interest rates + asset inflation stuffing people's bank accounts full of $$$ -- prices do not increase unless the consumer has money to support those increases.

If the Fed let off the brake any time soon, inflation would probably spike up to new highs.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Fun little data point, but I suspect we will see more and more of this. In Encinitas (north San Diego), Tesla is taking over a BMW dealership and converting it into their own service center, showroom and 8 stall Supercharger. Meanwhile, BMW says they are “consolidating” their service centers…

Supercharger - Encinitas, CA - Encinitas Blvd (under construction Oct 2023, 8 V3 stalls and service center)

Supercharger sleuth, MarcoRP, found the permit for a future service center in Encinitas, CA with notes for 8 supercharger stalls that appear to be public accessible (Not limited to Tesla staff). This is the site of a current BMW stealership.

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[JupiterMan]

"Notably absent, though, is a dedicated software suite for Frito-Lay drivers, such as what Rivian offers for Amazon drivers in its EDV Prime van, and BrightDrop offers on the Zevo 600 for FedEx drivers. Instead, the drivers use the Tesla app on their phones as a key and rely on a PepsiCo-supplied portable tablet kept in the storage cubby on the cabin's right side..."

dedicated software is very helpful for end mile delivery vans, so software can automatically update satnav to next drop off, give package information and delivery instructions to the driver, whilst relaying information back to the company and end customer - however for long distance trucks it is likely irrelevant.

 

[Prunesquallor]

Fun little data point, but I suspect we will see more and more of this. In Encinitas (north San Diego), Tesla is taking over a BMW dealership and converting it into their own service center, showroom and 8 stall Supercharger. Meanwhile, BMW says they are “consolidating” their service centers…

Supercharger - Encinitas, CA - Encinitas Blvd (under construction Oct 2023, 8 V3 stalls and service center)

Supercharger sleuth, MarcoRP, found the permit for a future service center in Encinitas, CA with notes for 8 supercharger stalls that appear to be public accessible (Not limited to Tesla staff). This is the site of a current BMW stealership.

teslamotorsclub.com

Exact same thing is happening in my neighborhood (SE of Houston).

League City Tesla dealership expected to be completed in spring 2023

The dealership will replace a previous BMW dealership after some renovations.

communityimpact.com

 

[Darkfox021]

dedicated software is very helpful for end mile delivery vans, so software can automatically update satnav to next drop off, give package information and delivery instructions to the driver, whilst relaying information back to the company and end customer - however for long distance trucks it is likely irrelevant.

And a portable device is much more useful anyway, as the driver will likely need to interact with it while inside the pickup or delivery facility.

 

[lascavarian]

Inflation really is multifactorial and the main sources heavily debated. Many point the finger at the pandemic QE + low interest rates + asset inflation stuffing people's bank accounts full of $$$ -- prices do not increase unless the consumer has money to support those increases.

If the Fed let off the brake any time soon, inflation would probably spike up to new highs.

Interesting comment yesterday from a west coast port manager saying dwell time for container turnaround was rising. If I understand him correctly, the west coast warehouses are full of product and containers are substituting as storage. Too much supply I guess or channel throughput slowing or just channel irregularity… multifactorial seems to fit.

 

[bpjod]

This will help in Canada, where the Gov't has just in the past week allowed L3 fast charging providers to charge for energy delivered (ie: per KWh) instead of by time spent charging. The new rules require a onsite display of energy dispensed be provided effective in 2024.

Measurement Canada approves per kWh billing for Tesla's Supercharger network and other DC fast charging providers - Drive Tesla

BTW, this change took more than 26 mths for the Gov't to grant approval. "Accelerate the transition..." Yeesh. But this is another one in the win column for Tesla.

Cheers!

Curious, what’s the incentive to unplug before reaching 100% charge when charging by kWh rather than by time? Will this change result in more delays at Superchargers? I know many places do charge by kWh, so what’s the experience there been?

Currently I’ll get up from lunch to move the car once I hit my target charge because I know about the tapering of the charging curve and how each kWh gets increasingly more expensive. Also, it’s just being a good citizen. If the cost per kWh is exactly the same where I’m currently charging as my battery hits 90% charge as it would down the road when I pull in with 8% charge, we’ll then I might as well go on enjoying my lunch another 10 minutes and also enjoy less range anxiety and faster driving speeds on the next leg of my journey. After all, enjoying a good lunch is far more important to me than making sure to vacate the charger ASAP so the next guy has a place to charge .

 

[philw1776]

No idea of the use cases but I'm a fan of tesla maybe developing a software interface so that specific apps on iPhones & androids can interact with the main screen IF user configured to do so.

 

[NooB_cat]

dedicated software is very helpful for end mile delivery vans, so software can automatically update satnav to next drop off, give package information and delivery instructions to the driver, whilst relaying information back to the company and end customer - however for long distance trucks it is likely irrelevant.

I'd Love to see an app store where developers can write useful software to run (sandboxed) on the dash screen and perhaps intregrate widgets/controls which the driver can chose to pin.
Man I'd be all over writing things for that store!

 

[Ogre]

dedicated software is very helpful for end mile delivery vans, so software can automatically update satnav to next drop off, give package information and delivery instructions to the driver, whilst relaying information back to the company and end customer - however for long distance trucks it is likely irrelevant.

Agree. Though maybe having a dedicated mount for a client devices would make sense.

Another possibility would be having a better API for the Semi. For example, the current Tesla app allows you to push a single address to the car. Maybe Tesla could have a dispatch API which lets a company upload a day’s route into the truck. Drivers would mark stops as complete and be queued with the next destination.

Though Semis tend to have an order of magnitude fewer stops than Amazon vans.

 

[CLK350]

I really wish Tesla would start enabling the center touch screen to run more business-centric software. Just look at all the police departments now using Tesla model 3/Y, all the systems I have seen utilize an accessory laptop to run their dispatch and response software which is awkwardly installed and encroaches on front passenger space.

Disagreed. Because this would open a can of worms. Security wise it would become a nightmare, all business apps would have to be hardened, huge waste of time for Tesla

 

[growler23]

Fun little data point, but I suspect we will see more and more of this. In Encinitas (north San Diego), Tesla is taking over a BMW dealership and converting it into their own service center, showroom and 8 stall Supercharger. Meanwhile, BMW says they are “consolidating” their service centers…

Supercharger - Encinitas, CA - Encinitas Blvd (under construction Oct 2023, 8 V3 stalls and service center)

Supercharger sleuth, MarcoRP, found the permit for a future service center in Encinitas, CA with notes for 8 supercharger stalls that appear to be public accessible (Not limited to Tesla staff). This is the site of a current BMW stealership.

teslamotorsclub.com

Indeed - I think this may be under-discussed!!!

Auto dealerships will go under in the next 5-10 years, IMHO, ALL of them (to a first approximation anyway).
These guys currently hold a LOT of land, zoned commercial, already-paved. They have nice showroom buildings, already built, have nice auto bays with lifts, etc.
What will happen to all those valuable things when the dealers crater?
Sure, Tesla (et al, maybe?) will snap up a few for service centers. But the much better vehicle delivery system plus their far higher proven reliability likely means they don't need acres and acres of parking lots to store demo product.
Will Tesla take over the showroom and service portion, and lease out the unneeded giant parking lots? Cover these with solar and Megapacks? Both? (Tesla Solar-sponsored [and shaded] MiniGolf, anyone? Hole 18 lets you bounce your ball off an T-shaped Megapack as it disappears?)
Or will another type of company vulture in?
The land owned by these guys right now is not insignificant. Seems like a rare chance to do some much needed urban / suburban renewal!