OK Artful Dodger, here's my reply to your off-topic fastest flight storyWeekend OT:
Fun fact: the fastest I've ever travelled is 775 mph ground speed in a Boeing 747-400 in Sep 1997. Originally, my airline had assigned a vanilla 767 for the mid-range distance flt from Honolulu to Vancouver. Alas, the rubber band broke and the airline told us they would put us up in a hotel overnight instead. Hey, free dinner and a soft bed in Waikiki, 'A' ole pilikia...
However, around 11 pm the concierge knocked on my hotel room door and said "Change of plan! We've arranged for a replacement airplane, and we take off in 1 hour! Please make your way to the buses now waiting in the parkade".
The replacement was the Boeing 747-475, the pride of Canadian Airlines, sporting 4 mighty Rolls-Royce RB211 turbofans. This A/C had just flown from Montreal to Vancouver, and was retasked to fetch us from Hawaii before it's planned return to Montreal in the morning (I presume w. a crew change).
When we arrived at the departure terminal at PHNL, we were hurried through security (pre-9/11) and escorted directly to our assigned seats. After a high-speed taxi, the plane did a rolling left turn onto the departure runway, throttles to the wall, and climbed like a fighter jet to FL430 in 13 minutes! (we only took on fuel for a 2700 nm leg + IFR reserves, and had only the reduced # of pax aboard that would fit in a much smaller 767-300) so we were well below gross. To say that ship climbed like a homesick angel is not to trivialize the feat: it was breathtaking, visceral in the way only pilots can appreciate.
Once at cruise altitude, the Flt Crew steered us 500 miles North to intercept the jet stream, blowing a fierce 175 kts at 43,000' altitude. The planned time of flt was too short to show a movie, so throughout the flight the on-board screens displayed a moving map w. Direction + Ground Speed. Just about 275 miles West of Vancouver Island, the map showed a groundspeed of 775 mph, which was the combination of true airspeed and component tail.
Shortly thereafter, the engines went remarkably quiet, and you felt a slight drop in pressure in your ears as engine bleed air decreased. We maintained altitude to reduce airspeed for 25 miles, then the plane began its decent although we were still 250 miles West of CYVR. Now don't say there's no Cowboys left in the West; those 2 jocks brought that plane down at avg 3,000' per min all the way down to 6,000' to join the CASDY THREE Arrival for Rwy 26L.
Wheels up in Honolulu to wheels down in Vancouver: 4 hrs 5 min. Distance 2,750 nm. Avg speed: 675 mph. The Aircrew hustled us off the plane even as the maintenance staff was tidying up cushions and vacuuming carpets. I was still standing in line waiting to enter Customs as I saw our magnificent Canadian Goose push back from the jetway and taxi out for its scheduled departure for Montreal, only 40 min behind schedule. What an awesome marvel of engineering! What a team!
And what a great rubber-band-break story!
Paging @Papafox 'your turn'.
P.S. The a/c C-GMWW was sold to Air Canada, resold & retired, and now broken up
P.P.S. The last "Jumbo Jet" aircraft, a 747-8F for Atlas Air registered N863GT, rolled off the production line on December 6, 2022, and was delivered on January 31, 2023.
End of an era, the fond memories remain...
Maybe margins might just stabilize. After all utility-level storage now has many competitors all offering highly integrated modular solutions. Tesla has advantages in packaging for sole transport, in product maturity, software cohesion, features and integration. Those may well give lower cost of production for Tesla. Still, each of their battery suppliers also sell integrated solutions. BYD, CATL (directly and indirectly), Huawei, Honeywell, Siemens, LG, Samsung and so on.
www.bloomberg.com
It is proven that the more you hear about a brand or a politician, the more you are inclined to subconsciously select it at the next time you go to the story and buy something with a quick decision. Pretty much a whole chapter in that in the Nobel Prize author winner psychologist Daniel Kahnenan book Thinking Fast And Slow
Steve Jobs was Apple, he died, look what happened next...
stocks.apple.com
Here is our Tesla ad!What a waste of time…
‘Boycott Tesla’ ads to air during Super Bowl — The Washington Post
Tesla critic Dan O’Dowd is funding a Super Bowl ad campaign highlighting dangers of the company’s driver-assistance software for the second year in a row.
Yup read it. I found 'seducing the subconscious' and 'the advertised mind' to be better, and focused 100% on subconscious advertising.
I woke up to an Apple News-pushed story about Tesla SLASHING prices on Model Y’s.
Not surprising at all. We saw refreshed "camouflaged" Model 3s for MONTHS before they went into production in China (and then took 5 more months to do the same here in the U.S.) To my knowledge, we have yet to see even a single Model Y refresh test mule so a "year +" seems pretty likely. What I DO think we will get is the very, very mild "refresh" we just saw on the Y in China (i.e. added the dash only LED and maybe a couple other minor items). That may be imminent (especially with Tesla offering a February only $1K discount now), but isn't a material update. Indeed, the most material updates (pre-Juniper) to the Model Y will likely be complete if we get that dash LED update - these include the items introduced in 2023 (i.e. softened suspension and hardware 4 cameras and computer) and the new "ultra red" and "stealth gray" color options introduced this year. While the "I want it now!" in me would desire it today, from a business perspective, I like that Tesla is spacing this stuff out. Heck, it may be less "strategy" and more "practical limitation" - I'm guessing it is more than a little challenging to refresh Model 3 and Model Y while simultaneously launching the Cybertruck!
Tesla confirms no Model Y refresh coming this year
Tesla has confirmed in an internal email to employees that there will be no Model Y refresh coming in 2024. Last year a report emerged that Tesla was working on a refresh of the Model […]driveteslacanada.ca
In an attempt to clear things up, Tesla has sent out an email to employees that no refresh Model Y will be launching in North America this year.
According to the email, a copy of which was obtained by Drive Tesla, the automaker said “it is important we communicate transparently that there is no refresh for the Model Y launching this year.”
Tesla ends the email by saying “there is no better time for customers to start driving the world’s best-selling vehicle,” highlighting the incentives available for the electric SUV.
True for low engagement and or spontaneous product decisions. Neither is in any way connected to major purchase commitments such as cars and dwellings. Brand, in Marketing terms is most valuable for the least planned decisions. Brand does play a role elsewhere but much less so.
