TSLA Market Action: 2018 Investor Roundtable

[Silent Ludicrosy]

Anyone else tested the latest software "Navigate on Autopilot"? Really love it.

It's good, but it needs improvement on choosing the correct lane for highway interchanges. On my drive home from work, there's a southbound to westbound highway interchange that requires taking a left exit. The car always tries to take me to the right exit because the destination is to the right.

 

[Lucky_Man]

So, I have to think that this is a full-size van, and full-size vans are quite common for last-mile delivery worldwide with reliable demand, and could complement the Semi nicely, as well as being used for transporting people (think airport shuttles, vanpooling, and the like).

Minivans intended for passenger use are a declining market in the US, true, but that's not what Tesla is making if it's based on the Pickup.

Earlier this year, I offered a suggestion to a prominent Canadian RV manufacturer that uses Mercedes van bodies as a base for his products. His initial response was positive, then he digressed into "we couldn't attach our RV 'stuff' for fear of piercing the batteries." At least I got him thinking about the engineering solutions to that problem. We'll see if he can solve these issues.

 

[kbM3]

Pardon me if this has been mentioned already, but an InsideEVs poster named Ivan claims to be taking an MR delivery tomorrow.

 

[davecolene0606]

Disagree - it affects Tesla network connectivity

Elon has said clearly that starlink requires an antenna that bigger than a bread box and is more of a high speed access point rather than a mobile solution. He was pretty specific about saying that the Tesla network and it are not connected for at least v1 of Tesla Network.

Fire Away!

(Edit: gotta read it all before responding, Artful got there first)

 

[KarenRei]

Panasonic chairman on earnings call
1. To take gigafactory to 35 GW by March

Given that during the conference call they stated that they're at 20 GWh/yr today, going to 35 GWh/yr (I assume that's what you mean) by March would be awesome (roughly a doubling in six months), esp. given that Giga already makes half of the world's EV batteries. People talk about how Moore's law is the benchmark for a fast scaleup (in that case, doubling the number of transistors per unit area every 2 years). The scaleup rate at Giga puts Moore's law to shame.

 

[UncaNed]

It's good, but it needs improvement on choosing the correct lane for highway interchanges. On my drive home from work, there's a southbound to westbound highway interchange that requires taking a left exit. The car always tries to take me to the right exit because the destination is to the right.

I like it - more added value from uncle Elon! Navigate on Autopilot is Tesla's self-driving-est thing yet, and I think it also fixed a couple recently-introduced EAP driving issues from the V9 update. I love the trend. Return a little Model X touchscreen versatility, and I'd be overjoyed... Full speed ahead Tesla!

 

[MXWing]

@SpaceCash

VAE VICTUS.

Woe to the vanquished. And it’s gonna be the bears and shorts.

 

[abasile]

To my opinion having different speed limits on the same road is dangerous. Speed limits should be based on safety not electric versus gas.

California has two different speed limits on our freeways, 55 mph vehicles with trailers, and 65-70 mph for others. Whether those limits are observed is another matter, but people seem to manage the speed differential with trucks just fine. If a given jurisdiction can get away politically with a lower speed limit for fossil vehicles, and actually enforce it, that’ll generate a major surplus of demand for Teslas!

Really looking forward to seeing what happens in Austria. Regulatory developments like this could be major for TSLA, not to mention the global climate.

 

[M3Rider]

Given that during the conference call they stated that they're at 20 GWh/yr today, going to 35 GWh/yr (I assume that's what you mean) by March would be awesome (roughly a doubling in six months), esp. given that Giga already makes half of the world's EV batteries. People talk about how Moore's law is the benchmark for a fast scaleup (in that case, doubling the number of transistors per unit area every 2 years). The scaleup rate at Giga puts Moore's law to shame.

Didn't we discuss that this expansion was supposed to be done by EOY and then Panasonic was even planning to beat that target and complete sooner? What's awesome about this delay?

 

[Chickenlittle]

Didn't we discuss that this expansion was supposed to be done by EOY and then Panasonic was even planning to beat that target and complete sooner? What's awesome about this delay?

Yes was to expand but never heard to full capacity by march

 

[Oil4AsphaultOnly]

You'd need a "pizza box" on top of the car, and it's line of sight. Not ideal for cars. While they _could_ make use of it, I don't really see it happening.

Really, I do think it's just another way to make lots of money via allowing people to get good Internet wherever they are.
Tristan da Cunha will be much more appealing.

Ummm, no. Ever heard of Iridium and their satellite phone?

 

[Chickenlittle]

California has two different speed limits on our freeways, 55 mph vehicles with trailers, and 65-70 mph for others. Whether those limits are observed is another matter, but people seem to manage the speed differential with trucks just fine. If a given jurisdiction can get away politically with a lower speed limit for fossil vehicles, and actually enforce it, that’ll generate a major surplus of demand for Teslas!

Really looking forward to seeing what happens in Austria. Regulatory developments like this could be major for TSLA, not to mention the global climate.

That would be for safety concerns not to encourage economic interest

 

[Rarity]

Ummm, no. Ever heard of Iridium and their satellite phone?

Iridium uses different frequencies than Starlink. Not relevant.

 

[Oil4AsphaultOnly]

It's not going to be cashflow negative for that long, only the first year or so until they get the first 800 satellites up.

This project actually has the potential to rake in absurd amounts of money. This is why SpaceX is so quiet about it.

Once it goes up they'll make bank on it alone from backhaul connections, especially from wealthy customers in the finance industry where a few less milliseconds of lag is important.

Um, no. satellite latency is pretty high (longer distance traveled (at least 120 miles more for uplink/downlink and then the additional arc length of path traveled). landline fiber is faster (even with all the routing and switching).

 

[Oil4AsphaultOnly]

Iridium uses different frequencies than Starlink. Not relevant.

I meant the tech needed to use small antennas versus pizza boxes, not the actual Iridium network itself.

 

[Rarity]

landline fiber is faster (even with all the routing and switching).

Landline fiber takes a 40% speed hit due to the nature of the fiber.

 

[scaesare]

Ummm, no. Ever heard of Iridium and their satellite phone?

Just because both are "satellite", doesn't doesn't mean they hive identical operational requirements.

There's a reason the GPS receiver in your phone is less than the size of your little fingernail and can move all over the place and the satellite TV antenna on your roof is the size of a garbage can lid and must remain stationary.

 

[KarenRei]

Didn't we discuss that this expansion was supposed to be done by EOY and then Panasonic was even planning to beat that target and complete sooner? What's awesome about this delay?

Absolute vs. relative awesomeness.

They'll be beating the rate of Model 3 expansion, and that's what really matters.

 

[Rarity]

I meant the tech needed to use small antennas versus pizza boxes, not the actual Iridium network itself.

Again, if I'm understanding your assertion, not relevant. Starlink uses highly directional signals with phased array antennas in the 10.7-14.5 GHz frequencies (doesn't penetrate anything). Iridium uses omnidirectional signals with single element antennas in the 1.6 GHz frequencies (penetrates more).

The "phased array" basically means a whole bunch of antennas put together -- i.e., a pizza box.

 

[SO16]

Starlink could become the worlds biggest internet provider. Worldwide 5G coverage for $30 a month x 1 billion people.

Even if it’s more expensive for slower speed, I’d sign up in a heartbeat. Buh bye ATT and Comcast.