TSLA Market Action: 2018 Investor Roundtable

[TintDepot.com]

Love this conference call. Love the Q3 results.

 

[jeffro01]

Makes me want to go buy FSD as I listen but no... I've watched wayyyy too many Tesla customers get bit by this one... LOL

Jeff

 

[tivoboy]

I'm totally fine with this rollout of Nav on AP. It's hard for the user to trust AP's auto lane changing decisions when the display (even if not actually representative of what drives the car's decisions) has vehicles warping all over and colliding with each other constantly, and often is slow to show cars that approach next to you in the blind spot areas ..

I think, actually, that they probably ran into some regulatory issue, not a functional issue.

 

[Johan]

YESSSSS. Elon quite confident about FSD.

So confident. No caveats. No "if we achieve it" or similar. Just: when the new hardware is in the cars it's going to work, and the retrofit will be plug and play. Now, even discounting for some Elon optimism, this is uber confident.

 

[Sparky4life]

OSHA study showed good reporting and monitoring.

"Much different than you would hear about in the press"

 

[tivoboy]

After all, plenty of high end things come from China. Cell phones, for example. You just have to be willing to pay the actual production costs (+ margin) and not try to haggle them down below that point.

cell phones are easy there, the majority is actually automated.

 

[ThereAre4Cars]

Sounds like they are going to implement the Gung Ho movie for safety.

 

[Ulmo]

The safety leader Laurie Shelby (VP, Environmental, Health, and Safety) has a continuous attitude for safety, which is what you need in that position. Very good!

 

[KarenRei]

Maybe I missed it, but did they give any absolute or comparative injury rates?

 

[tivoboy]

Humbly, I mean HOW BAD were the work conditions there at the Fremont Factory? Have we really now spent 10-15 minutes on factory work conditions and worker safety? could we move on sometime to the opex, sales, orders part of the con call?

 

[erha]

Maybe I missed it, but did they give any absolute or comparative injury rates?

One year ago they were already better than in the NUMMI days. They are still improving

 

[KarenRei]

One year ago they were already better than in the NUMMI days. They are still improving

Yes, but I'm looking for today's numbers, since I invariably hear from people listening to UAW propaganda and want to be able to give current data.

 

[Ulmo]

Another cell production line turned on in last several weeks, another one coming on near the end of the year, and another one coming on shortly after that.

Gigafactory produced about half of all world EV battery capacity by any company produced during Q3.

Energy storage type 2170 chemistry cells are more supply constrained than Model 3 2170 cells (which Elon said was supply constrained for Model 3 for only about a week).

 

[SOULPEDL]

No update on new factories yet?

 

[KarenRei]

Reiterating that Giga is producing about half of the world's total EV battery capacity

 

[Sparky4life]

Yes, but I'm looking for today's numbers, since I invariably hear from people listening to UAW propaganda and want to be able to give current data.

I heard 10% improvement (fewer injuries YOY)

 

[omarsultan]

Maybe I missed it, but did they give any absolute or comparative injury rates?

She said a 10% reduction but did not say what the measure was DART, TCIR or something else

 

[gaswalla]

Something about third party supplier got cells

 

[Johan]

Great question; how did they beat their own guidance when it comes to gross margin (achieved 20% instead of 15% which they originally aimed for). Always love to hear Deepak's calm voice. The guidance was conservative. They should keep being cautious in their guidance.

 

[Todd Burch]

Wow, analyst questions are actually good so far. Are we in the Twilight Zone?