Where are the Model 3 owner videos?

[gregincal]

I think not only are the first 30 owners under NDAs, but I think many thousands of the first employee owners will be under NDAs. Tesla's stated purpose of delivering the first cars to employees was to have a short feedback cycle and they could address problems quickly. But what Tesla didn't say is that they can also control the PR around those problems. Tesla wouldn't be able to make a private citizen sign an NDA when they took delivery of the car, so it had to be employees first. This way, the general public will probably never find out about what issue arose from the first couple thousand cars and what Tesla needed to do to fix it.

The only problem with an NDA is that it would have to prohibit anybody but the employee from using the car, which seems like a huge restriction. Otherwise there's nothing that would prevent a friend from posting information after borrowing the car.

 

[CalBlue 85D]

Semantics I guess. I consider that if a car can be registered with the local DMV, it's released. For example, Ferrari, Ford, etc all have cars where they pick who gets the cars. The general public can't just walk in and buy it. I still consider those "released".

But the difference is that those small volume cars are released in small numbers to a select group of customers because that's how they are intended to be consumed. The M3 is intended to be a 500,000 units per year car and we don't know how close the cars that were "delivered" last week are to actual production cars.

I'm also really surprised the new owners are really silent. I would have expected to see a lot of social media stuff on getting a car that is as significant as a M3. I also haven't seen one in person yet, I'm living in Tesla-land and I know some of the cars are getting delivered to buyers who live near me, but no sight of any of them yet. Hmmm....

 

[gambit48]

But the difference is that those small volume cars are released in small numbers to a select group of customers because that's how they are intended to be consumed. The M3 is intended to be a 500,000 units per year car and we don't know how close the cars that were "delivered" last week are to actual production cars.

I'm also really surprised the new owners are really silent. I would have expected to see a lot of social media stuff on getting a car that is as significant as a M3. I also haven't seen one in person yet, I'm living in Tesla-land and I know some of the cars are getting delivered to buyers who live near me, but no sight of any of them yet. Hmmm....

The 500,000/yr number is a goal. Kinda like if Honda were to say they want to sell 1,000,000/yr in Accords.

The 30 released are production. Same as what everyone else is going to get. It's just going to take Tesla a while to ramp up production, but they aren't changing what's in the car, just how fast they can make them.

I'm not too surprised that there are no vids yet. Tesla is one of those companies that takes a page from Apple in the obsession with secrecy. The 30 "employees" aren't your regular low level employees. These would be board members, senior VPs, etc. Basically, as close to Musk as you can get. Accordingly, they're happy to tow the secrecy line. Hell, they probably help implement/enforce it to all the underlings.

 

[CalBlue 85D]

The 500,000/yr number is a goal.

Everything Elon says is kind of like a goal. ; )

 

[gambit48]

Hahaha, no truer words...

 

[dsvick]

I doubt there is an NDA. It is rather more likely that none of the first 30 are into youtube. There are other pics out there, one has a guy in the trunk, so if there was an NDA they wouldn't be posting anything.

 

[sorka]

Semantics I guess. I consider that if a car can be registered with the local DMV, it's released. For example, Ferrari, Ford, etc all have cars where they pick who gets the cars. The general public can't just walk in and buy it. I still consider those "released".

The general public can't just walk in and buy them, but they are sold to the general public, not to internal employee alpha testers.

An example of < 1000 limited production vehicles is not even in the realm of comparison for this discussion.

 

[sorka]

I doubt there is an NDA. It is rather more likely that none of the first 30 are into youtube. There are other pics out there, one has a guy in the trunk, so if there was an NDA they wouldn't be posting anything.

I'd be wiling to be good money that there is a very strongly worded NDA.