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Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

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Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#101

Post by the_economist »

Someone1234 wrote: post #15

Tesla could have done a better job communicating that the internal look or feel wasn't finalised. Clearly that didn't impact pre-orders but I think a lot of people didn't love the internal look even if they thought it was nice looking externally (disclaimer: I was one of these people). In my OPINION the 3 won't be fully self driving (for certification/legal reasons). But we can reasonably speculate that it will have…

They probably didn't want to make it too clear that they were just showing off a completely unfinished prototype.

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#102

Post by fweespee_ch »

djloche wrote: post #95

I wonder, when Tesla unveils something that doesn't fit within the parameters that those people think of as a 'car', how many will drop their reservation? Since we don't know the details yet, we don't know how much of a departure it will be.

> I wonder, when Tesla unveils something that doesn't fit within the parameters that those people think of as a 'car', how many will drop their reservation?

Tbh, I don't think Tesla cares. They have a ~$276 million dollar interest free loan with which to build the first wave of Model 3s. They just need to make enough on those sales to finance the next round until they get through everyone who wants one.

The goal is primarily to pay for the initial production run so they don't have to get outside financing.

http://bgr.com/2016/04/03/model-3-reservations-elon-musk-276...

> Earlier on Saturday, Musk indicated that Model 3 reservations checked in at about 232,000. That being the case, if the pace of reservations keeps up, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise to see Tesla report 300,000 reservations sometime later this week. And while the $1,000 deposits for the Model 3 are completely refundable, Tesla has effectively secured a $276 million interest free loan from eager buyers.

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#103

Post by forgetsusername »

partiallypro wrote: post #98
djloche wrote: post #95

I wonder, when Tesla unveils something that doesn't fit within the parameters that those people think of as a 'car', how many will drop their reservation? Since we don't know the details yet, we don't know how much of a departure it will be.

Yeah, most of the "reservations" are not going to be real customers. It's just something to tout to shareholders to justify their massive multiple. Tesla is in a race against the clock, they are practically corporate welfare queens with their subsidies and they continue to take on more debt.

>Tesla is in a race against the clock

You can check my comment history: I'm as annoyed by the Tesla hype-machine as anybody. The games they play when reporting (or not reporting) financial metrics is astounding, and I don't understand why the SV crowd finds it acceptable for a public company.

However, I want to see Tesla and the whole EV industry thrive. People just need to curb their expectations.

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#104

Post by the_economist »

joantune wrote: post #44
NickM wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems impossible that they could have it be fully autonomous to the point of not needing a steering wheel though. You can tell an autonomous car "take me to the mall", or "pull out of the garage", but there are so many edge cases that seem like they would still require manual control. How do you tell it which spot to pick in a parking garage? Or how do you tell it to, say, drive on to a lift while inside a buildin…

What do you mean? Automatic parking comes before self driving. Google's cars already do all of that https://www.google.com/selfdrivingcar/reports/ They don't use GPS for driving, perhaps general orientation, they use cameras and LASER based RADARs (called LIDARs)

My Model X drives itself on the freeway extremely well well. I don't have to do a thing from San Francisco to Sacramento, for example.

But the self parking barely works, and can't handle anything complicated.

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#105

Post by whatever_dude »

partiallypro wrote: post #98
djloche wrote: post #95

I wonder, when Tesla unveils something that doesn't fit within the parameters that those people think of as a 'car', how many will drop their reservation? Since we don't know the details yet, we don't know how much of a departure it will be.

Yeah, most of the "reservations" are not going to be real customers. It's just something to tout to shareholders to justify their massive multiple. Tesla is in a race against the clock, they are practically corporate welfare queens with their subsidies and they continue to take on more debt.

I'm confused by the assertion.

Do you mean that a lot of people that reserved are not serious? They had to pay $1,000 for the reservation, so that looks unlikely to me.

Or do you mean the company has inflated the number of actual reservations?

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#106

Post by 05 »

philfrasty wrote: post #36
yoodenvranx wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At this point, can it be anything other than full autonomous? There is no way that autonomous driving is going to work in most small European town and villages. There are so many downtowns which were never meant to be used by car and it is already difficult to navigate those places as a human. I just don't see how this should work over here in Europe. Selfdriving on the highway or in a typical suburban sprawl in th…

One scenario that I keep thinking about all the time: traffic in most south-east asian countries like Vietnam (Hanoi for example). The streets are occupied by a mix of cars, pedestrians (+ animals) and motorcycles. Everything moves ultra close. Must be a nightmare for every car proximity-sensor.

Actually, no. Speeds are low enough that almost-zero reaction time is a huge advantage, and the rules are basic swarm-like behavior (plus bigger cars have priority).

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#107

Post by [deleted] »

electrograv wrote: post #97
djloche wrote: post #95

I wonder, when Tesla unveils something that doesn't fit within the parameters that those people think of as a 'car', how many will drop their reservation? Since we don't know the details yet, we don't know how much of a departure it will be.

I doubt that the demographic that pre-orders a Tesla Model 3 (years before shipping), is a demographic that is unwilling to embrace change. I also doubt that it will have no manual control mode, so it shouldn't an issue regardless. Tesla is clearly going the route of being a strict super-set of the capabilities of other cars, until the market decides what features are obsolete many years down the road (e.g. steering…

[deleted]

Re: Tesla Intrigue Deepens with Musk's Twitter Barrage

#110

Post by bryanlarsen »

forgetsusername wrote: post #99
elorant wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s a known fact that electric cars have superb acceleration mainly because they deliver all power from the beginning, in contrast to internal combustion engines that need to reach certain rpms to achieve the same thing. Even if it’s 6 seconds instead of 4 it still is an impressive number for a car at that price range.

> Even if it’s 6 seconds instead of 4 it still is an impressive number for a car at that price range. Not really. There are multiple Ford and Suburau models (off the top of my head) that will run sub-6.0, some models $10k cheaper than the Model 3.

How many of those can do it without revving the engine and popping the clutch? An electric car's low end torque is usable for everyday driving.

Of course, where most people judge a car's power while driving it normally is the 60-80 mph time. That's the only time most people floor the accelerator, when they're pulling out to pass someone. Gasoline vehicles have a marked advantage in this metric.

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