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Tesla posts big loss, cuts production of Models X and S to catch up on Model 3

finance.yahoo.com

241–250 of 318 posts

Re: Tesla posts big loss, cuts production of Models X and S to catch up on Model 3

#241

> But a problem with a subcontractor, compounded with other issues, forced Tesla to start over in certain areas, delaying production. > “We had to rewrite all of the software from scratch,” Musk said, adding that they’d redone “about 20 to 30 man years of software in four weeks” for the battery module. Maybe I'm just overcautious, but I would prefer not to be anywhere in the vicinity of a high-discharge actively cool…

Yeah doing 30 man years of software in 4 weeks is nothing to brag about. It's like assuming putting 9 women together can output a baby in a single month.

Re: Tesla posts big loss, cuts production of Models X and S to catch up on Model 3

#242

Since this came out as part of the Tesla earnings, here's my recap from their earnings release and call.... - Tesla will be late getting up to 5,000 units a week of Model 3. It will happen at the end of Q1 instead of the end of this year. The bottleneck is batteries. - Some lines are at only 500 cars a week. Namely the battery pack assembly, body shop welding and final vehicle assembly. - The $2.92 a share loss was m…

> most importantly, Elon has moved his desk to the giga factory as that is where the largest bottleneck is.

Ah, the Kim Jong Il approach. The presence of Dear Leader will surely inspire the peasants as they work towards the Juche Ideal.

Re: Tesla posts big loss, cuts production of Models X and S to catch up on Model 3

#243
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then how do you explain Apple making their own SoC?

Because they bought an entire company to do it with, because the value proposition of doing that was better than continuing to pay the Qualcomm tax, or conversely siding with Samsung to bring Exynos LTE to the US (and they already have too much of a complex relationship with Samsung; to the point that even on the iPhone 8 and X, if you bought an iPhone instead of a Galaxy S, Samsung still makes a profit).

As in: they earn more if an iPhone X is bought than if a S8 is bought? If not, do you know the relative size of the profit?

Re: Tesla posts big loss, cuts production of Models X and S to catch up on Model 3

#244
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla will also need to raise cash. Look at accounts payable.

Their bond prices are plummeting on this earnings release. The rope may be running out.

So, has any car company called Elon for a buyout?

Re: Tesla posts big loss, cuts production of Models X and S to catch up on Model 3

#245
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The second generation Leaf was just launched in Japan, and will come to the US next year, I believe. It seems to have much better range (two battery options with 40kWh and 60kWh which give est range of 150 and 200 miles, resp).

That sounds exactly like Renault Zoe's range and battery options.

Well they are called the Renault-Nissan Group nowadays aren't they ?

Re: Tesla posts big loss, cuts production of Models X and S to catch up on Model 3

#246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are not struggling. This Yahoo article is fear mongering. I just listened to the whole earnings call and everything sounded terrific: They pulled their best engineers to Gigafactory to mitigate a supplier misleading them about one of their battery production lines, and so they dropped production of S and X. Apparently as a result of the supplier f * up, they rewrote "20 man years of software in 4 weeks". Which i…

> they rewrote "20 man years of software in 4 weeks". Which is absolutely incredible ... if accurate, if bug-free (for varying reasonable values of same). Otherwise the mythical man-month seems to creep in. That's a project that's complicated enough to require 240 developers (12 months x 20 years, fitted into 1 month), yet somehow was reliably chunked up, retrofitted into their supplier screw up, tested and deployed…

Sounds a bit like doing the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs?

Seriously though, you can probably redo a typical 20 Man Year project in 2, given how much of the development process is usually taken up by missed requirements and re-work, IF you have a bombproof specification and a well-drilled team of stars.

The part I’m not quite getting though is how a battery software issue impacted on wider productivity? Couldn’t they get them in-place and then patch the software after the fact?

Re: Tesla posts big loss, cuts production of Models X and S to catch up on Model 3

#247
post #241

> But a problem with a subcontractor, compounded with other issues, forced Tesla to start over in certain areas, delaying production. > “We had to rewrite all of the software from scratch,” Musk said, adding that they’d redone “about 20 to 30 man years of software in four weeks” for the battery module. Maybe I'm just overcautious, but I would prefer not to be anywhere in the vicinity of a high-discharge actively cool…

Yeah doing 30 man years of software in 4 weeks is nothing to brag about. It's like assuming putting 9 women together can output a baby in a single month.

So your opinion is parallelizing software development is impossible? Interesting.

Re: Tesla posts big loss, cuts production of Models X and S to catch up on Model 3

#248

Tesla best car I ever owned. I will wait 6 months if that what it takes for perfection.

Why are you downgrading then? Isn’t that a bit like buying an iPhone X and waiting several years excitedly in line for 5S?

Re: Tesla posts big loss, cuts production of Models X and S to catch up on Model 3

#249
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"key elements" of the battery module assembly had to be taken over and redesigned, Musk says. Tesla seems to be taking the opposite approach to Apple here. In my observation, Apple drives its suppliers extremely hard to achieve the quality it requires. Tesla, on the other hand, is too eager to bring any sundry part in house (e.g. car seats). Apple's approach appears to work in that it pushes suppliers to do what's ne…

Then how do you explain Apple making their own SoC?

I don't think Apple designing (not making, designing) their own SoC is comparable to Tesla making their own seats.

Re: Tesla posts big loss, cuts production of Models X and S to catch up on Model 3

#250
post #247
post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah doing 30 man years of software in 4 weeks is nothing to brag about. It's like assuming putting 9 women together can output a baby in a single month.

So your opinion is parallelizing software development is impossible? Interesting.

This is not an unorthodox or unreasonable position. The Mythical Man-Month is a classic text in software engineering and project management and essentially argues this very point. The analogy to child birth is actually also a classic one made originally by the author.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooks%27s_law

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