Tesla Model 3 Sets New EV Cannonball Run Record • Hacker News Board

Re: Tesla Model 3 Sets New EV Cannonball Run Record

#201

Post by nickik » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 9:17 PM UTC

juanmirocks wrote: post #190

kinard wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without a doubt, It seems like everyone is playing catchup, I'm still shocked how far behind the German car manufacturers are. I recently switched from a BMW M5 to a model S. It's been a great switch for me. Slightly lacking in build quality but made up for in that 0-60 excitement!

Spot on. I live in Germany and fear for its car industry. Still, I hear good things coming from Audi or even still BMW. Mal sehen.

They had every oppertunity to get on this. They have government friendly for green cars, they have the scale to build charging infrastructure, they have the programming knowlage and so on.

They could also have jumped in with the Supercharger network and profited from the global network that Tesla is building.

Well, lets see how they recover, by now Tesla is way ahead.

Re: Tesla Model 3 Sets New EV Cannonball Run Record

#202

Post by wils1245 » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 9:20 PM UTC

Robotbeat wrote: post #172

wils1245 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The doubt on Tesla is not whether the cars are great, it’s whether they can scale production. You need both to be a Model T.

People had the same questions about the Model X, the Model S before that, and even the Roadster before that . In every case, Tesla eventually was able to get production up and deliver. Tesla has no problem producing enough S and Xes. The question is not "whether" but "when."

The question is, “can Tesla build a production pipeline before its ability to raise money ends?”

In other words “whether” and “when” aren’t different questions in this case.

Re: Tesla Model 3 Sets New EV Cannonball Run Record

#203

Post by onychomys » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 9:21 PM UTC

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #196

default-kramer wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The biggest risk to "others" is that when traveling much faster light traffic you have little margin for error if someone in that traffic does something dumb. The speed limit exists partially because "dumb things" are inevitable. A driver who ignores this inevitability is at least as guilty as the driver who did the "dumb thing."

In a theoretical world that doesn't include ticket revenue and "think of the children" speed limit is a function of road design and some reasonable average vehicle/driver/conditions. They are an output rather than an input. You don't just assign a speed limit. It's based on the road and condition. In the real world US speed limits outside of urban areas are laughably low for reasonably attentive drivers in clear weat…

I think it's important to remember that the national speed limit of 55 was put in as a fuel saving measure in the 1970s. Drag increases in a non-linear fashion with velocity, so you don't just use twice as much gas to go 110 than to go 55. In a world where we worry about carbon output (either from your ICE or the natural gas plant that makes your supercharger electricity), that's a very real reason why one should not drive at triple digit speeds on a highway.

Re: Tesla Model 3 Sets New EV Cannonball Run Record

#204

Post by greglindahl » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 9:22 PM UTC

madengr wrote: post #168

matahwoosh wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

hardly a model T with ~50-60k cars produced a year. And it hasn't been scaling production fast enough.

But that's still 49.9k more cars than the Model 3.

Actually, because Nissan screwed up introducing the new model year of Leaf, in November there were twice as many Model 3s delivered in the US than Leafs.

It's unusual for Nissan to screw up like that, but there you go.

Re: Tesla Model 3 Sets New EV Cannonball Run Record

#205

Post by DesiLurker » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 9:23 PM UTC

kumarvvr wrote: post #14

There is so much negativity about Tesla. Watching Tesla reminds of the the quote "We hoped for flying cars, but what we got was 140 characters" (or something similar, I don't remember it verbatim) Every time I think about Tesla, I am reminded of the thousands of brilliant engineers toiling away in Silicon Valley trying to optimize online advertising. Maybe we could be a bit more closer to Fusion energy, maybe we coul…

everytime someone says that to me I say.. He's the dude that landed a freakin rocket back to earth and then again! most other things he's done can be termed as ruthless execution but to attempt stuff he's doing with SpaceX requires real vision and strong faith in that vision. This is real engineering.

I do feel that his critics often lose perspective. for instance he gets a lot of heat for not ramping up M3 production as fast as promised but in the grand scheme of things I fail to see what impact that has whether EVs ramp up to a million cars a year a few quarters earlier or later. only thing that matters is tesla/spacex/etc lives to fight another day.

That said I would never invest my money in tesla stock. Its simply because I dont think its His ultimate goal to make money & that will always reflect in the decisions he make.

Re: Tesla Model 3 Sets New EV Cannonball Run Record

#206

Post by nickik » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 9:24 PM UTC

falcolas wrote: post #110

TeMPOraL wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He doesn't technically need it to run companies day to day, but he needs it to realize his visions. Two main reasons: - More popular support means his visions resonate, and more people will start pursuing them too. - More popular support means the market will be more receptive towards those visions. Note that Musk doesn't care if it's SpaceX or Tesla that are the market leaders long-term. He cares that we go to Mars…

Fair enough on your popular support points. WRT Tesla: The company has started a revolution, but to all intents and purposes it feels like its falling behind. The Model 3 was supposed to be in full production already, but it's not. It's also not profitable, which is a major problem for Tesla (and Musk by extension) in the long run. Not to mention, all of the pre-orders for Model 3's that aren't fulfilled in a timely…

People are making way to much of a drama about Model 3. You can go 2 years back and find information that they hope to get mass production going by end of 2017.

Sure the might have fallen short 30-40% but given the scale of their plan, this seems like a extremly miner problem.

The buissness reality is that there are 100000s of people who want these cars and they have essentially a proven market for years to come. The waste majority of these people are not gone start hating elon because their car is a bit late.

> As far as following a vision: history is full of failed visionaries, and vision alone is not enough to propel mankind forward. Execution is.

Like building a reusable rocket or massivly improving the price and production capacity of batteries?

People need to stop listening to Elon own prediction of things and consider where things would be without him. He has already revolutionised the space and the car industry, that is just a fact.

Re: Tesla Model 3 Sets New EV Cannonball Run Record

#207

Post by greglindahl » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 9:29 PM UTC

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #159

wernerb wrote: post #139

While I appreciate the record, the GPS fast forward video shows frequent texting while driving. Is this legal in the US? Here in the Netherlands we have statistics showing car accidents up after a downward trends with texting while driving as the leading cause. It makes me wish people were back to using cellphones without carkits, at least people had more chance of eyes on the road.

I've not watched the video but it's possible Tesla autopilot was engaged at those moments. I'm not sure if that changes the legalities though.

It doesn't change the legalities. As a Level 2 system, the driver has to behave like a driver, constantly alert.

Re: Tesla Model 3 Sets New EV Cannonball Run Record

#208

Post by Robotbeat » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 9:30 PM UTC

wils1245 wrote: post #202

Robotbeat wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People had the same questions about the Model X, the Model S before that, and even the Roadster before that . In every case, Tesla eventually was able to get production up and deliver. Tesla has no problem producing enough S and Xes. The question is not "whether" but "when."

The question is, “can Tesla build a production pipeline before its ability to raise money ends?” In other words “whether” and “when” aren’t different questions in this case.

I think people are underestimating the runway Tesla has, here. Tesla didn't even die in 2008. Now, they have a huge customer base, two other high-end car lines that are themselves doing well, and an enormous amount of goodwill plus a big moat (for charging in particular, at least in the US). Not only that, but SpaceX is doing fantastically well unlike in 2008.

I think the hardcore bears are just plain wrong, here. I don't know whether or not Tesla is over-valued (above my pay grade, and I'm not invested anyway), but it's hard to make the case that Tesla is worse off now than in 2008.

Re: Tesla Model 3 Sets New EV Cannonball Run Record

#209

Post by nickik » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 9:32 PM UTC

andrepd wrote: post #30

kumarvvr wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are people that say he's all talk I really wish there is stronger support for him against these sorts of people. How can he be all talk when we see his rockets going up and coming back down.

Well first of all they're not his rockets. The engineers and scientists did it, he supplies the money, arguably a meritless in ck prison. Second, there are many promises he still hasn't delivered on: SpaceX targets not met, Tesla still running at a massive loss, Hyperloop being doomed to failure, etc etc. I can definitely see why people say he is mostly talk, even though admittedly he has achieved some successes.

That is just false. Elon is one of the lead engineers of the Falcon 9 rocket, he knows as much about it as anybody. He also came up with the idea, he gathred the people, he gathered the investors and did about 100 other things needed for the success of SpaceX.

Elon is still in control of SpaceX, so the Falcon 9 and FH rockets are his by any reasonable definition.

> Second, there are many promises he still hasn't delivered on:

What matters is overall progress and not progress relative to elons timelines. Also, most of those were not promises but rather announcments.

> SpaceX targets not met

Yeah, he only took like 15 years to launch more rockets then China or Russia. Build the largests commercial launch buissness.

But of course what we should focus on is that he is such a failure because he said 5 years ago that the FH would fly a bit sooner.

You really need learn to evaluate things on its own terms.

> Tesla still running at a massive loss

Poor Elon, 500000 reservations that any other company would kill for. Revenue stream for 1-2 years even without new reservations. What a failure.

> Hyperloop being doomed to failure,

Whitepaper without company behind it not successful. More big news at 8pm.

> I can definitely see why people say he is mostly talk, even though admittedly he has achieved some successes.

Yeah, the guy who revolutionised space launch, landed fucking rockets and created reusable rockets is 'mostly talk, with some success'. Honstly people can't see the trees because of the forest. This is so fucking bizar.

Re: Tesla Model 3 Sets New EV Cannonball Run Record

#210

Post by nickik » Wed, Jan 03, 2018, 9:35 PM UTC

Robotbeat wrote: post #145

thisisit wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inside that negativity there is some truth too. Tesla for one is leveraged 7:1 and that too in a time of easy and near zero interest rate credit. With Feds changing rates they might be painted into a tight box. I am sure situation is same for SpaceX too. And then the whole SolarCity acquisition which didn't go down well. That said, yes you have to hand it to Musk. Even if these companies go belly up, they have brough…

Elon Musk always plays pretty close to the line. If Tesla wasn't so leveraged, doubtless Musk would immediately start trying to expand to more and more Gigafactories until it was. The situation for SpaceX is different. SpaceX got 18 successful launches last year, several of them with reused rockets and most of them recovered afterward (no unsuccessful landing attempts, though a few were intentionally expended for per…

SpaceX is so far ahead that they are hardly playing the same game anymore.