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Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

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251–260 of 307 posts

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#251
post #232
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In terms of cash flow I agree. But, if you had a company that just did self driving and had as many cars on the road as Tesla does people would value it. Likewise for a giant battery factory, or a company putting out those solar shingles even with just a handful of installs. Now suppose they sell those lines of business off to some other company to free up some capital. It's a path through the cash crunch that may ca…

How are they going to sell the battery factory when it's owned by Panasonic, not Tesla?

Panasonic is a partner Tesla still put up money for the factory.

EX: Several companies could sell Hulu to free up some cash. The Walt Disney Company (30%), 21st Century Fox (30%), Comcast (30%), AT&T (10%)

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#252
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kind of depressing that yours is the top comment, given how many outright lies it is based on. >From the outside it looks like Telsa is about going to go into a tough winter like moment. From the outside, it looks like they have a product that's a generation ahead of the competition and is flying off the shelves. > They need to start designing and building out manufacturing facilities for their next car and the help…

> Specs wise, Taycan and EQC are essentially matching a 2016-era Model S / Model X and will be available about 2 years from now. A 2016-era Model S is very, very similar to a 2012 era Model S, and a 2019-era Model S looks a lot like a 2016-era one with a less-safeguarded but comparably capable cruise control added on. The Model 3, as far as I know, is similar but hopefully has less technical debt. As far as I can tel…

Your post is spot on except, I think, for the point about any other major manufacturer being able to make the switch over to a screen based interface. I think that's far from clear. Building the whole user experience from navigation to climate control to the app on your phone to control everything remotely requires a very different skillset from the firmware type development that car manufacturers are used to. This might be one of those things like when smartphones appeared and makers of feature phones found that the whole game had changed from making great hardware to making great software. Elon Musk talks about a marketplace for apps to run on your car, which is a bit much, but integrations with smart homes and solar systems for power management or first class car-to-car communications could be key differentiators. Software is a totally different game.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#253

And their Chief People Officer, is not coming back from her leave. From the outside it looks like Telsa is about going to go into a tough winter like moment. They are almost losing by winning. They are at capacity in their Fremont factory but still not making a profit. They need to start designing and building out manufacturing facilities for their next car and the help bolster Model X manufacturing. Stop and think f…

> they have about a year of cash runway left( optimistically) Much less than that actually. At their current burn rate they won't even be making it to the end of this year without either selling enough M3 to generate some real cash, or by raising some new money from the market. Also, they have a lot of debt come due next year (and even more over the following years) while yields are up to over 8%. However, M3 product…

Hey, honestly though...the name ‘M3’ de facto belongs to BMW. You know that. Everyone else who’s commenting on a thread about luxury cars knows that. The fact that you’re using that name to describe some upstart car company’s new model, it’s...it’s weird. Like, just call it the model fucking 3.

God I can’t wait for the Tesla fanboydom to just be put in its place. Cool concept, not cool people attached to it. M3, lol.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#254
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ford makes 50-90k F-150's a month without the drama. There is no universe where Tesla will be manufacturing 25,000 (300k/12) $40-50k cars per month. BMW alone sells something like 9,000 3-series vehicles in that price range per month. It's not credible that Tesla, with a limited sales network, limited charging infrastructure, high costs and long backlog is going to magically take away double digit percentages of the…

We are practically living in that universe today — never mind once slack capacity opens up and they go down market with the standard range model at $35k. Did you miss the report last week that Tesla is outselling BMW’s entire passenger car lineup? [1] Also, double check your numbers - “The BMW 3 Series (the Model 3's direct competitor) sold only 3,751 cars in August.“ Tesla delivered between 17,000 - 20,000 Model 3’s…

Mmmhh, I don't understand what is meant with "selling" in the first article ("https://www.autoblog.com/amp/2018/09/06/tesla-model-3-outsel...). Is it related to "delivering" the vehicles that were ordered long time back or is it related to brand new orders for new cars?

Asking because if it's the first case then of course the comparison would not be fair.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#255
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are practically living in that universe today — never mind once slack capacity opens up and they go down market with the standard range model at $35k. Did you miss the report last week that Tesla is outselling BMW’s entire passenger car lineup? [1] Also, double check your numbers - “The BMW 3 Series (the Model 3's direct competitor) sold only 3,751 cars in August.“ Tesla delivered between 17,000 - 20,000 Model 3’s…

Does the tesla fan really want to get in to an argument about build quality right now? A fire at a factory shutting it down is not hte same type of drama as constantly missing estimates and using a tent to extend the line.

Fan or not, GP said there was no way Tesla could make and sell 25,000 cars a month and here they are last month selling 20,000. Would it be so shocking to see a month with 25k?

GP said Ford makes the F150s with “no drama” and yet their factory is burning and their cars are catching fire — something I recall Tesla getting flack for, but Tesla never had a $140 million recall for it.

I get it, different standards for different companies. The company making 20 mpg pickup trucks in business for 115 years I completely agree it’s a different kind of drama for their factory to burn, all F150 vehicle production to cease, and to recall 2 million vehicles for spontaneously combusting.

GP said, “It's not credible that Tesla, with a limited sales network, limited charging infrastructure, high costs and long backlog is going to magically take away double digit percentages of the highly competitive small luxury sedan market.”

Except that’s exactly what they’ve done. Fan or not, those are the facts, and I think to debate about Tesla it helps if you’re not in denial about their actual accomplishments.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> After that he had a range of little annoying problems, many of which were likely software bugs, but then he (actually his GF) experienced something in autopilot mode known on the Tesla forums as "shadow braking" -- the car braking hard on the highway because it seems to see the shadow of an overpass and think it's a wall. This is extremely dangerous. It was on the I-405 (SoCal) going 70-80mph, and such a thing coul…

As someone who may be behind a auto-brake slamming Tesla one day, where is my opt-out from this dangerous beta?

> where is my opt-out

Don’t tailgate.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe that’s his backup plan if it doesn’t work out... use a BoringCo drill to “accidentally” trigger an earthquake, collect insurance money, funnel it all into SpaceX and launch himself to Mars.

Maybe he's gonna use a BoringCompany drill to DRILL to Mars. Ever think of that?

There was an old story that I can't seem to find by Googling, but the gist of the plot that I recall was that Mars was stealing Earth's atmosphere through a kind of vortex, like a huge double ended tornado, and some guy in an old plane flew through it, getting to Mars without a spaceship.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#258
post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are practically living in that universe today — never mind once slack capacity opens up and they go down market with the standard range model at $35k. Did you miss the report last week that Tesla is outselling BMW’s entire passenger car lineup? [1] Also, double check your numbers - “The BMW 3 Series (the Model 3's direct competitor) sold only 3,751 cars in August.“ Tesla delivered between 17,000 - 20,000 Model 3’s…

Mmmhh, I don't understand what is meant with "selling" in the first article (" https://www.autoblog.com/amp/2018/09/06/tesla-model-3-outsel... ). Is it related to "delivering" the vehicles that were ordered long time back or is it related to brand new orders for new cars? Asking because if it's the first case then of course the comparison would not be fair.

These are cars that Tesla is collecting $50k+ at the time of delivery for each one.

Yeah there are about 400,000 people lined up to buy them, and they will keep on selling them just as fast as they can make them for many many more months.

We don’t know how many new reservation holders are being added at the end of the list, just that the total dollar value of all deposits on hand is increasing.

You’re right though it’s not a comparison. No car company in history has been able to get 400,000 people to put down $1,000 on a vehicle, sight unseen, never mind an electric one at that.

The BMW i3, by comparison, sold a grand total of 418 cars last month. No one is lining up around the block to buy that one.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#259
post #18

And their Chief People Officer, is not coming back from her leave. From the outside it looks like Telsa is about going to go into a tough winter like moment. They are almost losing by winning. They are at capacity in their Fremont factory but still not making a profit. They need to start designing and building out manufacturing facilities for their next car and the help bolster Model X manufacturing. Stop and think f…

I have a friend who bought a Tesla and is now asking for a buy-back. His experience has convinced me the negative hype isn't all just shorts propagandizing and "Musk fatigue." This company has huge, huge problems. When he first got the Tesla it had huge body panel alignment problems. Eventually these were fixed, but it took too long and was difficult to get Tesla to fully acknowledge them. After that he had a range o…

"The shadow braking thing really reveals how primitive "AI" actually is-- this is something a bumblebee would not do, and its brain consumes milliwatts of power."

I'm not impressed with self-driving AI so far, but I think you should be fair if you're comparing it to bugs. Insects are notoriously not good at avoiding collisions on the highways.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who may be behind a auto-brake slamming Tesla one day, where is my opt-out from this dangerous beta?

> where is my opt-out Don’t tailgate.

That's not a panacea. Realistically, you can easily be rear-ended because you slowed or stopped for a traffic jam caused by something like that Tesla. It is a fantasy that people are in control of every significant danger around them.
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