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Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

electrek.co

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Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#61

Post by MichaelZuo »

delusional wrote: post #48
ElProlactin wrote: post #12

> Tesla offloaded the hardest, least profitable part of the Solar Roof — the physical install and the customer relationship — onto small local companies, let them absorb the training and tooling costs, and then pulled the product out from under them. I wonder how many of the companies understood this is what Tesla was doing, and recognized the risk inherent in their position.

Coming from a family of local contractors, some of whom install HVAC and such. Most of them probably understood this. It's part of the business. Pretty much every product, you are going to install, has some sort of training required, to install it properly, such that the manufacturer warranty isn't voided.

Yeah it would be more surprising if they didn’t have a mandatory expensive program considering how much more complex it is than normal roofing stuff.

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#62

Post by walrus01 »

moomoo11 wrote: post #60
delusional wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That'll be in space by mid next month*

"Money won't matter in 10 years" "Time won't matter either"

I think if you take enough Ketamine, it probably does seem like time ceases to matter.

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#63

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

felixgallo wrote: post #28
toomuchtodo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, same with Amazon delivery subcontractors. This is sophisticated capitalists and industrialists preying on the unsophisticated.

Do you suspect Amazon is going to stop delivering packages?

Altogether, no. But I do think a combination of Amazon Locker, autonomous vehicles and perhaps drones are likely to radically change how last-mile delivery looks, and I don't think it's a coincidence that so much of that network currently offloads the capital onto third-party contractors.

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#64

Post by ralph_cifaretto »

otherme123 wrote: post #50
ralph_cifaretto wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills. At the bottom. With links to comments as early as 2007 saying exactly the same.

A site can't turn into Reddit when it is Reddit.

The same people post here but think it makes them smarter and wittier.

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#65

Post by IgorPartola »

Reubend wrote: post #2

Is there any competitor in the USA? The idea of roof tiles which are themselves solar panels seems sensible to me, and it's more aesthetically pleasing than putting panels on top of normal tiles.

There are apparently several traditional roof shingle makers who have previewed solar tiles. A friend of mine who is a roofer told me he would not trust Tesla and is waiting for a reliable supplier. Apparently he is a smart man.

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#66

Post by chid »

iugtmkbdfil834 wrote: post #51
ElProlactin wrote: post #12

> Tesla offloaded the hardest, least profitable part of the Solar Roof — the physical install and the customer relationship — onto small local companies, let them absorb the training and tooling costs, and then pulled the product out from under them. I wonder how many of the companies understood this is what Tesla was doing, and recognized the risk inherent in their position.

It is going sound awful ( and I resist it myself, because of what it implies about us in general ), but best predictor of human behavior is what they have done in the past. There is a reason I don't own anything Tesla and last time I looked at solar roof, I explicitly noted that this brand is not an option. Nothing this expensive is allowed to become abandonware this easily. I have to assume he will be sued hard, bec…

If you look at the history it was doomed to fail. I wouldn’t blame it on Tesla.

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#67

Post by slater »

ralph_cifaretto wrote: post #64
otherme123 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills. At the bottom. With links to comments as early as 2007 saying exactly the same.

A site can't turn into Reddit when it is Reddit. The same people post here but think it makes them smarter and wittier.

In the spirit of your Reddit accusations: I guess we've found the solar roof installer...?

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#68

Post by iugtmkbdfil834 »

Gee101 wrote: post #13
elzbardico wrote: post #3

It was incredibly badly engineered product, sold in a stupid way.

Why was it badly engineered?

Was going to so ask the same. As much as I dislike Tesla and its products, I can't take away its value proposition ( good integration and simplicity for end user ).

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#69

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #34
a4isms wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't speak for anyone else, but I suspect that Amazon are nearly continuously planning for automated deliveries. Drones? Trucks with lockers that stop in front of your house and you retrieve your delivery? I dunno, but there's no way Bezos doesn't look at his drivers and delivery partners and think, "Your livelihood will soon be my margin."

Do you think robotics on the street are going to last long at scale? How’s it going for Flock ALPR cameras? Is Bezos going to be out in the streets defending automated vehicles, drones, and last mile robots on foot? Unlikely.

I'm not sure I understand the comparison. There's over 100k Flock ALPR cameras in the country, despite how many people passionately despise them and are willing to risk criminal charges to destroy them. Amazon is a much more popular business and delivery robots pose fewer privacy concerns, so I would expect street robots to face even fewer deployment problems if the tech becomes cost-competitive.

Flying drones I can see more potential problems with.

Re: Tesla killing Solar Roof is leaving installers with six-figure losses

#70

Post by cindyllm »

iugtmkbdfil834 wrote: post #51
ElProlactin wrote: post #12

> Tesla offloaded the hardest, least profitable part of the Solar Roof — the physical install and the customer relationship — onto small local companies, let them absorb the training and tooling costs, and then pulled the product out from under them. I wonder how many of the companies understood this is what Tesla was doing, and recognized the risk inherent in their position.

It is going sound awful ( and I resist it myself, because of what it implies about us in general ), but best predictor of human behavior is what they have done in the past. There is a reason I don't own anything Tesla and last time I looked at solar roof, I explicitly noted that this brand is not an option. Nothing this expensive is allowed to become abandonware this easily. I have to assume he will be sued hard, bec…

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