Tesla

[Morris Minor]

Big party in Austin this week for the new factory opening. (+400k-500k vehicles a year once it's rolling?)

Meanwhile, there's "zero-COVID" fun in China:
Tesla unable to restart Shanghai production on Monday

[Laconian]

Watch out, Elon's going to start talking shit about the CCP! https://www.ktvu.com/news/frustrated-with-covid-19-shutdown-elon-musk-threatens-to-move-tesla-hq-and-fremont-factory-out-of-california

Jk, he's going to kiss Xi's boots.

[MrH]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1512150878601551873

[NomisR]

lol

[Eye of the Tiger]

Wtflol

[AutobahnSHO]

Posted in "April Fool's Day," and the last sentence in the article...

Doh.

[Morris Minor]

Choreographed drone swarm. Did not know this could be done.
Worth scrubbing through it -
https://youtu.be/1eXi6tU7PCw

[Morris Minor]

The Texas Model Y will have the new & larger 4680 cells.
The current Long Range has about 4,400 2170 cells in a pack for 81 kWh.
The Austin ones have 828 4680-type cells in a pack, for the same 81kWh.

[Galaxy]

So does that drop the weight?

[Morris Minor]

So does that drop the weight?

Not really - it works out to about a 7 kg saving in the 81 kWh pack. I'm sure they'll be putting more in a pack when they can.

[NomisR]

I think there'll probably be minor 10-15% efficiency savings from the 4680 battery along with higher power output due to the way 4680 is configured.  It's crazy how the Model 3 actually cost more today than what I paid for out the door.

[SJ_GTI]

Another record quarter for Tesla. Sales up ~50% (YoY) and Profit up ~80% (YoY).

[Morris Minor]

Another record quarter for Tesla. Sales up ~50% (YoY) and Profit up ~80% (YoY).

They're doing well... stock's up about 10% this morning. Operating margin over 19%.
No metrics, but that orders chart after its competitors' Super Bowl ads went out was nuts.  If you've got little or nothing to sell, it's a bad idea to pay money to steer people to your rival that does have something to sell.

[r0tor]

Clearly they are headed for bankruptcy

[Morris Minor]

[Laconian]

Gotta love my employer, flush with cash and not even coming close to beating inflation with their raises.

[MrH]

How many times do we need to go over captive financing?

https://seekingalpha.com/article/4417862-captive-financing-arms-avoiding-pitfalls-in-comparing-teslas-balance-sheet-to-those-of-auto-oems

[Laconian]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDEWi2nC-Wg

Skip to 7:56

[NomisR]

not sure how anyone can trust FSD

[r0tor]

We have all seen real people do worse though

[giant_mtb]

We have all seen real people do worse though

Not really the point.  The point is that these FSD systems are still very much potentially dangerous/deadly to others on the road.

[r0tor]

Not really the point.  The point is that these FSD systems are still very much potentially dangerous/deadly to others on the road.

So are people drivers.

Look, I get it.  I personally trust myself more than I would trust FSD.  But the thought process that FSD needs to be some absolutely perfectly infallible system is just ignorant of the fact how terrible human driver are that it replaces. 

Hell, twice now I have seen human drivers on an interstate where people are doing 75mph slam on the brakes in the right lane, throw it into reverse, and start backing up in fucking traffic because they missed an exit.  If YouTube existed 110 years ago,.similar acts of pure stupidity would have been posted on a daily basis showing why people should not be able to drive and should stay on horses.

Odds are responsible drivers can attentively use the system as is on a daily basis without much any issue.  Irresponsible drivers will not just as they currently don't pay attention to their manually driven car.  I'm not sure what the disadvantage is at this point.

[giant_mtb]

I see no reason why we can't expect FSD's to be perfect.  They are literally designing them to be perfect (though they are still far from it).  We expect other forms of computer-driven tech to be perfect...airplanes, trains, etc.  Why should cars - which the vast majority of people in the country use every single day in one form or another - have lowered expectations simply because the humans that operate them also do stupid things? 

Widespread FSD adoption will simply create more lazy/inattentive drivers, so we better be damn sure those systems are as perfect as they can be.

[r0tor]

Airplanes and trains still crash - on and off of "autopilot".  They are far from perfect   Both require a trained operator behind the wheel.  The only difference is the count of qualifications needed to be a responsible pilot vs the average dumbass driver that can't start their car without looking at their phone.

[NomisR]

We have all seen real people do worse though

When the system still randomly brakes because it sees a shadow on the ground, there's no reason why anyone would trust it to drive you.

[Morris Minor]

From what I read, the latest FSD beta is 99.95% perfect. But we' need to get to 99.9999%.
The death and injury rates we'll accept from autonomous systems is far lower that what we tolerate now from human drivers.

[r0tor]

From what I read, the latest FSD beta is 99.95% perfect. But we' need to get to 99.9999%.
The death and injury rates we'll accept from autonomous systems is far lower that what we tolerate now from human drivers.

Why?  What good is it to hold it to an incredibly higher standard then human drivers?  The more real world data that is fed into these programs - the better they become.

[Morris Minor]

Why?  What good is it to hold it to an incredibly higher standard then human drivers?  The more real world data that is fed into these programs - the better they become.

Because the FUDsters and trash media are calling the shots. One person in a million dying because of a fault in an AV is important. 1,000 deaths caused by human drivers will not make it into to trash news.

Also AVs still require a human watching brief to intervene & correct if needed. This requires zero engagement 99.99% of the time, is deadly boring, & inattention reigns. Humans playing on phones or napping get killed in the 0.01% edge case AV fuckup.

No other car company's AI systems can get you from San Jose to Marin County with zero interventions. But Tesla is still fucked by the 0.01% edge cases that will be used to crucify it. They need to get to 100%.

[Rich]

1,000 deaths caused by human drivers will not make it into to trash news.

eh https://apnews.com/article/health-government-and-politics-a71830fb885d3c09a7f8bb956423706d

[giant_mtb]

eh https://apnews.com/article/health-government-and-politics-a71830fb885d3c09a7f8bb956423706d

No shit there're more traffic deaths now than in 2020. Remember that whole Covid thing where everywhere was shut down and you only drove or travelled if you needed to?