Oh yeah, the frunk should have a refrigeration feature.
Indeed I was. That’s NVIDIA HQ on the other side.
Only the cool people work in the giant triangle. I’m not one of the cool people. But that’s ok; the old buildings are quieter and I get more done 
(though the cafeteria is better in the new HQ).
If you want a test ride in a Model 3 over lunch or whatever, shoot me a PM.
NHTSA crash testing report out - 5 stars overall, 5 stars every category:
Not particularly unheard of, both the honda civic sedan and the ford mustang achieved similar results, among a few other late-model cars.
interestingly, the rollover resistance (6.6% - lower is better, <10% is required for 5 stars), implies a pretty low center of gravity (obviously, because of the battery pack weight at the floor). Most sedans/coupes typically get around 10% - BMW 3 series (9.5%), Ford Mustang (9.3%), mercedes C-class (11%), Camaro (8.3%).
The Model X had some crazy rollover tests (it gets 9.3% on the rollover resistance rating–lots of SUVs are double that).
Good to see it hit the 5 stars in any case. I’m still curious about the IIHS results–they include a small overlap test which, with the Model S at least, Tesla was a bit weaker at. Not bad, but not at the absolute front of the pack like some Volvo models.
I’m assuming that since the IIHS driver’s side small overlap was only introduced in 2012, the Model S wasn’t designed around it from the ground up (presumably the model 3 was), but yeah, will certainly be interesting to see, especially the passenger’s side small overlap (new for 2017).
That seems pretty likely. And even if the passenger side test wasn’t in place when the Model 3 was still on the drawing board, it was probably fairly easy to predict. And maybe the high symmetry of the Model 3 makes it easier to achieve.
There are some crash test videos here. One interesting thing–in the first video, about halfway through, you can see the underside of the vehicle during the front collision test. There’s an orange piece of metal which the AWD motor sits inside if present. But it looks like that section acts as a crumple zone, and it would seem like the motor would interfere. Maybe there’s enough room that it’s not a problem.
SEC sues Musk for fraud over tweet about taking the company private
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/business/elon-musk-sec-lawsuit-tesla.html
Not a big shocker. Pretty obvious that the SEC was gearing up for something (they were asking for documents a few weeks ago).
I stand by my prediction that it won’t amount to much–a modest fine (say, under $10M) and some minor punishment well short of an ouster from CEO. A promise to not make unvetted announcements or something of that nature.
Apparently, there was a settlement on the table, but rejected at the last minute. I’d be shocked if Musk had agreed to any kind of settlement involving stepping down, so presumably it was less than that.
I’m pretty tempted to pick up some TSLA on the cheap… it’s down a bunch in after hours.
Probably true. This clearly was not some kind of Gordon Gekko-esque attempt at investor manipulation. However, the concerns about the long term capitalization of Tesla, necessary to sustain and expand manufacturing capability, remain. Regardless of the technical competency of the design of Tesla vehicles, the ability of the company to deliver on promises of profitability is bleak to say the least. Tesla stock is massively overvalued even ignoring the fact of the inability to meet production goals.
Stranger
While I agree about the overvaluation, we’ll find out in fairly short order about Tesla’s ability to make a profit.
In terms of production, it is very likely that they produced within their predicted range–50-55k Model 3s in Q3, and the usual 25kish Model S/X cars. I would say the main question is if they have kept their costs under control.
We know from three independent teardowns that the Model 3 has, potentially, very good gross margins–particularly on the current high-end versions. Of course this depends on Tesla actually being able to produce the cars efficiently. If they burned a bunch of expensive overtime hours, wasted money on useless capex, had too much material waste… well, then Q3 won’t look so hot. But the quarter is about to end and so we’ll find out soon. Tesla has not revealed any new guidance, though, which lends some confidence to them at least coming close to breakeven, if not turning a small profit.
Just so we can look back on this when the earnings come up, the current analyst view has an average loss of $420 million, with the low estimate as losing $2.2 billion and the high estimate of profits of $550 million.
I make zero prediction myself, but I’m curious to see how the numbers shake out.
I’m looking forward to the v9.0 software update, which is starting to show up on a few cars. It’s supposed to:
Start utilizing the side view cameras, so overtaking cars in the adjoining lane are now actually depicted on the display, and the lane markings in the display turn red when it’s not safe to make a lane change due to an overtaking vehicle (here’s a pretty cool example on a Model S with the new software: Tesla v9.0 software update makes divider lines turn red - YouTube )
Recognize large trucks and motorcycles in the display (right now it just depicts everything as cars)
Integrate phone calendar with the navigation system
Allow to designate certain seats as carseats, so its presumably going to stop giving me a “seat unbuckled” warning every 10 minutes while I drive around with an empty unbuckled carseat in the back.
Add more navigational information to the map display, and move the turn-by-turn directions closer to the driver (one of my initial complaints a few pages back)
Plus add some Atari games.
y’know, when he rejects the “slap on the wrist” they offered, it’s the height of naivete to think they won’t turn the screws harder in response.
So, according to CNBC, the “slap on the wrist” was a nominal fine and no admission of guilt. But also:
“However, the settlement would have barred Musk as chairman for two years and would require Tesla to appoint two new independent directors, reported CNBC’s David Faber, citing sources.”
That was not going to happen.
Yup; me too. Been keeping quiet on it since supposedly it’s coming soon and I was thinking I’d just give a report on it once it arrived.
Another nice feature is pushing navigation destinations from a phone/desktop to the car. I’ll use that one a lot.
How did that work out?
I didn’t do it. I’m really not into day-trading, anyway. And in fact it wouldn’t have happened–I was thinking about putting in a limit order for $250 and it didn’t dip that low.
That’s EPS, not $B. There are 170M shares outstanding, so the estimates are from $371M loss to $93M profit.
I’ll predict: $0. They’ll have pulled out all the stops to make it just over the line and no further–selling ZEV credits, asking favors from suppliers, a huge delivery push, prioritizing the most expensive models, etc. But there’s no point in pushing further than that. They want Q4 to be not just be profitable but nicely profitable, and anything that they pull in from Q4 makes that harder.
It’s a risk on Musk’s part, certainly. And the SEC clearly knows how to judge pain points, for Musk to be right on the verge of settling but to back away at the last minute. Stepping down from the board for two years would have been a little more painful than my guess, but not hugely so, and wouldn’t really affect much in the long run (the board pretty much goes along with Musk, anyway). Whether this is solely Musk’s ego at work or if his lawyers think they can legitimately get a better deal is anyone’s guess.
The problem here is the Musk was already given an extremely generous offer by the SEC, for some incredibly flagrant actions. They are, perhaps, not the most serious or malicious actions ever undertaken, but there’s really no getting around it: Musk did exactly what they said he did, and people have been punished worse for less. He should have been begging for a deal like what they offered.
Instead, Musk just tied a huge heavy stone to his foot and kicked it off into the middle of a very deep, very cold lake. They are going to come after him hard, and barring Jury Nullification I don’t see any way he can get out of a worse punishment. Even if he settles up later, it’s going to be a lot less pleasant. Given that he already has multiple people going after him for extremely large amounts of cash, this was exactly the single worst move he could have possibly made. People are almost literally lining up to sue him right now: shorts against Tesla, his own investors, people he’s slandered/libelled, and now the Federal government.
And Tesla needs a committed, attentive executive right now. They cannot exactly afford a lot of distractions.