highland was way more than a tweak. huge changes. y need the same. x looks funky from some angles, like the wheelbase is too small. i'm sure the falcon doors hurt sales more than help.

AI development is unpredictable. and that still has to turn into capabilities that average people think are worth having. "full self driving" for example probably makes most people uncomfortable, costs a lot, and probably results in very very few sales.

for tesla to grow it has to appeal to the masses, not the enthusiasts. and it is to a degree, but when a stock is priced for meteoric growth, it becomes harder and harder to meet the expectations.

 

Tesla's key differentiators right now is the Supercharging network and regular OTA updates. Frequency and reliability of OTAs is going to be very safe for a while, but with SCs opening up to everyone this year and becoming the standard plug by 2025 and it's going to get much more interesting in the space

With my R1S, the worst part about it is DCFC in the Northeast. Just insufficient numbers and overall pretty poor reliability. Everything else - ride quality, interior quality, UI, etc. is either on par or better than what I had in my 3 or experienced in my MIL's 2022 X. Lack of service centers is the 2nd worst part of the experience for Rivian

 

I listened to the first 30 minutes of the earnings call while driving and one thing I thought was interesting was Elon's comment about how they replaced around 300,000 lines of C++ code with the ability for it to now flow into the neural network. I believe this was centered around camera use and the concept of "vision."

I understand the concept and benefits this provides in the move to autonomous driving, but I don't understand the use case for vision beyond that. But it sounds to me like someone in Tesla has other thoughts.

 

I think I heard the CFO say they were working on more aggressive campaigns to educate around total cost of ownership, and it sounded to me like marketing is coming or happening. The reality is the price point of the 3 and Y is extremely attractive and very comparable to main stream cars like Camry, Accord, etc. For the average person commuting to/from work and driving around town for errands, there is no barrier to EV ownership. Someone (like me 10 years ago) driving 1k miles/week for work, not so viable, even with a great super charging network. But those folks are in the minority.

 

When they opened the first of 2 service centers in my area, they sent me an email encouraging us to come in and take a test drive. I have no idea how they got my email address, but it did get me to go in. That's when the Y was at its highest price (~$70k), so we weren't very interested in buying, just checking it and the 3 out. I would call that cost effective advertising.

My company used to spend millions on advertising, even several Super Bowl commercials back in our heyday. Now, it's all social media driven, but once in awhile we partner with our vendors and show up the old fashioned way. I think most people know what Tesla sells. Spending money on advertising probably wouldn't give them much of a return on investment.

 

Do you think Tesla is a niche auto maker? And about growth, what has happened in that regard?

 

In regards to advertising and education....not needed in California LoL, my drive this morning, it's just freaking crazy how many Tesla's are on the road here. Maybe other parts of North America that money would be better spent.

Hoping Tesla will keep prices on Model 3 and Y at current or even lower pricing. In the short term revenue takes a hit, but as batteries and manufacturing become cheaper, revenue will increase over time. On pricing, Tesla has hit a sweet spot, the number of new 3 and Y's I'm seeing here, as well as one their best quarters shows the price is right.

BTW, this morning saw a truck load of Highland Model 3's heading for the Fremont factory. I could tell they were Highland by the Tesla lettering on the trunk. One of them had a slightly different looking spoiler

 

That's probably just a bigger than usual panel gap

 

Eh, one person's panel gap is another's spoiler 🤣

 

Damn...TSLA took a pretty big hit. Ouch. Well, looks like I won't be buying that second Tesla this year 😢

 

Well I did tell you to sell, remember? 😑

 

I have slow reflexes. Give an old man a break, will you? 🤣

 

Sell covered calls if you think TSLA isn't going up in the near future.

 

I'm in for the long haul. Always have been

 

All signs point to yes for TSLA.

In other news Microsoft passed Apple in market cap today.