There are a few videos around, check out the one on Teslarati right now if you're interested, that show Tesla FSD reacting to and avoiding pedestrians far faster and more effectively than a human could do. The Teslarati clip shows someone heaving their door open as a 3 bears down on it at city speed and there wasn't the least bit of drama. I have zero insight into an FSD release but it is clearly going to be a game changer that will cut accidents and fatalities to a small portion of current in the cases where it is used.
I just watched some video showing, by far, the most Tesla vehicles organized to load onto a boat for export from Shanghai.
Here are a couple of comments on the V4 Supercharger rumors floating around. Aptera is pushing to standardize the Tesla connector. Ignore this. Even if this were to happen, Aptera would undoubtedly be relegated to level 2 charge points as there is no way their uncooled pack is going to manage level 3 power levels. Elon has said he will let any manufacturer use the Supercharger network for the cost of the electricity but they have to be able to take the power. He does not want other manufacturers blocking charge ports for hours because they can't handle the power. So, don't worry about being blocked by an Aptera at your favourite Supercharger. If V4 Superchargers have the CCS plug, as rumoured, it will put everyone else out of business overnight. The long term implications of this are not entirely positive. I just read an article which cites V3 superchargers as being capable of 250KW. This BS spewed from Teslarati. If anyone should know better, it is them. https://www.teslarati.com/teslas-v4-supercharger-rumors-begin-to-swirl-new-designs-ccs-support/ V3 Superchargers are designed to handle 350KW but are software limited to 250KW. I don't know if the back end can handle 350KW at every charge point concurrently but the chargers can do it so all that will be required for increased output is likely just another power pack, worst case. This isn't going to be like the V1 -> V2 or V2 -> V3 upgrades. During those transitions, Tesla owners would avoid the older Superchargers like Twitter bots. The V4 will bring a couple of advantages but won't obsolete V3 charge points for a while. In fact, I expect the V4 rollout to be relatively slow by Tesla standards. At least, initially. What no one is talking about is that FSD doesn't become fully useful until automated charging is introduced. If we are in fact on the cusp of FSD, this is when automated charging is needed. Because of this, I will be the first person to predict V4 Superchargers will feature fully automated charge connection. Consider how desirable Tesla EVs are, right now. They cannot keep up with demand. Now, imagine how desirable a Tesla EV would be if it could drop you off at the front door of a restaurant and pick you up an hour later with a full battery. That would be a total game changer. On road trips, your car could charge itself while you take a whiz and bitch at your wife to hurry up so you can get back on the road. Ideal. If this vision of the future comes to a reality near us, ICE manufacturers are extremely unlikely to survive.
Surely I must not be alone in thinking that autos that look like this are plastic toy looking eyesores.
I always liked that truck's chain smoking cousin, the FJ. Many people are likely to share your view but it is attractive to me. In a more general sense, I suspect we are of the same mind. I'll bet if you were to ask the laggard CEOs why they aren't ramping up their EV programs more aggressively (I'm talking to you, Toyota), I'll bet the response would be, "We would but our styling departments haven't come up with designs that are sufficiently ugly."
I just cannot get behind the exposed plastic bumpers and the boxy, multiple texture body approach. Far too many models are adopting this and it makes me cringe. For cars, it's all about smooth lines and head to toe paint. Don't get me started about Mazda's soul red paint... DROOL! Love them or hate them, Tesla's stylings maybe a bit mundane but infinitely more appealing to me. Except for the Cybertruck - Godawful ugly.
With regard to the V4 Supercharger rumors... If V4 Superchargers do not have auto connect, I fail to see the point. Even if the new max charge rate is 500KW, there will be little reason to upgrade V3 Superchargers which can already do 350KW. Technology needs to improve and evolve so I'm sure there is plenty of reason to upgrade the V3 Supercharger network but a 500KW charge rate would be purely incremental, at this point. auto connect. It's a silver bullet that probably won't be understood by investors but FSD with auto connect charging changes everything. - Automated vehicle deliveries, anywhere in the country - Automated charge and testing at production facilities - The entire charging problem goes away because a car can drop it's owners off at a restaurant and pick them up with a full charge (and eventually also with a fresh wash) - Owners could literally forget their cars ever needed to be charged
Here are a couple of posts from April 2016. IMO, these provide some historical context for two different investing strategies: 1) predicting short term stock price change 2) considering the business and it's ability to grow. Both of these posts happened before I joined Stockaholics. I purchased Tesla in June of 2016 and mentioned it on another forum in August of that year. Tesla was a trigger point for some people and I received plenty of written abuse in the forum plus one PM asking where I live so this person can come to my house and kick the crap out of me. All of this drama in response to the mere mention I picked up some Tesla. If they had known how much, I might have been shot. This is what caused me to seek out Stockaholics in late 2016. I purchased Tesla after thoughts somewhat similar to T0rm3nted, although in no way do I wish to take credit for his forward thinking.
A friend who has a point of view on EVs I trust tells me he hears no rumor of auto-connect Superchargers at all. He thinks V4 will make the Superchargers look very similar to recently installed Megachargers with few additional changes other than a voltage and power bump. My speculation on auto-connect is based entirely on thinking auto-connect will be needed once FSD is here and Elon tells us FSD is just around the corner. If V4 has no auto-connect, this Supercharger upgrade will have no impact on the stock price.
Teslas average margin per car in Q1 was 32.9%. It will be interesting to see what happens to that figure in Q2.
There is a detailed design document floating around that shows the V4 Supercharger having absolutely no regard for auto-connect. I believe the document is most likely real.
I'm satisfied. Never understood the bitcoin purchase. Boss is trimming the fat and away we go. Time to burn one and celebrate.
