Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

Guy in a CT wants to apparently perform "reverse doughnuts" in front of a crowd. And succeeds in backing into a crowd of people at speed, knocking them about. Apparently no one was injured.

Just another form of ritual idiocy. The article has a video of the incident.

https://jalopnik.com/cybertruck-crashes-into-crowd-after-failing-to-do-rever-1851503733


Guy parks on an incline, gets out of his truck and scrapes his leg against the bottom corner of the door. And gashes his leg badly enough to possibly need stitches.

The article quotes from the owners manual the various ways the truck can injure you and how you should handle it.

https://gizmodo.com/tesla-cybertruck-door-leaves-a-gash-in-owners-leg-1851463705


Guy goes to a dealership to pick up his newly delivered CT (note that these are all different guys, not one guy with horrible luck and taste). He notices an irregularity on the tailgate, goes to wipe it to see if it's wipeable, and cuts himself in a geyser fashion.

The Tesla salesmen are able to patch him up without needing to invoke emergency services. He takes delivery of said truck, goes home, and thinks that 'surely enough time has passed for the wound to have closed.' Well, that's what ya get for thinking. Removes the bandage and geyser resumes erupting. Ends up at ER.

https://gizmodo.com/new-cybertruck-sends-owner-to-the-emergency-room-before-1851503680


And finally, the presumptive Republican nominee for President publicly stated that he would stop all electric vehicle sales if he returns to office.

In 2016, when he was first elected to office, approximately 160,000 EVs were sold. That number is expected to exceed ten times that in 2024 and to continue to grow. Hyundai just invested $13 billion in EV production in Georgia. The head of Ford said that they do their projections in much longer time frames than presidential election cycles. Regardless, statements like this could easily cost him more votes in the south where EV production is growing than he might think it would gain him in his base.

https://gizmodo.com/donald-trump-says-stop-electric-car-sales-1851503550

ROFLMAO! The Muskbrat is going to try to hire back his Supercharger team!

GEE, PERHAPS FIRING ALL OF THEM WAS A BAD IDEA! WHOULD'A THUNK IT!

He's also "committed" (and should be!) half a billion dollars to expanding the Supercharger network.

A lot of the reason for sacking the entire division came from him getting PO'd at the division manager, Rebecca Tinucci, not sacking enough division people. So he fired Tinucci and the entire division.

My question is: how many will be willing to come back under such a mercurial CEO, and how much of a raise will they demand for being treated so capriciously?

A couple of things the article discusses that I did not know is that in '19 he decided to close ALL retail locations to pay for a cheaper Model 3. When it turned out he was going to get the crap sued out of him for breaking so many retail leases, he reversed that decision. Also, apparently plans are going into effect for super-Supercharger stations for charging Porsches and Audis which require more voltage for their batteries.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/05/tesla-does-180-on-superchargers-rehiring-laid-off-staff-amid-new-plans/

To say this makes no sense overstates the obvious.

He fired the director of new car development. And everyone in that division.

He fired the director of the Supercharger network. And everyone in that division.

And remember how he's been saying that Tesla's big new thing was going to be the robotaxi? He just eliminated the entire public policy team. Funny thing: when you're dealing with the federal government, one thing that's very useful is a public policy team.

Two cars in their four car (plus the Cyber alleged Truck) are in desperate need of refreshes. And there's no longer a new car development group. Demand for the Supercharger network is going to grow like gangbusters as most every car maker in North America is adopting their plug standard. And now that division is gone?! It had the potential to be hugely profitable!

Unless he has a really extraordinarily amazing rabbit to pull out of his hat to reveal some master scheme to offset these division axings, somehow I don't think his massive pay package is going to get passed at that upcoming shareholder meeting. In fact, I'd be REALLY seriously looking at shorting Tesla stock.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/04/tesla-to-lay-off-everyone-working-on-superchargers-new-vehicles/

Literally.

Drilling a hole in the bottom of the pedal and snapping in a rivet.

They're supposed to take a measurement first and if whatever the measurement is falls within certain specs, replace the pedal. Otherwise, poprivet.

Not that I would ever own a Tesla, but were I to own one, I would be royally PO'd. That pedal should have been one unit, not one with a slip-on cover. This rivet detracts from the appearance of the interior of my butt-ugly truck. They should have machined the pedal out of a single piece of stock, which you might have expected out of a high-tech/high-cost car maker.

BUT NO! We're gonna drill a hole in your truck and pop in a rivet.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/20/24135876/tesla-cybertruck-accelerator-pedal-recall-fix

As expected, in light of the Delaware Chancery Court shooting down The Muskbrat's compensation plan, he's following through on his threat to put reincorporating Tesla in Texas up to a vote. Tesla is having its annual shareholders meeting, where such things are voted on, in mid-June, so such things are filed and announced now. Also up for vote - his pay package of $56 billion! YAY!

Now, the amusing bit was that the reincorporation and pay package were decided by a "Special Committee" which consisted of ... drum roll please ... one person. An attorney who joined the board late December 2018, Kathleen Wilson-Thompson. She is a qualified attorney, at least in terms of degrees and such, and she received over $7,000,000 in stock and compensation the following year for serving on the board.

The Chancery Judge threw out The Muskbrat's compensation package because the Board, in the Judge's words, 'were beholden' to him. How is receiving seven mill in pay and stock not beholden?

It'll be interesting to see if the votes pass. While lots of stockholders are fan bois, there are also large blocks owned by institutional investors, and they're a lot more conservative about things.

And one other thing. He's PO'd about the Chancery Judge shooting down his compensation, also about the Chancery Court forcing him to buy Twitter after he promised to. Those are the main forces behind reincorporating in Texas. But here's the thing: Texas is creating a system very much modeled on the Delaware Chancery Court system! Aside from travel costs, is he going to be gaining very much?

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/04/tesla-asks-shareholders-to-approve-texas-move-and-restore-elon-musks-56b-pay/

A second article on the incorporation move has some very interesting information about Egon's, err, Elon's companies dealings with each other, and this interesting paragraph:

Over eight weeks, Wilson-Thompson’s committee met 16 times for more than 26 hours, and Tesla says she personally spent “more than 200 hours” working on the matter. The Sidley lawyers spent “more than 600 hours each” on the matter and were supported by “more than 40 other Sidley lawyers.” Through this process, seven board directors and five members of Tesla’s management were interviewed.

THAT is a LOT of billable hours!

A paragraph preceding stated that they found that most corporations incorporate where they're located or in Delaware. Geez, pay me $100k and I'll tell you that! Look at how much money you'd save!

https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/17/tesla-x-advertising-musk-stock-package-delware-texas/


Tesla CyberTruck owners: manufacturing has been suspended while Tesla deals with problems regarding the accelerator peddle. There have been reports of the peddle coming loose, including parts of it jamming itself under trim panels and unintended acceleration, including one owner slamming into a light pole! Tesla's taking some time off to implement fixes.

Honestly, they have LOTS of fixes to implement with people complaining about fit and finish, not to mention the rust problem of stainless steel that doesn't have a clear coat applied.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/04/tesla-stops-cybertruck-deliveries-accelerator-pedal-may-be-to-blame/


And finally, Tesla is getting ready to axe TEN PERCENT of its workforce! Now, when numbers like that are about to get the RIF, I think you're at the point that the Feds are involved as that's a major labor market disruption, we'll see what happens.

Tesla's stock has been underperforming of late. While it's up over 600% since 2018, it's down over a third this year to date, and we're only a third into the year. The CyberTruck (AKA the Incel Camino, not my creation) has been a major thorn in its side, the constant price-cutting has really hurt its margins, and now the Model 2 has been axed in favor of a 'Robo Taxi' that hasn't been seen - and with the amazing success of its Auto Pilot, may never be. The Model 2 was supposed to be an actual low-cost model, but rumor has it would not be sold in the USA.

Let's see. CyberTruck: ugly design and bad manufacturing, own goal. Constant price-cutting to prop up market share, own-goal. Dropping a product line in favor of what seems to be vaporware that will run on vaporware, own-goal.

I think I see a trend here.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/04/tesla-to-lay-off-more-than-10-percent-of-its-workers-as-sales-slow/


Oh, and Egon says he'll debut the RoboTaxi on August 8. Set your sundial!

https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/05/elon-musk-says-hell-unveil-a-tesla-robotaxi-on-august-8/


In other news, for which I don't have a link handy, Tesla is trying to push sales of Autopilot by giving every Tesla owner a free 30 day trial every time you take your car in for service with a requirement that a salesman shows you how utterly spiffy it is! I'm just wondering if it will automatically charge your credit card X thousands of dollars if you don't cancel it before your month is up.

This will be amusing. BYD is a VERY large maker of electric and hybrid vehicles. In the final quarter of 2023 it sold more BEVs in China than Tesla sold in total! And now they want to build a plant in Mexico!

The attractive thing about BYD is they make affordable cars. It's hard to gauge how reliable they are, but as an example, their SUV hybrid can be had for around $30,000! It has an estimated combined range of 450 miles, which is quite respectable.

Naturally Elon is quite welcoming of the competition. No, that's not the word. NOT welcoming. He is quoted as saying "If there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world." This is the man who wants as little government interference in his operations as possible, until he wants his operations defended BY the same government against potential foreign competition!

BYD has six vehicles in production to Tesla's five at a much broader range of price points, and theirs aren't known to develop rust splotches like someone's weird-looking alleged truck.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/02/byd-may-build-electric-vehicle-factory-in-mexico-for-us-market/

Now, why they would think he wasn't worth $56 billion a year, I just can't imagine!

A shareholder group sued to block his compensation package, saying that the compensation board had too close a relationship with Musk, that it wasn't sufficiently independent. While the compensation package was voted on by shareholders, the judge ruled that they were not properly informed of how close the ties were between Musk and the board, which voted for the package.

From the article: "Musk's pay plan "is the largest potential compensation opportunity ever observed in public markets by multiple orders of magnitude—250 times larger than the contemporaneous median peer compensation plan and over 33 times larger than the plan's closest comparison, which was Musk's prior compensation plan," the ruling said."

But this is the clincher: "McCormick criticized the Tesla board, writing that Tesla Chair Robyn Denholm had a "lackadaisical approach to her oversight obligations." Although Musk and his brother Kimbal recused themselves from the pay-plan vote, "five of the six directors who voted on the Grant were beholden to Musk or had compromising conflicts." This "allow[ed] Musk to dictate the timing of the process and the terms of the Grant," McCormick.

For example, board member James Murdoch "was a long-time friend of Musk before he joined the Board, and they repeatedly vacationed together with their respective families." Board member Antonio Gracias "had business relationships with Musk dating back over 20 years, as well as the sort of personal relationship that had him vacationing with Musk's family on a regular basis."

Ira Ehrenpreis, who chaired the board's compensation committee, was a close friend of Kimbal's and acknowledged that "his personal and professional relationship with the Musk brothers has had a 'significant influence on his professional career.'" Board member Brad Buss "owed roughly 44 percent of his net worth to Musk entities," and "Denholm derived the vast majority of her wealth from her compensation as a Tesla director," the ruling said.

Todd Maron, Tesla's general counsel, wasn't on the board but played a key role in negotiating Musk's pay.

"The working group included management members who were beholden to Musk, such as General Counsel Todd Maron, who was Musk's former divorce attorney and whose admiration for Musk moved him to tears during his deposition," McCormick wrote. "In fact, Maron was a primary go-between Musk and the committee, and it is unclear on whose side Maron viewed himself. Yet many of the documents cited by the defendants as proof of a fair process were drafted by Maron."

Yeah. Must be nice to have the entire board in the palm of your hand for one reason or another.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/01/elon-musks-56-billion-pay-plan-voided-as-shareholders-beat-tesla-in-court/

I mentioned this in a previous post about a German rental car company that was selling off its Tesla stock. Hertz has now decided to get rid of its entire electric car fleet and you can now buy Teslas for as low as $21,000. The final price may be lower than that: the age of the car may qualify it for further Fed (and possibly State?) rebates. Many cars have 80,000 or so miles on them, Tesla gives you 100,000 miles free charging on their Supercharging network.

But these cars have been rental cars, which means they've been driven hard, and frequently by idiots, so that definitely needs to be kept in mind.

Hertz is dumping them, specifically the Teslas, for two major reasons. But let's back up a step first. When Hertz started buying Teslas, the initial announcement was that Hertz was going to buy 100,000 units. That sent Tesla's valuation to over a trillion dollars. And it never happened. The purchase was going to be phased over time, because Tesla was incapable of delivering that many cars in one swell foop - and in the end, no where near 100,000 cars were delivered to Hertz, I have no idea what the final number was. And once the cars arrived and began to be rented, the problems started happening.

The biggest problem is the car itself: it's so damn fast. And it's not the speed per se, it's the acceleration. 0-60 in under 3 seconds? Now a Tesla BUYER may have experience with super-fast cars. They know what they're getting in to. Renters? Not so much. Dad from Podunk, USA wants to play with the toy! And shunts it into the corner and bends it up a little bit. At least he got the insurance as part of the rental agreement and doesn't have to worry about that aspect.

Except Hertz now has a bent-up Tesla that not only they can't rent, it's costing them money instead of earning it, and Teslas are infamous for taking a very long time for replacement parts to put them right after accidents! If my Subaru gets bent, which has happened on two occasions, it'll be back in service in less than a week once the parts arrive. A Tesla? It can be down for MONTHS. Most of Tesla's parts production goes into new cars, not servicing repairs. That is a lot of lost revenue! Very bad cost vs revenue equation tilt for a rental company!

That's the first major reason Hertz wanted to get rid of the Teslas.

The second is something Elon started doing last year. He started slashing the prices on his cars to move sales as they were kinda flagging. Except Hertz was on a contract, and he was devaluing the fleet that they had already purchased! This completely wrecked Hertz's financials, and they were just coming out of bankruptcy! Again, not a good equation.

So Hertz decided that electric vehicles weren't a great proposition, and over the next year or so will be dumping their fleet. This is the first tranche of vehicles being sold in the USA, it's not exclusively Teslas: there's Nissans and some other EVs represented, too.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tesla-cars-used-hertz-discount-ev-fleet/

I didn't expect this particular facet of the strike to stand up to a court hearing. The postal workers stopped delivering Tesla license plates. That's a legal government function, and sure enough, a court hearing found that the postal employees, even though their union is in solidarity with the striking Metall union, has to deliver the plates.

Not much of a win, IMO, but a small win for Tesla.

https://gizmodo.com/elon-musk-tesla-license-plates-sweden-union-1851049442

A Tesla insider sent 23,000 files and documents - over 100 GIG of data - to the German news org Handelsblatt. It details (to put it mildly) numerous customer complaints about the full self-driving/Auto Pilot, information on current and former employees, and dates back to 2015. More than 2,400 complaints about sudden and unintended acceleration, 1,500+ complaints about braking.

Handelsblatt went to the trouble of contacting people directly to confirm their complaints. And Tesla had a policy in place of never replying in writing or on voice mail, all responses had to be verbal to the customer so nothing was in print in the event of litigation.

Here's a comment to the Ars article that's a both telling and scary: "Some years ago I interviewed for a position as engineering lead for systems test, and I was fortunate enough to have an interview slot with the outgoing lead.

After going through his questions, I asked him one question - How does the engineering culture here treat testing reports?

He started his reply defensively, with "it's improving." But then outlined a culture where reports that indicated engineering flaws, or issues were routinely rejected, where test engineers were frequently pressured to adjust tests to avoid failures - not because the tests were wrong, or the failures not legitimate, but because the failure might hold up the product release cycle. A culture where test engineers were seen as lesser quality, or just technicians, because "real engineers design things, test engineers just try to screw things up."

I turned down the position.

An engineering culture that sidelines failure reports, that marginalizes the bugs and problems, that doesn't see fixing issues as a win for the product, for the engineering teams, and the company - that culture will build problematic products. This article is hardly news to anyone who's looked with a critical eye at the undercurrent of problem reports around Tesla, but it seems to be a lot of hard evidence that the company has a culture that doesn't take product quality seriously enough."

One of my best friends lives in Scottsdale. Down the street was a Tesla that was damaged in an accident. It sat for 6+ months, unrepaired, because of problems getting replacement body panels. Apparently the insurance company finally junked the car and soon there was an Audi eTron sitting in the drive and the Tesla was gone.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/05/massive-trove-of-tesla-files-contains-thousands-of-safety-complaints/