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Tesla's 'Master Plan, Part Deux' Includes Trucks, Buses and Ride-Sharing (latimes.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via Los Angeles Times: After teasing Part 2 of his "master product plan" for over a week, Elon Musk finally delivered. Los Angeles Times reports: "In a blog post published on the automaker's website, Musk introduced a multiyear, four-pronged strategy that includes new kinds of Tesla vehicles, expanded solar initiatives, updates on Tesla's 'autopilot' technology and a ride-sharing program. Commercial trucks, buses, a 'future compact SUV' and a 'new kind of pickup truck' will be added to Tesla's fleet of electric cars. A heavy-duty truck called the Tesla Semi and a shrunken bus that Musk called a 'high passenger density urban transport' vehicle are in early development stages 'and should be ready for unveiling next year,' he said. The smaller bus would be designed without a center aisle, with seats close to the entrances, and would be able to automatically pace themselves with traffic, the post said. The bus driver would become a 'fleet manager.' Musk also used the master plan to defend his bid for rooftop solar power provider SolarCity and said he aims to make Tesla's Autopilot robotic driver-assist system 10 times safer than cars that humans drive manually. Musk also plans to move Tesla into the popular ride-sharing business, not only with an Uber-like fleet but also with an app that lets Tesla owners rent out their vehicles when they're not using them, perhaps defraying a portion of their auto loans. This will happen, he said, 'when true self-driving is approved by regulators,' a turn of events that's at least several years away."
He should try trains. It might be easier to get the autopilot working.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Agree with him or not. However he is one of the few people who is using his money to inovate solutions to problems that are seeming to big for governments to handle.
Found a way to sell Solar Panels as to not hinder the customers.
Found a way to make an electric car cool and exciting vs a slow little box.
Found a way to make rockets to go to space as a private institution.
He has a vision of the future and is working to create it.
Is he always right? No he isn't and he isn't some Magic man. But he has a vision and the vision includes trying to make the world a better place for everyone and not just him. So he deserves some credit. However if you disagree with his vision, you should feel free to work to create your future.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
...it'll be at least 20 times safer than people who drive automatic.
Autopilot does exactly what Tesla claims it does. It doesn't do what some people seem to think it does, but that's hardly Tesla's fault.
None of those problems were too big to handle for governments if they were allowed to work on it, and realistically they do work on it because they funded all the basic science that has made these things possible.
Here's the problem with Musk, and I don't think it's his fault, but people worship him and ridicule people who point out problems with what he does. Fact is Tesla is losing money. A lot of money. And the reason they're calling out on their earning statements is recalls. They don't make a quality product and the amount of money they're spending on recalls is literally putting them out of business. That also gets paired with that they continually miss manufacturing goals. Note that this isn't they're selling more than they can make, it's that they can't make as many as they claim they will. And despite these problems, if you speak ill of Tesla, people around here rush to defend and go on about how you must be an idiot because you haven't consumed the koolaid of Tesla. Fact is they may have done some innovative things, but their quality is shit and as a company there's a very real possibility they won't exist in 5 years if they don't get their shit sorted. And that doesn't even talk about the real problems of the model 3.
They can't keep up with demand for the model X, how the hell are they going to do it for the model 3? What's going to happen when people who pre-ordered the model 3 thinking a $35,000 price tag realizes that Tesla has used up their government rebates and it'll be $42,500 and that assumes that they can actually hit their target price, a goal which historically they've never managed. Will they be willing to wait for the inevitable two years behind schedule that the model 3 will eventually be released because again, Tesla has never released a vehicle on schedule. And of course this all assumes that Tesla manages to stay in business. But of course the Tesla devout will call me a blasphemer (in much ruder terms) even though all of these claims are things that Tesla admits in their own earning reports.
Yeah, why does he keep saying he can do things and then actually doing them? What's wrong with the guy?
"I'm going to start a company making electric supercars."
"They'll never work and nobody will buy them. You'll go bankrupt soon."
"So, I've got a big list of buyers for a very real electric supercar."
"Your gearbox problem and price estimate issues will break you. You'll go bankrupt soon."
"So, we've resolved the pricing and gearboxes, and the cars are being delivered to owners"
"Yeah, you're making them at a tiny rate, you'll never scaleup You'll go bankrupt soon."
"So, we scaled up production, and now we're going to make a super long range, even cheaper, luxury car"
"Hahaha, no, that's never going to happen. You'll go bankrupt soon."
"So, we're making the car with basically the specs and pricing we announced."
"Yeah, in tiny numbers. You'll never scale up, and you'll go bankrupt soon."
"So we've scaled up model S production and it's getting great owner satisfaction. We're going to make a crossover now, and then a $30k EV in huge numbers"
"The crossover will be a failure, and those numbers are laughable. You'll never get interest nor raise capital for that. You'll go bankrupt soon."
"So, the crossover is getting great reviews too, we've raised capital to start production of our factories...."
Meanwhile, on the other side:
"Hey, I'm going to start a company to launch payloads into orbit!"
"Har har, this isn't going to last long, you're going to be the next Roton. You'll go bankrupt soon."
"Hey, we've actually got a built and are starting to launch it."
"Yeah, but it's unreliable as heck, and too small to compete for the high dollar contracts. You'll go bankrupt soon."
"Hey, we got the bugs worked out of our rocket, and we're starting work on a vastly larger rocket."
"Har har, like that's ever going to happen. It'll never work, and you'll go bankrupt soon."
"Hey, so we built and are launching our vastly larger rocket..."
"Nobody's going to trust that thing, you'll never be able to compete, you'll go bankrupt soon."
"Hey, we're launching payload after payload, and we're going to start landing and recovering our rockets."
"You're going to land first stages, something even NASA hasn't done? Hahaha, good luck, You'll go bankrupt soon!"
"Hey, so we're pretty consistently landing and recovering rockets now..."
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If you want know why people tend to listen to Musk rather than his constant chorus of naysayers, it's because the naysayers have such an unbelievably bad track record with their naysaying. Come on, at least be like a stopped clock and be right once every so often.
Hourglass says she knows a kid in Iowa who grows up to be president.
What a silly comment. That's not a concept from Tesla, but a mockup from a fan. That it's a Model X front photoshopped onto a truck should've clued you off.
SolarCity isn't pretty revolutionary. But SpaceX and Tesla's work has been pretty revolutionary. No, it's not like SpaceX "invented rockets" or like Tesla "invented electric cars". But they did vastly change the paradigms in both regards and turn a bunch of new techniques / technologies from the kit / niche / hypothetical arena into mainstream production, as well as radically altering public perceptions..
I'm not sure why people don't see that as commendable.
Hourglass says she knows a kid in Iowa who grows up to be president.
"grand" implies "ambitious" and "plan" implies "future". If you just want a quarterly update then google for that.
But he is using other people's money, not his
So does every startup company. Investors and loans are normal, even when the founder can invest significantly into the company.
His competitors got pretty much the same tax incentives. If Chevy decided to make an ugly electric car and then not sell it, well, maybe that explains why Tesla is making headway.
That is probably where the traditional manufacturers made a mistake. EVs are new tech in the public mind, which implies a degree of uncertainty and risk---exactly what your typical econobox buyer avoids whenever possible. Tesla went after buyers who are willing to buy something because it's new and shiny or because it makes a statement.
Tesla still has a monopoly on performance/luxury EVs. And if you can deliver the goods in that market, you can probably economize your design down for the masses.
Still, the late delivery of virtually every product and feature would make me shy away from preordering anything. I like what's happening, but the company is far from perfect.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
A lot of people expected more from autopilot than being the most advanced cruise control available on a car? That's their problem, not Tesla's.
Tesla's Model S ranges from $70,000-108,000, not $150,000.
Tesla has not, because Tesla is the car company. But if you meant to ask that about SpaceX:
Anything practical other than the 16 satellites they put into orbit? There were the 8 resupply missions to ISS, the tests of their manned capsule, a dozen more customers launching by the end of the year and dozens more out to 2020, and the Falcon 9 Heavy first launch which will double their payload capacity.