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"To streamline our offerings" means "to streamline and simplify our production" The past was always about "prices can be lowered (or the margin becomes better)

"To streamline our offerings" means "to streamline and simplify our production" The past was always about "prices can be lowered (or the margin becomes better) when the production scales". Now production is back-scaled. It seems they hit some production peak were more doesn't mean better margin. Or in other words: "we need more margin on the higher priced versions to be able to lower the price on the cheap version without hurting our overall margin that much."

kalleboo 7y ago
I haven't seen any evidence that their production has scaled. They brute-forced production with that outdoor tent and lots of manual labor and cut corners to attain numbers, but that's not scaling, that's hacking the numbers. They're still trying to figure out how to get the production line working.
- navigatesol 7y ago
  >I haven't seen any evidence that their production has scaled. You can't explain it to some people, and they have no interest in evidence. The other day on Twitter Musk was talking about the SpaceX rockets they're going to attach to a version of the car (LOL!) and how it's all going to tuck neatly behind the license plate. The thread following it was half-filled with people claiming how cool that was going to be, and what they were going to do with it. I'm talking grown adults here. The other half was grown adults saying they're just going to be happy making $100,000 a year letting out their Tesla as a robotaxi. Completely detached from reality. I've never seen anything like this in my life. I think EVs are great, and actually priced out a Bolt (couldn't get service where I live) so I'll have to wait until my recent lease expires in a couple years to go looking in a more mature market. But it's hard for me to fathom that there are people who believe we're going to driving (and being driven) in rocket cars any day. Meanwhile, people are still waiting weeks and months for minor repairs on their cars. How is it that people can see reality so differently?
- SECProto 7y ago
  > They brute-forced production with that outdoor tent and lots of manual labor and cut corners to attain numbers, but that's not scaling, that's hacking the numbers. They did that ... A year ago. Watching the quarterlies since then, they've taken that brute-force, all-hands-on-deck one week peak production number, and turned it into the standard weekly production number (ish). They are clearly progressing/scaling, just not as fast as Musk guidance suggested.
- nickik 7y ago
  They way the build cars with manual labor is pretty much how cars are built. The automated to much and now they went back to something that is more industry standard. They are defently not the best in production of the actual car assembly, but its not like they are on all that inferior. And I don't know what you mean with 'cut corners'. What corners?
  - kalleboo 7y ago
    > What corners? Another article currently on the front page: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/tesla-workers-in-ga4-tent-describe-pressure-to-make-model-3-goals.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/tesla-workers-in-ga4-tent-de... > Employees in the open-air GA4 “tent,” which is not fully automated, tell CNBC they were pressured to take shortcuts to hit goals — reducing vehicle testing for water leaks and using electrical tape on plastic housings to make quick fixes during Model 3 assembly.
    - nickik 7y ago
      They use tape to make fixes to plastic covers. What a horrible thing. Slighty reduced testing? Wow, certainlty has never been done by any automaker ever. Clearly Tesla are death traps. Tesla cars have been getting great reviews from virtually every single tester. The rate as some of the safest cars ever built. But of course they are horrible because they fixed up some plastic covers with tape. You got to be kidding me. Tesla invest way as much into the software and electronic in the car compared to every other automaker. Go listen to Monroe (who does car breakdown and costing for other car company) he describes how Tesla software and electronic is far superior anything in any other car. How they massivly innovated on battery technology, cooling loop, electirc motors and and much more. He describes in detail how they are ahead of the competition on those things. Those things are about 100x more relevant to me then plastic covers. And I don't own a Tesla or even care much for Tesla overall. But the constant articles about Tesla being horrible because of every little issue with their production line is just insane. If that level of detailed analysis was applied to every new car company trying to bring a car to market, its virtually certain you could make articles about that as well.
- mikeash 7y ago
  The car production lines are working just fine right now. The current constraint on their production numbers is battery production, which is largely up to Panasonic.

kalleboo 7y ago

I haven't seen any evidence that their production has scaled. They brute-forced production with that outdoor tent and lots of manual labor and cut corners to attain numbers, but that's not scaling, that's hacking the numbers. They're still trying to figure out how to get the production line working.

navigatesol 7y ago
>I haven't seen any evidence that their production has scaled. You can't explain it to some people, and they have no interest in evidence. The other day on Twitter Musk was talking about the SpaceX rockets they're going to attach to a version of the car (LOL!) and how it's all going to tuck neatly behind the license plate. The thread following it was half-filled with people claiming how cool that was going to be, and what they were going to do with it. I'm talking grown adults here. The other half was grown adults saying they're just going to be happy making $100,000 a year letting out their Tesla as a robotaxi. Completely detached from reality. I've never seen anything like this in my life. I think EVs are great, and actually priced out a Bolt (couldn't get service where I live) so I'll have to wait until my recent lease expires in a couple years to go looking in a more mature market. But it's hard for me to fathom that there are people who believe we're going to driving (and being driven) in rocket cars any day. Meanwhile, people are still waiting weeks and months for minor repairs on their cars. How is it that people can see reality so differently?
SECProto 7y ago
> They brute-forced production with that outdoor tent and lots of manual labor and cut corners to attain numbers, but that's not scaling, that's hacking the numbers. They did that ... A year ago. Watching the quarterlies since then, they've taken that brute-force, all-hands-on-deck one week peak production number, and turned it into the standard weekly production number (ish). They are clearly progressing/scaling, just not as fast as Musk guidance suggested.
nickik 7y ago
They way the build cars with manual labor is pretty much how cars are built. The automated to much and now they went back to something that is more industry standard. They are defently not the best in production of the actual car assembly, but its not like they are on all that inferior. And I don't know what you mean with 'cut corners'. What corners?
- kalleboo 7y ago
  > What corners? Another article currently on the front page: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/tesla-workers-in-ga4-tent-describe-pressure-to-make-model-3-goals.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/15/tesla-workers-in-ga4-tent-de... > Employees in the open-air GA4 “tent,” which is not fully automated, tell CNBC they were pressured to take shortcuts to hit goals — reducing vehicle testing for water leaks and using electrical tape on plastic housings to make quick fixes during Model 3 assembly.
  - nickik 7y ago
    They use tape to make fixes to plastic covers. What a horrible thing. Slighty reduced testing? Wow, certainlty has never been done by any automaker ever. Clearly Tesla are death traps. Tesla cars have been getting great reviews from virtually every single tester. The rate as some of the safest cars ever built. But of course they are horrible because they fixed up some plastic covers with tape. You got to be kidding me. Tesla invest way as much into the software and electronic in the car compared to every other automaker. Go listen to Monroe (who does car breakdown and costing for other car company) he describes how Tesla software and electronic is far superior anything in any other car. How they massivly innovated on battery technology, cooling loop, electirc motors and and much more. He describes in detail how they are ahead of the competition on those things. Those things are about 100x more relevant to me then plastic covers. And I don't own a Tesla or even care much for Tesla overall. But the constant articles about Tesla being horrible because of every little issue with their production line is just insane. If that level of detailed analysis was applied to every new car company trying to bring a car to market, its virtually certain you could make articles about that as well.
mikeash 7y ago
The car production lines are working just fine right now. The current constraint on their production numbers is battery production, which is largely up to Panasonic.