The Crazy Tesla Play

[Singuy]

I don't follow Tesla at all but I know I see more and more of them showing up on the road. And they recently opened a showroom near my house.

What is the main production problem? What has prevented them from making more vehicles?

Their main production problems were the use of TOO many robots. Elon wanted to automate everything, but found that it was a stupid idea to program a robot do something a human can do in seconds, but takes a robot many hours of programming to get it right(and not increase in efficiency). Elon went back and got rid a lot of these robotic procedures and also decrease redundancies where ever he can find. Lastly he built more lanes (infamously in a tent) to increase production. Also reports of battery shortages were another production woe since the M3 uses their newest cell. Gigafactory is now running at competent capacity and Elon thinks production rate can hit 10k/week sometimes early next year.

[corn18]

All well and good if the 3 is a good car. Early feedback I have read indicates it has some bugs to be worked out. And the X isn’t a peach like the S.

[Singuy]

All well and good if the 3 is a good car. Early feedback I have read indicates it has some bugs to be worked out. And the X isn’t a peach like the S.

I'll let you know since I'm picking mine up in 2 weeks

I did test drove my friend's with a Vin in the 7ks. Mine will be in the 51ks. He said there were minor problems like the charge port door not property sealed for extreme rain conditions and the frunk had latching problems. He also said they improved the seats since Vin 3-4k. Mine will have upgraded suspension, improved seats, and all of those quirks fixed. Tesla takes feed back in real time and fixes them within days/weeks from car to car. I guess everyone understand they are beta testers.

The actual drive was on point. It felt like a very expensive car drivetrain wise vs my jag. It's quiet, extremely smooth, and instant torque. Jags having superchargers are there to lessen the lag but Teslas are on a whole new level.

The tech blew my mind. I don't care about all that autopilot stuff but just speaking to the tablet and have it play any song I told it to completely blew my mind..lol. Google speech is on point.

[disneysteve]

I did test drove my friend's with a Vin in the 7ks. Mine will be in the 51ks. He said there were minor problems like the charge port door not property sealed for extreme rain conditions and the frunk had latching problems. He also said they improved the seats since Vin 3-4k. Mine will have upgraded suspension, improved seats, and all of those quirks fixed. Tesla takes feed back in real time and fixes them within days/weeks from car to car. I guess everyone understand they are beta testers.

That's a heck of a lot of money to spend to be a beta tester. It's one thing to beta test a video game but a 50K+ car? No thanks. Work out the bugs first.

[Singuy]

That's a heck of a lot of money to spend to be a beta tester. It's one thing to beta test a video game but a 50K+ car? No thanks. Work out the bugs first.

The notion that everyone understands they are a beta tester has very little to do with the car but has everything to do with how people perceive the car. This is why you see a 96% of the people not ever regretting owning a Tesla because they are willing to forgo some growing pains and letting certain thing pass to support Elon's mission. The car and Tesla are more than their products, it's a bunch of fans willing to plot down money to help accelerate the advent of sustainable energy. So if there are no early adopters/beta testers, then Tesla will fail and his mission will fail.

No car is perfect.

My Jag, and the BMW X1 (plus many other models) I had required a massive recall in which the airbag would become a shrapnel spreading hand grenade once the airbag deploys. I had to drive this car for 2 years before they even have the parts in to fix it(just fixed it 3 weeks ago)! I know many people grounded their car.

[disneysteve]

He also said they improved the seats since Vin 3-4k. Mine will have upgraded suspension, improved seats, and all of those quirks fixed.

So when they identify an issue like the seats or suspension, do they go back and fix them for the people who bought earlier or are they just out of luck?

[rennigade]

So when they identify an issue like the seats or suspension, do they go back and fix them for the people who bought earlier or are they just out of luck?

Im not sure about this...but what I do know is tesla does not want anyone working on their vehicles. Apparently its a nightmare to find parts for any of the "older" teslas...meaning a few years old. You get the run around if you call customer care.

Theres a youtube channel of one guy who buys salvaged teslas so he has spare parts...which he can then use to fix up/put back together other teslas.

My friend was in queue for a model 3...he had to put $1k down to reserve it. They kept pushing back when he would receive because they havent figured out how to work a basic assembly line that henry ford figured out 100 years ago. Tesla pushed back the delivery date to mid 2019...he cancelled and received his $1k back.

Teslas are really cool...but they're not going to be the electric car of the future.

[Singuy]

So when they identify an issue like the seats or suspension, do they go back and fix them for the people who bought earlier or are they just out of luck?

They are out of luck, like how 2019 model of the Camry has improved x, y, z and those who bought the 2018 model are out of luck. Tesla however doesn't wait a full year to fix a complaint. They fix it in between vins. It's unconventional but you should expect that out of an unconventional company like Tesla. Also there was a reason to limit the first couple of thousands to Tesla/spaceX employees only.

Btw the seats were not broken, nor were the suspensions. People complained about a stiff ride..so they soften it. People complained about wanting more lumbar support..so they added that. Lastly people complained about wind noise at high speeds and they dampened that as well. So I call them fixes..you may call them improvements.

[disneysteve]

They are out of luck, like how 2019 model of the Camry has improved x, y, z and those who bought the 2018 model are out of luck. Tesla however doesn't wait a full year to fix a complaint. They fix it in between vins. It's unconventional but you should expect that out of an unconventional company like Tesla.

That makes sense, but I wonder if it plays into production delays if they are periodically altering the product. Doing it once a year for a new model year is one thing but doing it every time you decide to tweak something doesn't sound particularly efficient.

[Singuy]

That makes sense, but I wonder if it plays into production delays if they are periodically altering the product. Doing it once a year for a new model year is one thing but doing it every time you decide to tweak something doesn't sound particularly efficient.

It's kind of the Tesla lore. Their cars are always evolving to be better even after they are in customer's hand. It's almost what one would envision a car of the future to be.

Most of the physical issues were resolved under 15k vin. It's probably another reason why we see such a huge ramp up and they are always most 100k vin as of today.

[disneysteve]

Most of the physical issues were resolved under 15k vin. It's probably another reason why we see such a huge ramp up and they are always most 100k vin as of today.

So I guess the lesson is to not be an early adopter and wait until mid-way into the model year before buying.

[greenskeeper]

I hope the electric car makes it....cheaper gas/diesel for me

[Singuy]

So I guess the lesson is to not be an early adopter and wait until mid-way into the model year before buying.

Depends on what you value. Many people wants to be an ambassador for Tesla and will gladly pay the asking price for a car with many issues that they know will be fixed in later cars.

Truth is, people shouldn't buy first model generation cars anyway because they always have problems. This goes for every company.

[disneysteve]

Depends on what you value. Many people wants to be an ambassador for Tesla and will gladly pay the asking price for a car with many issues that they know will be fixed in later cars.

Truth is, people shouldn't buy first model generation cars anyway because they always have problems. This goes for every company.

Agreed. The same goes for tech stuff, like new smartphones or the latest operating system.

I know a lot of people who insist on downloading the newest OS the instant it is released. Then they bitch and complain about the bugs until the patches come out. Me? I wait until they are on version X.1 or X.2 before I download it. I never download X.00 because I know there will be problems with it.

[~bs]

So I guess the lesson is to not be an early adopter and wait until mid-way into the model year before buying.

well, that pretty much goes for anything. Some products are released before they're ready, and 1st generation customers are the beta testers for working out the problems. It is well known that first year of first model cars almost always have issues that are fixed with subsequent year models.

Its one reason why i never go to a brand new restaurant, even if it's franchise owned. Always best to wait a few months (at least) for the kinks to get worked out.

service is almost always slower and food quality almost always worse as the new chef and employees learn to work with the equipment, learn the menu, learn to work with each other, etc.