FILE PHOTO: A view of Tesla Inc's U.S. vehicle factory in Fremont, California, U.S., March 18, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

(Reuters) - Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) told furloughed employees on Friday that they will remain out of work for at least another week, postponing a plan to resume normal operations on May 4 at its San Francisco vehicle-assembly plant, according to an internal email.

For furloughed employees, unless you are contacted by your manager about a start date, you will remain on furlough until further notice, at least for another week, the companys in-house counsel Valerie Capers Workman said in the email, which was sent to employees and seen by Reuters.

Tesla suspended production at its Fremont, California plant on March 24.

The extension comes days after health officials from San Francisco County, along with five other Bay Area counties, said they would revise shelter-in-place orders that are set to expire on Sunday.

The new orders will keep the restrictions in place and extend them through May, with limited easing for a small number of low-risk activities.

The company was not immediately available to a Reuters request for comment.

The electric carmaker last month furloughed all non-essential workers and implemented salary cuts during a shutdown of its U.S. production facilities because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru and Tina Bellon in New York; Editing by Stephen Coates

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Tesla to extend furlough for some employees by another week: internal email - Reuters

Volkswagen CEO Hebert Diess has admitted that Tesla has a significant lead when it comes to software and its use in its self-driving program, according to leaked internal communications.

Tesla pioneered over-the-air software updates in the auto industry.

At first, it was touted more as a smartphone-like feature that enables your car to have a better user experience over time.

However, Teslas use of over-the-air software updates has evolved, and it is also now at the center of the automakers effort to achieve a fully self-driving system.

Volkswagen is recognizing that, and its CEO, Hebert Diess, is apparently worried about it.

The German magazine Automobilwoche obtained internal communications at Volkswagen from the CEO talking about Teslas software, which he admits is ahead of its own and any other automobile manufacturer.

In the internal communications, Diess says that Teslas lead gives him headaches.

He conceded that customers appear to love Teslas deep software integration with features like using your phone to control the vehicle and building the user experience around a center screen inside the car.

But what is of greater concern for VWs CEO is Teslas use of software in its Autopilot program:

What worries me the most is the capabilities in the assistance systems. 500,000 Teslas function as a neural network that continuously collects data and provides the customer a new driving experience every 14 days with improved properties. No other automobile manufacturer can do that today.

Diess is referencing the fact that unlike most automakers and tech companies working on autonomous driving, Tesla doesnt only rely on an internal test fleet or simulations to collect data for its Autopilot program, which it ultimately hopes will lead to a full self-driving system..

Tesla is leveraging its large customer fleet of electric vehicles equipped with an extensive array of sensors to collect data and improve its driver-assist features.

We recently reported on Tesla accumulating over 3 billion miles of Autopilot data.

In order to address Teslas software lead, the VW boss says that he is putting together a new software organization to implement the Tesla catch-up plan.

VW has already been building a lot of similar software features found in Tesla vehicles for its new ID3 electric car, but the German automaker is reportedly having massive software problems with the new electric car.

Some analysts believe that part of the reason why Tesla has a large valuation is that it is valued like a software company.

In the leaked communications about Diess concerns over Teslas software lead, the CEO presented his top managers with a graph that compared Teslas valuation to VWs, which happens to be about half of the California-based electric automakers.

And that despite our valuable brands like Porsche, Audi, VW, Bentley, and the others, added Diess.

The CEO admitted that they still have a long way to catch up to Tesla.

While he has never been as blunt about Teslas lead as in those new internal comments, Diess has talked about Teslas advantages in the past, but he always made it clear that he believes VW will catch up to the automaker.

Ive driven dozens of new EVs from established automakers, and its painfully clear that Tesla has a massive advantage when it comes to software-based user experience.

But I love to see those comments from VW. Yes, Tesla has a giant lead over the rest of the industry when it comes to software, but the first step for other automakers to close that lead is to admit that they are behind.

If you are to look up to someone in that space, it has to be Tesla.

As for using its fleet to gather data for autonomous driving, I think it might be the first time another automaker has admitted that this is a strong advantage.

Most, if not all, of them have been relying on test fleets and simulation.

Are we going to see VW and maybe even more automakers taking a similar approach as Tesla on that front? What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

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VW admits Teslas lead in software and self-driving in internal leak - Electrek

This article is part of a series tracking the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on major businesses, and will be updated. It was originally published on April 15.

Tesla Inc. is benefiting from hopes that it is nimbler than its Detroit peers to weather the economic destruction ignited by the novel coronavirus.

Tesla TSLA, -10.30% shares have been on a tear in recent sessions, boosted by recent Wall Street upgrades even as the pandemic snuffs out near-term demand for vehicles and other big-ticket items. Investors have focused on still-healthy first-quarter vehicle deliveries, Teslas proxy for sales, and the announcement that production of the Model Y, a compact SUV, started in January and that the first few vehicles were delivered last month, ahead of schedule.

Business in the age of COVID-19: Read profiles of how other large companies will be affected by the coronavirus

They also seem heartened that the company tapped capital markets and cushioned its balance sheet at a crucial time fresh from reporting fourth-quarter GAAP and adjusted profit well above Wall Street expectations and just as the first few known U.S. cases of COVID-19 surfaced in February.

Moreover, the Street has kept the faith on the long-term growth trend toward electric vehicles, and Tesla is seen by many as the clear leader in terms of EV and battery technology. Analysts at Goldman Sachs said that they expect EV market penetration to increase from 2% last year to nearly 15% by 2030 even amid lower gas prices due to the ongoing crude-oil supply glut and lower demand.

There has been no word from Tesla about the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic since the company shut down much of its production in late March. Investors will want to know how Model Y production and sales have been affected by factory stoppages and how Chief Executive Elon Musk believes the rest of the year will play out.

See also:Tesla stock extends rally, up 60% in the past seven days

Tesla did not rescind its guidance for the year of 500,000-plus deliveries in its first-quarter deliveries report. The company plans to report full first-quarter earnings on April 29.

Revenue: Analysts polled by FactSet estimate Tesla to report $6.16 billion in first-quarter sales, down from $6.6 billion expected in January. For the full year, the mid-April consensus outlook calls for $30.11 billion in 2020 sales, down from expectations of $32 billion in February.

Earnings: Analysts surveyed by FactSet expect Tesla to post a loss of 25 cents a share for the quarter; in January, the analysts were calling for adjusted per-share earnings of 93 cents. Tesla reported adjusted profits in the two previous quarters. Investors are still expecting Tesla to post a profit this year, to the tune of $3.61 a share, but were more optimistic on the companys 2020 prospects in late February, when the per-share expectation was around $8.60 a share.

Stock movement: Tesla has handily outperformed the S&P 500 index SPX, -2.80% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.55%. So far this year, the stock is up more than 80%, versus losses of 2% and 10% for the S&P and the Dow. The stock gained 25% in the January-to-March quarter, versus a loss of 20% for the S&P and 23% for the Dow. Tesla is also outperforming its Detroit peers; shares of General Motors Co GM, -6.23% and Ford Motor Co. F, -3.34% have fallen 41% and 46% this year, respectively.

Related:Ford is first auto maker to warn of lower sales, but unlikely to be last

Liquidity: The company had $6.3 billion in cash at the end of 2019 and before its $2.3 billion capital raise in February.

That is sufficient to successfully navigate an extended period of uncertainty, Tesla said in March. At the end of the fourth quarter, it had available credit lines worth about $3 billion, it said, including working-capital lines for all regions as well as financing for the expansion of its Shanghai factory.

Ford has said it would report a first-quarter loss as well as lower sales, but Tesla and GM have not provided preliminary quarterly numbers. Tesla said it will post first-quarter results after the market close on April 29.

Unit sales: Tesla surprised markets earlier this month when it released first-quarter production and delivery data close to the FactSet consensus and even above the expectations of many analysts tracking the company. But also to the surprise of many, it didnt reiterate or tweak its 2020 target to deliver more than 500,000 vehicles. Tesla announced temporary factory closures last month.

Tesla is the clear market leader in EVs in terms of battery range and market share (and we expect it to maintain a strong competitive position in the EV market long-term). While we expect the current industry downturn and the shutdown of Teslas Fremont factory due to COVID-19 to weigh on 2020 results, wed note that even using a $2 per gallon gas price assumption, we believe that the total cost of ownership (TCO) in the premium car market between a Model 3 and an internal combustion engine car is comparable, and Teslas cars offer strong performance (e.g., 0-60 acceleration) and safety (5-star safety ratings from NHTSA) features. We expect the TCO of EVs to continue to improve over time leading to significant long-term EV growth. Goldman Sachs analysts, who initiated their coverage of Tesla stock at a buy rating with a $864 price target.

Encouragingly, we do not expect Tesla to face any liquidity concerns from this crisis, partly thanks to its $2.3B capital raise in February. Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein, who kept his rating on Tesla shares at the equivalent of hold with a $730 price target. The auto maker is unlikely to meet its sales goals for the year and its 2020 revenue may drop by about one fifth, but it has enough cash to survive the economic destruction wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, he said. Bernstein cut its 2020 Tesla deliveries estimate by 22% to 414,000 vehicles.

Tesla has more edge in the transition to electric vehicles, and the coronavirus disruption will make it more difficult for legacy auto makers to balance the long-term shift to EV in the face of near-term cycle disruption, Dan Levy of Credit Suisse, who upgraded his rating on Tesla shares to the equivalent of hold with a $580 price target. Despite the headwinds from the pandemic and near-term weakness to sales of electric vehicles, the longer-term commitment to electrification will remain intact, he said.

Tesla is a trailblazer in the electric vehicle market and could be successful as EV demand increases over time, but challenges include ongoing and future production challenges. John Murphy of BofA Securities. Other hurdles it faces are continued losses and cash burn from low production and deliveries, higher costs, and new facility construction; and the prospect of new competition and technology and model obsolescence, the analyst said. BofA downgraded Tesla to its equivalent of sell.

Theres a chance a recession helps (Tesla) extend its EV advantage over other OEMs, who may be forced to delay/halt their electrification plans. Ben Kallo of Baird Equity Research. A working capital build in the first quarter could be a drag on cash flow, but Teslas balance sheet is strong following the capital raise. Kallo has the equivalent of hold on Tesla shares with a price target of $535.

Of the 33 Tesla analysts who are polled by FactSet, eight rate Tesla stock a buy and 14 rate it a hold, with the remaining 11 rating it a sell. On average, the price target on the stock is $508.92, implying a downside around 30%.

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Tesla stock is riding high as investors wait to hear effects of coronavirus - MarketWatch

Like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, muscle cars represent the perfect marriage of a compact, light body and a powerful, feisty and loud V8. Now, if youd like to imagine your sandwich with less flavor, you can simply take out the V8.

That said, what if? What if Teslas Elon Musk woke up one day and thought to himself, wouldnt it be great if we made a muscle car? Scott A. Barras from design firm SABARRAS imagines such a future and the kind of car that would result. He calls it the Tesla GT, the all-electric muscle car that pays homage to the glorious past of American automotive history, while looking towards a fully-electrified future.

Rendered both in hardtop and convertible forms, the Tesla GT takes some of the design language of the greatest muscle cars ever made, like the V8-powered ponies wearing the Camaro/Cuda/Challenger/Mustang nameplates, and repurposes it for a modern-day vehicle, keeping in mind modern proportions and aerodynamics, Barras explains. To further honor the inventor whose name the Tesla company is using, Barras included in the design of the GT Nikola Teslas obsession with the numbers 3, 6 and 9.

The goal was to create a mean-looking car in the styling of American muscle cars, while incorporating modern features like the battery pack and motors, regenerative braking and cameras inserted into the A-pillars instead of side mirrors.

To those asking themselves why anyone would come up with such a Frankenstein idea, Barras says this of his inspiration: These days, sober looking Tesla sedans and crossovers are able to out accelerate all but the most expensive hypercars. [] Modern Tesla sedans and crossovers consistently embarrass highly modified muscle cars during races from junction stops. This inspired me to design a muscular, all-American style of electric sports car to attract muscle car buyers by offering the contemporary experience of chest crushing acceleration with a style that more reflects their personality.

The question is now, would muscle car buyers go for an incomplete, perhaps not as tasty peanut and butter jelly sandwich instead of the real thing?

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Tesla GT Is the Muscle Car Frankenstein No One Asked For - autoevolution

A group of thieves stole three Tesla vehicles from a dealership in Fairfax County, Virginia early on Friday morning. Police were quickly alerted to what was going on and a chase involving all three cars ensued.

According to reports from NBC4 Washington and WTOP News, police tried to stop one car as it attempted to enter an interstate highway. The car quickly crashed as it attempted to avoid police, prompting the thief to flee on foot.

While the thief got away, passengers or perhaps accomplices is more appropriate who happened to be in the car werent so lucky as they were arrested at the scene.

NBC4reports:

Officers tried to pull over the Tesla and a pursuit began, police say. Eventually, one of the drivers crashed on Leesburg Pike near the Beltway and ran away, police said.

The drivers of two other Teslas continued southbound on the highway and eventually left the cars near Route 236 and tried to outrun officers, police say.

A third suspect got away. Fairfax County Police say there were an unknown number of passengers in two of the cars.

One of the Tesla thieves was ultimately apprehended and, trying to think quickly on his feet, lied about his age and was trying to play it off as if he was a juvenile.

At this point, it remains unclear how the Tesla vehicles were stolen but we have to imagine Tesla is investigating the matter.

Generally speaking, Tesla vehicles are rarely stolen relative to other automotive brands. According to a report from the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) from August of 2019, Tesla vehicles are 90% less likely to be stolen than other cars. And while this could certainly have something to do with some of Teslas built-in safety mechanisms, there are other factors at play as well.

The report reads in part:

Two of the vehicles on the least-stolen list are the Tesla Model S and Model X. Their low theft rate may be related to the fact that, as electric vehicles, they are usually parked in garages or close to a house to be near a power supply.

Incidentally, electric vehicles in general tend to be stolen less frequently than other vehicles.

As a final point, you might recall a video from 2018 which showed thieves stealing a Model S with a key fob hack. Its worth noting, though, that Tesla has a few layers of security such as requiring a four-digit pin that the Model S owner in question didnt employ at the time of the theft.

Image Source: David Zalubowski/AP/Shutterstock

A life long Mac user and Apple enthusiast, Yoni Heisler has been writing about Apple and the tech industry at large for over 6 years. His writing has appeared in Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK, and most recently, TUAW. When not writing about and analyzing the latest happenings with Apple, Yoni enjoys catching Improv shows in Chicago, playing soccer, and cultivating new TV show addictions, the most recent examples being The Walking Dead and Broad City.

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Teslas are hard to steal, but three were stolen from a dealership on Friday - BGR

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Teslas first-quarter earnings marked the third straight quarterly beat of Wall Street expectations. The results will nettle the bears and delight the bulls.

Heres what analysts are saying about the Wednesday evening report.

Investors were laser focused on the profitability picture of [Tesla] and Musk & Co. did not disappoint, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a Thursday research report. Gross profit margins came in at 20.6%. Wall Street was looking for about 18%. Stronger profits is a sign of good manufacturing execution. Tesla recently started making cars in China, adding to its Fremont, Calif., capacity.

Ives rates shares the equivalent of Hold. He raised his price target from $425 to $600 and said his bull case for shares is $1,000. Ives is neutral, but there are still plenty of bearish analysts to hear from.

Dream lives on, RBC analyst Joe Spak wrote in his Thursday research report. He isnt buying into the dream though. He rates shares the equivalent of Sell, but he did increase his price target from $380 to $615 a share. Despite some positives, like profitability, he remains cautious. Bullishness is very high; we cant recommend adding believing that current price more than discounts positive arguments.

J.P. Morgan analyst Ryan Brinkman left his rating at the equivalent of Sell and his price target at $240. Our Underweight rating considers notable investment positives, including a highly differentiated business model, appealing product portfolio, and leading-edge technology, Brinkman said in a research report on Thursday. But he believes all the positives are more than offset by above-average execution risk and valuation that seems to be pricing in a lot.

New Street Research analyst Pierre Ferragu took a different tack than Brinkman. He increased his price target from $800 to $1,000 a share, the highest on Wall Street for now. He rates shares the equivalent of Buy.

The thing Ferragu focused on in his Thursday research report, like Ives, was profitability. Model Y already profitable with 5,000 units produced, he said. Model 3, S, X ex-subsidy gross margin up [2 percentage points] sequentially. The stronger profitability led him to increase profit margin estimates justifying the price-target increase.

In response to Covid-19 headwinds, [Tesla] withdrew 2020 guidance, noted Baird analyst Ben Kallo in a Thursday research report. That is one slight negative he saw in the earnings report. The company indicated it has the installed capacity to exceed the prior guidance of 500,000 vehicle deliveriesdespite downtimethough given uncertainty around production restart and supplier availability the company will not provide near-term net income or cash flow guidance.

Kallo, a long time Tesla bull, rates share the equivalent of Hold. He raised his price target Thursday from $525 to $700 a share.

The state of the supply chain is a good catch. Coordinating plant restarts around the country with different firms facing different mandates is no trivial issue. Restart headwinds and complexity are weighing on CEO Elon Musks nerves. Commenting on governmental stay at home orders he said: To say [people] cannot leave their house, and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist. This is not democratic. This is not freedom.

The lack of guidance wasnt hurting shares in the morning. But the stock ended down 2.3% Thursday to $781.88 a share. Teslas nearly 90% year-to-date gains still far exceed comparable drops of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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Tesla Keeps Beating Expectations. Heres What Wall Street Is Saying About the Stock. - Barron's

The first time I reported an issue with glasses on Tesla vehicles was on January 6. Sergio Rodriguez's Model X had a waterfall in his dashboard. We later learned from Chad Hrencecin, from "The Electrified Garage," and also from George Catalin Marinescu, from "Doctor Tesla," that this was a common issue. New glass issues emerged in March. Surprisingly, the Tesla Model Y teardown shed some light on the causes of these problems.

Two recent videos come to the rescue about this subject. The first one, embedded above, had the goal of showing a naked body. Don't be naughty: it was the Model Y's body-in-white, or BIW, for short.

Munro showed the structures of the body, such as the shot guns, and talked about measures Tesla takes to make the Model Y a silent car, such as filling some of them with foam. The engineer also spoke about the lack of paint on the frunk bay, something we have already mentioned Toyota also does with the Etios, a cheap car sold in Brazil and India.

89 Photos

Again, Munro found welding splashes and was not very happy with the roof rack attachments. Part of the urethane that is used to glue the roof glass to the body had invaded the front attachment. That will make installing the roof rack a tough job. The engineer advises anyone willing to have one to order it from Tesla straight ahead: that's the only way to have it installed for sure.

This is when Munro shows that the urethane did not properly cure. That means this material was still raw, as if it had just been applied.

Could this be the reason for the rear glass of Ameya Amritwar's Model 3 to fly away from his car? It surely is related to the issue in Rodriguez's Model X. Urethane application seems to be something Tesla should give more attention to.

In the video right above, Munro has a cathartic moment showing he was right to push Ford to use modules for doors back in 1987. The video is worth watching just for that moment alone, by the way. Ford still does not use them, but that is not his problem anymore. He is just happy that Tesla does.

While showing the module, Munro mentions the stirrups and the compensation springs Tesla doors have because of the frameless windows its cars have.

Would these stirrups and springs be related to the glasses that are spontaneously breaking up, such as Balaji Simma's?

Perhaps these windows are shattering due to heat shocks, as some readers suggested. Anyway, what if they are related to the alignment of the doors? Or to the design of these modules? Or even to compensation springs that are too strong? We'll probably have to wait a little more to clarify this. If you have any information or related problem to report, get in touch with us.

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Model Y Body-In-White May Shed Light On Tesla Glass Incidents - InsideEVs

Police officers chased three Tesla vehicles likely stolen from a Virginia dealership overnight Friday, ending with two drivers fleeing and another driver getting caught, police say.

Two suspects in the chase fled police and are still at-large, Fairfax County Police say.

A Fairfax County Police officer noticed a Tesla driving on Route 7 near the Beltway about 3 a.m. The lights were on and the car was sporting dealer tags, police say.

Officers tried to pull over the Tesla and a pursuit began, police say. Eventually, one of the drivers crashed on Leesburg Pike near the Beltway and ran away, police said.

The drivers of two other Teslas continued southbound on the highway and eventually left the cars near Route 236 and tried to outrun officers, police say.

A third suspect got away. Fairfax County Police say there were an unknown number of passengers in two of the cars.

One of the accused drivers, a man from Maryland, was caught, police say. That suspect allegedly lied about their age, telling police they were actually a juvenile.

Police believe the Teslas were taken from a dealership in the Tyson's Corner area, but didn't say how they could have been taken. The investigation is ongoing.

Editor's Note (Friday, May 1, 2020 at 6:51 a.m.): This story was updated after police released new information on one of the driver's ages.

Stay with News4 for more on this developing story.

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Drivers in 3 Stolen Teslas Lead Police on Chase Through Northern Virginia - NBC4 Washington

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) posted a stronger than expected set of Q1 2020 results, despite the coronavirus pandemic, with revenues growing by ~32% year-over-year and adjusted profits coming in at $227 million, versus a loss of about $494 million a year ago. While the company benefited from strong deliveries of the Model 3 and a production ramp at its Shanghai factory, much of the improved profitability came from higher sales of emission credits which soared to about $354 million from an average of about $150 million over the last four quarters. If not for the spike in regulatory credit sales, Tesla would likely have barely broken even. Below, we take a look at how sales of regulatory credits have helped Tesla and why we believe the near-term outlook for the company looks quite challenging.

For more details on the outlook for Teslas revenues, view our dashboard analysisTesla Revenues: How Does TSLA Make Money?

What Are Regulatory Credits And How Do They Help Tesla?

Several U.S. states and countries have Zero Emissions Vehicle (ZEV) regulations that require that clean vehicles account for a certain mix of auto manufacturers sales each year. If automotive companies, which still largely sell internal combustion engine-based vehicles, dont meet these standards, they can buy credits from the likes of Tesla that earn credits, as they only sell electric vehicles. Although the revenues from these credits are quite volatile they are very lucrative for Tesla, as it likely incurs no direct costs to earn them. The bump in these regulatory credit sales is likely to be partly responsible for the companys automotive gross margins expanding 300 bps sequentially to 25.5%. While its possible that such credits could become more valuable in the medium term, as new emissions regulations come into play in Europe and states in the U.S. look to enforce stricter norms, the current collapse in global auto sales could hurt revenues from ZEV credits in the near-term for Tesla.

Outlook Remains Tough For Tesla In The Near-term

Tesla is likely to face significant near-term revenue pressure and the company has put its 2020 guidance on hold, due to uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic and the broader economic recovery. There is little reason for people to buy expensive cars right now and Teslas production at its Fremont facility, which accounts for about three-quarters of its annual capacity, remains suspended and theres no clarity as to when it could resume.

However, despite significant near-term headwinds, the companys stock has continued to rally, almost doubling year-to-date. The company trades at a P/S multiple of about 6x, compared to GM which trades at about 0.3x, based on trailing revenues. This means that the stock has significant valuation risk, making it react more strongly to negative news compared to its peers.

Our theme Autos Fight COVID-19 contrasts the performance of Tesla stock, which is up almost 90% YTD, with mainstream automakers, who have seen their stocks fall by about 40%.

See allTrefis Price EstimatesandDownloadTrefis Datahere

Whats behind Trefis? See How Its Powering New Collaboration and What-Ifs ForCFOs and Finance Teams|Product, R&D, and Marketing Teams

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Tesla Banked On Emission Credits For Q1 Beat, But Outlook Is Tough - Trefis

Lyfts former COO Jon McNeill has had a fairly storied career as an operator. A Northwestern University economics major who worked at Bain & Co. out of college, he went on to start and sell five companies before being introduced in 2015 to Elon Musk by Sheryl Sandberg and spending 2.5 years as Teslas president of global sales and service.

He was apparently so good at his job that Lyfts investors asked him to join the car-share company to assist it. There, he helped build up the companys management team, got it through its public offering, then decamped last year roughly four months after its IPO and just 18 months after hed joined.

At the time, the move left some shareholders scratching their heads. It also drove down the price of Lyfts shares. Now, McNeill says he had too many ideas percolating to stay. He has so many, in fact, that he just cofounded a business that will launch other businesses.

Its called DeltaV an engineering term for a change in velocity and the idea is to formulate startup ideas, get them up and running, then when theyre at the Series B phase of life, seek outside funding, while hanging on to roughly 80 percent of each company.

Its a tall order, but McNeill thinks he has the team to do it.

Along with McNeill, DeltaV was founded by Karim Bousta, who spent eight years with GE before joining Symantec as a vice president, where McNeill lured him away to Tesla, then brought him to Lyft as its VP and head of operations. (Bousta has also been working in recent months as an operating partner with SoftBank Investment Advisors.)

DeltaV also counts as a cofounder Sami Shalabi, who spent nearly a dozen years as a top engineer at Google after it acquired a company he cofounded called Zingku; Michael Rossiter, a business operations exec who, like Bousta, worked with McNeill at both Tesla and Lyft; and Henry Vogel, who has cofounded a number of companies and was among the first partners at BCG Digital Ventures, the corporate investment firm. (Vogel was also McNeills roommate when the two were college freshmen.)

As important, McNeill also thinks DeltaV has the structure needed to pursue the founders collective vision of investing in fewer companies that they themselves start and grow. Specifically, the five have rounded up $40 million from a dozen investors mostly family offices for an evergreen fund. What that means: investors are committing to allow them to recycle capital, rather than aim to return it after a certain window of time. (Most traditional venture funds, for example, have a 10-year-long investment period.)

Evergreen funds have never gained much traction in the venture world, even while or because they alleviate expensive management fees. Still, there are precedents for what DeltaV is trying to do and, in fact, McNeil volunteers that they largely inspired what the team has built. Indeed, after spending time with tens of accelerators, incubators, and startup studios, McNeil says he walked away the most impressed with what two firms have created: Sutter Hill Ventures in the Bay Area and Flagship Pioneering in Cambridge, Mass.

Both operate evergreen funds, and both have enviable track records. Since its 2000 founding, Flagship Pioneering has formed and spun out 75 companies and 22 of them have gone public since 2013 alone, McNeill notes. Meanwhile, Sutter Hilll a much older outfit that also sources ideas internally, then tests them against the marketplace with the help of roughly 40 in-house engineers has founded 50 companies, at least 18 of which have gone public. (The cloud-based data warehouse company Snowflake may be Sutter Hills next big win. It was valued at $12.4 billion when it most recently raised a round in February, and its CEO, Frank Slootman, suggested then that the companys next financing event would likely be an IPO.)

We dont know the ins and outs of how Flagship or Sutter Hill are structured, and it wasnt McNeills place to tell us.

But for its part, DeltaV doesnt collect fees. Instead, its investors own a stake of the company, alongside the founders.

Further, while evergreen funds often provide limited partners with the ability to exit or change their investment in the fund every four years or so, DeltaV doesnt restrict them at all. Investors instead have board representation and will have a say in how much is recycled versus distributed, and can distribute or shares driven by their needs, without any set windows.

Whether the arrangement proves lucrative for everyone will take years to know, of course. Our sense of things is that DeltaV itself aims to become a public company at some point.

In the meantime, it already has four startups in the works, including one that should be out of stealth mode by early summer and another that the firm hopes to introduce to the world this fall.

The first is a pricing and profit optimization service that aims to help e-commerce players better compete with Amazon. The other is an automotive service business. McNeill wouldnt share more than that right now, though he adds that a separate idea one that revolved around the gig economy and the future of work has been shelved for the time being, given the impacts of the coronavirus

It begs the question of why McNeill thinks right now is a good time to start DeltaV. He laughed when we asked about this earlier today, acknowledging that our national state of affairs wasnt something that many anticipated. In fact, he and his cofounders firmed up their plans just in January and hit the fundraising trail roughly five weeks ago, just as the United States began to come apart at the seams.

Even so, while the coronavirus has forced the team to change some of their priorities in terms of the companies that Delta V eventually hopes to launch, McNeill believes in the old adage that theres no time to start a company like during a major downturn. As he told us on a call, Were actually accelerating a bit in terms of making much more forward progress, particularly where it concerns the firms profit-optimization startup.

As McNeill explained it, he and his cofounders want to make this a very long-term, durable business. We want to create dozens of companies over time. Theyre all operators who know a thing or two about repeatable processes, he added. Now, he said, theyve just codified what theyve been doing all along.

If youre curious to learn more, McNeill has just written a bit more about starting DeltaV here.

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Former Tesla and Lyft exec Jon McNeill just launched a fund that plans to spin out its own companies - TechCrunch

Tesla (TSLA) reported a record first quarter, and we calculate adjusted diluted EPS of $1.14 compared with first-quarter 2019 EPS of negative $2.90. We expect large upward stock moves for Tesla in May as results crushed the Refinitiv EPS consensus of a loss of $0.36. We also expect second quarter will suffer from the firms main plant in California being shutdown since late March, but once COVID-19 restrictions are lifted, we expect Tesla to fill a large number of orders which are still coming in online. We understand given COVID-19 uncertainty that management cannot give 2020 delivery guidance, but we like that Tesla continues to invest without slowing as evidenced by the Shanghai Model Y plant and Gigafactory Berlin both due to start production next year.

We regret nearly halving our fair value estimate on March 18, partly based on a higher weighted average cost of capital due to Teslas 2025 bond yield exceeding 10%, because, in hindsight, that is the same time the bond yield peaked. Even a pandemic causes no fear for the market with this stock, and we're lowering our WACC to about 8.8% from 12%. We're also raising our midcycle operating margin back to 11% and raising deliveries over our 10-year forecast period because we think Tesla will continue to provide formidable competition to premium automakers and have a million units of capacity by the end of 2021. These changes mean we are increasing our fair value estimate to about $731 from $239. If a recession cant stop Tesla then virtually nothing will, and we expect the company to remain a leader in autonomous technology and range. Tesla is also gaining scale and its ability to make desirable vehicles while generating free cash flow and net profit is far better than its ever been. For the quarter, free cash flow was negative $895 million but this was mostly for inventory increases which we expect will become a free cash flow benefit once vehicles being held at the end of first quarter get delivered next quarter.

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Tesla Posts a 1Q Profit for the First Time - Morningstar.com

Tesla stock (NASDAQ:TSLA) was tops in the NASDAQ on Monday. Shares in the electric carmaker soared 10.15% to close the session at $798.75.

The reason for the surge? Over the weekend, Bloomberg reported Tesla will reopen its Fremont factory as soon as this week. (Those plans were canceled after todays closing bell.)

Tesla bulls are also anticipating a glowing first-quarter earnings report.

Tesla stock charted a remarkable rally since announcing first-quarter deliveries on April 2. The company delivered 88,400 vehicles in the quarter ending March 31.

It was a record-breaking first quarter for the company. By contrast, Teslas second-best Q1 saw 63,000 deliveries in 2019.

That is impressive year-over-year quarterly growth amid the coronavirus pandemic and worst economic crash in living memory. Especially so considering how hard coronavirus hit China and the importance of the Chinese market to Teslas growth.

This growth sent the companys shares soaring an incredible 79% from an April 2 low of $446.40 to Mondays high of $799.49.

But Tesla stock bulls are about to bust their faces when this bubble pops.

Among investors, there is a persistent impression of Tesla as a Silicon Valley software company disguised as a car company. In February, CNBCs Jim Cramer joined Squawk Box to say:

I just think its a technology company. You gotta value it as a technology company now that it has earnings.

It was hardly a new way to look at Tesla. At this point, its a trope.

In May last year, Forbes ran the headline:

Why Tesla is Not a Car Company and What You Can Learn From Elon Musk

That explains its wild valuations. Tech companies often trade at high P/E ratios and price-to-book ratios. Thats because they burn through an enormous amount of capital to reach scale.

Once they do, the successful ones reap enormous, monopolistic profits from total market dominance and softwares negligible cost of distribution.

But Tesla is not a software company.

Tesla stock is perilously overvalued. Unlike tech companies that create and distribute software applications, Tesla sells automobiles. Theres no way around that fact. Its revenue comes almost exclusively from vehicle sales.

Its cost structure is essentially different from that of tech companies. Tesla must burn through an enormous amount of cash to make cars. And it always will to operate its business.

That includes both massive fixed cost overlays and marginal costs per car that are fundamentally different from the software business.

While its easy to get confused because Teslas are innovative all-electric vehicles and do use cutting-edge, proprietary software present valuations arent on the money.

Before the coronavirus pandemic tanked Tesla stock with the rest of equities, it was already dangerously overvalued. In January, its earnings to value ratio was nearly 10 times that of other carmakers. But TSLA just kept rallying into the stratosphere.

By February, Barclays auto analyst Brian Johnson told investors:

Not to sound like an Ok, Boomer to the younger investors rushing into TSLA share, but the recent price action brings to mind NASDAQ c. 1999 We continue to believe TSLA is fundamentally overvalued

This side of the global economy crashing, TSLA is trading nearly as high as it was the day Johnson issued his warning about Tesla to investors.

When this stock reverts to its mean long-run value, itll be a feast for the notorious short-sellers and famine for Tesla bulls.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of CCN.com. The above should not be considered investment advice from CCN.com. The author holds no investment position in TSLA as of the time of writing.

This article was edited by Josiah Wilmoth.

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Why Tesla Stock Bulls Are About to Get Absolutely Wrecked - CCN.com

When regulators halted trading on China-based firm Luckin Coffee (NASDAQ:LK), investors sent Nio (NYSE:NIO) stock lower. Yet the fraud by Luckin is a company-specific problem. Nio is in far better shape.

The company posted March delivery numbers that showed a rebound of demand for its vehicles in China. The improving fundamentals suggest that Nio stock may start building on its uptrend that started in early April.

Source: THINK A / Shutterstock.com

Nio posted a 117% month-over-month increase in vehicle deliveries in March. The companys production capacity rebounded, helping its deliveries top 1,533 vehicles in March. That consisted of 1,479 5-seater ES6 SUVs and 54 of the 7-seater ES8s SUVs.

In April, Nio will start delivering an all-new ES8 that has over 180 improvements. Nios CEO, chairman and founder William Bin Li said that in parallel with our continued online sales efforts, our in-store visits have also witnessed a gradual pickup. With the continuous support from our loyal user community, we have seen increasing order backlog since February.

China is still slowly re-opening businesses and returning to normal life after the shutdown caused by the Covid-19 outbreak. As consumers become more upbeat and they become comfortable with buying either online or in offline sales channels, expect Nios growth to accelerate.

China has the largest electric vehicle market in the world and is looking to support Nio. But the company has plenty of work ahead of it.

On April 7, Nio reported that it had delivered a combined 3,838 ES6 and ES8 vehicles in Q1, about 10% above the midpoint of its prior guidance.

But Nio has said it expected many challenges to confront China and the global economy, which will have an impact on the auto industry in the country. Nio, however, believes it will stand out from the competition.

Teslas (NASDAQ:TSLA) 11,280 vehicle sales easily outpaced Nios ES6 sales. So, to catch up, Nio will need to offer features that are on par with that of Tesla. Nio announced two driver assistance features for the ES6 and ES8 models. Navigation On Pilot will allow the vehicle to drive on and off ramp, overtake, merge lanes and cruise according to planned routes.

Self Automatic Parking Assist with Fusion uses surround-view cameras and ultrasonic radars. When active, it will detect parking spots by seeing parking space lines. It will then search for, detect, and choose parking spots.

Nio said it would increase the ES8s range. And in September, it will start delivering the EC6, a smart electric Coupe SUV.

Nio has focused on two growth drivers. First, it will continue seeking to expand its sales network. Having more dealerships will weigh on its costs. But the 200 dealerships it plans to add by the end of 2020 will support its sales growth. Second, Nio relies on users referrals to support its sales growth. As long as customers are satisfied and Nio keeps adding features they need, management expects users referrals to increase.

Nios minimal gross margin increase, despite higher sequential sales volume, is a concern. Sales of the base version of its ES6 vehicle lowered its average selling price. Since its ES8 sales did not increase, its gross margin did not rise by much. If the companys sales mix changes for the better, so will Nios margins.

Investors who forecast a perpetuity growth rate of only 1.5% and use a five-year discounted cash flow growth exit model will assign Nio stock a value of $3.40 (click on this link to test different assumptions on finbox.io). That is in-line with the average analyst price target of $3.50 per share.

ChrisLau is acontributing author for InvestorPlace.com and numerous other financial sites. Chris has over 20 years of investing experience in the stock market and runs the Do-It-Yourself Value Investing Marketplace on Seeking Alpha. He shares his stock picks so readers get original insight that helps improve investment returns.As of this writing, the author did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Nio Is Looking to Catch Up With Tesla in China - Investorplace.com

Teslas salvaged vehicles make for an excellent project for rebuilders, or a chance to have an industry-leading electric car for a discounted price. Some members of the community have even made the act of rebuilding wrecked or damaged Teslas a career, like Rich Rebuilds, who runs a prominent YouTube channel. However, Tesla stopped allowing Supercharging on their salvaged vehicles in February 2020. This move ended fast charging capabilities for the owners of wrecked and refurbished Teslas, but now rebuilders are reporting that the electric vehicle company is taking away more functions.

We received a tip from a Tesla salvager who says the company is now refusing to update ownership records, nor will it activate the smartphone application, which enables some functions for the electric vehicle in question. However, Tesla has a reason for doing this, and it has to do with revenue and passenger safety, which is something the company is under a microscope for from its harshest critics.

But the real reason we are talking about it this week is because there is a valid argument for both points of view, and both should be examined in an open platform. When you decide which side you are on, please e-mail me and let me know your thoughts.

First, lets look at the side of the salvagers. They have a few main points on why taking away vehicle privileges is wrong. One issue is the fact that salvaged Teslas, if not repaired and resold, will end up sitting in a landfill for basically the remainder of the time.

It is a shame that a car that is capable of repair could end up in a landfill to sit and rot away for the rest of time. Not only is it a waste of space, but its a waste of a perfectly good high-performance vehicle. Not to mention, project cars are a hobby and a career for some. Eliminating the possibility of preparing or working on a Tesla electric vehicle to bring it back to life reduces the industry of bringing the cars back to life.

Next, the revitalization of these salvaged vehicles creates an opportunity for a more affordable Tesla ownership experience for some. Rebuilding vehicles creates profit for the person responsible for bringing the car back to a driveable state. At the same time, the owner can sometimes receive a discounted price on a perfectly drivable vehicle that could have low miles.

The industry of rebuilding crashed, or damaged cars are advantageous for multiple parties financially. The issue is the cars are not always repaired by mechanics properly, which can lead to quality and safety issues down the line. However, this could be another opportunity for Tesla to train salvagers, mechanics, and collision repair technicians across the world. The idea of making repair seminars or courses available for those who plan to revitalize a Tesla vehicle could lead to an influx of people who are familiar with the cars inside and out.

To the flip side, Teslas arguments are just as reliable as those of the rebuilders. Tesla has maintained a reputation for having extremely safe vehicles that are capable of saving people from severe injuries when they are involved in scary and violent accidents. When cars are damaged and end up in salvage yards, ending up in the hands of those who are interested in repairing them, they are never really the same. The most severely damaged cars can have chassis and build issues that can never be fixed fully, only masked, and pushed as close to perfect as possible. Theyll never be factory issue, and theyll never drive precisely how they would when they rolled out of a production facility. However, they can be fabricated, rewelded, and adjusted to specifications that are incredibly close to how Tesla intended them to be. But this is a case that would require the individual inspection of each repaired vehicle by a Tesla representative. With 1,000,000 Tesla vehicles manufactured in the companys history, this would be near impossible, even if .01% of them were salvaged and repaired.

The likelihood of a Tesla rep traveling to the location of a rebuilt vehicle and going through hours of inspection: making sure all parts of the car are correctly installed, properly connected, and aligned safely would not be cost-effective, smart, or worth Teslas time. However, it would be necessary. Like I said before, this company has a reputation for building safe cars. When someone in a Tesla gets in an accident, the short sellers and the Elon haters come out of the woodwork looking for answers. Why? So if someone got hurt, or heaven forbid, killed in an accident, they could use it as justification that the cars are not as safe as Tesla advertises, and somehow that means Elon is a fraud.

It is a ridiculous train of thought. Ill never understand Teslas short-sellers celebrating other peoples injuries. Instead of rooting for someone to get hurt, why not root for the company to make safer cars? It would only make other automakers want to match Teslas quality, and it wouldnt be such a horrible thing to have more safe vehicles on the road.

Regardless, Tesla has to account for the fact that if someone gets hurt in a revitalized vehicle that was formerly a salvage, it will be a never-ending storm of media harassment. I can see the misleading headlines nowDriver killed in Tesla proving cars arent so safe after all, or something to that effect. It is a risk that they simply cannot take, and it is not worth the companys future.

Additionally, Tesla makes money when they sell new cars, not when people buy wrecked ones and decide to rebuild them. Lets not forget, this is a car company, and ultimately a business. While Teslas mission is to provide people with safe and affordable electric vehicles that benefit our environment and our well-being, they need to make money.

In the end, Teslas decision, while financial, is also a safety issue. Sure, Elon would love to see some custom projects. Id bet he would like to see his cars developed into something different than what Tesla builds in their factories. But I also bet that he wouldnt want someone to get hurt or killed as a result of negligence while refurbishing a vehicle. Ultimately, it would end up being blood on his hands, and this risk makes it entirely too risky from a business standpoint.

While people are still free to rebuild the cars, they will undoubtedly run into roadblocksno Supercharging, issues with transferring ownership titles, so on and so forth. Tesla is doing it for money, but it is also doing it for safety. In the big picture, thats why I think what they are doing is okay, even though I feel for the rebuilders.

Welcome to a FREE preview of our weekly newsletter. Each week I go Beyond the News and handcraft a special edition that includes my thoughts on the biggest stories, why it matters, and how it could impact the future.

A big thanks to our long-time supporters andnew subscribers! Thank you.

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Teslas Salvaged Vehicles: The Red-Headed Stepchild - Teslarati

Information was obtained from a leaked internal conversation.

Its plainly obvious just by looking at what it has to offer compared to the established automakers that Tesla is ahead of them in so many fields. It not only provides the some of the quickest and longest range EVs around, but its Autopilot semi-autonomous driving tech and over the air updates have other manufacturers worried.

According to an internal document that was supposed to be secret but was obtained by Automobilwoche, none other than Herbert Diess,Volkswagens CEO, said he was worried about Teslas lead in the aforementioned fields.

The source quotes him as saying:

What worries me the most is the capabilities in the assistance systems. 500,000 Teslas work as a neural network that continuously collects data and offers the customer a new driving experience every 14 days, with improved properties. No other automobile manufacturer can do that today.

The article also says Diess wants to implement a plan to try to catch up to Tesla and minimize its lead. He is aware that VW has a long way to go before even coming close, though, not only in terms of tech but also when it comes to valuation.

Even with all its premium brands (Bentley, Porsche, Lamborghini, Audi), the VW group is still only worth about half of what Tesla is worth, according to graphs that Diess passed along to Volkswagens top tier executives.

Volkswagen is clearly not going to let this continue at the same rate and the first step is to get the ID.3 out when its supposed to be out. And it would appear that even with the reported software issues, the manufacturer has now restarted ID.3 production and it still says it wont postpone the start of deliveries.

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VW CEO Worried About Teslas Industry Lead In Autonomous Tech And Software - InsideEVs

Tesla, Inc.TSLA is slated to release first-quarter 2020 results on Apr 29, after the closing bell. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarters earnings is pegged at 27 cents per share on revenues of $5.89 billion.

The electric-vehicle pioneer beat four-quarter 2019 earnings estimates on higher automotive revenues. Over the trailing four quarters, Tesla beat estimates on two occasions for as many misses, the average positive surprise being 281.3%. This is depicted in the graph below:

Tesla, Inc. Price and Consensus

Tesla, Inc. Price and Consensus

Tesla, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Tesla, Inc. Quote

Which Way are the Estimates Treading?

Hit by the coronavirus crisis, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for Teslas first-quarter earnings per share has been revised downward by 33 cents to 27 cents in the past 30 days. However, the figure indicates a year-over-year surge of 109.31%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues suggests a year-over-year increase of 29.8%.

Key Factors

The increasing deliveries of Model 3, which forms a major chunk of the automakers overall deliveries, are likely to have aided Teslas automotive revenues in the to-be-reported quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for total automotive revenues is pegged at $4,467 million, suggesting an increase from the $3,724 million reported in the year-ago quarter. Further, the company registered record overall production and deliveries of 102,672 and 88,400 vehicles, respectively, in the first quarter of 2020, marking a year-over-year jump of 56.5% and 40.3%. Notably, despite the coronavirus outbreak, Tesla's Shanghai factory managed to hit record production levels during the quarter.

Moreover, Tesla reached an important milestone with the manufacture of its one millionth car a Tesla Model Y in first-quarter 2020. Notably, Teslas Model Y crossovers production started in January, while deliveries began in March, significantly ahead of schedule. This is also likely to have buoyed its earnings for the to-be-reported quarter.

However, the companys high R&D and SG&A costs are anticipated to have clipped margins in the March-end quarter. The firm is investing heavily to increase production capacity, boost Model 3 sales, launch Model Y, construct Gigafactories and enhance Supercharger infrastructure, which might have strained its financial prospects during the period in discussion.

Furthermore, with China being the biggest EV market, the countrys economic slowdown is likely to have hurt the companys prospects in the first quarter. Further, rising coronavirus fears, especially in March, are likely to have thwarted vehicle demand. The coronavirus crisis is also expected to have hurt Teslas sales due to factory closures and production shutdowns, hurting the EV maker.

What the Zacks Model Says

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Tesla this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an earnings beat. However, that is not the case here as elaborated below. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Earnings ESP: Tesla has an Earnings ESP of -260.88%. This is because the Most Accurate Estimate is pegged at a loss of 44 cents per share, as against the Zacks Consensus Estimate of earnings of 27 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Tesla carries a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold) currently.

Stocks to Consider

Here are a few stocks worth considering, as these have the right combination of elements to come up with an earnings beat this time around:

Anthem, Inc. ANTM has an Earnings ESP of +1.28% and carries a Zacks Rank #3 currently. The company is slated to release first-quarter 2020 earnings on Apr 29.

The Allstate Corporation ALL is set to report quarterly numbers on May 6. The company has an Earnings ESP of +2.21% and holds a Zacks Rank of 2, at present.

Cigna Corporation CI is scheduled to release earnings figures on Apr 30. The stock has an Earnings ESP of +1.53% and currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

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What's in the Offing for Tesla (TSLA) This Earnings Season? - Yahoo Finance

Tesla has released a few impressive videos of its Autopilot-powered emergency braking feature helping to avoid running over inattentive pedestrians.

What might be even more impressive is that the automaker says that it sees those events happen every day.

Theres a lot of talk about Tesla Autopilot, but one of the least reported aspects of Teslas semi-autonomous driver-assist system is that it powers a series of safety features that Tesla includes for free in all cars.

One of those features is Emergency Automatic Braking.

We saw the Autopilot-powered safety feature stop for pedestrians in impressive tests by Euro NCAP last year, but now we see it perform in real-world scenarios and avoiding potentially really dangerous situations.

Tesla has now released some examples of its system braking just in time to save pedestrians.

The new videos were released by Andrej Karpathy, Teslas head of AI and computer vision, in a new presentation at the Scaled Machine Learning Conference.

It was held at the end of February, but a video of the presentation was just released (starting when he shows the videos):

In the three video examples, you can see pedestrians emerging from the sides, out of the field of view, and Teslas vehicles braking just in time.

Tesla is able to capture and save those videos, thanks to its integrated TeslaCam dashcam feature.

Karpathy says:

This car might not even have been on the Autopilot, but we continuously monitor the environment around us. We saw that there was a person in front and we slammed on the brake.

The engineer added that Tesla is seeing a lot of those events being prevented by its system:

We see a lot of these tens to hundreds of these per day where we are actually avoiding a collision and not all of them are true positive, but a good fraction of them are.

In the rest of the presentation, Karpathy explains how Tesla is applying machine learning to its system in order to improve it enough to lead to a fully self-driving system.

I think its important to bring attention to these examples considering if an accident happens on Autopilot, it gathers so much attention from the media.

Lets see how many of them run with this story.

But I get it. People love crashes a lot more than a near-miss.

On another note, I really like how Karpathy communicates Teslas self-driving effort. His presentations are always super clear and informative, even for people who are not super experienced in machine learning.

In order for TeslaCam and Sentry Mode to work on a Tesla, you need a few accessories. We recommendJedas Model 3 USB hub(now also available for Model Y) to be able to still use the other plugs and hide your Sentry Mode drive. For the drive, Im now usinga Samsung portable SSD, which you need to format, but it gives you a ton of capacity, and it can be easily hidden in the Jeda hub.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Tesla releases impressive videos of cars avoiding running over pedestrians - Electrek

We've been patiently waiting for our good friend Sean Mitchell's Tesla Model Y review just as much as he's been patiently waiting to get behind the wheel of the new Tesla crossover. To be clear, we're all patiently waiting for many things these days. Even with the best-laid plans, we're learning that we don't really have much control over the present or the future.

With that said, we appreciate everyone's patience, as well as everyone's efforts to do what they can to stay healthy, help keep others healthy, and assist where they can. To be clear, Mitchell didn't buy a Model Y. Instead, he was waiting for access to someone else's new car. While many people have already taken delivery of the Model Y, in many cases it hasn't been safe to collaborate. InsideEVs has access to a Model Y as well, which we plan to review and use for exclusive content, but it's still a waiting game at this point.

Mitchell takes us through the car and then heads out on the road. He's impressed with the Model Y's ride height, storage, automatic liftgate, and overall headroom and legroom. However, he questions why Tesla stuck with the piano back console, which many people are unhappy with. In addition, Mitchell mentions the noisy heat pump.

Can three adults fit comfortably across the second row? Perhaps more important to families waiting for a three-row Model Y, how much room will the third row offer? Check out the video and then let us know what you think of Mitchell's impressions. If you recently took delivery of a Tesla Model Y, please share more details with us in the comment section.

Model Y: The Good and Bad

Good:Ride heightHead and leg roomAuto lift gateStorage

Bad:Glossy consoleNoisy heat pumpSize with three adults in back2 adults in third row!?

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Tesla Model Y Test Drive & Impressions: The Good & The Bad - InsideEVs

Tesla has made some impressive progress in self-driving visualization with its latest software updates. Check out this new beautiful picture that represents that progress extremely well.

In an update called Full Self-Driving Sneak Previewlate last year, Tesla made a series of Driving Visualization Improvements:

The driving visualization can now display additional objects that include stoplights, stop signs, and select road markings. The stop signs and stoplight visualizations are not a substitute for an attentive driver and will not stop the car. To see those additional objects in your driving visualization, tap Controls > Autopilot > Full Self Driving Visualization Preview.

However, the display of those new objects in the visualization system was not always accurate.

As we recently reported, Tesla is going through a significant foundational rewrite in the Tesla Autopilot. As part of the rewrite, CEO Elon Musk says that the neural net is absorbing more and more of the problem.

It will also include a more in-depth labeling system.

The CEO added that it will dramatically improve Autopilot visualization and Tesla will be able to quickly roll out better iterations.

We are already seeing some improvements in the latest software updates Tesla released in the last few weeks and a picture taken by Jacob S. illustrates some of those improvements perfectly.

The Tesla owner from Reno, Nevada, shared the picture taken in his Model 3 with Electrek:

As you can see in the image, Tesla is accurately detecting and then representing on the display all three cones blocking the road, the temporary stop sign, and if you zoom in closer, you can even see that Tesla is detecting and representing on the screen the person holding the stop sign.

Jacob told Electrek:

It was immediately. We were first in line and I looked right to the visualization.

These new and improved visualizations are expected to lead to Teslas new Stopping at Traffic Lights and Stop Signsfeature, which is currently being tested in the early access program.

While this feature is part of Teslas Full Self-Driving Capability Package, its important to note that Tesla still requires drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel and be ready to take control at all time.

This is an impressive improvement. We come a long ways from the days of V9, which was less than two years ago:

Of course, visuliazation is one thing and acting on what the system detects is a completely different thing, but it is a confidence builder.

It shows that Teslas system is accurately able to detect and render its surroundings, and that will go a long way further down the road to help people accept Teslas self-driving system.

What do you think? Let us know in the comment section below.

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Teslas latest self-driving visualization comes to life in this impressive picture - Electrek

By William GallagherTuesday, April 21, 2020, 07:08 am PT (10:08 am ET)

Apple will still not say that it is making a car, despite filing legally-required documentation, and also countless patents regarding the interior and exterior. Now, though, those countless patents include one that details how Apple intends to use an electrical motor that is designed for cars.

Titled "Electric motor with bar wound stator and end turn cooling," US Patent No 10,630,127, discusses the technology that Apple has chosen, and has now been granted, for a potential Apple Car.

The patent details specifically a three-phrase AC induction motor, which is only one of several possible electrical motor systems for cars. However, it uses the same squirrel cage motor technology that Tesla does.

Apple will have chosen this technology specifically for the same reasons that Tesla has. It can generate a high starting torque when the voltage/frequency is controlled, it's cheaper, and is also useful over rugged terrain. These motors can be also be expected to have a longer life, and need less maintenance, than, for instance, a permanent magnet drive.

In comparison, hybrid vehicles from Ford and Nissan use permanent magnet synchronous motors. They are more efficient than induction motors, but they also cost more and need greater maintenance. Plus their magnets tend to wear out and need replacement over time.

Three-phase induction motors are likely chosen because the technology is relatively cheap to build, requires little maintenance, and can generate a high starting torque when voltage/frequency is controlled. When properly controlled, a three-phase AC induction motor can be made to be 90% efficient. The problem is in the complexity of that control, though the patent does not explicitly detail Apple's systems for handling this.

Instead, Apple's patent concentrates on the motor technology paired with a method for dissipating heat from the engine. "[A] cooling structure [is] disposed in a thermally conductive relationship with at least one of the upper exterior ring surface or the lower exterior ring surface for receiving heat from the end turn ring," it says.

The patent is credited to five inventors, Dillon J. Thomasson, Kan Zhou, Rui Guan, Yateendra B. Deshpande, and William M. Prince. Thomasson, Zhou, and Guan are all previously credited on the related patent "Electric motor with shielded phase windings."

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Apple Car research focusing on use of Tesla-style induction motor - AppleInsider