November 3, 2017
Teslas Model 3 Moment of Truth Is Here
When Tesla Inc. reports third quarter earnings Wednesday after the bell, the overwhelming focus will be on the production ramp of the Model 3—the more affordable electric car that is critical to Tesla’s mainstream success and profitability.
Almost half a million people have placed $1,000 reservations for the car, but so far, only employees and close friends of the company have gotten them. Last month, Tesla reported that it made just 260 Model 3s in the third quarter, well below the 1,500 it forecast in its August letter to shareholders. Tesla hinted at “production bottlenecks” at both its auto plant in Fremont, California, and the “Gigafactory” for battery production in Sparks, Nevada, without detailing what they are or when they will be resolved. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has said that Tesla will achieve a production tempo of 5,000 Model 3s per week by the end of the year: will he reaffirm that figure or walk it back? Wall Street, and consumers, will be watching.
“Tesla may not update its prior guide of achieving a run-rate of 5K Model 3 units per week by the end of 2017, other than to point out that the exponential S-Curve may be shifted out a few weeks,” said analyst Brian Johnson of Barclay’s in a research note to clients Tuesday. “We will press to understand how many vehicles were produced quarter-to-date—a number management should know.”
What with SpaceX launches, Boring Co. tunnels, and dark warnings about the threat of artificial intelligence, Musk already has several irons in the fire. But Tesla is the center of the Muskian universe, and the second half of 2017 was to be the test of whether he could make enough Model 3s, and make them fast enough, to justify the billions of dollars already spent.
These are some of the questions that analysts will probably be asking:
1. What exactly are the “production bottlenecks” and are they primarily at Tesla’s gigafactory?
While much of the speculation has centered on the company’s Fremont plant, its gargantuan battery facility in Nevada is also a critical part of the production story. In an August letter to shareholders, Tesla stressed that the Model 3 drive units, as well as battery packs made with new cells, are being built on new manufacturing lines at the Gigafactory.
More telling is that Musk, 46, appears to be spending more time there, tweeting Thursday that he’s been camping on the roof “because it was less time than driving to a hotel room in Reno.” And when he said camping, he wasn’t kidding. Meanwhile, Tesla shares have returned 50 percent so far this year, but has been down more than 6 percent this week below the Bloomberg consensus one-year target price.
2. How much cash has Tesla spent?
Tesla had roughly $3 billion in cash on hand at the end of the second quarter and tapped the debt markets in August, raising $1.8 billion in its debut bond sale. The company has always expected to spend heavily in the second half of the year on the Model 3 as kinks in the lines are worked out and production accelerates.
“We hope for a more detailed plan for the company’s expected cash burn,” wrote analyst Jeffrey Osborne of Cowen & Co. LLC in an Oct. 19 research note. The company “still has not provided a realistic plan for [capital expenditures] that reflects both the company’s ambitions as well as cash generating ability.”
3. How close is Tesla to completing plans for an assembly plant in China?
In June, Tesla said it’s “working with the Shanghai Municipal Government to explore the possibility of establishing a manufacturing facility in the region to serve the Chinese market” and expected to more “clearly define our plans for production in China by the end of the year.” If Tesla could set up a plant in China, it could compete better with local rivals because it would eliminate a 25 percent import tariff that makes Tesla’s cars more costly for Chinese consumers.
4. Is labor strife affecting production at the Fremont factory?
Tesla has roughly 33,000 employees globally, a figure that ballooned after the carmaker acquired SolarCity in November 2016. And the company still has more than 2,300 job openings listed.
The United Auto Workers is trying to organize some of the more than 10,000 employees at Tesla’s Fremont facility. Last month, the company reportedly fired hundreds of workers, citing annual performance reviews. The UAW filed an unfair labor practices claim with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging the company harassed, intimidated and eventually terminated some workers who had supported unionizing. Tesla has denied any wrongdoing.
5. What’s up with Autopilot?
Musk has promised that Tesla’s driver assistance platform, known as Autopilot, has the hardware necessary to enable full self-driving. But this year has seen repeated turnover on its Autopilot team, and there’s no sign of the promised “Enhanced Autopilot” features, let alone the “Full Self Driving” goal he unveiled a year ago. Musk also promised an autonomous cross-country drive from California to New York by the end of 2017 but appeared to push that timeline back a bit on his last earnings call.
Elon Musk Has Spent a Year Being Wrong About Self-Driving Teslas
Tesla used to be seen as a leader in autonomous driving. But with the Autopilot timeline slipping and many other automakers promising 2018 vehicles with similar features, expect a lot of questions about Tesla’s road map to full self-driving.
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Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-01/tesla-s-model-3-moment-of-truth-is-here
May 3, 2018
Burning Man co-founder Larry Harvey dies aged 70 0
by MeDaryl • Cars • Tags: Burning Man festival, california, culture, Festivals, Nevada, San Francisco, US news, World news
Harvey died in San Francisco after suffering stroke on 4 April and the festival in Nevada desert he co-created attracts 70,000 annually
Larry Harvey, whose whimsical decision to erect a giant wooden figure and then burn it to the ground led to the popular, long-running counterculture celebration known as Burning Man, has died. He was 70.
Harvey died on Saturday morning at a hospital in San Francisco, surrounded by family, Burning Man Project chief executive Marian Goodell said. The cause was not immediately known but he suffered a stroke earlier this month. A longtime friend, Stuart Mangrum, posted on the organizations website that Harvey did not believe in any sort of existence after death.
Now that hes gone, lets take the liberty of contradicting him, and keep his memory alive in our hearts, our thoughts, and our actions, Mangrum wrote. As he would have wished it, let us always Burn the Man.
Burning Man takes place annually the week before Labor Day in northern Nevadas Black Rock Desert. The week-long festival attracts some 70,000 people who pay anywhere from $425 to $1,200 a ticket to travel to a dry lake bed 100 miles east of Reno, where temperatures routinely reach 100F (37.8C) during the summer.
There they must carry in their own food, build their own makeshift community and engage in whatever interests them. On the gatherings penultimate day, the giant effigy or Man as it is known is set ablaze during a raucous, joyful celebration.
Friends and family toasted Harvey as a visionary, a lover of words and books, a mentor and instigator who challenged others to look at the world in new ways. Burners, as theyre called, left comments on the organizations website thanking Harvey for inspiring them as artists and for creating a community.
Thanks for everything. (No, really, pretty much everything in my life right now is a result of Burning Man), read one post.
An esoteric mix of pagan fire ritual and sci-fi Dada circus where some paint their bodies, bang drums, dance naked and wear costumes that would draw stares in a Mardi Gras parade was how the Associated Press once described the gathering.
While tickets now sell out immediately, Harvey described in a 2007 interview how he had much more modest intentions when he launched Burning Man on San Franciscos Baker Beach one summer day in 1986.
I called a friend and said, Lets go to the beach and burn a man, he told the website Green Living. And he said, Can you say that again? And I did and we did it.
It wasnt until afterwards, Harvey recalled, that he had the epiphany that led to Burning Man. Within a few years the event had outgrown Baker Beach and moved to the desert.
While Harvey would speak frequently about Burning Man in the years that followed, he would reveal little about himself and it was often hard to discern truth from fiction. He believed he was conceived in the back of a Chevrolet by parents who abandoned him soon after his birth, he once told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
His brother, Stewart Harvey, said in a post on Saturday that the two were adopted by farmers Shorty and Katherine Harvey and grew up outside Portland, Oregon. The brothers, who were not related by blood, were extremely close. Harvey said he hitchhiked to San Francisco at age 17. He settled in the Haight-Ashbury district for many years.
After that first fire in 1986, Burning Man flourished as Harvey meticulously oversaw its every detail from the various communities that would spring up overnight to its annual arts theme to the beautifully crafted temple that accompanies Burning Man and is also burned.
Harvey eventually formed a limited liability corporation to put on Burning Man, converting it in 2013 to a nonprofit with 70 employees and a budget of $30m. He was president of its board and chief philosophic officer.
Although known for retaining its joyful celebrative atmosphere as it grew from a small gathering to one of gigantic proportions, Burning Man occasionally had problems. In 2017, a man ran into Burning Mans flames, suffered burns over almost all of his body and died. In 1996, three people were injured when a drunken driver ran over their tent. The same year a man was killed when his motorcycle collided with a van carrying people to the festival.
In 2007, a prankster set fire to Burning Man four days early and it had to be frantically rebuilt while the man was charged with arson. After the 1996 troubles Harvey had a falling out with John Law, who had co-founded Burning Man with him and who sued to have its trademark placed in the public domain. They settled out of court and Harvey retained control.
We dont use the trademark to market anything. Its our identity, said Harvey, who often spoke against the commodification of popular culture.
He is survived by his son Tristan Harvey, brother Stewart Harvey and nephew Bryan Harvey.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/apr/28/burning-man-co-founder-larry-harvey-dies-aged-70