Welcome to Electrified. It's your host Dylan Loomis. Quick shout out to my new or updated patrons, Banjo T and John L. Thank you for choosing to support the channel.
So far today, there have been a lot of emotional knee jerk type reactions to this headline and article from the Washington Post. Tesla employee in fiery crash may be the first FSD death. Honestly, anytime there's an article like this, my main goal is just to block out everything else and read the article, try to extract any facts about the situation, really just to see if there's anything we can learn about FSD, the current state of it, and what should or should not change going forward. I know these stories can stir up emotions on both sides, but let's just try to be stoic for a few minutes.
Hans Van O'Hane was the driver who was tragically killed and his friend who was in the car with him at the time was Eric Rosseter. Fact number one, both of these gentlemen were drinking when this happened and the driver, Hans, who passed away, the autopsy found that his blood alcohol level was 0.26 more than three times the legal limit. Most of us here already know that whether Hans was hammered or totally sober, he is always still ultimately responsible.
Hans Van O'Hane是这位不幸遭遇车祸丧生的驾驶员,当时在车上的朋友是Eric Rosseter。第一点事实是,这两位先生在事故发生时都在喝酒,而已故的驾驶员Hans在尸检中发现他的酒精含量为0.26,超过了法定限制的三倍以上。我们这里大多数人已经知道,无论Hans是喝醉了还是完全清醒,他始终对此负有最终的责任。
Fact number two, a patrol sergeant who oversaw the investigation said it was one of the most intense vehicle fires he had ever seen. It was actually the fire and smoke inhalation and thermal injuries that caused the death of Hans. He most likely would have survived the impact alone.
Fact three, Colorado police could not get access to data from the car because of the intensity of the fire. According to the investigation report, Tesla said it could not confirm a driver assistance system had been in use because it did not receive data over the air for the incident.
Fact four, Madden, the patrol sergeant, closed the Colorado State Patrol investigation, unable to determine whether FSD played a role. As far as Faxcale, that's really all we get, then we get into the individual testimony part of the story.
The survivor of the crash, who had been drinking at the time, told emergency responders that the driver was using an auto drive feature on the Tesla that just ran straight off the road. In a recent interview after the fact, Rossiter, the survivor, said he believes that Hans was using full self-driving. A purchase order obtained by the post shows the car was equipped with FSD and the driver's widow said he did use it frequently, especially on the road where the crash occurred, which it sounded like was up in the mountains with some twisty roads. Rossiter said Hans was using FSD earlier in the day when they were on their way to the golf course and he believes the feature was engaged at the time of the crash.
So far, Hans's widow has not been able to find a lawyer willing to take his case to court because he was legally intoxicated. The widow said, regardless of how drunk Hans was, Elon has claimed that this car can drive itself and is essentially better than a human. We were sold a false sense of security. Hans's wife, the widow, had refused to use FSD herself. She said it unpredictably stressed her out. Bass, Hans's widow, said of FSD technology, it was jerky, but we were like, that comes with a territory of new technology. We knew the technology had to learn and we were willing to be part of that.
The patrol sergeant said, given the crash dynamics and how the vehicle drove off the road with no evidence of a sudden maneuver, that fits with the driver assistance feature being engaged. We don't need to wait further into the detail, but it is a sad story because Hans, the driver that was killed, was apparently a huge Tesla fan, big fan of Elon and wanted to help push the technology forward. They did say that Rossiter was found to have a similar blood alcohol level as Hans and he could only recall shreds of the crash.
It sounds like we may never actually get the facts of this case and be able to learn if it was actually FSD that malfunctioned and caused this crash. But again, whether it did or didn't, ultimately it is the driver's fault. I wanted to touch on this story though because it brings up a big talking point and that is this false sense of security that people are talking about with FSD. Whether that's from comments Elon has made in the past or whether that's from individuals using this technology for months and months and just getting comfortable with it, either way, it's not a place anybody should ever end up.
Even though Tesla's data shows that FSD is safer than a human, that does not mean it's safer than a human in every instance and we all know it only takes one wrong instance. You just hope that stories like this bring about a silver lining that results in more people being more vigilant when using this technology. So not to sound insensitive here, but to me it just seems like this false sense of security that people are claiming after the fact from these accidents is really just a crutch and a way to try to put the blame back on Tesla. Whether it's for monetary purposes or out of emotion or frustration, anger, despair, sadness, whatever the case, Tesla clearly says in many different places at many different phases along the way that the driver is ultimately responsible. Like I said before, even if Hans was totally sober, the accident would still ultimately be his fault. Sad story indeed, but to take home point, stay vigilant out there.
There have been a few different posts and different Reddit threads over the past few days, some of which have gone semi-viral, all talking about the Cybertruck may have a rust problem. One user in the Cybertruck Owners Club forum shared this photo of his Cybertruck saying these little rust spots were appearing after washing it with dish soap and then driving it through the rain for two days. Just generally speaking, I'm not sure how many of these Cybertrucks have been delivered by rail, but if so, rail dust may be at least something to consider. The metal wheels on the train paired with the metal train tracks can cause these metal particles that may or may not be rusty to fly up into the air and sometimes land on the vehicles. Then this user Raxar said a Tesla advisor specifically mentioned Cybertrucks develop orange rust marks in the rain and that requires the vehicle to be buffed out. Just keep in mind when it comes to this topic, you see a lot of people making arguments about stainless steel in general, but we have to remember, Teslas is certainly a bit different. They're using a custom alloy, cold rolled 3Lx stainless steel. For better or for worse, just remember that Teslas stainless steel is indeed different. You may recall from Tesla's own release notes when they give advice on cleaning the exterior of the Cybertruck they say to immediately remove corrosive substances. Presumably because there's no clear coat on the Cybertruck exterior. It's definitely too early to be drawing any dogmatic conclusions about this situation, but given how many people I've seen talking about this online, I thought it most certainly warranted at least a mention for everybody to keep in the back of your mind.
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I saw this post on Facebook. We had this user saying in a California service center, they saw the Cybertruck and a tech did confirm that this vehicle was ready for delivery. But as you can see, some of these panels in the actual Tano are definitely different colors. Now look, I'd imagine this will most likely just be a one-off random situation if this Cybertruck was indeed for delivery. But my question for you is, would you accept delivery with your truck looking like this? Personally, I don't think that I would.
On Tesla's website for the FAQ for Powerwall, they're now saying you can place an order online and the Powerwall 3 is available in the continental US. Hawaii and Puerto Rico will be coming later this year. We won't dive into the specs of the Powerwall 3, we've done that in a prior episode, I just want to highlight a few quick things for people to keep in mind. The Powerwall 3 can be paired with other Powerwall 3 batteries but cannot be added to Powerwall 2 or Powerwall Plus batteries. Powerwall 3 is compatible with all major solar inverter brands and can support various existing system sizes. As always, check with your professional tax advisor but for 2023 to hopefully 2032, you can get 30% off a standalone Powerwall through the federal investment tax credit. There are other state and local incentives available as well.
On the Tesla website, one Powerwall without any incentives is $8,400 the same as before. Then, including potential incentives, the price comes down to $5,729 which is actually just over a 30% discount. These prices do not include taxes, it does not include installation. In addition to some of the performance specs being better with the Powerwall 3, I would also add three main things. One of the solar inverter is now integrated with the Powerwall 3, rather than having that separate box like before. And the Powerwall 3 will be easier for Tesla to install, bringing the installation times down significantly. And it's supposed to be cheaper to manufacture for Tesla as well, so everything else holding steady, better margins for Tesla.
Last year, we talked about one of the biggest benefits of the inflation reduction act for battery energy storage was the transferability of these investment tax credits. Simply put, the transferability of these tax credits opens up the battery energy storage market and these projects to a much wider audience. Before this, to actually take advantage of these tax credits, these entities would have to set up pretty complicated tax structures. What that resulted in was most of the projects being commissioned were actually being financed and ran through ultimately the big banks on Wall Street. And it's playing out exactly how we thought it would. The CEO of Crux, a tax credit organization, said with transferability, we're seeing a much broader base of demand from public companies, industrial players, private companies and family offices, which are all very different from traditional tax equity investors. Thanks to this transferability, the CEO also said this market has grown faster than anyone expected. He said there was $7-9 billion of transferable tax credit transactions already one third the size of the traditional tax equity market. The market has definitely grown faster than I or anyone else expected.
It's also worth mentioning that Duke Energy has agreed under pressure from the U.S. Congress to decommission an energy storage battery project produced by CATL. This project was set up at a Marine Corps Basecamp. Duke Energy has already disconnected the battery storage project, citing concerns raised by lawmakers and experts around CATL's close ties to China's ruling Communist Party. CATL said claims of its batteries posing security threats are false and misleading. This could just be a one-off because it was on military grounds, but we'll see if these concerns spread to other locations as well.
You may remember, less than one month ago, Tesla cut prices pretty significantly across most of Europe for the Model Y. Well, fast forward to now, and Tesla is raising prices both in Germany and in Norway. Depending on the trim and the region, these prices increase anywhere between about $1,700 and $2,700. Tesla's production in Berlin has been down for the past two weeks, so maybe that has something to do with it.
We got an interesting take from George Hott's on X, saying full autonomy is 10 plus years away. Tesla is a profitable company, Waymo is not. That was quote posting this from Timothy B. Lee, who said three widely held views right now. One, Tesla's on the verge of achieving full autonomy, Waymo's a joke. Two, Waymo's on the verge of achieving full autonomy. Tesla's a joke. Three, full autonomy is 10 plus years away, Waymo and Tesla are both jokes. The only rationale George gave was, we'll get many useful intermediates on the path to full autonomy in the next 10 years, but the difference between predicting and acting in loop is huge. A fully autonomous car is an agent so far beyond any agent behavior I've seen to date, sorry about bruising your hype. Hott's is definitely a polarizing and an interesting fellow, but I do certainly respect his opinion. The problem here is, the definition of full autonomy is pretty vague and means different things to different people. Is it cars with no wheels where you can sleep wherever you go anywhere on the planet in any situation? The thing is, there's people out there that consider full autonomy to be what Waymo is doing now, just having a car drive itself without a driver.
我们从乔治·豪特(George Hott)这里得到了一个有趣的看法,他说实现完全自动化还需要10年以上的时间。特斯拉是一家盈利的公司,而Waymo则不是。这是蒂莫西·B·李(Timothy B. Lee)转发的帖子,他说现在有三种广泛持有的观点。一、特斯拉即将实现完全自动化,而Waymo只是个笑话。二、Waymo即将实现完全自动化,而特斯拉只是个笑话。三、完全自动化还需要10年以上的时间,Waymo和特斯拉都是笑话。乔治给出的唯一理由是,在接下来的10年里,我们将在实现完全自动化的道路上获得许多有用的中间结果,但预测和行动之间的差距是巨大的。到目前为止,完全自动驾驶汽车是我见过的任何代理行为中最远的。很抱歉破坏了你们的炒作。豪特绝对是一个很有争议和有趣的人,但我肯定尊重他的意见。问题在于,完全自动化的定义非常模糊,对不同的人来说意味着不同的事情。是指没有车轮的汽车,你可以在全球的任何情况下任何地方都可以睡觉吗?事实是,有些人认为Waymo现在正在做的就是完全自动化,只是让汽车自己行驶而没有驾驶员。
The Cybertruck is in the midst of a global tour of sorts. As you can see here, it's currently in Vancouver and making its rounds up in Canada. And the word is, the Cybertruck may soon be showcased in South Korea as part of its tour of Asia. It may arrive in South Korea as early as next week. Elon replied to Tesla Boomer Papa sharing a video with Dan O'Dowd to which Elon said he has lost his marbles. Responding to it, Dan O'Dowd said, the coward Elon hides behind his fanboys coming out for a moment to take an occasional pot shot at me. He's afraid to defend his FSD technology in a public forum because it's not four times safer than a human driver as he claims. It drives like a drunk teenager. On X David posted that Tesla has started delivering the new yoke steering wheel we've been hearing about. The horn is back in the center. He pointed out more stitching along the bottom and an overall better build quality. You also now have the camera pressable button on the yoke as well. I would love to know so if any of you out there have any intel on this, what is Tesla doing when it comes to Apple Watch support? Not having anything official? Not a Tesla app shared this image of an Apple Watch Ultra with the Porsche Ticon app. I think it's past time Tesla rolls out something official just like Porsche has with the Porsche car connect.
Sawyer posted a poll that got over 37.7 thousand votes and the question, do you think Tesla spending $7 million on a 30 second Super Bowl ad would be a good investment for the company? 41.2% of people said no 36.8% of people said yes 10.4% of people said I'm not sure. The Tesla community is clearly split over this topic. My vote would be yes but for the 2025 Super Bowl so they have time to get their messaging right. Speaking of advertising at the Super Bowl, as it turns out VW got the third highest engagement among advertisers in all industries. This coming from an analytics company that measures search traffic. Of the four auto brands that advertised on Sunday, VW accounted for 69% of all search activity afterward, followed by 15% for Kia, 10% for Toyota, and 6% for BMW. VW generated a 117% brand increase on auto trader after its commercial, while search activity for the ID buzz on KBB increased more than 13 fold over the pre-game baseline. Cars.com looked at traffic patterns for advertised car model pages in the 8 minutes before and after each spot aired. It found a 394% surge in traffic for VW, 265% for Kia, 223 for Toyota, and 158% for BMW. However, as with all online advertising, it's one thing to drive somebody to your page. It's something entirely different to convert that person to a buyer.
I feel like anytime I start talking about China, people start falling asleep and I get it, but let's not forget it's the biggest EV market in the world. It's not that close, so it's at least worth keeping tabs. I'll spare you the details, but the article was highlighting some of the similarities between what China is going through right now and what they're trying to do to prop up the stock market and the real estate market, and the similarities with what Japan was doing before they entered their lost decade. So it's worth asking the question, could China now be facing its own lost decade?
Then, according to interviews with migrants at the border, they're saying that the main reason for these Chinese folks trying to come to the United States has been the desperate economic situation back at home. More than 37,000 Chinese migrants were detained at the US Southern border last year, 10 times the year earlier. Yes, of course, some of these people were fleeing oppression and persecution by an authoritarian government, but most were regular people struggling to make ends meet.
The French government cut by 20% a subsidy for higher income car buyers. They lowered the subsidy by just over $1,000 for the 50% highest income car buyers, but left the subsidy for people on lower incomes just over $7,000. They said we're modifying the program to help more people, but with less money as they have a fixed budget for the program.
Consumer Reports did a survey of over 9,000 Americans for last year, essentially asking 4 questions about their familiarity with electric vehicles and knowing somebody that has one. 34% of respondents answered no to every question. What I really wanted to highlight though, 4 in 10 Americans have not heard about incentives available for EV owners. Sure, it's not a massive sample size, but it's also not 90 people either and 40% didn't know about EV incentives. We have to change this.
What I'm about to say guarantees nothing, but just so you know everything that I've been reading from lawyers and more people in the know when it comes to that Delaware decision, they're all saying that the most likely outcome is Tesla does actually appeal that verdict. It doesn't mean they will, but I'm hoping that all of these commentators are ultimately right.
Here we have it, a Chrysler concept car called the house Cion. After they discontinued the Chrysler 300, their only active product is the Chrysler Pacifica minivan. Chrysler is owned by Stellantis and as far as we've heard, they're not supposed to have a new vehicle available for sale until next year. That new vehicle is supposed to be a crossover, not a car, and it's expected to be Chrysler's first all electric vehicle. They have said they want a full lineup of innovative seamlessly connected EVs by 2028. The house Cion was supposed to show up at CES earlier this year, but Stellantis canceled those plans as well as some other events, apparently to save capital. I'm fully expecting to see nothing like this available for sale the next few years, but hopefully this is a sign that Chrysler is getting serious about full B.E.V. development.
Rivian's hiring spree continues as now they bring Jennifer Prenner on board. She just announced on LinkedIn that she's starting with Rivian as their VP of marketing and chief marketing officer. She worked at Meta for over three years. She was the vice president of global marketing for reality labs, Meta's AR-VR product line.
This happened last week, but I missed it. Arrival has entered administration, which is the British version of a bankruptcy filing. Arrival was a hot commodity there for a second. Its valuation reached $13 billion at one point and they had orders from both Hyundai and UPS. Now it looks like Arrival will be sold for parts. They've been bleeding cash since 2021 and despite taking in $50 million last year, its run out of money before it sold a single vehicle.
A quick update on that space as we said UPS was relying on Arrival, but now that that's fallen through, they are still saying they plan to develop low and zero emission solutions, including with multiple electric vehicle manufacturers around the world. FedEx is using electric vans from GM subsidiary Brightrop and has deployed about 500 in California and parts of Canada. But it's Rivian and Amazon leading the charge here as they have over 10,000 of these EDVs deployed globally.
It was a red day for the markets today as the core inflation rate came in at 3.9% hotter than the expectation of 3.7%. Clearly, core inflation has been leveling off and this time around it was predominantly driven by sticky shelter prices. According to the CME FedWatch tool, just one day ago, we had a 16% chance of a rate cut at the March meeting. That number has now dropped to 8.5%. Looking at expectations for the May meeting, we're now at 32.6%, expecting a hold, no rate cut and 61.9% chance of a 25 basis point rate cut.
For the markets on one hand, you have the risk that inflation stays higher for longer, which of course reduces the chances that we see those rate cuts that so many people in the market are waiting for. Then on the other hand, you have all of the hype for AI and all of the demand that's going to cause for chips and all of the productivity boost for all of these big companies. So we'll see how that balance shakes out for today.
Tesla stock closed at $184.02 per share down 2.18% while the NASDAQ was down 1.8%. Self-relatively speaking, Tesla actually held up quite well today as you can see some of the other EV names down over 7%. It was a low volume day for Tesla stock trading about 22 million shares below the average 30 day volume. As I was editing, the information broke some news that Andre Carpathi has just left open AI according to a spokesperson. He was working on an AI assistant, but now that he's left open AI, this clearly means he's coming back to Tesla. Obviously I just made that last part up, but it's certainly worth mentioning.
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