Also in July Musk published a much-hyped (in anticipation) single page vision of where he wants to take Tesla in the future. Unfortunately for him though, Tesla is far behind deep-pocketed competitors in nearly every facet of this vague and unfinanced “plan,” something easily discerned by conducting a simple Google search on each of his stock-pumping buzzwords. Here’s one example, here’s another and here’s a third. I could easily post twenty or thirty more.
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More details on Audi’s Tesla Model S competitor emerge
Audi’s upcoming four-door luxury electric car will have a 311-mile range, along with Level 4 self-driving features (essentially full autonomy, for those keeping track) and three separate electric motors, according to a new report from Autocar. The car is set to go head-to-head with the Model S, based on these new stats, and will likely be called the “A9 e-tron” when it goes on sale sometime in 2020, the publication says.
Read more "More details on Audi’s Tesla Model S competitor emerge"Tesla’s late to deliver the one thing it should probably deliver on time
Being late isn’t the end of the world unless all eyes are on you to deliver. When asked to furnish information related to a fatal accident involving one of its vehicles, Tesla missed that deadline and asked for a one-week extension, despite having a couple months to get this info together.
Read more "Tesla’s late to deliver the one thing it should probably deliver on time"A Tesla Model S Caught Fire During a Test Drive in France
A Tesla Model S caught fire during a test drive in France on Monday.
The vehicle supposedly made a loud noise and sent a warning on the dashboard that there was a problem with charging, Electrek reports. The Tesla TSLA -1.87% employee then told the driver to pull the car over and had all passengers exit the vehicle.
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Why NASA thinks the Tesla Autopilot is a bad idea
NASA has been studying the pyschological effects of automation for decades, and thus may have something to teach Tesla, notes Scientific American.
“News flash: cars in 2017 equal airplanes in 1983,” Stephen Casner—a research psychologist at NASA’s Human Systems Integration Division—told the magazine.
For the public at large, the name “Autopilot” seems to imply a similarity to the automated systems that help fly planes, although the capabilities of the Tesla system are much more limited.
Read more "Why NASA thinks the Tesla Autopilot is a bad idea"Tesla has faster cars, but we were promised Jetpacks
The problem for Tesla, and anyone who bid up its stock Tuesday afternoon, is that it has already pushed investors’ horizons out so far, in the interest of raising more capital, that even going beyond “ludicrous speed” on its flagship car doesn’t get pulses racing. If your CEO has spent months and months talking about a new mass-market vehicle, home batteries, buying SolarCity, electric trucks and robo-taxis, then cutting that zero-to-60 lag by 3 tenths of a second seems rather humdrum.
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