Couldn't stand the suspense so I called Tesla

[charliemagpie]

I think the change is a slightly different one, but you are right, it is a significant change. I’m not in the “I hate big oil“ camp (not that you are). I’m not buying an EV because of any carbon issues. I am buying 2 (maybe 3) Teslas because I see performance and tech here that the old school has completely ignored.

As an example, just look at Nav systems. Before I knew about how the Teslas work, I said “Why would anyone spend $1 on a Nav system in their car? Just put in Apple Play. The apps and maps are constantly updated, get real time traffic conditions, and you don’t have to pay $100/year to find a street that was opened 9 months ago.” Well, here goes Tesla, taking the best of what your phone can do, making it better by building all those OTA benefits into the display, and it’s bigger and easier to read than your phone. Oh, and they don’t charge you extra for the Nav. Oh, and they know the real time status of the entire charging network. (I wish I could see from home or the road how bad the gas lines are at Costco from my car!) And by adding Solar to my house, it‘s a double benefit. The solar eliminates my electric bill, and the car helps shorten my ROI on the purchase. And I never will leave the house, jump in the car and say “Oh crap, I forgot to get gas last night!” on my way to work. I just don’t see a downside here. (Except tires, I might be going through those a touch faster than before!)

I’ve never bought an American car, the US automakers left the customers behind 50+ years ago and since them have been serving us what they want, not what we want. And as for Tesla, They are going at this completely different. It’s like my phone. As a company, I really dislike Apple. I don’t like many of their policies toward the users among a few other things. However, their stuff just plain works! Interoperability, their updates, their performance, it just all works, seamlessly and I don’t have to constantly screw with it to “make” it work. Tesla is a lot like that. After renting quite a few of them, I see that they just plain work. Fun to drive, easy to drive, great tech, and I see them doing everything different. From design, to construction, to sales, to operation, to support, everything. And although different isn’t always better, they are making a difference in a forward direction. As soon as the 3 refresh is out, I’ll order it. As soon as my number comes up for the CT, I’ll trade my 3 for it. My wife may get a Y or an X. She’s not 100% convinced yet. But I have a feeling after I’ve had the 3 for a while, she will be.

The Tesla business story is a lot like the Apple story. Design a new product that is designed around what works for most people, forget how it’s “always been done”, and change the industry. I’ll gladly spend my money and support a product like that.

if it comes, take my money.

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[PilotPete]

Ca

if it comes, take my money.

That is the next level, you sit down in your car, it looks at your calendar on your phone, gives you directions (and someday drives you there). Or you get an address in the office, put it in your phone, and when you sit in the car, it’s transferred to the Nav. Some planes can do that.

 

[charliemagpie]

Ca


That is the next level, you sit down in your car, it looks at your calendar on your phone, gives you directions (and someday drives you there). Or you get an address in the office, put it in your phone, and when you sit in the car, it’s transferred to the Nav. Some planes can do that.

Starlink worldwide roaming. (where Starlink is allowed)

Optimus (Reeves) at home taking your instructions, and car/phone/laptop seamlessly integrated ready for your travels.

Phew. I was managing change control / disaster recovery for a large computer center in the late 80's. All this was pure fantasy then, and all magic to me now.

And then there's Neurolink

 

[PilotPete]

And then there's Neurolink

I can hear the future conversation in my head already…

”Optimus, why are we on this road?”
”This is the fastest way to the gym.”
”I didn’t want to go to the gym. I wanted to go to dinner.”
”I know that’s what you wanted. But the link told me you were thinking about the creme brûlée for dessert.”
”So why aren’t we going to dinner?”
”Are you kidding me? I saw the struggle when you put the jeans on that I brought you. We’re going to the gym and then to that vegan salad place for dinner.”
”But I hate vegan food!”
”Your butt will appreciate it, as will your jeans.”
”I want to go to the steak house.”
”Maybe after you lose some weight lard ass”
”Hey you freakin’ rust bucket, steak is second level vegan!”
”And how do you figure that, Mr. Doughboy?”
”The cows are vegan, so that makes me a second level vegan, Mr. silicone”
”Very funny. I packed your shorts in the frunk, if you can bend over and reach them. By the way, have you seen your feet recently?”
”I can see you missed the OTA update for your sense of humor.”
”While you’re at the gym, I’ll go get you some better fitting pants, from the HUSKY BOYS section! By the way, you’ve got something on your chin.”
”Here?”
”No, the other one. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.“
”Wait until we get home. I shutting off the power wall. Let’s see you get recharged now!”

 

[C T Rick]

Assuming you can do a factory pickup, are you paying the typical $1000 destination charge?
That would make it worthwhile to pick it up at the factory and make a vacation out of it.

No other car company gives you that option since they don’t sell factory direct.

Rick

 

[HaulingAss]

That is the next level, you sit down in your car, it looks at your calendar on your phone, gives you directions (and someday drives you there). Or you get an address in the office, put it in your phone, and when you sit in the car, it’s transferred to the Nav. Some planes can do that.

Tesla is a step ahead of you! The car already looks at your calendar on your phone and navigates to that location when you get in the car. But you have to turn the feature on and enable sharing between the calendar app and the Tesla app.

I would use it if I used my phone to schedule appointments, but I don't. It could be really handy for people who are constantly meeting new clients in new locations.

 

[HaulingAss]

Assuming you can do a factory pickup, are you paying the typical $1000 destination charge?
That would make it worthwhile to pick it up at the factory and make a vacation out of it.

No other car company gives you that option since they don’t sell factory direct.

Rick

Tesla has done a relatively small number of factory pickups in the past and all sales include the delivery surcharge, whether you take delivery at Fremont or in Timbuktu, Maine. I've never seen a car buyer avoid the delivery surcharge, regardless of the brand of car or the pickup location.

 

[HaulingAss]

I’m not in the “I hate big oil“ camp (not that you are).

I have bought, and will continue to buy, products requiring "big oil". I don't hate them for the core functions they provide to society, but I do hate their lies and deceit.

In the 1970's the oil industry started to get the idea that global warming might be long-term threat to their business and, as they dug deeper, they found there was a huge and growing volume of scientific data showing that combustion of fossil fuels did indeed threaten humanity and their home planet, Earth. They used a small percentage of their massive profits to study the threat more carefully, hoping to prove the theories wrong. But the deeper they dug, the stronger the conclusions that their activities were already having an impact and that impact could logically be expected to grow, if their business continued to expand and grow at the forcast rates. This was done in secret (but we now have access to the studies they paid for, etc)

How did these people respond to the knowledge that their multi-billion dollar business was threatening to cause trillions of dollars of destruction and pain and suffering (including mass death and extinction)? That's right, they did what any caring human would do, they locked the data from prying eyes and started a disinformation campaign to confuse the rather clear threat. Articles came out quoting an oil-funded climate scientist saying humanity was facing a huge threat, another ice age. Temperatures would plummet, ice sheets would grow and take out huge cities. Babies would freeze to death.

This confused the public, they no longer knew what to think. Some people were claiming the world was going to become unbearably hot, while other credentialed scientists were saying the exact opposite. Who could you believe? It must all be bogus. And the effort continues today to confuse public opinion and neutralize action. This is why so many people believe that global warming is a manufactured crisis with no basis in reality.

The most precious thing humanity has is not money, it's our home planet that provides us with the necessary sustenance to live, love and learn, as we expand our knowledge of the universe around us. To trash humanities most valuable asset, all in the name of money and power is distasteful to my sensibilities. So I think I have good reason to hate the deceit that has come from big oil. It's actually worse than what big tobacco did when they paid medical doctors to sponsor cigarettes, about the same time there was a growing consciousness that cigarettes create many diseases in the human body that lead to suffering, pain and early death. Because at least with cigarettes you could chose not to smoke and not to go into smokey rooms. Even if you worked in a smokey environment, you could change careers. But no one can outrun global climate change. So this is even worse.

I hate the way big oil operates. I have worked for big oil, they paid me, and thousands of others, to keep their refineries running. I've seen how much more they care about the almighty dollar than the lives of their own workers. It got so bad OSHA had to step in and make them offer their workers protective gear, to reduce the amount of carciogenic toxins that were ingested in the course of cleaning and running refineries. Before that, the EPA had to be created to make them take reasonable precautions to reduce the killing of our fish and the polluting streams, oceans and the air in the communities in which they operate. Without these agencies, big oil would rather make more money than be reasonable and responsible corporate citizens, such is the power of money when no one is looking. They even spend millions of dollars on glossy advertising campaigns to convince you how good they are. They would rather spend $100,000 to sponsor a few softball leagues than to actually be good corporate citizens. Because it's cheaper to bamboozle us than to actually care about reducing their emissions.

It's pretty hard to "hate" large multi-national corporations that provide so many benefits to society, and that are so nameless and faceless, beyond their slick corporate images, but I certainly don't like the way they operate without our best interests in mind, the way they lie and deceive, and I will not be sad to see them lose billions of dollars in sales as EV's replace cars that run on dirty oil. And don't forget, all the confusion about global warming started by them. They want us to be confused about global warming so we cannot do the economically sensible thing. Because you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that once all external costs are accounted for, burning more oil is foolish, if the idea is to increase our standard of living. All costs must be accounted for, or else economics no longer works properly, the system becomes broken when all external costs are not accounted for, society becomes foolish, and we do wasteful things that lower our standard of living and cause widespread pain, suffering and death. On the other hand, economics and capitalism serve us very well when all external costs are accounted for.

Is hating the way big oil has operated over the last 5 decades the same thing as hating big oil?

Or, should I hate Elon Musk, because he is not only showing us the way forward, but he's also actually making it happen. In real time. Not by forcing people to change, but by offering them a better, cleaner, safer, more cost-effective, alternative. In short, a better way of getting around. The oil companies don't like it because it threatens their profits, it's proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they couldn't care much less about humanity as they, and other related interests, try to slow him down by mischaracterizing what he has said and what he has done. They want people to be confused about who Elon is, and what he stands for, just as they want you to be confused about the causes of global warming. Because that allows them to extend their riches and power, at the expense of all of humanity. Yes, big oil is bad because their interests are not aligned with those of humanity and they leverage their profits to confuse the populace so they can keep screwing us for as long as possible.

In short, they are not bad because they process oil, they are bad because they lie and cheat to fool us into thinking we need them more than we really do and they try to confuse us to think their impact is less than it really is. They have no honor except for that dreamed up by their public relations experts. I have to call it how I see it.

 

[PilotPete]

With all the options and superchargers and other cars moving to NACS, Tesla is on the verge of replacing Ford, GM, Exxon, Stillantis, BP, Chevron, and the rest. You can buy your car from them, use their solar, powerwalls, and mega packs to charge the same at home and work, and the superchargers in the middle. Cornering both markets at the same time.

Brilliant.

 

[Deleted member 4261]

I’m 92, a broken arm, a broken leg, blind in one eye, live and breath Tesla.. maybe I can be bumped up in line .. lol ? oh I’m also a New Yorker..

not with your driving record ?

 

[fritter63]

More importantly , based on our rather early Model 3 delivery, the reservation # matters most for ONLY the early deliveries.

As I've stated here long ago....

Ex: We were at 200K plus on the model 3 reservation

Deliveries started Nov (I think?) 2017. Suddenly in June 2018, I got an email one night inviting me to order. AFAIK, EVERYBODY got that email. I was lucky enough to see it as soon as it came out... and I ordered and committed.

Was given a delivery date of Oct 2018.

Of course, two weeks later after stepping of a plane in Boston, they called to ask if I could take delivery that Friday ("Uh, I can if you'll send Elon's jet to me back to Santa Barbara?"). They let me take delivery on the Saturday. We took the train down to SB and drove it back.

Of course, that was a fun week trying to arrange the loan in 15 minute breaks between meetings...

And our vin # was 32XXX, so certainly did NOT have to wait for everyone ahead of us in line to take delivery.

So for all those of you WAY back in the list and chomping at the bit, better watch your emails come the first of the year.

 

[batlag]

Day #1; around 35K!

Minute 5, around #500. Around #100 if adjusting for trim and they start with the highest motor option (3-4)

 

[batlag]

My 06 Tacoma is getting a little long in the tooth, so I was out shopping for a new 4Runner as a replacement. I have a day #2 reservation on the Cybertruck so I thought "what the heck" and called Tesla about potential delivery dates. I was informed 60-90 days for first deliveries. I will be patient and baby my Tacoma truck for a while longer. Lifted my spirits tremendously!

This is very interesting. After reading your post, I called in as well to try the same thing, and they said they didn't know anything. That no-one in leadership tells sales anything about timelines, and he was only privy to the same rumors/spy shots that we are all following here.

 

[Old Pro]

This is very interesting. After reading your post, I called in as well to try the same thing, and they said they didn't know anything. That no-one in leadership tells sales anything about timelines, and he was only privy to the same rumors/spy shots that we are all following here.

Maybe it was just my "lucky" day or I got someone who was in a particularly good mood? As I mentioned elsewhere, I am a retired High School Teacher and have been known to be persuasive.
Either way, I'm going to go with 60-90 days until proven otherwise. Hell, at age 70, in 60-90 days I'll probably have forgotten anyway!

 

[Old Pro]

60-90 days is hilarious to me. I guess it could be true if they deliver one within 90 days. Even day 2 reservation won't see it until next year. I've got an 05 Tundra that's waiting as well, but it's only got 120k miles on it, so no hurry there. Day 1 reservation here. I'm not expecting to see this thing in my driveway for 6 months or longer from now.

My 06 Tacoma has 183,000 miles. Just had the tires rotated today and will continue to change oil every 5,000 miles so it will last me 6 months or longer if need be.

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