Tesla Earnings Call: Top Investor Questions and What to Expect

April 20, 2024

By Cláudio Afonso

Render of a possible Model 2 approved by Elon Musk in December 2023 commenting on X “Good Design”

@Teslaconomics

Tuesday, April 23, marks one of the most expected events for Elon Musk-led company Tesla. No, it is not yet the unveil of the Robotaxi — which is planned for August 8th — but the first quarter earnings results followed by a 1-hour earnings call answering questions from analysts and shareholders.

As of today, more than 2,300 queries have been submitted by both individual and institutional investors using the Say Technologies Platform. A total of over 8,680 shareholders have engaged in the Q&A sessions, representing approximately 7.13 million shares.

4680 Cells

The top-voted question, currently tallying 1,500 votes and representing 3.3 million shares, seeks insights into the development status and specifics of Tesla's 4680 battery cells.

In late January 24, Tesla said it was "running one production line and one assembly line" with "four more to be installed in the third quarter" adding that it expected "to ramp order from our suppliers".

At the time, the world's largest EV manufacturer said the 4680 production was "ahead of the ramp, with weeks of finished cells in inventory". Six weeks later, in mid-March, Tesla said it produced over 1,000 Cybertrucks’ worth of 4680 cells at its Giga Texas. Given that each Cybertruck uses 1,366 4680 cells, Tesla produced in that week 1.366 million 4680 cells.

Optimus

The second most popular query, trailing closely behind the first by a margin of 3.2 million versus 3.3 million shares represented, pertains to an update from Tesla's CEO regarding the status of Tesla's robot, Optimus.

Elon Musk garnered attention last January when he shared a video showcasing Optimus within a Tesla factory, demonstrating the robot folding a shirt. The video swiftly gained traction, prompting inquiries, including one from Marques Brownlee, one of the most popular YouTubers, who queried Musk: "Is this video authentic or computer-generated?”. The question was not answered by Elon.

Approximately 30 minutes later, Musk clarified that Optimus is currently unable to autonomously fold a shirt, hinting at future developments. He asserted that it will be capable of doing so "certainly," further noting that it won't be limited to a fixed environment, such as a table with a single shirt.

Optimus folds a shirt pic.twitter.com/3F5o3jVLq1
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 15, 2024

One month later, Elon posted a new video of Optimus walking faster and in a closer human-like way when compared to the previous walkdown video posted on the last day of January.

After these developments, Tesla shareholders and enthusiasts have been questioning Musk for a precise timeline of when these robots can support the manufacturer and turn it faster and more efficient.

Robotaxi + $25k Model

According to three sources and company messages seen by Reuters in early April, Tesla was abandoning its plan to launch the $25,000 model. Yet, Tesla‘s CEO Elon Musk quickly dismissed the report without specifying any further details.

Later in the day, Elon Musk announced that Tesla is set to unveil its highly anticipated robotaxi on August 8th which is expected to be constructed upon Tesla's next-generation vehicle platform.

Two weeks ago, Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen commented on the rumors saying "I would just say stay tuned. Don’t always believe what you read".

Franz @woodhaus2 on the new rumored $25,000 future Tesla pic.twitter.com/eAK7u3wxUI
— Zack (@BLKMDL3) April 7, 2024

In recent weeks, scrutiny has intensified among shareholders and enthusiasts regarding the accuracy of reports surrounding Tesla's $25,000 model, and whether it has been canceled or deprioritized as the company shifts its focus towards autonomous driving technology.

Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives, in a note released on Friday, remarked that the debate between the Model 2 and Robotaxi has gained significant attention, with investors eagerly anticipating an announcement from Tesla CEO Elon Musk regarding the Model 2 within the next 12 to 18 months.

Deutsche Bank analyst Emanuel Rosner echoed similar sentiments earlier in the week, expressing a belief in the "high likelihood" of a delay in the Model 2 release, citing Tesla's strategic pivot towards Robotaxi technology. Rosner emphasized that the firm's Buy rating hinged on the arrival of Tesla's next-generation vehicle, originally anticipated for late next year.

On Friday, Tesla's stock plunged to a new 15-month low of $145.05 per share during pre-market trading, resulting in a market capitalization dip below $480 billion.

Earlier this week, Tesla expanded its 0 percent interest financing program to the German market, mirroring a similar initiative launched in China earlier this month. This financing option is now available for the Model Y Long Range Dual Motor or Performance variants in Germany, with the Performance model starting at €59,990 and the Long Range dual motor variant priced at €54,990.

In a significant internal announcement on Monday, Tesla disclosed a workforce reduction exceeding 10%, affecting over 14,000 employees globally.

Despite Tesla's recent announcement of the production of 433,371 vehicles, with 386,783 delivered, the figures fell short of Wall Street's expectations of 431,000 units delivered.

Ordering a New Tesla?

Consider using our referral code (karan29050) to help support our site and get up to $2,000 off your Tesla.

Is Tesla Planning to Add Steam Support to All Vehicles?

December 11, 2024

By Karan Singh

Not a Tesla App

Yesterday, we reported that Tesla updated their Steam integration on Model S and Model X vehicles. The update was part of their 2024 Holiday Update, but it looks like there may be more to this than a simple update.

Steam, a video game library app, makes it easy for users to buy or launch games on their computers. However, a couple of years ago, Valve, who created Steam, launched their own standalone device, the Steam Deck. The Steam Deck runs a custom OS based on Linux.

Steam Launch

When Tesla launched the redesigned Model S and Model X, Tesla introduced a dedicated gaming GPU with 16GB of RAM and touted the ability to play top-tier PC games in Tesla vehicles.

In 2022, Tesla finally launched the Steam app for the Model S and Model X as part of its 2022 Holiday Update. The Steam app runs Steam OS, the same OS as the Steam Deck in a virtual environment.

However, earlier this year, Tesla stopped including the GPU and Steam (Beta) in their vehicles, and we haven’t seen any updates to the Steam in quite some time. In fact, we thought Tesla was axing their gaming-on-the-go dreams.

SteamOS Update

The Steam app, which is still in Beta, is getting an interesting update for the Model S and Model X vehicles with the discrete GPU.

Those vehicles received an update to SteamOS 3.6 - the same version of SteamOS that runs on the Steam Deck. While nothing has visually changed, there’s a long list of performance optimizations under the hood to get things running smoother.

Comparing Steam Deck to Tesla Vehicles

Let’s take a look at the Steam Deck - according to Valve, its onboard Zen4 CPU and GPU combined push a total of 2 TFlops of data, which is fairly respectable, but much lower than today’s home consoles. The Steam Deck is capable of 720p gaming fairly seamlessly on low-to-medium settings on the go and is also built on the AMD platform.

AMD-equipped Teslas, including the Model 3 and Model Y, are packing an older Zen+ (Zen 1.5) APU (processor with a combined CPU and GPU). AMD claims that the V1000 - the same embedded chip as on AMD Tesla vehicles (YE1807C3T4MFB), brings up to 3.6 TFLops of processing power with it, including 4K encoding and decoding with the integrated GPU on board.

While that’s not enough for 4K gaming or comparable to a full-blown console or desktop GPU, that’s enough raw horsepower for light gaming and is currently more powerful than the Steam Deck.

The Model S and Model X’s GPU brings that up to about 10TFlops of power - comparable to modern consoles like the Xbox Series X at 12 TFlops.

Steam Gaming for All Vehicles?

The fact that Tesla is updating SteamOS even though the feature is no longer available in any new vehicles could indicate that Tesla is not only bringing Steam back to Teslas but that it’s going to play a much bigger role.

While SteamOS is run in a virtual environment on top of Tesla’s own OS, we could see Tesla bring SteamOS to all of its current vehicles, including the Model 3, Model Y, and Cybertruck. Steam in these vehicles would likely support any game that’s capable of running on the Steam Deck.

We think this Steam update, which includes performance improvements and a variety of fixes, has quietly passed under most people’s radars. This could be a very exciting update for those who enjoy gaming, especially for those who love to do it in their Tesla.

Tesla Holiday Update Weather Features: All the Small Details

December 11, 2024

By Karan Singh

Robert Rosenfeld / YouTube

As part of Tesla’s 2024 Holiday Update, Tesla included two awesome new features - Weather at Destination and the long-awaited Weather Radar Overlay. These two features are big upgrades built upon the weather feature that was added in update 2024.26. The original weather feature added an hourly forecast, as well as the chance of precipitation, UV index, Air Quality Index, and other data.

However, this update also added some smaller weather touches, such as the vehicle alerting you if the weather at the destination will be drastically different from the current weather.

Not a Tesla App

Weather At Destination

When you’re navigating to a destination and viewing the full navigation direction list, the text under the arrival time will show you the expected weather next to your destination. You can also tap this, and the full weather pop-up will show up, showing your destination's full set of weather information.

Note the weather under the arrival time

Not a Tesla App

You can also tap the weather icon at the top of the interface at any time and tap Destination to switch between the weather at your current location and the weather at your destination.

You’re probably considering that the weather at your destination doesn’t matter when you’re three hours away - but that’s all taken into account by the trip planner. It will add in both charge time and travel time and show you the weather at your destination at your expected arrival time.

And if the weather is drastically different or inclement, such as rain or snow, while you’ve got sunshine and rainbows - the weather will be shown above the destination ETA for a few moments before it tucks itself away.

Tesla also recently introduced a new voice command. Asking, “What’s the weather?” or something similar will now bring up Tesla’s weather popup.

The weather pop-up above the ETA

Not a Tesla App

One limitation, though—if you’re planning a long road trip that is more than a day of driving, the weather at destination feature won’t be available until you get closer.

Weather Radar Overlay

As part of the improvements to weather, Tesla has also added a radar overlay for precipitation. You can access the new radar overlay by tapping the map and then tapping the weather icon on the right side of the map. It’ll bring up a radar overlay centered on your vehicle. It’ll animate through the radar data over the last 3 hours so that you can see the direction of the storm, but you can also pause it at any point.

You’re able to scroll around in this view and see the weather anywhere, even if you zoom out. It also works while you’re driving, although it can be a little confusing if you’re trying to pay attention to the navigation system. If you like to have Points of Interest enabled on your map, the weather overlay will hide POIs except for Charging POIs.

Requirements / Data

Unfortunately, you’ll need Premium Connectivity for any of the weather features to work, and being on WiFi or using a hotspot will not be enough to get the data to show up. The data, including the weather radar, is provided by The Weather Channel.

As for supported models, weather and weather at destination are available on all vehicles except for the 2012-2020 Model S and Model X. The weather radar has more strict requirements and requires the newer AMD Ryzen-powered infotainment center available on the 2021+ Model S and Model X and more recent Model 3 and Model Y vehicles.