2024-10-26
Click or tap if you trust this link. Friday, October 25, 2024
31st edition of the 12th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
Tesla Q3 Earnings Report Coverage & Analysis (Q3-24)
Rob Maurer, Oct. 23, “live coverage of the release of Tesla’s Q3 2024 earnings report and shareholder letter
- 0:00 Pre-earnings / Robotaxi discussion
- 17:37 Earnings & shareholder letter
- 45:48 Financial review
- 1:03:11 Other thoughts and questions
- 0:00 Call begins
- 0:49 CEO Elon Musk opening comments
- 21:53 CFO Vaibhav Taneja opening comments
- 28:56 Investor questions
- 54:35 Analyst questions
- 1:05:28 Rob’s review and questions
Read more Hmmmm… Again, interesting and informative to watch Rob report it live. Alain
- 0:00 open
- 0:30 Tesla surprises with quarterly profit
- 03:19 Tesla focus on driverless mobility
- 08:49 Musk says older Teslas can get new computers
- 13:20 Tesla’s planned robotaxi rollout and need for federal regulation
- 16:35 NHTSA looking into FSD crashes involving reduced visibility
- 18:40 Tesla Semi drivers at PepsiCo are reportedly positive
- 25:52 GM Cruise posts another quarterly loss
- 35:19 CNBC report on Chinese testing AVs in U.S.
- 37:27 Forbes report on Princeton endowment returns
Read more Hmmmm… Interesting and informative to watch Rob report it live. Alain
Live: Tesla Q3 Earnings Call 2024 (TSLA)
Listen to Elon Musk and Tesla management discuss Tesla’s Q3 2024 financial results and answer questions from investors and analysts. Join Rob Maurer for a live blog highlighting key information, followed by reaction to the call and earnings report.
The Real Case for Driverless Mobility
Narrated by Fred Fishkin, Available now
Just Published!!!
Go to Amazon.com…
SmartDrivingCars
ZoomCast 383 / PodCast 383 – Tesla profits & driverless mobility
Tesla’s quarterly earnings surprised many as the company now focuses on driverless mobility. Plus.. NHTSA is looking at FSD crashes, GM Cruise quarterly loss, Chinese autonomous testing in U.S. and more. Join Princeton’s Alain Kornhauser and co-host Fred Fishkin for episode 383 of Smart Driving Cars.
Computer Scientists Establish the Best Way to Traverse a Graph
B. Brubaker, Oct 25, “Dijkstra’s algorithm was long thought to be the most efficient way to find a graph’s best routes. Researchers have now proved that it’s “universally optimal.”….” Read more
Hmmmm… I’ve always loved Dijkstra’s and heaps. 😊 Enjoy! Alain
Cruise lost $435 million this quarter, even with its robotaxis on hiatus
Andrew Hawkins, Oct 22, “Even with most of its autonomous vehicle fleet on ice, Cruise is still bleeding cash. The robotaxi company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors lost $435 million in the third quarter of 2024, GM reported this morning. That’s an improvement from the $791 million lost in the third quarter of 2023…
There have been other cost-cutting measures. Cruise laid off 25 percent of its workforce and canceled its Origin project, a driverless shuttle without a steering wheel or pedals, absorbing a $534 million loss in the process. And it agreed to pay millions in fines to state and federal regulators to settle investigations into its response to the pedestrian-dragging incident.
“We will continue to be disciplined with our investments in Cruise,” Barra said during an investor event earlier this month. She also said the AV division would only lose no more than $2 billion in 2025….” Read more
Hmmmm… Whew!!! Where does that money go? They lost many of their good people, they aren’t operating many cars. They shut down Origin. To compete, they’re going to have to be at about $10/ride. That means that the $2B they spend/lose next year will need to give 200M rides or roughly 1M per weekday. (or have a pricing structure that has them losing only $10/ride; or giving 100K rides/weekday losing $100/ride; or …). That’s anticipating losing an enormous amount of money per ride-given, in the coming year. Where is the light at the end of this tunnel? Money must be really cheap @ GM??? Alain
Here’s why China has been testing its autonomous car technology in the U.S. for years
M. Petrova, Oct 23, “Chinese companies are aggressively developing autonomous vehicles. In August, China announced that it had issued 16,000 test licenses for driverless cars and opened up about 20,000 miles of roads nationwide for autonomous vehicle testing…”
Read more
Hmmmm… Good thing it isn’t the 1950s!!! Will we be returning to those days? Alain
J. Mathews, Oct 22, “Cruise, the General Motors–owned autonomous car company, is easing its way back to restarting driverless operations—one seat at a time.…”
Read more
Hmmmm… What??? Why would one risk not having an attendant behind the wheel in the best position possible to take over and “save-the-day” in case an unknown happened as happened on Oct. 2, 2023? If you are out there desperately trying to provide a sustainable, affordable, high-quality ride, then fine… take the risk in return to achieving the reward that is otherwise unachievable… all rewards trade off some risk. But when there is no reward (other than clicks)? As you just brain dead? You’re being given $500M/quarter to lose, do you need the clicks? No one is going to be impressed. No one is going to buy you. You are just playing with fire. (I hope you placed a camera on your front bumper, so that “Oct 2” isn’t repeated.) Please just focus on giving affordable, high-quality rides. Even Elon seems to be striving to give high-quality rides whose CoGS are in line with transit fares. Where are you on that vision. So depressing. Alain
Orf467: Investigation of MOVES-Style Mobility Deployments
Alain Kornhauser, Oct. 24, “A note to the readers of the SDC eLetter:
Hmmmm… As a follow-up to the 6th SmartDrivingCar Summit last May, I’ve decided to cut back on my reporting of what others are doing. Instead, I’ve shifted to focus on what I/we can do to start extracting some value out of this protracted technological development by simply beginning to give safe, affordable high quality rides to some people within some Operational Design Domain, some of the time. This objective has been the undercurrent of my Orf467F24 class. We are about to dive deeply into looking at the opportunity in many of the communities that are personally familiar to my students. The endeavor is certain to be fun and enlightening. Once complete, we’ll make sure you have access to our finding. Alain