Tesla’s Elon Musk will be hosting an AI hackathon party at his house


Elon Musk announced that Tesla will be hosting an AI hackathon, together with the company’s artificial intelligence and autopilot team, at his house in four weeks’ time.

The Tesla chief announced his plans via Twitter on Sunday. Despite impressive numbers revealed during the Q4 2019 earnings call and update, Musk and his Tesla team are not resting on their laurels and remain focused on pursuing advancements to its neural network, which is in the center of Tesla’s goal of achieving a full self-driving vehicle.

During the recent Q4 earnings call, an investor asked the Tesla chief executive for updates on FSD.

“I think that’s looking like maybe it’s going to be couple of months from now. And what isn’t obvious regarding Autopilot and Full Self-Driving is just how much work has been going into improving the foundational elements of autonomy,” Musk said.

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Musk continued to explain how the Tesla team is making great strides in labeling efficiency.

“…in terms of labeling, labeling with video in all eight cameras simultaneously. This is a really, I mean in terms of labeling efficiency, arguably like a three order of magnitude improvement in labeling efficiency. For those who know about this, it’s extremely fundamental, so that’s really great progress on that,” Musk said.

Tesla vehicles rely on a custom chip that boasts of 144 tera operations per second (TOPS) for its self-driving capabilities. This two-chip FSD computer works in tandem with LPDDR4 RAM modules that come with a peak bandwidth of 68 GB/s. There are also two neural network accelerators that work in tandem to process as much as 1TB of data per second. This setup is roughly three times faster, about 80%, and about 1.25 times more power-efficient than the previous hardware. It is also able to process about 2,300 frames per second compared to the 110 frames per second processed by Tesla’s Hardware 2.5.

In his series of tweets on Sunday, Musk also mentioned Tesla’s “Dojo” supercomputer, which is speculated to be capable of processing vast amounts of data to train the company’s neural network. Through active learning, Tesla curates the most useful video clips from its fleet of connected cars and train the neural net to recognize things that it did not previously know.

“Our networks learn from the most complicated and diverse scenarios in the world, iteratively sourced from our fleet of nearly 1M vehicles in real-time. A full build of Autopilot neural networks involves 48 networks that take 70,000 GPU hours to train. Together, they output 1,000 distinct tensors (predictions) at each timestep,” Tesla wrote on the Autopilot AI section of its website.

The last major software update rolled out by Tesla allowed its vehicles to visualize more things while driving in inner-city streets. Teslas now render stoplights, stop signs, traffic cones, traffic pylons, and more.

With the upcoming AI hackathon, Tesla will get together with developers to seek out more efficient algorithms and overall improvements to the core logic for its Full Self-Driving suite through a time-boxed event. With fresh eyes working with the existing AI and autopilot team of Tesla, the carmaker may be able to accelerate the timeline and rollout of its full-featured Full Self-Driving suite sooner.

Further advances in FSD and its Autopilot feature will widen the gap between Tesla and its competitors and solidify the company’s position as one of the leading automakers in the world. These improvements will also take Tesla a step closer to the possibility of Robotaxis that they can deploy at scale.

The hackathon will also allow Tesla to fish for new AI talents to join the team. On Sunday, Musk also mentioned that the electric carmaker is looking for world-class chip designers and C++/C engineers for vehicle control and other functions of Tesla vehicles.

Musk reiterated that educational attainment is not important when joining Tesla but rather a clear understanding of how AI and neural networks function and the ability to build useful applications using that knowledge.

Tesla’s Elon Musk will be hosting an AI hackathon party at his house

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Hitch’s autonomous Farming Robot is the answer to the declining agricultural industry


The farming industry was critical in the success and growth of our nation and today is still a keystone part of the American economy. Since the founding of the United States in 1776, farming has been considered a dominant force in providing American citizens with employment and food. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost half of the American population was employed in agriculture. However, this number has sharply declined.

The Agricultural industry employed less than 1% of the American workforce in 2018. With the U.S. population steadily increasing, the agriculture sector is in need of more laborers and workers to keep up with the demand for food and harvesting of other necessities.

One of the most booming sub-industries in the agricultural field is cannabis and hemp. Cannabis-based products have become a hot commodity because of their wide array of uses. Everything from industrial-strength hemp rope to Cannabidiol (CBD) products have taken over as some of the most popular items to buy.

CBD has boomed since its initial introduction into the medical industry in 2018 after its legalization due to the passing of the U.S. Farm Bill that allowed the product to be used medically and recreationally. CBD products are used by the world’s biggest athletes, and also by regular citizens who suffer from common medical issues like anxiety and depression. Forbes suggests that the CBD industry could be worth $20 billion by 2024.

Hitch’s Farming Robot harvesting grapes while working on a vineyard.

California-based Hitch Robotics is one of the companies aiming to assist the industry with its lack of workers. The company has developed a fully-autonomous and solar-powered farming robot that is geared toward assisting in the harvesting of large fields of cannabis. With the development of autonomous machines like Hitch’s farming robot that can work around the clock without human interference, the workforce may not need to grow.

Hitch notes that the continuing decline in the agricultural workforce has cost the U.S. economy $3.1 billion annually in the production of crops. With Hitch, farms can see a 30% increase in labor productivity, which could save California, the state with the biggest Ag industry, around $1.7 billion.

Hitch’s fully-autonomous product will assist in the harvesting of crops and plants through a fully-computerized method of navigation. The robot will use Artificial Intelligence, High Precision GPS systems, various cameras and sensors to navigate through any crop field it is meant to be utilized for.

The robot also has three different “hitches” to assist with different tasks: The Transport Hitch, the Harvest Hitch, and the Command Hitch. The Transport Hitch can be used for transporting crops and plants to other locations. The Harvest Hitch is pulled by a series of autonomous vehicles and will accurately identify and then pick and pack ripe produce or crops, place them in a bin and transport them to the appropriate location. The Command Hitch allows a series of autonomous vehicles to be operated through a solar-powered trailer with automated battery swaps.

The versatility of the Hitch Farming Robot could revolutionize the modern agricultural industry as we know it. The company has raised $386,600 of its $2,000,000 goal for the current investment round and is backed by a global early-stage venture fund, focused on Deep Tech and enterprise solutions. Hitch has requested the help of Teslarati to secure the rest of the needed funding to continue the development of its product.

Hitch has already garnered the attention of many farms, and two have submitted pre-orders, one is a publicly-traded cannabis company, Grown Rogue, and another is 130-year old specialty farm, HMC Farms. Combined, they have pre-ordered 500 bots totaling $26.8 million in revenue for Hitch.

For as little as $1,000 today, you can become a shareholder revolutionizing and invigorating the agricultural industry.

Hitch’s autonomous Farming Robot is the answer to the declining agricultural industry

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Tesla is now more valuable than Volkswagen and BMW combined


Tesla stock closed at a record-high of $780 per share on Monday, pushing the California-based electric carmaker’s valuation to $140.591 billion and above the market cap of Volkswagen and BMW combined. Tesla’s latest record-setting valuation further solidifies the Elon Musk-led company’s position among legacy automakers, eclipsing Volkswagen’s market cap of $90.672 billion and BMW’s $45.894 billion.

Earlier this month, Tesla overtook Volkswagen as the second most valuable carmaker in the world. The latest valuation widens the gap between the two manufacturers to roughly $50 billion on Monday.

Wall Street’s prediction on the further upside of TSLA gave the price some boost. Argus Research upped its price target for the electric carmaker to $808 from $556 citing revenue growth from Model S and Model X and the strong demand for the Model 3.

“Despite past production delays, parts shortages, labor cost overruns and other difficulties, we expect Tesla to benefit from its dominant position in the electric vehicle industry and to improve performance in 2020 and beyond,” said Argus Research analyst Bill Selesky.

ARK Investment Management also updated its valuation model and believes the stock could hit $7,000 per share or even a best-case scenario of $15,000 by 2024.

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For Gene Munster, managing partner of Loup Ventures and a known Tesla Bull, he attributes the bright future of Tesla to its head start against automotive giants with deeper pockets.

“The thesis for Tesla’s business miracle is rooted in the handful of years that the company operated with effectively no competition. Tesla has nearly a decade head start in EVs as other automakers under-invested in the space,” Munster said.

Tesla has a commanding presence in the mid-luxury sedan market that’s wreaked havoc on BMW and Mercedes Benz who have both been slow in delivering a viable electric vehicle for the everyday consumer. With Tesla’s investment into fun yet useful over-the-air features that have been otherwise foreign to traditional automakers, the company will continue to see unparalleled growth in the industry.

Tesla chief Elon Musk will host an AI hackathon party at his house to accelerate the development of Tesla’s full self-driving capability and Autopilot feature, and most likely fish for new talents to join the company.

Tesla will start the delivery of the Model Y this March, way ahead of schedule. The much-awaited crossover also has an updated EPA range of 315 miles from the original rating of 280 miles.

The Silicon Valley-based carmaker is also getting closer to laying the first bricks of its first factory in Europe, Giga Berlin. It also recently applied for subsidies for its battery cell production in Grunheide, which will help keep costs optimal. In China, Tesla’s factory is offline at the moment due to the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic but Tesla China is continuing its push and answers questions from potential customers via social media.

If Tesla keeps on track and execute flawlessly, we can only expect to see analysts and the automotive world get more bullish and the long-term expectations of skyrocketing stock prices will highly likely come true.

As for the short sellers, losses amounted to $2.5 billion on Monday or about $8 billion since the start of 2020, according to data power company S3 Partners.

Tesla is now more valuable than Volkswagen and BMW combined

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Tesla Model Y with white seats spotted in the wild for the first time


A Tesla Model Y Performance prototype with white seats was spotted in a Los Angeles parking garage over the weekend.

All sightings of Tesla’s upcoming all-electric crossover thus far have been with the standard black interior. This most recent sighting gives Model Y pre-order reservation holders a first-hand look of how the vehicle may appear with Tesla’s all-vegan white interior.

In the series of photos posted on the r/TeslaMotors subreddit by u/lastnamethai, the Model Y appears production-ready and with subtle modifications to its body style since the vehicle was first spotted outside of the company’s factory in Fremont, California last year.

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The newest Model Y sighting joins numerous other sightings that have taken place on public roads across the US, and another on Tesla’s factory test track. In some instances, test vehicles have been outfitted with calibration instruments.

In Tesla’s Q4 2019 earnings update, the company credits Model 3 production improvements for helping fine-tune the production of the Model Y. The two vehicles share nearly 75% of the same parts, making for an easier transition to Model Y production which began in Fremont earlier this year.

The Model Y has also received benefits from Tesla’s continually improving engineering processes. The company announced that the EPA upgraded its range on its AWD variants of the vehicle from 280 to 315 miles. “This extends Model Y’s lead as the most energy-efficient electric SUV in the world,” the company stated.

As of now, the Model Y is available for purchase in two variants. The Long Range Dual Motor and Performance variants will both have an EPA-rated range of 315 miles and cost $52,990, and $60,990 respectively. Tesla Model Y first deliveries will begin by the end of Q1 2020.

Tesla Model Y with white seats spotted in the wild for the first time

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Tesla taps into Chinese TikTok for social media-based sales and customer support


Tesla may have temporarily shut down its electric vehicle factory in Shanghai due to the coronavirus outbreak, but the electric car company has taken to other channels to reach its enthusiastic market in China. More specifically, Tesla is using Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, to push knowledge-based content with the goal of driving more sales and deliver customer support to new and existing Tesla owners.

A tweet posted by Tesla owner and electric car enthusiast @Ray4Tesla shows Tesla stores in China are conducting livestreams that put the spotlight on Tesla vehicles and their features. Each store has its own account to stream videos that cover a variety of topics that are of interest to its customers.

For instance, the Tesla Experience Center in Changsha is conducting live-streamed tours of the Model 3, followed by a Q&A call that allows potential buyers to interact directly with the sales representatives. Other broadcasts include tutorials to inform new buyers of charging and how to use Tesla’s Autopilot driving-assist feature, testimonials from the first Made-in-China Model 3 owners, and demonstrations of Tesla vehicles undergoing energy consumption tests.

Allan Wang, General Manager at Tesla China, has posted a comprehensive schedule of livestreams by each Tesla store on his Weibo page.

Tesla China General Manager Allan Wang posts schedule of Douyin livestreams. (Credit: Allan-Tesla via Weibo)

Tesla may have struggled with customer service in the US, but the all-electric car company seems to be making sure it doesn’t make the same mistakes in China. Considering China is the largest electric vehicle market in the world, it only makes sense for Tesla to turn to powerful yet severely underused social media channels that allow it to provide a more personalized level of service to a new base of customers.

Douyin, the Chinese version of video app TikTok, is one of the most popular social media apps in China. In its annual earnings report, Douyin parent company ByteDance announced that the app has grown to 400 million active users every day in 2019, up from 250 million daily active users at the beginning of last year. Marketing research firm eMarketer also said that Douyin’s growth outpaces that of earlier players Weibo and WeChat.

Douyin’s claim to fame is its emphasis on knowledge-based content, which it says is the most consumed type of content on its app in 2019. It’s also the largest mobile social network in China, with 67.9 percent of Chinese social network users actively on Douyin.  The potential for using Douyin is huge, as it allows Tesla to provide educational broadcasts and reach a broad swath of the Chinese market for free while providing customers a closer look at Tesla’s products and company values.

No doubt, Shanghai-based Tesla competitor Nio recognizes Douyin as a sales and customer service tool, having taken a page out of Tesla’s playbook and creating its own Douyin accounts as well.

Tesla taps into Chinese TikTok for social media-based sales and customer support

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Tesla and Panasonic’s battery partnership is stronger than ever


Battery manufacturer Panasonic released its fourth-quarter operating profit numbers on February 3, and it showed that the Japanese company was able to cut production costs and post a 3% rise in operating profit. Panasonic was able to accomplish this thanks in no small part to its partnership with American electric car maker Tesla.

Panasonic’s profit for the last quarter of 2019 was 100.4 billion yen (about $915.22 million), an increase from the $899.38 million, or 97.6 billion yen profit the company posted a year earlier in Q4 2018, according to Reuters. The Japanese company’s profit numbers beat analyst projections by a considerable margin.

Eight different analysts polled by financial data company Refinitiv put Panasonic’s quarterly earning numbers at only 67.36 billion yen. The company was able to maintain its profit forecast at 300 billion yen through the first three months of the year as well, once again beating analyst predictions who pegged the company at 295.14 billion yen.

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After Tesla ramped production at Giga Nevada, Panasonic’s battery business has improved significantly. The company has executed on its goals and increased its production volume due to Tesla’s goal of building more cars every year to match the overwhelming demand for its vehicles such as the Model 3. Expectations are high that Tesla’s vehicles will see even more demand as the company releases the Model Y, which will compete in the lucrative crossover market.

Just a week ago, Tesla released its 2019 Q4 numbers, reporting a revenue of $7.38 billion after delivering a record 112,000 vehicles. The company is also ramping up its production numbers at Giga Shanghai, and breaking ground on Giga Berlin. Giga Shanghai is already operational and catering to the local Chinese market, while Giga Berlin is expected to start operations sometime in late 2021. It remains to be seen if Panasonic will be involved in Tesla’s overseas factories.

Tesla stocks are soaring amidst the company’s success following the company’s Q4 delivery numbers and earnings call. Shareholders of TSLA stock have continued to enjoy regular boosts in stock value, and Panasonic’s success in cutting costs while increasing profits is a residual effect of Tesla’s great start to 2020. So far, Tesla stock has been on a meteoric rise, surging 16.88% at $760.38 per share as of writing. 

With Panasonic’s battery business with Tesla stronger than ever, the future seems bright for the two companies. Panasonic’s profits from its auto battery business will likely curb fears of an alleged rift between the two companies, which was hinted at by Tesla critics last year.

Tesla and Panasonic’s battery partnership is stronger than ever

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SpaceX resurrects California Starship factory plan just one year after abandoning it


Just nine months after scrapping temporary Starship facilities built at a Los Angeles port, the company has unexpectedly reconsidered that decision, restarting talks to build a steel Starship factory in California.

In March 2018, nearly two years ago, the public first became aware of SpaceX’s plans to build a Starship factory in Port of Los Angeles. Begun while Starship was still known as BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) and designed to be built almost entirely out of carbon-fiber composites, the company’s first in-house effort to build its next-generation rocket began in an unassuming tent erected on port property around December 2017. Unintentionally foreshadowing the future of both Tesla Model 3 and SpaceX Starship production, that temporary tent was completed in just a month or two and officially began supporting BFR prototype production in April 2018.

In December 2018, CEO Elon Musk rebranded BFR as Starship and revealed that SpaceX would take the extraordinary step of redesigning the fully-reusable rocket to use stainless steel instead of carbon fiber. One year after SpaceX began building carbon fiber hardware, Musk moved quickly to make the radical move to steel permanent, literally scrapping its BFR prototype tent and abandoning its lease of a separate facility that was meant to host a more permanent composite Mars rocket factory in the near future. Now, almost exactly a year canceling its Port of LA factory, SpaceX has returned with plans to build and finish new port-based Starship production facilities just a few months from now.

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Completed in September 2018, the closest SpaceX ever got to producing its 2017 BFR iteration was a large ring-like composite structure, also known as a barrel section. Measuring some 9m (30 ft) wide and 4-6m (12-20 ft) long, both 2016, 2017, and 2018 variants of SpaceX’s next-generation fully-reusable rocket would have been assembled from a number of similar components — all to be built out of carbon composites with giant mandrels (a bit like inverse molds).

Building giant rockets and the factories needed for production is no less expensive. (Pauline Acalin)
SpaceX’s BFR tent (right) had a flap open on September 18th, 2018, revealing the rocket’s first and only full-scale composite prototype. (SpaceX/Pauline Acalin)
SpaceX’s Port of LA-based BFR development tent ceased to exist after the company decided to scrap it and the entirety of its contents in March 2019. (Pauline Acalin/SpaceX)

While it’s more than likely that SpaceX could have managed the feat, building a reusable orbital spacecraft like Starship out of carbon fiber posed a vast array of challenges. When Musk revealed that SpaceX would move from carbon fiber to steel in December 2018, the CEO went into some detail to explain several of those challenges and why the major change was thus worth the substantial body of work it would force the company to scrap and redo from scratch.

The two biggest hurdles for BFR were quite simple. From a technical perspective, carbon fiber is dramatically less temperature-resistant than most metals (especially steel), meaning that despite it offering a much higher strength-to-weight ratio on paper, almost every inch of the spaceship and booster’s exposed surfaces would have to be insulated. For Starship, this would be exceptionally challenging given that the spacecraft must fundamentally be able to survive numerous orbital-velocity reentries with little to no refurbishment in between. While a steel Starship would still need a proper heat shield on its windward half, the other half of its steel hull could likely be almost entirely unshielded thanks to the fact that most steels remain structural sound at much higher temperatures.

With a steel hull, Starship’s leeward (non-wind-facing) half can effectively be nude, saving (literal) tons of weight. (SpaceX)

Beyond the “delightfully counterintuitive” technical properties that could make a steel Starship as light or even lighter than the carbon composite alternative, Musk also noted that a huge motivator for the switch was the fact that the cutting-edge composites SpaceX would have to buy were incredibly expensive. In September 2019, Musk stated that composites would have cost some $130,000 per ton, whereas a ton of the stainless steel SpaceX is now using can be purchased for just $2500. In simpler terms, from a material cost perspective, steel Starships and Super Heavy boosters could cost an incredible 50 times less than their carbon composite twins.

Port Factory 2.0

For now, it’s unclear exactly what SpaceX foresees for Starship’s newly re-proposed Port of LA factory. The same primary constraint remains: there is still no affordable way to ship full-scale 9m-diameter Starship hardware by road. The most likely explanation for the resurrected interest in port facilities is that SpaceX still wants to keep some major aspects of Starship manufacturing within reach of California’s vast aerospace talent pool, as well as the company’s own California headquarters, situated just 20 or so miles from Port of LA.

Before SpaceX vacated its prospective BFR factory at Port of LA Berth 240, it had performed a small amount of earthmoving and foundation work. (Pauline Acalin – November 2018)

At the same time, SpaceX probably has all the space it could possibly want at its Hawthorne, CA headquarters after a massive Triumph facility was recently vacated, meaning that any intentional expansion in Port of LA is probably motivated by the need to transport massive rocket parts from California to Texas and Florida. Daily Breeze also reports that “SpaceX would manufacture its…Starship spacecraft and…Super Heavy [booster] on the property” if it receives approval, seemingly implying interest in full-scale rocket production at its prospective port factory.

Regardless of whether SpaceX wants to build smaller Starship subcomponents (i.e. nose cones, header tanks, fins, plumbing, crew compartments, etc.) or complete spaceships and boosters, the company is seemingly far more eager to get port facilities in place, this time around. Specifically, SpaceX told a city council member that it wanted to get a Port of LA facility up and running just 90 days after it expressed new interest in the concept.

At SpaceX’s Boca Chica, Texas outpost, the company has used Sprung Structures to add 100,000+ square feet of enclosed factory space in just a month or two. (NASASpaceflight – bocachicagal)

To do so, SpaceX will copy the methods used to create both Tesla’s General Assembly 4 factory addition and its own massive Starship production space in South Texas, relying on Sprung Instant Structures to erect a massive semi-permanent tent or two in an extremely short period of time. Unfortunately, because of how abruptly SpaceX abandoned its Port of LA factory lease, the company will have to repeat the permitting and environmental review process from scratch, making it very unlikely that it will be able to begin construction within the next month or two.

Regardless, SpaceX certainly remains as agile as ever. Stay tuned for updates on this surprise resurgence of plans for a Port of LA Starship factory.

Check out Teslarati’s newsletters for prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket launch and recovery processes.

SpaceX resurrects California Starship factory plan just one year after abandoning it

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How to activate Tesla Dyno Mode in 3 steps for performance testing


Tesla Dyno Mode can be activated in three easy steps for owners looking to test performance of their all-electric vehicle on a dynamometer and in a controlled setting.

Tesla owner and Drag Times YouTuber Brooks Weisblat posted a video on how to turn on the Dyno Mode on a Model 3 and see how the secret mode affected the car’s performance.

Information on how to enable Model 3 Dyno Mode is also documented on a Tesla EPA filing dated October 2019. The said document details how a user can activate the Dyno Mode in three easy steps.

How to activate Tesla Dyno Mode

  1. Vehicle must be in Park.
  2. While holding down left (turn signal) stalk, press and hold the Tesla “T” logo at the top of the screen.
  3. Enter Dyno Mode activation password, “dynotest”.

Dyno Mode can be deactivated by the user by pressing the “Power Off” button within the Safety & Securit tab of the UI.

Once the Dyno Mode is activated the car will prompt drivers with a warning that the vehicle is on Dyno Mode and that one should not drive on public roads. With the Dyno Mode on the vehicle’s traction control is disabled, stability control is disabled, as well as automatic emergency braking.

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“Fair warning — be very, very careful,” said Weisblat.

The Dyno Mode was specifically created to have representative driving controls while testing the vehicle on a chassis dynamometer or a rolling-road dyno where proper vehicle testing and calibration are done.

Weisblat went for a drive to test the performance of the vehicle. Without a Dyno Mode on, his Tesla Model 3 was able to hit 60 mph from a full stop in 3.1 seconds. According to him, his best time historically is 2.9999.

The DragTimes YouTuber turned on Dyno Mode and did another 0-60 mph test and clocked in 3.1 seconds but felt a bit of wheelspin. He gave it a few more tries and was able to clock 3.027 seconds on better pavement. Tesla pegs the 0-60mph time of the Model 3 Performance at 3.2 seconds while its Long Range All-Wheel Drive and Standard Plus versions clock 4.4 seconds and 5.3 seconds, respectively.

Weisblat’s final opinion on the Model 3 Dyno Mode is that it provides a slight improvement but might provide a bit more on a sticky drag track but it’s hard to tell.

“Dyno Mode, it’s pretty much just used for if you’re gonna dyno the car,” he said.

But of course, Model 3 owners who want to drift their Model 3s need to switch off its amazing traction control. Some owners turn off a wheel sensor but the system can go haywire since something is missing. The system will turn off ABS, Autopilot, regenerative braking, and even power steering. Furthermore, taking a wheel sensor out can potentially damage a vehicle.

Again, the Tesla Dyno Mode was created for testing Teslas on a dynamometer. If one will try to drive while it’s on, better stay away from other cars or pedestrians, or better yet, do it on a track.

Here’s the new Tesla Dyno Mode video from Drag Times:

Teslarati does not condone the use of Dyno Mode. Any information or opinion expressed in this article is to be processed at the discretion of the reader.

How to activate Tesla Dyno Mode in 3 steps for performance testing

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Tesla’s win in Michigan marks a point of no return for traditional auto


After resisting Tesla for years, the heart of American auto, Michigan, finally allowed the electric car maker to establish a foothold in the state. It was a hard-fought battle for Tesla, and a victory well worth more than CEO Elon Musk’s one-word celebration on Twitter. But at the same time, Tesla’s settlement with Michigan, which would allow the company to sell and service its cars in the state, marks a point of no return for traditional auto. 

It may not be evident now, but from this point on, it will be twice as difficult for states to resist disruptive new EV makers that do not follow a traditional dealership sales model. This means that even other carmakers such as Rivian will likely have a clear path forward in their expansion into the United States’ auto market, absent of the direct sales roadblocks that the Elon Musk-led company has dealt with for years. 

Michigan is considered the heart of the US auto industry, and for good reason. The country’s motoring history was written within the state’s borders, and iconic companies that changed the industry, such as Ford, call Michigan their home. Yet, for all its dedication to the car industry, Michigan has also been very resistant to Tesla, preventing the electric car maker from selling its vehicles in the state due to the company’s direct sales strategy.

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Tesla’s difficulties in Michigan were a painful reminder that the company’s goal of transitioning the transportation industry towards sustainability would be marred with difficulties left and right, signified by the state’s dealer franchise laws. This is one of the reasons why the company’s settlement with the state is so important. Daniel Crane, a University of Michigan law professor who specializes in antitrust and regulatory issues, explained these points in an interview with Automotive News

“The handwriting’s on the wall for the franchised dealer as the exclusive way consumers interact with car companies. It’s pretty clear it’d be impossible for the state to deny someone else; it paves the way for any new EV company that doesn’t want to use traditional dealerships.”

“The legacy companies can’t continue forever to use a dealer model from the 1930s. Being required to use only that, I think, is a competitive disadvantage. They’ll have to find a way to get flexibility in their distribution method, or they’ll be left behind,” he said. 

The dealer model deserves some recognition, as the United States’ auto industry would likely not have gotten this far without it. Yet in the age of electrification, dealerships, which are known for their flexible pricing strategies and reliance on regular vehicle maintenance, are starting to become outdated. Tesla is the living representation of this, as the company’s cars are priced like tech devices, and its vehicles require far less maintenance compared to internal combustion cars. 

One key takeaway from Tesla’s conquest and subsequent victory in Michigan is the fact that the electric car maker is only the first of many. The state has allowed the company to sell and service its cars within its borders, and it will be hard-pressed to not do the same for other automakers. Tesla may be leading the charge, after all, but it is not alone. There’s Rivian, which is also planning on adopting a non-dealership sales model, and more are likely coming. By allowing Tesla to sell and service its cars within the state, Michigan has just accelerated the industry’s transition to sustainability. 

Very few may see it now, but through this little settlement with Tesla, the US auto industry may have just passed the proverbial point of no return.

Tesla’s recent settlement with the state of Michigan can be read below.

Tesla-MI-Joint Stipulation and Motion for Entry of Dismissal 1-22-20 679161 7 by Simon Alvarez on Scribd

Tesla’s win in Michigan marks a point of no return for traditional auto

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David Dobrik’s Tesla launch does not define his love for the company


After social media influencer David Dobrik launched his Tesla Model X off a steep street in Los Angeles earlier this week, taking the all-electric SUV airborne, the video was met with plenty of opinions. Some people, including Dobrik himself, joked that Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s response to the video may have voided Dobrik’s vehicle warranty. But amid the headline-making stunt, Dobrik’s influence within the community and his long-standing support of Tesla extends far beyond the Slovak YouTuber’s knack for clickbait.

David Dobrik is best known for his frequently uploaded “Vlog Squad” episodes that feature a variety of his closest friends, pulling pranks and performing stunts. The episodes have been uploaded on a regular basis since July 2015, and his most recent video of his Model X going airborne was the 632nd vlog Dobrik has uploaded to his YouTube channel.

His popularity began during the introduction of the now-defunct social media platform Vine. He then found overwhelming success on YouTube after creating a vlog series that has since accrued over 6.4 billion video views across 15 million subscribers, making him one of the most popular and successful YouTubers in the world today.

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In a recent interview with Vanity Fair where Dobrik talked about his daily routine, he stated that one of his favorite things to do is drive. “I love driving. Everywhere we go, 100% I have to be driving. I’m so uncomfortable in other people’s cars. I cannot Uber. When I had more time, I would love to pick up my friends from the airport. I would get so mad at them when they would call an Uber,” he said.

Dobrik’s current lineup of cars includes his Tesla Model X P90D and a Ferrari 458 Spider. With those in the driveway, who wouldn’t love to drive.

However, Dobrik’s support of Tesla has gone far beyond what he flexes in his driveway. The YouTube star has been a massive advocate and vocal supporter of the Elon Musk-led company since purchasing his Model X in 2016. He’s purchased a number of Tesla vehicles in the past and has gone as far as gifting them to his friends. Dobrik also teamed up with one of his endorsers in December where he gave a Model 3 away to one of his Instagram followers.

Dobrik joins a broad range of demographics that include celebrity endorsers, influencers, and some of the world’s most powerful people as supporters of the Silicon Valley-based electric carmaker.

And if we’re to look past Dobrik’s love for high-flying antics, we can see an influencer’s genuine interest to encourage others to embrace the movement toward electric vehicles and a sustainable future.

And that in it of itself makes all the Clickbait in the world worth it.

 

David Dobrik’s Tesla launch does not define his love for the company

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