this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2024
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94
Elon Musk requires 'FSD' demo for every prospective Tesla buyer in North America (www.cnbc.com)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 77 points 7 months ago (3 children)

“Going forward, it is mandatory in North America to install and activate FSD V12.3.1 and take customers on a short test ride before handing over the car,” Musk wrote in an email to staffers on Monday. “Almost no one actually realizes how well (supervised) FSD actually works. I know this will slow down the delivery process, but it is nonetheless a hard requirement.”

I mean, you can require the employee delivering the car to offer to take the customer on a ride. You can require the employee to tell the customer how awesome the service is. But I don't see how you can make the customer go for a ride if the customer doesn't want to go for a ride. And, frankly, I kind of suspect that a not-inconsiderable number of new customers just want to go use their new car and aren't interested in sitting through a sales pitch for some associated service.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Easy. You write it into the sales agreement. Sales agreements are contracts where both parties agree to do certain things in exchange for other things.

While most agreements are pretty simple, you give up money in exchange for goods, or services, it's also easy to write "You will pay the purchase price ($....) to Tesla and also sit through our fucking FSD demo, in exchange, Tesla will deliver 1 ugly-ass car shaped like a fat roller skate," or similar.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

But the two people most important to the contract are the salesguy and the customer.

The sales guy can say "Hey, sign here stating I gave you a FSD demo", and the customer says "Wait, why??", and the sales guy says : "If you don't sign that, I'm forced to take you out on a 5 minute demo", then the customer signs it.

So they'd just easily avoid the whole endeavor anyway.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (2 children)

But I don't see how you can make the customer go for a ride if the customer doesn't want to go for a ride.

Don't hand over the keys on the basis that company requirements for liability mitigation were not met.

I know that sounds like a stretch, but Tesla buyers don't own their cars. Tesla has control over the system (OTA updates), you "have to" bring it to Tesla for repairs and service, and they've even tried to control who can resell a cyberteuck.

You're basically renting a Tesla at full price.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 7 months ago (1 children)

you "have to" bring it to Tesla for repairs and service

That's some big ass quotation marks, because it's not true at all. I've only had mine fixed by Tesla when it was a warranty issue. The service I've had done (brakes, general checkup and AC) have been done by a local shop without any issues. Had a fender bender that was fixed by a local shop too without any issues.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I split my service visits between Tesla and a local shop depending on what I need done. When my son destroyed the suspension on a curb, that went to the local shop. When my skid plate ripped, Tesla did that because mobile service is so convenient. I've actually found Tesla's labor costs to be very reasonable.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Their hourly rate is certainly lower than my local shop.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

I've had things like my audio controller replaced and it was like $30 for labor. Same for a lot of other things.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

Tesla has control over the system (OTA updates), you "have to" bring it to Tesla for repairs and service, and they've even tried to control who can resell a cyberteuck.

That's not the case at all. I haven't needed to do much on my Tesla but the few things that I have needed to do on my 2018 Model 3 have been handled either under warranty by Tesla immediately and without charge, or handled by the same body repair and tire shops I took my Honda to before.

As for the Cybertruck resale limits, other manufacturers do the exact same thing for new models at initial launch or even as part of their regular sales agreements. That includes traditionally more expensive brands like Ferrari and Lamborghini, as well as brands like Ford when introducing new high end models like the GT. This isn't something weird in the industry at all for new limited production models.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

FSD: ~~Full~~Fake Self Driving

either that or Full Self Driving, as In any event, I already drive myself in any car.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 7 months ago (1 children)

From the headline I guessed it was to teach people to keep their hands on the wheel to stop FSD crashes from being in the news.

But it is actually about demo-ing the feature to get people to subscribe to FSD to help prop up the falling Tesla stock.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The number one thing Musk can do to prop up falling Tesla Stock is to remove himself from Tesla. He's too volatile these days.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

TSLA has a PE Ratio of 42. Toyota has a PE Ratio of 11.

If Tesla becomes a "normal car company", we're looking at 75% declines in the stock price. The only reason why its being propped up at all is because of Elon Musk's cult of personality.

Yeah, Elon Musk has successfully tied himself to the company like a suicide pact. The Board is also largely under Elon Musk's control.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago

He gets paid proportionally to the stock value, so it's completely and totally about perception to him. Actual reality... who cares!

[–] [email protected] 29 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Tesla: people really like that you can just order a car online and not have to deal with slimey sales tactics. What can we do to fuck even that up too?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Since not every car they sell is capable of it, I'm guessing this means to demo it for everyone who ordered it (or ordered a car capable of it, since the subscription can only be enabled on such cars).

The delivery process takes like a handful of minutes, and everyone who orders one still has to go through it, so if they're mandating a drive, I guess that roughly doubled the delivery process time.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Its very few cars that are not FSD capable, mostly older S and X. There are some older model 3's (pre spring 2019) with hardware version 2 that I think can't run modern FSD.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

All the Model 3s with v2 were offered a free upgrade, I suppose there could be some people that never bothered and then sold their car, but if it's in Tesla's resale inventory I would expect them to have done the upgrade.

My 2018 Model 3 got the upgrade and I use FSD daily, though it still has the older revision of the display (just slightly less responsive in web browsing and games).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You only got the V2 to V3 upgrade if you bought FSD. I don't think they blanket upgraded everyone with V2 or V2.5 hardware.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ah, that makes sense. Looking at the FAQ page, it appears anyone who pays for the non subscription FSD gets the upgrade free, subscribers have to pay $1,000 for installation.

Same page says there is a camera upgrade available for some s/x/early 3s also restricted to purchasers of FSD.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

And that is fair. Otherwise someone could subscribe to FSD, get their hardware upgrade and then cancel. Early S and maybe X used a completely different system for Autopilot developed by MobileEye. Tesla hates paying licenses so they drop Mobile Eye and started developing their in house AP/FSD. The MobileEye patents are why it took for ever to get a system that can read speed limit signs. But Mobile Eye was never released on Model 3 so there must have been some different cameras in use. Hardware 4 has more cameras and higher def but I haven't heard that they are upgrading hardware 3 cars. The scale of that is way larger than it was back in 2019.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ah, I wasn't aware that new ones came "FSD Capable" by default.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

Its hard for them to sell you FSD at $12k (or $199/mo) if the hardware can't support it.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

Running low on beta testers?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

I've been car shopping lately and the number of cheap used Tesla's is astounding. I see more in dealer inventories than I've ever seen on the road.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago

Desperation. Stock correction incoming. Elon needs to seperate himself from the brand for it to succeed.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 months ago

I've seen this one before! Captain America lives out his days with the love of his life.