38/60
37) Instead of whistleblowing and facing the same fate, some employees are just leaving over quality concerns / fear of retribution. Take Ethan Heald for example - senior Mechanical Design Engineer at Tesla.
39/60
38) The rush to deliver the cybertruck led to one of the most disastrous product launches in history. With an almost immediate recall on a potentially fatal accelerator flaw as well as products being delivered almost as if they're prototypes with severe issues at onset
40/60
39) Mechanics on youtube have been tearing down the cybertruck and finding huge flaws. Either Tesla continues delivering these trucks and potentially faces huge warranty / legal claims in the future down the road or ceases production.
41/60
40) It's not just the CT, the cutting corners has been getting worse for its existing models. Tesla has the most problems p/100 vehicles out of any OEM bar Polestar (257 vs. 2022 reading of 226). Tesla is blaming customers in many cases for its own issues https://reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-musk-steering-suspension/
42/60
41)Tesla has tried to cover up issues, including creating a team to suppress range complaints. "Some employees celebrated cancelling service appointments by putting their phones on mute and striking a metal xylophone, triggering applause from coworkers"
43/60
42) The company also informed employees to only communicate via voice re product quality issues and not writing to avoid producing incriminating evidence for future regulatory investigations.
44/60
43) The flagrant disregard of regulations / cutting corners is evident across Musk related companies. With exceptionally high injury levels across its manufacturing sites. SpaceX also failed to report required injury data to regulators for years.
45/60
44) This same cavalier attitude is evident in Elon’s approach to company perimeters/related party dealings. From the bailout of SolarCity to save his cousins to transferring engineers from Tesla to work at Twitter. Regulators are starting to look.
46/60
45) The most egregious example of this is xAI. On Tesla's Q1 call, Musk told investors that Tesla should be viewed as an a AI or robotics company. Yet at the same time, Elon is raising billions for xAI outside Tesla Elon Musk’s Artificial Intelligence Startup xAI Reportedly Nears $18 Billion Valuation With Fresh Funding As AI Race Heats Up
47/60
46) On the same note, Elon also uses Tesla to pump his / insider crypto holdings such as Dogecoin/Bitcoin to the detriment of its reputation and potentially exposing it to future litigation.
48/60
47) Additionally, during the Twitter takeover Elon borrowed $1bn from SpaceX like it was his personal piggy bank & breaching its fiduciary duty to shareholders. It does make you question the potential for moving cash between Elon entities.
49/60
48) Back to Tesla, one has to question the $8-10bn 2024 capex guide (2023:$8.9bn). In the context of huge layoffs, no new models (2 cancelled), gigacasting pulled, Gigamexico paused, Supercharger team gone - are they overcapitalizing or is it AI (using Tesla resources for xAI?)
50/60
49) Given xAI employees are using X/Twitter offices and data & history of shady related party dealings, it's probably not too far to think Elon is using Tesla's resources/capex for xAI.
51/60
50) See H100 GPUs by customer for Nvidia vs. what Elon has said Grok required in terms of compute required. This should be investigated by regulators.
52/60
51) Following on from Capex, on other accounting mysteries, Tesla continues to record substantially lower warranty claim rates compared to other OEMs despite Tesla having the most problems per 100 cars of any major OEM.
53/60
52) It has been well covered in the press that Tesla has been aggressively recording warranty expenses as goodwill as well as in whistle-blower complaints. You may ask why?
54/60
53) Employing this strategy allows you to artificially lower warranty provisioning / COGS and record warranty expenses at the time incurred as goodwill/SG&A. As long as the business was growing, this strategy worked great to defer the real costs of the warranty of their vehicles.
55/60
54) Now volumes are in contraction, Tesla faces a real risk of warranty costs exploding as the age of the average vehicle under warranty expands. It has been doing everything it can to blame consumers for its own faults to kick the can down the road.
56/60
55) Interestingly, consumers have been noting that Tesla's latest service appointments are months out or are being cancelled for no apparent reason. Tesla stalling to avoid recognising servicing costs / forcing consumers to try and fix the cars themselves.
57/60
56) Tesla's strategy to do everything to avoid servicing (stalling & blaming customers) & lack of reliability has led in part to insurance costs exploding. Catch-22-> kick can on servicing (inflate financials) but kill demand due to soaring insurance costs
58/60
57) Another accounting question is the Company's leasing / residual value accounting. The Company takes residual value risk on the bulk of its vehicles leased by itself. The Company also provides external leasers with residual value guarantees.
59/60
Thanks man, glad you liked it. Do feel free to post a rebuttal.
60/60
Glad you like the work
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
37) Instead of whistleblowing and facing the same fate, some employees are just leaving over quality concerns / fear of retribution. Take Ethan Heald for example - senior Mechanical Design Engineer at Tesla.
39/60
38) The rush to deliver the cybertruck led to one of the most disastrous product launches in history. With an almost immediate recall on a potentially fatal accelerator flaw as well as products being delivered almost as if they're prototypes with severe issues at onset
40/60
39) Mechanics on youtube have been tearing down the cybertruck and finding huge flaws. Either Tesla continues delivering these trucks and potentially faces huge warranty / legal claims in the future down the road or ceases production.
41/60
40) It's not just the CT, the cutting corners has been getting worse for its existing models. Tesla has the most problems p/100 vehicles out of any OEM bar Polestar (257 vs. 2022 reading of 226). Tesla is blaming customers in many cases for its own issues https://reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-musk-steering-suspension/
42/60
41)Tesla has tried to cover up issues, including creating a team to suppress range complaints. "Some employees celebrated cancelling service appointments by putting their phones on mute and striking a metal xylophone, triggering applause from coworkers"
43/60
42) The company also informed employees to only communicate via voice re product quality issues and not writing to avoid producing incriminating evidence for future regulatory investigations.
44/60
43) The flagrant disregard of regulations / cutting corners is evident across Musk related companies. With exceptionally high injury levels across its manufacturing sites. SpaceX also failed to report required injury data to regulators for years.
45/60
44) This same cavalier attitude is evident in Elon’s approach to company perimeters/related party dealings. From the bailout of SolarCity to save his cousins to transferring engineers from Tesla to work at Twitter. Regulators are starting to look.
46/60
45) The most egregious example of this is xAI. On Tesla's Q1 call, Musk told investors that Tesla should be viewed as an a AI or robotics company. Yet at the same time, Elon is raising billions for xAI outside Tesla Elon Musk’s Artificial Intelligence Startup xAI Reportedly Nears $18 Billion Valuation With Fresh Funding As AI Race Heats Up
47/60
46) On the same note, Elon also uses Tesla to pump his / insider crypto holdings such as Dogecoin/Bitcoin to the detriment of its reputation and potentially exposing it to future litigation.
48/60
47) Additionally, during the Twitter takeover Elon borrowed $1bn from SpaceX like it was his personal piggy bank & breaching its fiduciary duty to shareholders. It does make you question the potential for moving cash between Elon entities.
49/60
48) Back to Tesla, one has to question the $8-10bn 2024 capex guide (2023:$8.9bn). In the context of huge layoffs, no new models (2 cancelled), gigacasting pulled, Gigamexico paused, Supercharger team gone - are they overcapitalizing or is it AI (using Tesla resources for xAI?)
50/60
49) Given xAI employees are using X/Twitter offices and data & history of shady related party dealings, it's probably not too far to think Elon is using Tesla's resources/capex for xAI.
51/60
50) See H100 GPUs by customer for Nvidia vs. what Elon has said Grok required in terms of compute required. This should be investigated by regulators.
52/60
51) Following on from Capex, on other accounting mysteries, Tesla continues to record substantially lower warranty claim rates compared to other OEMs despite Tesla having the most problems per 100 cars of any major OEM.
53/60
52) It has been well covered in the press that Tesla has been aggressively recording warranty expenses as goodwill as well as in whistle-blower complaints. You may ask why?
54/60
53) Employing this strategy allows you to artificially lower warranty provisioning / COGS and record warranty expenses at the time incurred as goodwill/SG&A. As long as the business was growing, this strategy worked great to defer the real costs of the warranty of their vehicles.
55/60
54) Now volumes are in contraction, Tesla faces a real risk of warranty costs exploding as the age of the average vehicle under warranty expands. It has been doing everything it can to blame consumers for its own faults to kick the can down the road.
56/60
55) Interestingly, consumers have been noting that Tesla's latest service appointments are months out or are being cancelled for no apparent reason. Tesla stalling to avoid recognising servicing costs / forcing consumers to try and fix the cars themselves.
57/60
56) Tesla's strategy to do everything to avoid servicing (stalling & blaming customers) & lack of reliability has led in part to insurance costs exploding. Catch-22-> kick can on servicing (inflate financials) but kill demand due to soaring insurance costs
58/60
57) Another accounting question is the Company's leasing / residual value accounting. The Company takes residual value risk on the bulk of its vehicles leased by itself. The Company also provides external leasers with residual value guarantees.
59/60
Thanks man, glad you liked it. Do feel free to post a rebuttal.
60/60
Glad you like the work
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
