If you pay close attention, you’ll notice that none - ZERO - of the metal body panels have significantly changed, if at all, over the lifetime of the vehicles. That goes for Model S, X, 3, Y...none!

Probably “Losing” money like the Prius “lost” money. I’m guessing the same - they’re charging against R&D spending. The more accurate number is their marginal profits.

I was more referring to the original Tesla renter, who said he’d never rent from them again.

I’m just saying, Hertz is being ridiculous about this. They’ve lost - and are continuing to lose - a lot of goodwill over this. Way more than $277 worth, for sure. It won’t sink, them, of course, but they’ve at least lost one good customer who was surely worth more than $277 in future revenue.

> but it is never insurmountable

What a dumbass excuse - the contract is closed. Contracts are made by people. People can do reasonable things. Good customer service means you don’t blame the system, you satisfy the customer and do what you need to do on the system.

As for steer-by-wire: if that’s the criteria you’re using for first, the 2023 model Lexus RZ was the first true steer-by-wire. It has a small battery backup specifically for the steer-by-wire.

Yep. He cashed in on Tesla stock a while back and he’s been kissing that ass ever since. I recall a Model 3 teardown he was going to do. It had to have been like the third or fourth one. At any rate, he’s on camera proclaiming that there’s nothing wrong with the body panel alignments, and in the background I can see…

That’s not second-degree assault: that’s attempted murder.

Yep. The beauty of machines is they can be made in any form to do very specific tasks.

Hey, remember that Elon believes FSD can be achieved with vision-only, and that the vision-based autowipers in Tesla vehicles still suck when a $10 sensor can more reliably detect water. I’m sure most buyers won’t notice the $20 increase in the price of a vehicle, or even care, if the wipers actually work more…

Pick-and-pack robots are startingly quick. Instead of making robots to slot into human factories, maybe just design the factories to work with robots? Seems like that’s far more efficient.

Oh, for sure. At the point they decide it won’t work with just cameras, they’ll be racing just to catch up to the other players.

Tesla the company could solve autonomous driving, someday. But not as long as Elon is at the helm and telling everyone they can do it with just cameras.

Totally agree on that. Musk’s reasoning is that “we drive with only our eyes, we should be able to program computers to do the same.”

Having previously owned a Tesla, I won’t buy another one until they get rid of Musk and decide to build a car with reasonable quality and interior that doesn’t rely on removing every physical control.

Does Toyota really care? Either way, it results in a sale for Toyota.

Most owners aren’t going to really care. It’ll be enough to get from their mansion to the helipad or executive terminal at their nearest airport.

I’d totally rock a London Black Taxi Cab.

Also, thanks to Hertz and Uber, Tesla is now associated with rideshare. Can’t have a premium brand when they’re running around as taxis.