Update: this morning Elon tweeted a series of tweets to explain why he cut off the two analysts, his basic point being, “The 2 questioners I ignored on the Q1 call are sell-side analysts who represent a short seller thesis, not investors. The reason the Bernstein question about CapEx was boneheaded was that it had already been answered in the headline of the Q1 newsletter he received beforehand, along with details in the body of the letter. Reason RBC question about Model 3 demand is absurd is that Tesla has roughly half a million reservations, despite no advertising & no cars in showrooms. Even after reaching 5k/week production, it would take 2 years just to satisfy existing demand even if new sales dropped to 0.”







Elon Musk Full Video Interview at SXSW 2018

>From space travel to deep earth boring, Elon Musk shares his opinions on AI, Mars, and business. He explores his early years as an entrepreneur that led to creating some of the most cutting-edge companies on the planet, in the planet and beyond. Oh, and there is a great little ditty at the end.

If you haven’t watched it yet, here’s the full video interview of Elon Musk at SXSW 2018.

Folks at TeslaMotorsClub are reported dramatic improvements with Autopilot on the last 2018.10.4 update. Tesla’s neural net is finally kicking in and impressing.

>The AP is now amazing! I spent over an hour just driving around my area with AP engaged on streets where I would have never considered using it, and was just in awe in how much better it works now. So excited I’m going back out to drive again just for more grins…

>Before, you’d have to drive on a street/highway for a few seconds with black lane lines (on the display) for the steering wheel to show up. Now, the steering wheel shows up almost instantly turning onto a road with lanes or when lanes appear. Amazing.

>I’m dubbing it the “Confidence Update”. It feels much more like a human is driving vs a scared computer.

>Just installed the update this morning and took plumAzul on her standard test course around the neighborhood. I can confirm that for the first time ever, she made it over several blind hills without disengaging or steering a hard right (previous actions on every update since I took delivery June ’17). I couldn’t believe it so I tried it 3 times. She performed flawlessly every time. I’ve been waiting for this fix for a long time. She also engaged autopilot on a section of poorly marked road that has never allowed autopilot to engage before. This is in addition to sections of road where AP engaged for the first time with 18.6

>I drove a short mile down the hill myself and made a right. The next 16 miles or so are all back country, winding road which is mostly well marked. I gave up counting the number of times that I used to have to take over.. Somewhere around 18 I think. With 10.4 I took the wheel ONCE. I’m not even sure I needed to. I think I was just chicken LOL. I have an AP2 car (9/2017). I think I’ve received 6 updates so far..? This is by far the best AP update yet.

>The past two days I drove Phoenix to Portland (about 1300 miles) and AP2 performance is now *incredible*! I’ve driven this route four times previously, but this was the FIRST (and only) time the lane keeping and TACC was 99% perfect. Even the steering thru the curves on I-5 from northern CA into southern OR for the first ever were smooth, perfectly centered in the lane and “no drama”. Fantastic. I could hardly believe this is the same car I’ve been driving for the past year.

>Autopilot is SO much more advanced – love this version! Prior versions couldn’t handle the 4 miles of curvy road down to the main road – now, it goes the entire way without a hiccup. It feels so much more confident, no micro movements, no moving around in the lane.

>OK tested 2018.10.4 on a 5 mile loop near my house with many tight twisting turns and only got 1 disengagement, where I had about a dozen with last firmware. It now handles turns it never even came close on before. Also noticed a new alert that sounds like a disengagement, but I guess just a warning as it sounded but AP stayed engaged (noticed on very tight turns). Might not be new, but I never noticed it before.