Aurora Buys High Performance LIDAR Firm Blackmore, A Vote For LIDAR, Almost In Rebuke To Elon Musk – Forbes

LIDAR point clouds including velocity from Doppler shift Blackmore/Aurora Aurora, the high-flying robocar startup founded by Chris Urmson of Waymo/Google, Sterling Anderson of Tesla and Drew Bagnell of Uber has used its super-high valuation money to purchase Blackmore, an FMCW LIDAR company based in Bozeman, Montana. That’s a strong expression of support for the value… Continue reading Aurora Buys High Performance LIDAR Firm Blackmore, A Vote For LIDAR, Almost In Rebuke To Elon Musk – Forbes

Tesla Has Just Launched Their Model 3 Sedan For Only $35,000 And You Can Buy It Online Now

While Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been working hard since 2016 to push out the company’s Model 3 sedan at a super low mass market price tag, after suggesting just last month that this car would finally be here before 2019 was through, Tesla made the surprise announcement on Thursday that the Standard Range Model of this vehicle was finally being sold online for just $35,000, which is of course before the savings start to kick in.

As The Daily Mail reports, potential buyers of the Model 3 are able to rent it and test it out for themselves, driving the car for either 1,000 miles or seven days. Tesla’s Standard Range Model has a top speed of 130 MPH and boasts a range of 230 miles, with acceleration reaching 60 MPH in 5.6 seconds.

Tesla reportedly stopped processing orders on their website last week, writing cryptically that “great things are launching,” which was followed by Elon Musk announcing that he had “some Tesla news” that he would be sharing later on Thursday.

However, instead of making a huge public announcement, the company quietly began selling their Model 3 once again, this time adding one that was listed for a mere $35,000. Rather excitingly, for those who purchase this vehicle with the standard interior, the cost will only come to $24,950 once savings come into play.

Tesla is also selling their Model 3 Standard Range Plus which runs for up to 240 miles, contains “most premium features,” and retails for $37,000. But despite these low prices, the company made it startlingly clear that these models still hold a perfect 5-star rating by the U.S. government.

“Although lower in cost, it is built to achieve the same perfect 5-star safety rating as the longer-ranged version, which has the lowest probability of injury of any car ever tested by the U.S. Government.”

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To keep costs down and to also make it easier for customers to purchase its vehicles, Tesla has announced that a large number of their stores in the United States will be shut down to make way for all orders to be taken online instead. By doing this, the company has said that they will be able to greatly reduce the costs of their cars, including the $35,000 Model 3 now on offer.

As a recent press release has stated, “Shifting all sales online, combined with other ongoing cost efficiencies, will enable us to lower all vehicle prices by about 6% on average, allowing us to achieve the $35,000 Model 3 price point earlier than we expected. Over the next few months, we will be winding down many of our stores, with a small number of stores in high-traffic locations remaining as galleries, showcases and Tesla information centers.”

Besides the announcement of their new Model 3 sale price, Tesla is also ramping up their service system in a very big way and will soon be offering services not only on the same day, but very possibly even within the same hour that it is needed, and have said that in most cases technicians will be able to come to the customer instead of the reverse.

Tesla starts limiting charge to 80% at busy Superchargers to reduce wait times

Tesla is updating some of its Supercharger stations today to limit the top State of Charge (SOC) to 80% at busy stations in order to reduce wait times. In a memo sent to Tesla employees today and obtained by Electrek, Tesla announced the new feature: Today, we released a new Supercharger feature that will limit… Continue reading Tesla starts limiting charge to 80% at busy Superchargers to reduce wait times

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Says He Is ‘Very Excited’ About The Auto Industry

Just don’t expect a Kindle FIre EV anytime soon. At a recent all-hands meeting, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos shared his excitement about the coming changes to the auto industry. “It’s going to be something very interesting to watch and participate in, and I’m very excited about that whole industry.” Said Bezos in a recording shared with… Continue reading Amazon’s Jeff Bezos Says He Is ‘Very Excited’ About The Auto Industry

Tesla Model 3 Boom In Norway Leads To Problems

Growth of car sales outpaced Tesla’s capacity in Norway. Customers complain about Model 3 quality. So far this year, the Tesla Model 3 is the best-selling car of any kind in Norway, but the unprecedented volume led to new problems with insufficient service capacity and a high number of complaints on the quality of the new… Continue reading Tesla Model 3 Boom In Norway Leads To Problems

Fresh off a $530M round, Aurora acquires lidar startup Blackmore

Aurora, the self-driving car startup backed by Sequoia Capital and Amazon, is in an acquiring mood. The company, founded in early 2017 by Chris Urmson, Sterling Anderson and Drew Bagnell, announced Thursday that it acquired lidar company Blackmore. The Blackmore purchase follows another smaller, and previously unknown, acquisition of 7D Labs that occurred earlier this… Continue reading Fresh off a $530M round, Aurora acquires lidar startup Blackmore

Nvidia slams Intel over unrealistic deep-learning benchmark tests

Nvidia has hit out at Intel claiming that a benchmark test it performed to beat Nvida’s Tesla GPUs at inference workloads was “misleading”. The company claims that the test required up to $100,000 of energy-hungry hardware in order to best a Nvidia Tesla V100 GPU. “It’s not every day that one of the world’s leading… Continue reading Nvidia slams Intel over unrealistic deep-learning benchmark tests

Tritium Secures New Order From IONITY For Hundreds Of Chargers

With the second order for ultra-fast chargers at 120 new sites, Tritium is now the largest supplier to the IONITY network. Australian manufacturer Tritium announced a second order for ultra-fast DC fast chargers (up to 350 kW) from IONITY in Europe. The joint venture charging network (founded in 2017 by BMW Group, Daimler AG, Ford… Continue reading Tritium Secures New Order From IONITY For Hundreds Of Chargers

Read Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s email to employees: Company averaged 900 Model 3s per day this week

Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks during the unveiling of the new Tesla Model Y in Hawthorne, California on March 14, 2019.Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty ImagesTesla shares rose more than 1% Thursday after CEO Elon Musk sent an e-mail to all employees saying the electric vehicle maker is close to reaching its target production numbers for the Model 3 this quarter.
The e-mail's optimistic tone helped Tesla shares turn positive for the first time in seven days. The company added over $500 million to its market cap, reaching around $34.6 billion, in early trading on Thursday.
Here's what Musk wrote to employees:
Subj. Exciting Goal!
Date: May 22, 2109
To: Everbody
As of yesterday we had over 50,000 net new orders for this quarter. Based on current trends, we have a good chance of exceeding the record 90,700 deliveries of Q4 last year and making this the highest deliveries/sales quarter in Tesla history!
In order to achieve this, we need sustained output of 1,000 Model 3's per day. Almost all parts of the Model 3 production system have exceeded 1,000 units on multiple days (congratulations!) and we've averaged about 900/day this week, so we're only about 10% away from 7,000/week.
If we rally hard, we can do it!
Thanks for your hard work
Analysts had been losing confidence in Tesla's stock during the past week as the company entered cost-cutting mode. In an email to employees obtained by CNBC last week, Musk stressed the need for “hardcore” measures to cut spending.
Citi analysts wrote Tuesday that Tesla's shares could fall more than 80% to $36, citing “lingering demand/FCF (free cash flow) concerns.” In a private call with Morgan Stanley clients Wednesday, Morgan Stanley research analyst Adam Jonas said he was skeptical about the company's ability to grow, CNBC reported.
“Tesla is not really seen as a growth story,” Jonas said on the call, which CNBC heard in a recording. Today, “It seems like a distressed credit and restructuring story.”
Loup Ventures co-founder Gene Munster gave the stock its latest downward revision Thursday. Munster expected the company would miss its delivery expectations this year especially as trade tensions drag on between the U.S. and China. He lowered 2019 delivery estimates about 10% to just 310,000 vehicles compared to guidance between 360,000 and 400,000.
While Musk's email to Tesla employees shed a light on production progress, logistics remains another challenge for the company in meeting its second-quarter delivery goals.
In the first quarter of 2019, Musk said the increase in overseas business stressed the company's logistics operations. Half of Tesla's global deliveries happened in the final 10 days of the first quarter.
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