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Tesla Partners With Auction Companies To Manage Used Car Market

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Published on November 27th, 2018 |

by Steve Hanley

Tesla Partners With Auction Companies To Manage Used Car Market

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November 27th, 2018 by Steve Hanley

Car auctions move billions of dollars a year and are essential to the US automobile industry, yet operate out of the public eye. Every week, tens of thousands of used cars get redistributed from dealers and leasing companies to wholesalers and other dealers. The auctions are not open to the public, so very few people know about them, but they provide a means of turning cars in inventory into cash for sellers, and they provide a steady supply of fresh inventory for used car dealers.

Until now, Tesla has been managing its own used car inventory, but as sales of new cars ramp up, there are more Teslas being traded in. As much as Tesla likes to be a vertically integrated company that controls every aspect of its business, established auction houses like Adessa and Manheim are very good at what they do, and so Tesla has contracted with them to help manage its burgeoning supply of used cars, according to CNBC.

The majority of cars that go through the auction process are off-lease vehicles — something that Tesla is starting to have a lot of as leases from 2016 and earlier are just starting to mature. To handle the influx of more used cars — some of which may be trade-ins from other manufacturers or repossessions — Tesla now has postings on Glassdoor for used vehicle quality specialists, a remarketing manager, and used vehicle sales advisors. The company is targeting a “30-day or less turn-rate in the sale of pre-owned inventory.”

Many people have a negative attitude toward cars purchased from auction houses, but in truth, the supply of off-lease cars is the lifeblood of the used car industry. They are typically 2 to 3 model years old with between 30,000 and 50,000 miles on them. They are professionally reconditioned by the auction staff and often cannot be told from new. If you think all 300 used cars in inventory down at your local dealer are local trade-ins, you don’t understand how the used car business in America works.

Because Teslas will now be available at major auctions, that means they will soon start showing up on dealer lots alongside other cars in the used car inventory, meaning people interested in buying a used Tesla will have more options and possibly somewhat lower prices.

The secret to the used car business is turning the inventory. Many of the top used car retailers set 30 days as the maximum time a car can remain on the books. After that, it goes back up for auction. The theory is that it is better to lose a little money now if the proceeds can be reinvested in fresh inventory that will sell quickly and generate a profit later.

When your children ask you for career advice, tell them to become an auctioneer. Those who make it are typically some of the wealthiest people in the community. They get paid a fee by sellers to include their cars in the auction and another fee by buyers when the car sells. Most operate finance companies that loan buyers the money to purchase the cars. They operate inspection and reconditioning services that generate income as well.

Forget being a lawyer or a doctor or even a Wall Street trader. Being an auctioneer is where it’s at. You own nothing and have little overhead. No one dies or goes to jail if you make a mistake. It’s the perfect business for anyone who wants to make a lot of money with minimal headaches.

And it’s addicting. Once a week, the cars start rolling across the auction block at 9:00 am at a rate of 2 per minute until well into the afternoon. The bigger auctions have up to 15 lines running simultaneously and sell as many as 1,500 cars in a day. It’s insane, and crazy good fun. Way better than playing video games in your mom’s basement.

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About the Author

Steve Hanley Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Rhode Island and anywhere else the Singularity may take him. His muse is Charles Kuralt — “I see the road ahead is turning. I wonder what's around the bend?”

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Elon Musk Is Right: LiDAR Is a Crutch (Sort of.)

By Luis Dussan

Tesla founder Elon Musk recently declared that LiDAR is a “crutch” for autonomous vehicle makers. The comment sparked headlines and raised eyebrows in the industry. Given that this vision technology is the core of many companies’ self-driving car strategies, his view strikes many as anathema or just plain nuts.

But for the moment, let’s ignore the fact that LiDAR is vital to self-driving cars from GM, Toyota and others. Forget that the most advanced autonomous vehicle projects have focused on developing laser-sensing systems.

Even disregard that the alleged theft of LiDAR secrets was at heart of the legal battle between Uber and Alphabet’s Waymo. Waymo claimed that LiDAR is essential technology for autonomous vehicles and won a settlement recently worth about $245 million.

The truth is: Mr. Musk is right. Relying solely on LiDAR can steer autonomous vehicle companies into innovation cul-de-sacs.

LiDAR is not enough. Autonomous vehicles require a rapid, accurate and complete perception system. It is a system-level problem that requires a system-level solution.

My agreement with Mr. Musk may seem surprising given that our company, AEye, sees LiDAR as playing a significant role in making driverless cars a commercial reality.

But we too have realized that if autonomous vehicles are ever going to be capable of avoiding accidents and saving lives, LiDAR is not the answer. At least not by itself.

Not THE answer, but part of the answer…
At Tesla, Mr. Musk is forsaking LiDAR for a 2D camera-based vision system. While Mr. Musk is known for disruptive thinking, it is hard to escape the fact that autonomous vehicles move through a 3D world and successful navigation of that world requires the seamless integration of both 2D and 3D data precisely mapped to both time and space.

At AEye, we believe LiDAR is the foundation of the solution when it seamlessly integrates with a multi-sensor perception system that is truly intelligent and dynamic. Our research has produced an elegant and multi-dimensional visual processing system modeled after the most effective in existence — the human visual cortex.

In fact, AEye’s initial perception system, called iDAR (Intelligent Detection and Ranging), offers a robotic perception system that is more reliable than human vision. LiDAR integrates with a low-light camera, embedded artificial intelligence and at-the-edge processing to enable a car’s vision system to replicate how the human visual cortex quickly interprets a scene.
In short, iDAR enables cars to see like people.

Why this is the superior approach?
In his skepticism of LiDAR, Mr. Musk has curiously bet on a “camera-mostly” strategy when building a vision system for autonomous Tesla vehicles. He has previously made bold (many say unrealistic) predictions that Tesla would achieve full Level 5 autonomous driving with camera-mostly vision in 2019. Navigant Research, in their annual ranking of self-driving vehicle makers, says this is “unlikely to ever be achievable” and rates Tesla at the back of the pack.

The company’s Autopilot system relies on cameras, some radar, and GPS. It has suffered setbacks due to a split with its camera supplier in 2016 after a fatal accident that investigators have blamed partly on Autopilot. Last month, a Tesla smashed into a firetruck in Culver City, California, and the driver said it was “on autopilot.”

The evidence strongly argues against Mr. Musk’s decision to bet on passive optical image processing systems. Existing 2D image processors and 2D to 3D image conversion concepts have serious flaws that can only be addressed with massive computing power and more importantly — algorithms that have not been invented, and are many years away from becoming a reality. This makes this approach too costly, inefficient and cumbersome to achieve Level 5 autonomous driving at commercial scale.

At AEye we know that integrating cameras, agile LiDAR, and AI equals a perception system that is better than the sum of its parts. It surpasses both the human eye and camera alone, which is required if you don’t have the sophistication of the human brain yet replicated.

In his “crutch” comments, Mr. Musk predicted that LiDAR-based systems will make cars “expensive, ugly and unnecessary,” adding: “I think they will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.” The truth is that size, weight, power, and cost are decreasing for vehicle navigation grade LiDAR. And they will fall further. AEye, and maybe others, will see to that.

We respect Musk’s innovations and are grateful to him shedding light on where LiDAR needs to go to reach full autonomy. But in the end, as we see LiDAR as a lever, rather than a crutch, we can only give him partial credit for his understanding of the way forward.

ALL NEWS & VIEWS
Elon Musk Is Right: LiDAR Is a Crutch (Sort of.) — AEye Introduces Groundbreaking iDAR TechnologyObserve, Orient, Decide, Act: How AEye’s iDAR System Adopts Principles of the OODA Loop to Achieve Intelligent, Long-Range DetectionAEye Introduces Next Generation of Artificial Perception: New Dynamic Vixels™AEye Announces the AE100 Robotic Perception System for Autonomous VehiclesThe Future of Autonomous Vehicles: Part I – Think Like a Robot, Perceive Like a HumanAEye Announces Addition of Aravind Ratnam as Vice President of Product ManagementCB Insights Unveils Second Annual AI 100 Companies at A-ha!AEye Granted Foundational Patents For Core Solid-State MEMs-Based Agile LiDAR And Embedded AI TechnologyGartner Names AEye Cool Vendor in AI for Computer VisionAEye Welcomes James Robnett to Executive Team as Vice President of Automotive Business Development

ChargePoint raises $240 million to serve an anticipated flood of electric vehicles

Electric vehicle charging network ChargePoint has raised $240 million in a Series H funding round that attracted a diverse group of investors from the automotive, energy, financial, venture capital, utilities, and even oil and gas industries. New investors in the round include American Electric Power, Chevron Technology Ventures, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Daimler Trucks… Continue reading ChargePoint raises $240 million to serve an anticipated flood of electric vehicles

Tesla’s reported 70 percent drop in China sales is ‘misleading information,’ Chinese auto exec says

Original Article

Tesla Adds Warehouses In Lathrop, California, To Relieve Pressure At Its Fremont Factory

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Published on November 27th, 2018 |

by Kyle Field

Tesla Adds Warehouses In Lathrop, California, To Relieve Pressure At Its Fremont Factory

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November 27th, 2018 by Kyle Field

New Video Highlights Progress At Tesla’s New Facility In Lathrop, California

Tesla has continued its ongoing expansion with the construction of its new Distribution Center in Lathrop, California. The facility sits just over 50 miles from its Fremont factory.

The company originally moved into Lathrop back in 2014 as it fleshed out plans for the then-new Model X. It is now working to expand its footprint in the city to accommodate the surge in volume required for Model 3.

Tesla’s 10K filing with the SEC from 2017 noted that, “We manufacture our vehicles, and certain parts and components that are critical to our intellectual property and quality standards, at the Tesla Factory and our manufacturing facility in Lathrop, CA.” It went on to list 4 warehouse and manufacturing locations in the city, totaling nearly 1.4 million square feet of floor space.

A new YouTube video that was posted on Reddit (featured above) shows that Tesla continues to push into the small city with the construction of another massive facility. The sheer size of the new facility has many speculating that it will come online as a distribution center that will allow Tesla to offload some of the more space-intensive delivery preparation work away from its Fremont manufacturing plant.

As Tesla’s near-term production target of 6,000 Model 3s per week stacks on top of its existing base of 100,000 Model S and X per year, Tesla is pulling out all the stops to roll as many cars as possible through its Fremont factory. Actually, 412,000 vehicles per year is already more than Tesla thought it would produce from the factory, and it now has plans to continue to ramp up Model 3 production to a target rate of perhaps even 10,000 Model 3s per week!

Cramming the production of more than 600,000 vehicles per year into the Fremont factory is going to require a bit of ingenuity, but that’s just business as usual for Tesla, which has built its business on challenging the status quo and redefining normal — one day, one innovation at a time.

Tesla has not announced the North American manufacturing location for its yet to be unveiled electric CUV, the Model Y, but it has admitted that it will need another production facility since Fremont is already bursting at the seams. It recently broke ground on its third full-scale manufacturing facility, dubbed Gigafactory 3, in Shanghai, China — its first production facility in Asia — where it will produce the Model 3 and the Model Y when production begins in 2020.

Though, in the midst of the international expansion, it has largely been ignored that back in Lathrop, California, Tesla continues to ramp up its operations. Dozens of logistics, administrative, and metal-working jobs have been posted in the greater Lathrop region by the California company.

Source: YouTube via Reddit

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Kyle Field I'm a tech geek passionately in search of actionable ways to reduce the negative impact my life has on the planet, save money and reduce stress. Live intentionally, make conscious decisions, love more, act responsibly, play. The more you know, the less you need. TSLA investor. Tesla referral code: http://ts.la/kyle623

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GM to add third vehicle to Spring Hill plant, despite sweeping $6 billion cost-cutting plan – The Tennessean

CLOSE With three major auto manufacturing plants and nearly 1,000 auto suppliers scattered across the state, Tennessee has emerged as the primary driver behind the Southeast’s fast-growing automotive industry. Buy Photo A worker places engines into Cadillac XT5 and GMC Acadia vehicles Feb. 14 at the General Motors plant in Spring Hill. A future Cadillac… Continue reading GM to add third vehicle to Spring Hill plant, despite sweeping $6 billion cost-cutting plan – The Tennessean

Race for Tesla plant heats up as four northern towns join forces

Four towns in the northern Netherlands – Hardenberg, Emmen, Coevorden and Hoogeveen – have joined forces in an effort to attract a new Tesla car production plant.Hardenberg mayor Peter Snijders told the Financieele Dagblad that neighbouring German towns may also join the group which has raised €12m for the campaign.
However there is a lot of competition for the car plant. Groningen is preparing a bid book for the venture, while Tilburg in the south is interested in having Tesla build a battery plant for the plug-in car there.
Tesla already has an assembly plant in Tilburg which is a centre for car components manufacture. And VDL Nedcar in Limburg is also seeking partnership with Tesla, the FD says.
Eastern Europe
There is heavy compeition throughout Europe for a long-awaited Tesla plant. Ferdinand Dudenhöffer of CAR-Center Automotive Research in Duisburg Germany argues that eastern Europe has the most to offer the California-based car maker. ‘Germany has the highest energy prices in the world and southern Europe has very rigid labour laws,’ he said
Dudenhöffer reckons eastern Europe has the best chance of attracting Tesla. The region has low energy costs, low corporation tax and low labour costs, the Financieele Dagblad quoted him as saying.

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15 Hurdles To The Industrialization Of Driverless Cars (Part 1 Of 3) – Forbes

Photocredit: GettyGetty Will the future of driverless cars rhyme with the history of the Segway? The Segway personal transporter was also predicted to revolutionize transportation. Steve Jobs gushed that cities would be redesigned around the device. John Doerr said it would be bigger than the Internet. The Segway worked technically but never lived up to its backers’ outsized hopes for market… Continue reading 15 Hurdles To The Industrialization Of Driverless Cars (Part 1 Of 3) – Forbes

Workhorse Group Inc. Signs Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with U.S. Military to Test SureFly eVTOL

CINCINNATI, Nov. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Workhorse Group Inc. (NASDAQ:WKHS) announced today that it entered into a CRADA (Cooperative Research and Development Agreement) with a branch of the U.S. Military. The CRADA will enable a collaborative R&D program focused on military applications of the Workhorse’s SureFly eVTOL personal air vehicle. “This CRADA will enable Workhorse… Continue reading Workhorse Group Inc. Signs Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with U.S. Military to Test SureFly eVTOL

Danish company unveils a radically simple electric vehicle for city dwellers

Biomega is a Danish company known for its fancy bikes and electric bikes, designed by the likes of Bjarke Ingels and Marc Newson. Now it’s getting into the electric car game with SIN, a compact EV designed for city dwellers. Biomega The SIN is a whisper of a car. The four-passenger vehicle has a skeletal… Continue reading Danish company unveils a radically simple electric vehicle for city dwellers