Navigating Challenges: Will Tesla Meet Earnings Expectations Amid Chinese Headwinds?

September 26, 2023

By Kevin Armstrong

Tesla may be facing one of its toughest quarters

Tesla

As Tesla prepares to release its third-quarter earnings amidst a wave of speculation and market uncertainty, the eyes of analysts and investors are fixed firmly on the EV giant. Dan Levy of Barclays, often a supporter of Tesla, forecasts potential delivery shortfalls, setting the scene for a pivotal report that could influence Tesla's trajectory in the coming quarters.

Potential Hurdles: The China Factor, Model 3, and Cybertruck

The anticipated 455,000 units for the quarter, while substantial, fall shy of the expected 463,000, prompting questions regarding Tesla's ability to meet Wall Street's projections. China, representing a significant portion of Tesla's market, poses a particular challenge. A 31% dip in Tesla's China-made vehicle sales from June to July marks the first decline since the previous December, spotlighting potential hurdles in this vital market.

Model 3 Revamp and Cybertruck

The introduction of the revamped Model 3 generates both opportunities and challenges. The anticipation of a new model may be causing potential buyers to delay purchases, impacting sales globally. This shift in consumer behavior necessitates efficient inventory management to clear out older models and make way for the refreshed Model 3. But just how much does Tesla have to discount the original Model 3? There is still no firm date for the Highland coming to North America.

The upcoming Cybertruck, with over 2 million reservations, represents another variable in Tesla's equation. While many reservation holders may already own a Tesla, many are likely biding their time, holding on to their traditional ICE vehicles as they await the arrival of Tesla's innovative electric truck.

Navigating Challenges: Analysts' Stance and Market Sentiment

Despite these challenges, the analyst community holds a generally neutral view of Tesla. Strategic adjustments in production, pricing strategies, and external factors like the ongoing United Auto Workers strike affecting other automakers could benefit Tesla. While there may be a miss on this quarter, there are likely to be significant numbers ahead. When the new Model 3 and Cybertruck are available, there will be a lot of demand and a lot of deliveries.

With the release of next week's earnings report, Tesla is at a crucial juncture. The China factor, consumer anticipation for new models, and internal strategic adjustments set the stage for a closely watched reveal. The report is more than just a revelation of numbers; it's a litmus test for the company's strategic decisions, market adaptability, and ability to meet growing expectations.

Tesla to Add Restricted Driver Profiles for Safer Teen Driving

May 14, 2024

By Not a Tesla App Staff

Tesla is set to introduce restricted driver profiles in an upcoming update, aiming to improve safety for teenage drivers. Tesla hacker @greentheonly, also known as Green, recently decompiled the 2024.14.3 update, revealing the change.

Restricted Driver Profiles

Over the years, many people have asked Tesla to bring in restricted driver profiles, similar to Tesla’s currently existing Valet Mode. Valet Mode already serves to restrict the car’s maximum speed, reduces acceleration, and disables the use of Autopilot and FSD. The new restricted profiles will let you apply certain restrictions to driver profiles without the full-fledged restrictions of Valet Mode which also limits HomeLink, GPS history and more.

What Restricted Profiles Could Do

From Green’s post on X, restricted driving profiles will display “training wheels” next to the profile, indicating their usage for new drivers. The ability to add a maximum speed and enforced chill mode are expected to be part of the feature package.

Other restrictions that could also be implemented could include disabling the use of Autopilot and FSD, or perhaps requiring certain features to remain disabled or enabled, like disabling “Joe Mode”, frunk or glove-box access, summon, and locking Sentry Mode to active.

Given how easy it is to swap profiles on a Tesla, Tesla would need to prevent a user from switching from a restricted profile to a regular profile. Tesla could do this in a variety of ways, such as tying driver profiles to a key card or mobile device and requiring a PIN code to exit the restricted profile, much in the same way they do it in Valet Mode.

Enhanced Safety Implementations

Additional safety measures could include alerts that notify parents or guardians when the vehicle reaches its destination or exceeds set speed limits. Given that a Tesla can automatically call emergency services in a crash, this could be an excellent feature for ensuring the safety and security of young drivers on their own for the first time.

Release Date

Elon Musk has previously mentioned that FSD V12.4 is being rolled out sometime shortly, and given that Green has found this 2024.14.3, it could be coming very soon. The latest Tesla update being rolled out now is 2024.14.6.

Tesla Intel Vehicles Receive Some of the Visual Updates in Spring Update 2024.14

May 14, 2024

By Not a Tesla App Staff

callmeKuRue/X

Tesla announced last month that its Spring Update, version 2024.14, would come with visual updates, but that they would be exclusive to the Model 3 and Model Y with Ryzen processors.

Tesla has slowly started rolling out update 2024.14, but until last night, it was only available to vehicles with the Ryzen processor.

We now have our first glimpse into update 2024.14 on vehicles that include the older Intel Atom processor.

Visual Updates

According to Tesla, none of the visual updates would be available on vehicles with Intel infotainment units, however, it looks like those vehicles will be receiving some of the features as well.

The Visual Updates include four items:

A new immersive full-screen visualization while parked that features the vehicle front and center.
A new media player that has a better layout and includes more controls and a new minimized state.
Expandable Autopilot visualizations that are available to everyone include a smaller map in the top-right corner.
And a redesigned and more compact drive mode strip for vehicles for Auto Shift, which doesn't apply to Intel vehicles.

New Parked Visualization

This is probably the biggest feature just because it’s executed so beautifully. Unfortunately, it’s not available on vehicles with MCU 2 (Intel Atom)… at least not at this time.

It appears that Tesla may be using a higher-resolution 3D model or different shaders to create this new visualization. This could be the reason for its exclusivity to the faster AMD Ryzen processor. However, it could just take some time for Tesla to optimize it for Intel Atom processors or use a different model that is more suitable for the older processor.

The Model S and Model X are also not receiving this new parked visualization at this time. Although the Model S and Model X use the instrument cluster for visualizations, given the appeal of the new parked visualization, we wouldn't be surprised if it became available on the Model S/X in the future as well.

The Cybertruck already uses the new parked visualization, although it doesn't include an instrument cluster like the Model S/X.

New Media Player

Tesla's new media player on the Model 3/Y

The improved media player that exposes additional controls and has a new minimized state, is arriving on vehicles with Intel processors.

Tesla included the new audio player as part of the Visual Updates that would be exclusive to AMD Ryzen vehicles, but the new media player on Intel appears to look and function exactly like it does on AMD vehicles. If you haven’t seen the new media player, take a look at our in-depth look at Tesla’s new audio player.

Expandable Autopilot Visualizations

The new, expandable Autopilot visualizations are also available on Intel vehicles. Although users with FSD already had full-screen visualizations, Tesla is bringing over additional features. This includes everything we've seen on AMD vehicles, including the new media player, the 'Navigate to' module, and the map preview in the corner of the screen.

For owners without FSD, this will bring full-screen visualizations to Autopilot for the first time. The full-screen visualization will look and function much like it does in Europe. It includes all of the new controls, improved vehicle detection, and the ability to display turn signals, but it won't display everything FSD does, including curbs and drivable areas.

Update: It looks like if you have FSD then you’ll have the new full-screen visualizations, but a user is reporting that he didn’t receive them on his Intel vehicle without FSD.

Other Updates

While Intel-based vehicles aren’t receiving all of the visual updates as expected, they are receiving a lot of the other functionality in update 2024.14, including Audible, Sentry Mode Previews, Trip Progress Bar, Spotify improvements, Better Route Available and many more.

Final Thoughts

Although this update doesn't bring the most appealing part of the Spring Update to Intel vehicles, it brings more than was expected.

The new parked visualization is the most exciting, but arguably least useful aspect of the new update. While it's beautiful and fun to play with, the new media player that features quick access to the most used controls is a much more useful addition.

The improved full-screen driving visualizations being available to everyone with the map in the corner is also a nice addition.

While we're not seeing the new parked visualization available on older vehicles with this update, it may arrive later once Tesla has a chance to optimize it for the slower Intel processor.

If you haven’t checked out Tesla’s new Spring Update, take a look at some videos of the best features in Tesla’s 2024.14. update.