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Deferred Autopilot Revenue

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uselesslogin

Active Member
Supporting Member
Jun 13, 2013
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Omaha, NE
I'm hoping someone can save me time here. There is this line from the Q4 2014 shareholder letter:

"The average selling price of Model S increased during the quarter, but not as much as expected given the late introduction ofP85D, the effect of the strong dollar on foreign sales, and the deferral of revenue related to additional Autopilot functionality thatwill be implemented in future software releases."

Is this a non-GAAP deferral? Since Autosteer was released in October will this affect earnings for Q4?

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The thing is that is $60 million if the deferred $1,000 per car for Autosteer and recognize it is Q4 on 60,000 cars. That would make quite a mark on non-GAAP earnings if it was deferred from there previously.

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I completely give up. For now I will have to assume this is only a GAAP deferral. Unless someone has evidence to the contrary. Oh well.
 
I'll cross post this from the ST thread as this is some what interesting.

They mentioned it was affecting(lowering) their Non-GAAP margins:

Non-GAAP gross margin was about 100 basis points below guidance, primarily due to higher manufacturing and part costs related to the ramp of our small drive unit line and the deferral of revenue recognition for certain Autopilot features which are now scheduled for release later this year.
 
Thanks, so on the one hand 100 basis points is equal to $1,000 per car or so maybe as little as $500 was deferred per car. However, it could be that the margin would have been 100 basis points above guidance had they not deferred the revenue. There is no way to really know I guess but either way some of this revenue should be recognized from 60,000+ cars.