Jerome reiterates no reveal until deliveries...

[NigelM]

RCs were scheduled for March, those are not long-term consumer cars.

 

[Grendal]

I don't get it. Tesla and Elon never seem to miss the opportunity to throw a really great party. I would expect something like the X reveal. It would also be a hard core test run for the production intent vehicles. Opening and closing the falcon doors over a hundred times in one night would be a thorough test to do. Zooming the cars down a lit track to cheers and claps. Another obstacle course for the autopilot. How can they miss out on that?

An opportunity to sign up for more cars and get the reservations above 25,000?

 

[markwj]

Wow, no test drives, no test rides, no looking at the car to see what colour interior you want. Configuring and confirming sight-unseen for the signature owners would be quite a leap of faith.

- - - Updated - - -

OK, read the _entire_ thread and now I get it. "Deliveries" means "Founder Deliveries", I guess. That'll give the signature reservation holders at least a sniff of what is to come. It is getting exciting now that the cars are on the road.

 

[Svenssons]

Wow, no test drives, no test rides, no looking at the car to see what colour interior you want. Configuring and confirming sight-unseen for the signature owners would be quite a leap of faith.

I would take it but I'm pretty sure the founders will be the first who take delivery. They have already put a lot of money and time to get the car they never seen.

 

[Nubo]

Possible, but I'd expect a leak or two. Also seems more hassle than just revealing it as soon as it's time to finalize orders.

It would also smack of desperation (i.e. something being inordinately rushed) to my way of thinking.

 

[aronth5]

From the context of the video it sounded like he was talking about Tesla giving him an X to DRIVE. As in do some test driving in, etc. Not taking delivery of his own personal X.

Agree, that's also how I interpreted his comment.

I doubt anyone thought he was saying he was taking delivery of his own "personal X" but he would have an X that he could drive. At 18:35 he says "give me one to go home". So unless his house is on Tesla property he will be out and about in public. That is probably why the "camo'd" comment was made.

 

[ecarfan]

I have no problem if Tesla literally "gives" their top management (say a dozen or so people) their latest and greatest production vehicles for them to use as their personal cars. Nice perk.

I do have a problem if Tesla pays their top management over 300 times the salary of their average worker as many American companies do (see Report: CEOs Earn 331 Times As Much As Average Workers, 774 Times As Much As Minimum Wage Earners - Forbes ). I don't know what the salaries are for top Tesla management. I believe that Elon only takes a token salary. See Elon Musk Returned All But $1 Of His $70,000 Salary Last Year | CleanTechnica
Quote from that article: "SEC filings have revealed that Tesla founder and CEO, Elon Musk, took a pay cut of over $78 million last year, returning all but $1 of his salary. His base salary of $33,280 comes out to an average of $16 an hour for a 40 hour work week but it’s probably safe to assume he puts in a lot more than that. A $36,709 bonus brings his Tesla-based income to just under $70,000, and while this may be good living for the average citizen, but Mr. Musk decided it was too much and returned all but $1 to Tesla’s bank accounts."

And now I am concerned I have taken this thread off topic, so mods feel free to move my post.

 

[Yuri_G]

I don't get it. Tesla and Elon never seem to miss the opportunity to throw a really great party. I would expect something like the X reveal. It would also be a hard core test run for the production intent vehicles. Opening and closing the falcon doors over a hundred times in one night would be a thorough test to do. Zooming the cars down a lit track to cheers and claps. Another obstacle course for the autopilot. How can they miss out on that?

An opportunity to sign up for more cars and get the reservations above 25,000?

It seems to me that Tesla is very confident about the final production version of the Model X. So much so that they don't want to generated more hype and reservations than they already have before its release.

Jerome getting a release candidate soon means we will see an non-camo'd X this month, most likely. Which makes sense, since the latest photos have little camo already.

 

[Bgarret]

It seems to me that Tesla is very confident about the final production version of the Model X. So much so that they don't want to generated more hype and reservations than they already have before its release.

Jerome getting a release candidate soon means we will see an non-camo'd X this month, most likely. Which makes sense, since the latest photos have little camo already.

Gotta say I'm with Yuri on his one. If you have 9 months of production reserved (20k) - last 6 months of 2015 and 1st 3 months of 2016 - and you have an awesome car with unique features, and you've publically said you are discouraging demand...why reveal anything, and risk more nutbags taking delivery then smashing their windshields over the wait.

Can't wait ant to get pictures of the hover and submarine modes from Bonnie's delivery.

 

[bonnie]

Can't wait ant to get pictures of the hover and submarine modes from Bonnie's delivery.

I'm mostly looking forward to the vaporize option, so I can efficiently dispatch traffic blocking my way. I predict that commutes will go much more smoothly.

 

[mzpolo]

I'm mostly looking forward to the vaporize option, so I can efficiently dispatch traffic blocking my way. I predict that commutes will go much more smoothly.

Proof that my wish list item has been incorporated!!!

Wish list for my Model X

Traffic avoidance system. No, not just some traffic information.... I want the car to know there is a delay, tell me about it, then send signal to its minions to get all those cars out of my way.

 

[StephRob]

I for one am pretty disappointed by this no reveal situation, unless I don't understand it. Will Tesla be asking us to finalize our orders totally sight unseen? We have a very high Signature reservation and a very low production reservation. We're only getting one of these. We'll only get the Signature if there's a compelling reason to do so, otherwise we'll cancel that and just get the production. So either way, our car will be somewhere around #1000. I really hope that we're able to see the actual cars before we have to finalize our orders. That Model S test drive event in Fremont was incredibly helpful in making our color and trim decisions.

And I just have to say that, as much as I love Tesla (and I do really love Tesla), they are trying my patience with this process. Assuming I get the car in Q4 15, they will have had my deposit money for almost four years. Absolutely ridiculous. And the whole process and communication (or I should say near-total lack thereof) has been extremely poor. To expect me to order this car sight unseen (no reveal) after holding onto my money for four years is quite irritating. Or perhaps I just have it wrong, and I will be able to see, sit in, and experience the car before finalizing?

 

[mrdoubleb]

I for one am pretty disappointed by this no reveal situation, unless I don't understand it. Will Tesla be asking us to finalize our orders totally sight unseen? We have a very high Signature reservation and a very low production reservation. We're only getting one of these. We'll only get the Signature if there's a compelling reason to do so, otherwise we'll cancel that and just get the production. So either way, our car will be somewhere around #1000. I really hope that we're able to see the actual cars before we have to finalize our orders. That Model S test drive event in Fremont was incredibly helpful in making our color and trim decisions.

And I just have to say that, as much as I love Tesla (and I do really love Tesla), they are trying my patience with this process. Assuming I get the car in Q4 15, they will have had my deposit money for almost four years. Absolutely ridiculous. And the whole process and communication (or I should say near-total lack thereof) has been extremely poor. To expect me to order this car sight unseen (no reveal) after holding onto my money for four years is quite irritating. Or perhaps I just have it wrong, and I will be able to see, sit in, and experience the car before finalizing?

I do not have any insider knowledge, but I cannot imagine that scenario. Ok, so maybe Apple could pull that off as they always seem to have a herd of iZombies blindly buying anything with a half eaten fruit on it, but really, to ask you to commit 100-120k without even seeing the final design, features, pricelist would cause a "Tsunami of cancellations".

I think we are taking those words way too literally. What they must have meant, is that there will be no advanced reveal until they open the design studio. I am quite sure they will kick that off with an event, "D style".

 

[bonnie]

I for one am pretty disappointed by this no reveal situation, unless I don't understand it. Will Tesla be asking us to finalize our orders totally sight unseen? We have a very high Signature reservation and a very low production reservation. We're only getting one of these. We'll only get the Signature if there's a compelling reason to do so, otherwise we'll cancel that and just get the production. So either way, our car will be somewhere around #1000. I really hope that we're able to see the actual cars before we have to finalize our orders. That Model S test drive event in Fremont was incredibly helpful in making our color and trim decisions.

Worst case, the very first Sig reservation holders might be caught up - if you have a late Signature reservation, the car will have been revealed and you'll know exactly what you're ordering. No one will be expected to buy a vehicle they haven't seen. I'm Sig #2 and I'm not worried about it at all.

My assumption is that there is *something else* outside the boundaries of what people are expecting that they don't want to reveal until the last possible moment. And I love the anticipation. But in direct response to your worry that you might be asked to finalize something you haven't seen ... you'll see it. I expect that even Sig #1 will know the vehicle they're buying before finalizing ... but we may not know what that *something else* is until our vehicle is delivered. I look at it more as additional icing on the cake.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

I for one am pretty disappointed by this no reveal situation, unless I don't understand it. Will Tesla be asking us to finalize our orders totally sight unseen? We have a very high Signature reservation and a very low production reservation. We're only getting one of these. We'll only get the Signature if there's a compelling reason to do so, otherwise we'll cancel that and just get the production. So either way, our car will be somewhere around #1000. I really hope that we're able to see the actual cars before we have to finalize our orders. That Model S test drive event in Fremont was incredibly helpful in making our color and trim decisions.

And I just have to say that, as much as I love Tesla (and I do really love Tesla), they are trying my patience with this process. Assuming I get the car in Q4 15, they will have had my deposit money for almost four years. Absolutely ridiculous. And the whole process and communication (or I should say near-total lack thereof) has been extremely poor. To expect me to order this car sight unseen (no reveal) after holding onto my money for four years is quite irritating. Or perhaps I just have it wrong, and I will be able to see, sit in, and experience the car before finalizing?

I think they are wanting to avoid Reveal! Excitement! Amazing! ... crickets ... trickle ... trickle ... frustration, boredom ...

Either that or they've really delayed it another month or two, because an announced delay would have been really bad with the Q4 results.

 

[brianman]

I'm mostly looking forward to the vaporize option, so I can efficiently dispatch traffic blocking my way. I predict that commutes will go much more smoothly.

Note to self: position behind bonnie when travelling with Tesla caravan.

 

[Trnsl8r]

I have no problem if Tesla literally "gives" their top management (say a dozen or so people) their latest and greatest production vehicles for them to use as their personal cars. Nice perk.

I do have a problem if Tesla pays their top management over 300 times the salary of their average worker as many American companies do (see Report: CEOs Earn 331 Times As Much As Average Workers, 774 Times As Much As Minimum Wage Earners - Forbes ). I don't know what the salaries are for top Tesla management. I believe that Elon only takes a token salary. See Elon Musk Returned All But $1 Of His $70,000 Salary Last Year | CleanTechnica
Quote from that article: "SEC filings have revealed that Tesla founder and CEO, Elon Musk, took a pay cut of over $78 million last year, returning all but $1 of his salary. His base salary of $33,280 comes out to an average of $16 an hour for a 40 hour work week but it’s probably safe to assume he puts in a lot more than that. A $36,709 bonus brings his Tesla-based income to just under $70,000, and while this may be good living for the average citizen, but Mr. Musk decided it was too much and returned all but $1 to Tesla’s bank accounts."

And now I am concerned I have taken this thread off topic, so mods feel free to move my post.

If you really want to know how much the executives are compensated, that is public information in a publicly traded company. Here ya go: Tesla Motors - Definitive Proxy Statement

 

[hcsharp]

I'm mostly looking forward to the vaporize option, so I can efficiently dispatch traffic blocking my way. I predict that commutes will go much more smoothly.

Audi is rumored to be working on a vaporize reflector. A German engineer confirmed "This is not just ordinary vapor-ware, unlike our self-driving car." Be careful Bonnie.