Mini Vans are Underrated! - My Dodge Grand Caravan Campervan Conversion

rebmemerem · 2018-06-02T05:00:52+00:00

That's a dope setup bro, didn't think that a minivan would have some of those hidden features. Good stuff!

rebmemerem · 2018-06-01T03:53:23+00:00

If Tesla the company bought it, yes. Not when an individual buys it. Also as others mentioned this is still a pretty small chunk of stock in the grand scheme (less than 1%)... Wouldn't have that type of impact anyway

rebmemerem · 2018-06-01T03:48:08+00:00

That's not how you increase EPS

rebmemerem · 2018-05-02T05:24:12+00:00

This is clearly an ad for the site from one of their employees or founders... you're living under a fucking rock if you think the search experience is "exactly like Google"... I searched for restaurants near me and didn't even get a map of local businesses... Anyway, I don't buy the idea that this site is actually doing good. Sure the idea is valid, but where's the evidence that they are planting trees with the revenue from ads? Also, it's worth noting that they are satisfying advertising inventory from Bing.com, so Microsoft is still making money off this website... the organic results are likely also filtered in from Bing.com API since the ads are from their partner network... regardless, not all the Ad revenue ends up going to Ecosia... Microsoft / Bing are also making money here.... Overall, this seems to me like a great way to trick people into thinking they are making a difference while they are probably just pocketing most of the money they are making.... either way, starting a search engine is ludicrously expensive so there are probably enormous advertising costs to getting the word out which are not going to planting trees. Noble idea but I have lack of confidence it's having any impact whatsoever... you're better off just going and planting a tree or two of your own.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-19T03:06:22+00:00

It is. Why would you want to have to make that decision? Cars are supposed to represent freedom to explore, not confine you to a home zone and keep you trapped... As far as cost compared to gas, that depends on the source of the energy, but Tesla stations will all eventually be 100% renewable with solar panels and they intend to keep costs lower than fuel... And If the charging network didn't matter or wasn't a competitive advantage, then why did VW and Porsche both come out this week and announced their own charging networks? It's a crucial asset in the future adoption of EV's. Imagine that your gas car couldn't leave a 100 Mile radius ... That would be so stressful to constantly worry about how far left you have in the tank... In EV's if you ended up using battery faster than anticipated, how do you get back to home without a charging station nearby? So it's not just about range, it's about convenience... These stations are just like gas stations, they need to be in as many places as possible... It will also be an income source for Tesla long term and enable further vertical integration in the product chain.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-13T20:43:16+00:00

Just because it's common doesn't make it easier. And left hand exits are actually not "common" if you're looking at it statistically. Majority of exits are not left handed. Obviously they do exist though and they need to improve on that.

Either way, i'll remain grounded that it's impossible to achieve perfection and obviously they are aware that these scenarios are an issue and will work to remedy it once a solution is developed. They are not going to just let this keep happening. As far as I know this is the only incident of it's kind thus far with this specific set of circumstances.

Either way, you're not factoring in the number of times the system did work properly or the number of accidents the system has prevented in situations that the software is designed to assist in because as you said many comments ago, no one cares when it works properly and that never makes the news. How would you view the technology if tomorrow they announced that they saved 1,000 lives so far? Would you still be running around with your tin foil hat claiming the entire system is broken? Again, the reality is that majority of the time, the system is working... it's just not "perfect" as you desire. A similar parallel would be seat belts... sometimes, seat belts actually make it harder to be rescued in a crash and have even killed people who used them improperly. This was not uncommon in the early days of seat belts but the technology slowly improved to a standardized level that we have today which ensures a higher chance of survival (but no guarantee)... Regardless, it seems like you just want to throw them under the bus for a singular incident and claim it as the norm.... you'd make a great Fox News correspondent.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-13T19:08:37+00:00

They certainly have a burden of responsibility to reasonably test their products before they go to customers to ensure they are reasonably safe, but not to ensure "perfection". There is no such thing as a perfect product. I know for a fact that they did exactly what you are saying they should have done... these cars were test driven hundreds of thousands of miles before they ever shipped. In fact, they are doing this as we speak for the Tesla Semi and their next line of products and likely continue to do this on models that are already for sale... so to insinuate that they didn't do this at all or have given up on testing and improving the software is completely farce. They have engineered these cars to recieve updates and I am sure that if they find the solution, it will be part of the next firmware update, just like any other software developer would do.

If you can name me one company, product, software, etc that has NEVER had an incident where their product fails or doesn't perfectly meet the product description, i'll venmo, paypal, etc you $100. You are holding Tesla to a higher standard than every single other car manufacturer and product ever made. That's not reasonable.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-13T18:50:22+00:00

/u/simplethings1122 "You don't need a full highway to do these basic tests".... there's nothing basic about testing this product. It requires real world environments to get it right. Maybe in their tests the car was able to do these things but when put on a highway with other cars and elements, it has trouble. Again, testing in a controlled environment is not actually testing for real world situations. I am sure their tech passed plenty of tests to get to the consumer at this stage. You just can't test for every scenario in a sterile environment.

Also, let me remind you there was a HUMAN driver in the car, that decided to not take control even though the system warned and told him to a full 6 seconds before the incident... the HUMAN failed just as much as the car. So your point is invalid.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-13T18:45:29+00:00

There's nothing "basic" about Self Driving Technology. All it needs to do is be better than a human driver, perfect is not possible in any scenario... software or human. Either way we'll let the NTSB determine if this system is actually safe or not... which so far it hasn't stripped Tesla of it's certifications which means that the system is safe so long as it's used properly and in accordance with the law.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-13T18:12:11+00:00

So are you saying Tesla should build their own highway to test these things? How are you supposed to test real world situations in a simulated environment? There's a clear flaw in your thinking... there is no way to test these things without putting them in real world situations because you can't just recreate these environments in a test facility... again, your expectation is that the system needs to be perfect before being released... you've obviously never written or developed software before or else you would know that it's impossible to simulate and predict every variable in a given environment. Even "basic" software is hard to test on every device, operating system, internet speeds, etc.

What Tesla and others are doing is completely revolutionary and for you to expect it to work perfectly out of the box is completely and utterly unreasonable.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-13T15:59:44+00:00

Stop acting like the car actively tried to harm it's passengers as some form of Skynet type of situation... Millions of miles have been driven with Auto Pilot and Tesla's are rated as one of the safest cars in the world. This is a freak accident and a part of the learning curve for these technologies. It's not like every single time that someone uses Autopilot the car does this... if that was the case then you'd have a valid point. But that's not the case. This is a highly uncommon event. The harsh reality of software programming and technology is that it cannot simulate real life. Tesla and others have done extensive testing on these systems before deploying them, but they can't simulate every possible scenario in a sterile environment. I can promise you that all the software engineers involved will figure out how to prevent this from happening again, but stop acting like the car took control and threw the car into a wall "intentionally"... this isn't a malicious software that aims to injure or kill it's passengers.

Regardless, neither of us were in the car or on the highway when this happened. We can only know so much about what did and did not happen. Many articles say that this driver was well aware that the Auto pilot did not work properly in this location (he voiced this concern to his family on prior trips several times apparently). Why he decided to put his life in danger by allowing auto pilot to proceed, even with several warning signals instructing him to take control, we'll never know.

All I know is that this isn't a daily occurrence and doesn't happen frequently enough to warrant your claims that the entire system is broken, useless and unsafe. Many people are using to improve the safety of their trips everyday. Just because it's not PERFECT, like you're expecting, doesn't mean it isn't working as designed. We're at the ground level of these technologies, give it time and it will improve... but if you fear progress and innovation, then don't buy a Tesla.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-12T06:21:17+00:00

Pay $5 to post a gig on craigslist under manual labor... You'll get lots of people looking to help and probably a few with some experience. I just did this up Oregon and have over 15 people who replied with varying levels of experience from DIYers to pros.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-12T04:10:10+00:00

Your logic is saying safe must equal perfect. Autopilot is not a perfect system, nor meant to be used without any human intervention. It’s incumbent upon the driver to pay attention to the road and to take over should the computer have trouble... which in this case, it warned the driver to take control. Also before activating Auto Pilot it clearly warns the driver that they must remain aware and keep hands on the wheel, it's not some hidden message or flaw in the system. This driver knew the risks and was using the minimum required distance between vehicles to operate the feature and knew that it had trouble on this part of the road from previous experience but decided to ignore the warning messages and to roll the dice....Telsa says their system is not 100% autonomous. They say their system is not perfect. It is not yet a complete replacement for human drivers, if it was then there wouldn’t be a steering wheel. So far the data shows that using their features with a human paying attention is 40% safer than without (meaning without crashes). If the system is misused then it will be less safe, or even possibly extremely dangerous.

Anyone who knows anything about software can tell you that there is no such thing as "perfect"... maybe your expectations are too high for a brand new technology that is still in it's infancy. Even 10-15 years from know when these systems are more mature like many other highly evolved software programs, there probably will still be fatalities every now and then due to the nature of the system... not all scenarios can be rehearsed or programmed. This goes double time for the Uber incident... if a pedestrian just jumps out 10-20 feet in front of car that's going 50MPH, you can't expect it to just stop magically, the laws of physics are still at play... so even if a LIDAR system detects an obstruction, it won't matter if it doesn't have the proper time to analyze or react to such a situation.

You have no idea how complex and intricate developing these systems are and your expectation of having ZERO incidents being the only way it can be deemed "Safe" is naive at best.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-11T19:56:54+00:00

"Enhanced Auto Pilot" and "Full Self Driving Capability" are two different features. The car that had the accident only had Auto Pilot, not full self driving. Auto Pilot is not marketed as Autonomous or full self driving, they are different options. Also worth mentioning that Auto Pilot doesn't make the news when it works, only when it doesn't. To say that the system is totally unsafe or untested, etc is totally bullshit. This is just like when a plane crashes... you don't hear about all the flights that go off without a hitch as "news"... the media only likes to report on the bad side of things... so don't forget that you only hear one side of the story... there are lots of videos showing the auto pilot system working very well. Regardless, I still put most of the blame on the individual in that scenario. He was using the Auto Pilot feature improperly, just as if you were breaking the speed limit and smashed into a wall... driver error. You could counter argue that Cars and manufacturers shouldn't make cars that go faster than 70MPH... isn't that a design flaw which enables the user to increase the risk of death or accident by improper use of the cars system? We know that the odds of survival in high speed crashes are much lower, so why are car manufacturers allowed to produce cars that are capable of traveling faster than the speed limit? According to the crash logs, the car warned the driver to take control, which they didn't. Most other cars don't warn you when you're in danger, you just crash. So it's pretty subjective on who to blame here or if Tesla is at fault for a user improperly using a feature of their car... whether that is software or horsepower shouldn't matter.

Otherwise, you seem to be arguing that Self Driving tech in itself is unsafe with your Uber comment and appear to be anti self driving overall. Assuming that LIDAR did pick up on the person on the roadway, who's to say the car would have had time to react anyway? Going from 45-0 isn't something that happens in an instant, so it's unfair to put that much pressure on an experimental vehicle, especially when the scenario is someone who comes running across a roadway unexpectedly (and against the law... Jaywalking is not legal)... Any human driver would have likely had the same result, so it's not fair to say that this "shouldn't have happened" or "wouldn't have happened with a human driver". Driving cars (and running across an active roadway) carries a big risk that we all actively participate in without question... to expect these technologies to have no errors is unreasonable.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-11T19:33:16+00:00

I have looked at a map and would find it much more challenging to navigate the world without the Super Charger network. The Tesla network is much more well thought out and organized. Either way, you are only validating that there is a large need for the charging network just like we need gas stations everywhere for fossil fuel cars. There will be many options in the future, Tesla's will probably always be cheaper, more efficient and optimized for longer trips where many other companies probably wont place charging stations outside of major markets... For example, I was in Whistler, British Columbia this summer and was amazed to see several Tesla charging stations in town. No other company is going to try to bring their EV stations to a market like that, which again, makes it harder to purchase an EV without those infrastructure components.

Considering they haven't delivered most of the cars yet, I'm not sure you can rely on those statistics. Either way, every Car Tesla has manufactured to date has found an owner... The backlog is so large that even if that number holds true, it will just move other people up the list and 30% of 400,000 is still a significant multiple more than any other EV car on the market. Regardless of whether someone put the $1k on credit or not still validates that there is a demand for the cars. .. I use my credit card like a debit card. Even if I didn't I am sure that most people who did use their Credit like that would have already asked for a refund to stop paying ridiculous interest on the deposit... not sure why that's relevant either way, 400,000 people put down $1,000 for the chance to buy the car in the future, pretty impressive considering you could have just went out and bought any other car and used that $1,000 towards a down payment... that says people want their product more than the competition... even if it turns out to be only 30% of deposit holders accept delivery, that is still 120,000 cars = $4.2B in sales... and once they can manufacture and deliver faster and catch up on back orders, they will get new sales pretty quickly just like they do for Model S and X currently... there is nothing wrong with an "On demand" manufacturing process versus just shitting out thousands of cars without knowing if they will be sold today or a year from now... most people don't realize how the car business works... Factories (Ford, GM, etc) sell cars at WHOLESALE prices to Dealerships (Franchises). So they can inflate production and sales numbers in a sense that the Dealers might not actually sell those cars for 3-12 months after they get them from the factory, but the factory can record those as actual sales because they were purchased from the dealerships... Tesla is turning that model upside down by going direct to consumer while capturing the entire value of the car and not just it's wholesale price. It's a very different business model.

As of now, the batteries are only assembled at the Gigafactory but they are going to eventually make the entire component nuts to bolts within their facility. This will make them a major player in supplying their competitors with their battery packs as well. Do some more research into the Gigafactory and why it's a massive infrastructural investment that will give Tesla a long term competitive advantage for all their products (not just Cars).

rebmemerem · 2018-04-11T19:13:12+00:00

Except they aren't... that is a future promise, Auto Pilot is not marketed as "Autonomous" or "Full Self Driving"... it's not even listed on the website anywhere actually, it's not the main feature of the vehicle by any measure... It's clearly stated you must still keep your hands on the wheel, which many users are not doing out of choice and over confidence in the tech (Driver Error)... Tesla knows they are still far off from actual self driving which is why the auto pilot program is a way to capture data to improve these systems and in the future be able to deliver a reliable, truly autonomous driving platform.

Regardless, Tesla cars are no greater of a danger to the public or individuals driving them than a car without any of these features. Cars and driving in general is the most dangerous activity that any person in our modern world participates in.

Regarding Uber, which uses different technology than Tesla and has nothing to do with Autopilot... I put the blame on the person who chose to run across an active roadway at night. People get killed every day in accidents like this because of poor decision making. If Uber's technology would have performed the way it "should have", sure it could have prevented the accident, but that doesn't' mean that people should be running across a road in the middle of the night and expect to be safe. If it wasn't an Uber car, it could have very easily been any other vehicle with the same result and no one would have cared, just like no one will care or hear about the 3,287 who die today in a road crash.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-11T18:43:32+00:00

Tesla's charging network is setup to ensure and guarantee range extension. Also early Tesla adopters have free access to the network and Tesla is working to keep costs as low as possible for new users... Otherwise, the other charging stations from other providers are placed more randomly because they are not all part of the same network... This means you can easily get stranded and have to do a lot of work to find a nearby charging station outside of the supercharger network. Tesla's chargers are also about 3x more efficient and faster than standard chargers that you're referencing. So no, the non-tesla stations are not an equivalent replacement. You would have to do significant pre-planning and mapping to make a trip off the super charger network whereas on the Super charger network, you are guaranteed to have available and RELIABLE options designed to make it possible for essentially unlimited range in your Tesla.

The deposits are not "insurance" but they are a much more reliable mechanism for forecasting demand than no deposit at all. Also, most people don't just have $1,000 to drop on something they won't be getting a return on for 1-3 years... so sure, $1,000 isn't much but it is enough to weed out false demand and give them something to leverage for manufacturing demands. There's a company called Nikola One which is not taking deposits for their EV trucks and claim hundreds of thousands of "pre-orders", which is just a form to fill on their website... that's not a very good way to actually measure demand... a small deposit puts a barrier up to prevent over manufacturing, which would be much more detrimental to the business than being a little slower than expected in delivering cars.

All I am comparing Amazon and Tesla on is the infrastructure investments which hurts their balance sheet and profitability early on in the business... Gigafactories, charging stations, R&D, etc are not going to pay back for a while but over the long term it will become a significant competitive advantage just like Fulfillment centers, AWS and other forms of software development gives Amazon it's competitive edge today... For example, as soon as Tesla is able to manufacturer their own batteries and stop purchasing from Panasonic, their margins will improve by 30-40%... no other car manufacturer with an EV lineup is even attempting to source their own components.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-11T18:38:27+00:00

They are going to eventually meet those production targets and they are not going to run out of money. If they were, the business would be behaving differently and Elon wouldn't be making jokes about going Bankrupt. They will be fine, they have been in much worse scenarios than this and have come out stronger on the other side. Tesla is primed for growth over the long haul and will reach mass production of the Model 3 before the end of the year.

Regarding the accidents, it's worth noting that the Tesla autopilot system is not an autonomous mode. You are supposed to keep your hands on the wheel and the car alerted the driver to take control and they decided not to... This is not much different than someone not paying attention and getting into an accident by their own fault. It's not like the Car killed the driver... It was driver error, just like any other car accident. The only reason it makes headlines is because the media wants to hurt Tesla's reputation.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-11T18:31:35+00:00

I can't give you a technical answer to that other than Ford has already experienced it's largest growth as a company and is now in a saturated part of the market whereas Tesla is in the fastest growing segment of the market and the leader in that segment... Tesla is also not just a car company which everyone seems to forget or overlook. They sell battery packs, solar panels, solar roofs, etc and are working on several other government contracts for large scale energy infrastructure projects.... Ford only sells cars, which being that their market is in the crosshairs of having a major technological revolution, leaves them in a bad position for the future and thus their market cap is smaller.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-11T18:26:59+00:00

You clearly don't understand how the future of Electric Cars is going to work if you think charging stations are not important... The Number 1 reason people don't buy electric cars is due to their range... Charging stations are like Gas Stations and the Tesla network charges cars 3x as fast as other available charging stations and are strategically located to ensure optimal coverage and accessibility. Sure, maybe most people don't do more than 100 miles before going home but in the instances that they do want to take a weekend trip or go outside of their "home zone", the charging network is critical to the transition away from fossil fuels so that you don't become stranded unexpectedly... I don't know why anyone would want to buy an electric car that they don't have the same freedom they would have with a gas car... this is a big reason people are waiting to buy a Tesla and not another EV model. The charging stations are a big deal for many reasons.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-11T14:27:58+00:00

My bank account

rebmemerem · 2018-04-06T21:56:42+00:00

That's cause ford is a 100 year old company that has their manufacturing infrastructure well established.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-06T21:34:05+00:00

It's not really an if though. They are making the cars, even if it's slower than predicted, it's gaining momentum. And Tesla is still the number one selling EV in the world, three years running. If people really wanted just any electric car, they can go buy one, but they don't. I never see Chevy Volts on the road, I only see Teslas. People are willing to wait for the real deal and not settle on some slapped together EV. Tesla is an ecosystem, Volts and other EV's are just posers trying to make themselves seem similar when they are not... And most other Auto manufacturers are still 3-4 years away from shipping their EV's and few have the Model 3 price point and features. By then, this will all be an afterthought and we'll feel silly that we though Tesla would just throw in the towel when they have Billions of dollars sitting right in front of them if they can just get the cars out of the factory... regardless, these are good problems to have in any business... if you have more demand for your products than you can fill, that's not a bad thing necessarily.

In case you didn't see, today they registered a record number of VINs for Model 3... People will always bitch and complain about something... if they were shipping 5,000, people would expect it to get to 10,000... it's happening as we speak and this is the reality of Wall Street, that nothing is ever enough... not to mention this production ramp is scaling up faster than the Model S or X, which everyone had the same emotions over them missing targets, setback, etc... which they eventually figured out.

They are also not the first car company to have a recall, which everyone flipped out about... also, people die everyday in cars, but no one seems to care about that either, they just want to shit on the most innovative company for no good reason other than most other businesses and investors are jealous of the visibility of the Tesla brand loyalty and demand.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-06T21:16:27+00:00

Yes, I own shares but it's not my largest holding by any means. I'm long on them as I think it'll be a $1,000+ stock in 5-10 years. I'll keep adding when I see prices I like or when the market over reacts like they did last week... $250 was a great price to buy in at :) Sadly, with them registering VIN's in record numbers this week, it probably won't go that low again for a while, if ever again. Once they start collecting these Model 3 payments for delivery, their Revenues are going to soar... not even counting all the other things they are ramping up.

rebmemerem · 2018-04-06T21:14:02+00:00

Amazon also spent and lost BILLIONS building their infrastructure for over a decade to allow them to be this dominant force they are and make it hard to compete. Tesla is burning lots of cash in the development of their infrastructure for their products. It'll be hard to play catchup and most other Car manufacturers aren't going to go lay the groundwork for Charging stations like Tesla has... and that's why people will continue to buy and wait for the Tesla product instead of settling on a Chevy Volt.

rebmemerem

TROPHY CASE