Ep08 - This One Move Just Expedited Tesla’s Highland Model 3 Timeline
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- This week on Trending in Tesla, Tesla releases its parts catalog for the Cybertruck with some prices that might surprise you. - And the US tax credit is completely stripped away for some of the more popular Teslas, leaving behind some very strange price variations. - And Elon Musk is starting a university in Austin, Texas with quite the rack, and I'm not talking about a roof rack. All that and more starts right now.

All right, well, welcome back. This is probably our last podcast of the year for 2023, but I want to get right into it because there's so much news going on this week. And let's start out with the parts catalog that was released for the Cybertruck. That's pretty big news. Yes, some interesting information coming right out of it. This is hot off the press, and I love the info we're getting here because things like the front fender, about $550 on the Cybertruck. Now, these are just the parts. This doesn't take into account the labor costs. Yeah.

But I imagine the labor costs might be a little bit less because there's no paint on the Cybertruck. - There's no paint involved, yes. Again, another unique setup with the Cybertruck. - I will say that massive glass windshield is about $1,900. That one is pretty expensive, but it will probably take a specialized machine in order to replace that giant piece of glass.

And hopefully, you know, it's the armor glass. It's not going to break. So hopefully that's something that will last. That's a good point. Yeah, I know the Model X front windshield, which was one of the largest on the market until this comes around, was about $1,500, $1,600. So yeah, this goes kind of one step above that as well. Now, I wonder if insurance will still give you glass coverage for the Cybertruck windshield. Because sometimes you can get that for as little as $1. And in this case, it definitely would be worth it.

- That's very true. On the Model X, we were able to get it for a dollar and I just don't think that, you know, they think glass is that big of a deal, but obviously on certain vehicles, Tesla Model X specifically, it's a big deal. - And moving on to some of the other parts inside of the catalog. - Yeah, Kim, check this out. We're talking about the front steering actuator on the Cybertruck. The price for that is $3,300. Of course, this is the steer by wire steering that we're talking about. The unique setup here with the Cybertruck

And then how about that four foot long wiper arm and blades? How much do you think that is? Well, I saw it listed for $75, but then I'm hearing that it's actually going to be a little bit more. Yeah, with parts and labor, it comes out to about $165 to replace that blade. That is pricey. I know most blades are $30 to $50. Well, hopefully that's not something that will need to be replaced a lot. I know there's a lot of engineering that has gone into that wiper blade, but it is giant.

I mean, it's huge. - Is it engineering or is it just sheer size? - I don't know. I don't know. Hopefully, you know, it does what it's supposed to do and you don't have to replace it. It's not gonna be one of those things where you're able to walk into like a car store and buy like-- - If you're in California, you're probably not replacing it as often as if you're in, you know, other parts of the country. - That's true. And there are some interesting things if you live in a cold climate that you will probably

care about. Yeah, this was not officially announced by Tesla, but it was officially hinted at within this parts catalog. And we're talking about the Cybertruck front bumper camera, which now looks to be heated. So that will definitely help with full self-driving, having that camera being heated during the winter months. You don't want that thing to ice over. There are also a couple other Easter eggs, though, inside of the vehicle. The cup holders in the rear seat, they actually show them to kind of be Cybertruck shaped.

and no one had ever seen that before. And then also, if you're doing like a DIY and you're tearing up your car, there's a Cybertruck that's actually stamped inside the panel of the rear seat of the Cybertruck that it shows in that catalog. Again, these are just fun little things that...

No one knew about before this was released. Tesla hadn't said anything. And you know, when I think about this, once people get inside and kind of take the truck apart, Sandy Monroe namely, you're going to find Easter eggs all over that truck. We saw it with the Model 3 when we took certain parts apart where you're able to see those three symbols that indicate the three that initially was going to be the Model E. So that's stamped all over Teslas that are kind of hidden from the consumer, really. So that's going to be interesting. So my question for you is, do you think that...

that they're asking too much for these parts. Do you think that it's too expensive? I do think they're pricey. Now, if it's as durable as people say it is going to be, then these are extreme scenarios that are not going to require that much replacement of. So that's to be seen. Wiper blades, I don't know. I think that's going to be pretty frequent if you live in a rainy spot. I totally disagree with you.

I think that the price is probably expensive for these parts. I think that they are unique pieces that they put into this Cybertruck. And I don't think that they're trying to upcharge that much for them. I think that they're kind of giving them a cost. I'm curious what you guys think. Now, typically, when we talk about OEMs,

a lot of times they make their money off of replacement parts i've heard stories of people going in for a key fob and paying five thousand dollars for like a key file yeah i don't know it's expensive but i think you know these are there's a lot of engineering that went into these pieces where was this five thousand dollar key fob i'm still stuck you know i was reading the comment section on you know one of these articles and somebody was talking about their vehicle their key fob was five thousand dollars

- If you've got like a $200,000 car, yeah, those parts become that expensive. - But anyways, let us know if you have horror stories or what you think about the prices in the catalog. And moving on, I do wanna talk about the crumple zone inside of the Cybertruck. So we saw it in person. They actually had a crashed Cybertruck there. We saw it completely smushed up

inside there, but there's been a lot of talk because it apparently has a smaller nose, a smaller front trunk. So people want to know, is it still safe? And actually Tesla has gone on X and they responded. - Yeah, Tesla actually responded saying, "It's not about the size of your crumple zone,

But it's about how you use it. When in a high speed collision, Cybertruck's front underbody casting is designed to break into small pieces. This helps reduce occupant impact by absorbing and dispensing that energy. So again, it's kind of a different way of thinking because of the design of the exoskeleton and the body of this truck. So that smaller size doesn't necessarily translate. - So size doesn't always matter is what they're trying to say. - Yeah, exactly. - It's all about the motion of the ocean.

And with the Cybertruck, the reservation holders out there are definitely starting to place their orders and we're starting to see some interesting findings. Yeah, footage from Joe Techmeyer, the drone operator there, got pictures, got video. You can see the stickers that are kind of labeled for these trucks to go out for delivery. I believe someone counted them, 23 Cybertrucks. So we know they're around the corner, probably going to deliver all those at the end of this year if they can get them out there. That's really, really exciting. I'm curious if that's something

If they're there, are they ready to go? Is that something we're going to start seeing in the next week, in the next month? Also, I have an exclusive interview I did with Joe Tagmeier talking about how he gets all this drone footage. So if you want to check it out, go check out our Patreon. It all goes back to supporting this channel. Plus,

we have some interesting things out on there for you guys. - Yeah, one-on-one Q&As with Kim and I and other early release access to footage and podcasts as well. - All right, so with the Cybertruck, we are seeing that there is now a $1,000 deposit for reservation holders that are serious

about keeping the reservation. - Yeah, this is different from your order fee. This $1,000 deposit goes towards the purchase of your truck. And if you do want this, they wanna kind of make sure you're going to configure this and take this order as soon as possible. And then it goes in towards the purchase of the truck. - And it's non-refundable. So if you change your mind, Tesla gets to keep that $1,000.

But what I like about this is, you know, obviously there was this massive list of reservations. It was only $100 refundable deposit. Lots of people were like, well, I don't know. Let me just put it down. This is going to kind of weed those people out. We're going to see.

you know, have a better idea of the people that actually want it and when they'll be able to take delivery of it. And for the people that are taking delivery of their Tesla, that $50,000 lawsuit verbiage in the contract is back. So you can't try to take delivery and flip it, at least not during the first year. Something to think about right there. Now, if you take it early a year from now, there's still going to be people though waiting.

And I feel like there's always a way to get around these sort of contracts. I don't know if you can do a lease to own with cars, but there's different ways to get around it. I've said before my thoughts on that. I don't like it. I think that you should be able to do what you want to do with your vehicle if you want to flip it.

then flip it. But I think it's a personal decision. I'm just not a fan of it. So let us know what you guys think down in the comments below. All right, Kim, some big news here when it comes to Tesla's getting maybe a lot more expensive here in a couple of weeks. Some news coming in from the IRA, removing some models of Tesla completely from the tax credit potential there. The $7,500 tax credit, recall last week we mentioned it had dropped to $3,750.

for the rear wheel drive Model 3 and the long range Model 3. New announcement in the last couple of days says it is now down to zero dollars for those two variants because they source parts from namely China and the IRA is kind of trying to incentivize those parts coming in from the United States. So it's those LFP batteries. LFP batteries and other parts and minerals that are even used in the long range Model 3.

The performance doesn't get impacted though. - So now what is the price of the performance versus-- - That's where it gets interesting. This is really interesting and we actually reached out to our friend Dobson, the Uber driver, let him know all this stuff was happening. Got so many messages from you guys telling us let Dobson know with all these changes in place here. But here's what's happening. I think Tesla will have to make some significant price changes beginning on January 1st because

The Model 3 in some variations now becomes more expensive than the Model Y or very close to it. These price variations that almost certainly are going to change and Tesla's gonna have to drop some prices, increase some prices elsewhere is looking at the Model Y rear wheel drive because that car after the $7,500 tax credit is effectively $36,000. Now look at the Model 3 rear wheel drive. It doesn't have a tax credit moving forward. It's a $39,000 car.

It's actually more expensive than the Model Y. - So personally, if I was in the market for a Model Y, I would jump on this right now because they're definitely going to be doing some kind of price adjustment 'cause it just doesn't make sense right now. - I think so. Yeah, Kim, the Model Y long range, which includes the $7,500 tax credit is going to be about $41,000. Now look at this, the Model 3 long range

is going to be $46,000. It doesn't include the tax credit. That's the pricing as of right now going into January 1st. So again, you can't have Model Y be cheaper than Model 3. We know almost certainly that's going to be flipped around a little bit. And even the Model Y Performance gets a tax credit. So that's down to $45,000 where other Model 3s are awfully close to that Performance Model Y.

It's very interesting with these new guidelines. And did you see this as well? The Model Y potentially now in the last few hours coming into the mix as a possibility to lose its tax credits as well. But we don't know if the Model Y uses LFP batteries. They've never specifically said anywhere if they use them or not.

kind of been the mystery. A lot of people think the Model Y rear wheel drive does use LFP batteries but our friend the Uber driver Dobson reached out to Tesla specifically inquiring about that variant as he was trying to possibly get one of those and asked about the LFP batteries and they said no the Model Y rear wheel drive does not have LFP batteries

But again, Tesla is using the word now likely going to lose its incentives for Model Y going into 24. I don't know if they're using that loosely to kind of push sales. Also, this was someone that works in the store. We know that those people are not...

always 100% knowledgeable with everything. Sometimes they just say certain things. So this is, you know, hearsay. It's not coming from Tesla's website. It's not coming from Elon. It's not coming from X. It's, you know. That's a fantastic point. And we've seen that prove to be true if you take those words too seriously. Yeah.

Regardless, there will be some big price changes coming this next year. But talking to Dobson, going back to him, our friend, this is the Uber driver. Hopefully you guys have seen that series we've made with him. But Uber and Tesla have announced a unique partnership where they're offering up to $3,000

off for Uber drivers if they take delivery this year. So they have about, what, two weeks? Yeah, we texted Dobson right away, told him about this. So he's looking into it as well. Yeah, what's essentially going to happen here is the Tesla is going to offer its inventory Model 3s and Ys to Uber drivers if the Uber drivers purchase it through that kind of market share website that Uber has set up. And if they get these vehicles, they can qualify for as much as $3,000, depending on the tier they're in. Yes, it depends on how many rides that you do.

So it might be $1,000, but anywhere up to $3,000. - For Dobson, I think it's definitely going to be in that 3,000 category. You've got to complete 100 rides by February 15th for each of these categories. So yeah, Dobson will do that in a couple days. - So if Dobson was to take delivery of a new Tesla,

in the next two weeks, he could potentially save $10,000 because he would get the $3,000 Uber credit. Plus he would still get the tax credit. But going into next year, if he waits two more weeks, he could potentially lose all of that. Yeah, we'll see exactly how the prices change after at that point. But to me, it's very clear that Tesla is right around the corner from bringing those refreshed Highland Model 3s to the US. They're kind of offloading everything they've got left.

and you know the prices on those refresh are going to go hand in hand with what's happening with Model Y being as cheap as Model 3. It's not going to stay that way. They need to get rid of inventory. So who out there is getting a new Tesla for Christmas? That's the question. And with the big bow on top of it. I've always wanted that. I've never got the bow. Yeah, I don't know if Tesla's done that for a minute. Stop. All right, so who out there remembers Elon joking about tits university? Can we say that? I don't know.

I think you can say anything on YouTube, right? That's true. That's true. Because we're not talking about these. No, no, no. What are we talking about? So, yeah, years ago, it was October of 2021. One of those random Elon tweets at one in the morning, he goes on Twitter and he says, I'm thinking of starting a new university, Texas Institute of Technology and Science.

Of course, the comments ate it up and everyone thought he's joking. Acronym at that time, he was doing a lot of the 42069 jokes. He went on with another tweet right after that saying it will have epic merch, universally admired, tuition is in Dogecoin, and you get a discount if you have a dog. So I thought he was joking. Yes. Like it was just like one of these random like he's high or something jokes.

But it seems like it's really happening now. Yes. So there is now tax filings for Elon Musk starting a university in Austin, Texas. And according to the tax filings that from Elon went directly to a charity that he has called the Foundation, this new institution got roughly $100 million from Elon Musk. It will start with a STEM-focused primary and secondary school.

and then possibly transition into having universities available. Yeah, this is what confuses me is everyone's talking about a university, but it's starting really with the primary. Yes. With the primary, so like grade school basically is what that is. And I believe he has his own school where his kids go. Yeah, it keeps popping up on my Instagram and TikTok feeds with like, oh, I went in for a class meeting and Elon Musk came in, blah, blah, blah. So apparently he's taking that and enrolling with it now. I'm kind of curious.

I'm kind of curious, honestly. Like one of my kids would love to someday work for Tesla or SpaceX and I could see him being super interested in a school like this. But is it worth like picking up your life and moving to a different city or will they franchise it out?

I can see them, it becoming something that they franchise out. The fact that he's going through with it is just mind-blowing. And maybe I shouldn't be mind-blown because we've seen him say so many things and eventually end up going forward with it, regardless of what the opposition or even what people on his team are telling him not to do. But, and watch him, you know, get tons of admissions initially and then sell the merch at an insane rate. Honestly, as a parent, I think it's fantastic. I am kind of fed up with

our school system here and the way things are run. So I would love to see something completely different where kids are actually learning and inspired. And, you know, I think that he's a great person to do that and inspire. He's inspired us. I mean, we have this channel because of him. So imagine like young kids, you know, having that, you know, people don't let just idolize. I will say one more thing. And I know you're like over this, but I feel like nowadays, you

When I was growing up, we idolized movie stars. And nowadays, people don't really do that as much. People don't watch TV the same way. They don't watch movies the same way. But to be able to look up to these big CEOs of companies and people who have changed the world, that's what I want my kids to aspire to be. Some would argue some of his antics are not aspiration-worthy. But, I mean, yeah, you've got to see both sides. I know, but look at a lot of these Hollywood actors.

or athletes. No one's perfect, right? And we know Tesla always makes for good headlines. And right now, the headlines are all about a major recall with Tesla Autopilot. Two million vehicles. That's the headlines. And you know what? I was on the Weather Channel app this morning. One of the meteorologists popped up on screen and was reading the news segment for the day. And it was all about the Autopilot. Of course, they talked about Model 3 showing a Model S, kind of shows you the little... The naysayers are having

their moment right now. They are having their moment. But what's fascinating about this, and we've talked about it within the Tesla community and owners as well. But of course, a lot of Tesla owners will tell you that most of these recalls are almost always related to a software update. Look at the verbiage though from NHTSA here. They go on to say in short that

In certain situations, when auto steer is engaged and a driver misuses the feature such that they fail to maintain responsibility or are unprepared to intervene or fail to recognize if the feature is canceled or not engaged, there may be an increased risk of collision.

Of course, you know, to you and I, we're like, yeah, duh, of course that's going to happen if you're not paying attention. But there have been some situations. I actually read this and I thought about it for a second because we do have full self-driving. And there are a couple times where it disengages and for a second, you don't quite realize that it's disengaged. But we disengage it without fully realizing it. So then you're going, it's...

You're steering without realizing that you're in charge of steering, but it's still accelerating on its own. It's a second. There's like a second there where it kind of takes your brain a second to register. So I can kind of see why they're doing this, and I think that it is a good thing. It's something that I've definitely felt and noticed. There really needs to be a change in the verbiage of recall. And Tesla's been working with NHTSA for about two years. But it makes great headlines, so why would they change it? I mean, people are clicking on that. Yeah.

with NHTSA probing into Tesla, looking at over, I think it was about 11 autopilot-related crashes where the vehicles drove into emergency vehicles and trying to analyze all this stuff. What's fascinating is that almost every single Model 3 X and Y on the roads are going to be affected by this, except if they were built after December 7th. Tesla's already pushed the software update to these very brand new off-the-line vehicles so they don't have to worry about it.

But I wonder moving forward if with software-related recalls, if there could be something done where these are done internally. Tesla just announces, hey, your software is going to be updated to meet these changes that make your vehicle more safe, which we get all sorts of updates that make our vehicle more safe. But as soon as you put recall on it, millions of articles. It's the verbiage. It's the verbiage. Yeah.

You know, I mean, it would be great. We need to come up with a new word for that. That's not recall because it's not like you're having to go in anywhere and fix an actual part. It's completely different. Just like an update with your phone or your computer. But it's great that you're able to improve it because again, these are things that we've noticed. Yeah, Apple probably recalled hundreds of millions of phones this year with software updates they sent to their phones. But...

But Apple, a phone is not going to potentially kill you. So I think maybe you can't quite compare a phone to a vehicle. And there have been some car crashes in the last year that have definitely made headlines, some big court cases. They've settled with Tesla. Tesla not being at fault for those, but I think that it does make you take a closer look

at what's happening in autopilot and why these people are having these accidents. And it's just that system of checks and balances, which I'm great that we have because it just causes these improvements. Yeah, I think what bothers us probably and a lot of people that are in tune with what's happening within Tesla is this usage of... You don't like the connotation associated with the word recall. Yeah, that's because it is completely...

off you know hands-off sort of approach for the owner yeah and i understand it makes the vehicle safer it's essentially going to give you you know more chimes more notifications and more direct messaging possibly on the screen in front of you to say you're you're not an autopilot or something like that with any clickbait hopefully when people actually do click on it they read the whole article or they watch the whole story and learn that hey this is not like a full

recall. I'm curious what you guys think out there. How do you think this hurts Tesla or do you think it helps Tesla? Let us know down in the comments below. And in terms of just full self-driving and safety, you know, obviously having a robot do everything, not obviously, but having a robot do everything in the future could potentially be safer than having human drivers. And Tesla's going all in with Optimus. They have a new video right now with Optimus

2.0 out there where they've really done a lot of work with the hands of optimists. So the video actually shows optimists point out an egg from a carton grabbing the egg and the fingers move like a human. It's sort of weird and creepy to watch. I feel like the upper body feels so realistic, but then the lower body when he's walking around, he almost walks like he has to go poop.

Like, I feel like he's, like, constipated and just like, oh, I gotta make it to the bathroom. So, definitely, there still needs to be work on, like, the gait of Optimus if we want to make it more human-like. It'd be interesting to see him going upstairs, you know, some more yoga, different things like that.

But it's a super cool video. So definitely check it out. How far away do you think we are from having like a working prototype that they will actually, I mean, we have a working prototype, but something that they'll actually be able to sell? I think 10 years is kind of being on the safer side. But you know, this is, yeah, it's going to change the world in a lot of ways if it happens. And

Elon Musk has said this is going to be Tesla's biggest money-making potential right there. Not even full self-driving, which for a long time we thought FSD was... Because the masses think, outside of the Tesla, masses think that Tesla just makes cars. But then there's the software, then there's the autopilot self-driving, which we initially thought was the moneymaker, the robots. Yeah.

I think it would be less than 10 years because I'm just thinking of, what was it, like during Investor Day 2020, we had this person dressed up as a robot. Right.

And now just two years, three years later, he's able to pick up eggs and not crunch them. And the hands move so well. Optimus could actually fold laundry right now. I want to see autopilot and full self-driving become better. A lot of people will... It's a different thing. But once that improves at the leaps and bounds that Elon Musk has been saying it will improve for all these years, then I'll buy into the robot doing what we think it's going to do. So that's kind of like a whole other thing. Do you think that Elon has...

too many companies he's trying to do too much and you'd like him to focus in on one. But it's not like Elon is the one doing everything, right? He just oversees it. He just has to hire the right people. What do you guys think? Let us know down in the comments below.

So that is it for the week. Obviously there has been a lot of news, definitely more out there that we could discuss. I feel like we could go on and on forever, but these were the stories that really, I think, sparked interest in us and hopefully in you as well. So definitely leave some comments. Let us know if there's anything else that we missed that you wanted to discuss more. Get it going in the comments down below. And I really want to take a minute and thank our Patreon members for making videos like this one possible. I'm gonna go ahead and read their names.

Special thanks to Sergey, Tony Beckwith, Ken Hoffel, Greg Miller, Bridget Wade Brooks, Greg Chiarometta. - And also huge thanks to our top tier members. Those are Saki Payne, Jesse Seastrand, SerWord7, Martin Spruge,

You got all the easy names this week, Kim. I did.

I did. Definitely go check out our Patreon and if you want to see a struggle, you can come up with a funny name on there and we will probably read it out loud. So you can be creative. I'll make sure those are the names that he raised though. All right. Well, thank you guys so much for watching this video and we will catch you next year.

Can you just finish that and send the text? I'm not that one. Tesla Fix, which is this guy that wants you to get in this podcast in January. And also Firezod are saying that when they use this robot footage, they're getting flagged by Univision, the Spanish channel, as copyrighted. And it's blocking their video. So Tesla Fix texted us and messaged us and said, just be careful using that footage. And when you talked about it, I didn't think we were going to talk about that.

I didn't, you don't really have to say. You guys should go check it out. Okay, because if I show any clips of it, it might cause issues. Yeah, that's fine. Don't then. Okay.