1/ Yesterday I promised some TSLA rumors. Turns out a friend-of-a-friend (let's call her Mary) is a TSLA Engineer. I haven't met Mary directly, this is all 2nd hand, but I trust my friend.
2/ I've obscured details which are very credible. This also generally confirms other rumors I've heard. But it is 2nd hand, so discount as you will.
3/ Mary reports that morale is high. She is very committed to TSLA as are her coworkers. Part of the reason I believe the rest of this- she has no incentive to make up a story that reflects so poorly on TSLA, though I suspect she doesn't see how poorly it reflects.
4/ About a month ago, Mary says that *all* TSLA engineers were asked to start reporting to Fremont. For the past month, Engineering has been working the line! Only exceptions were for teams working on AutoPilot.
5/ Other than AP, no engineering work is being done. I'd heard rumors about this, but didn't realize the extent or that it was on-going. @skabooshka - forget checking the Fremont lots, you should be checking attendance at the TSLA engineering buildings in Palo Alto!
6/ This is crazy. These are the most highly paid factory line workers in the world: +250K per head! Plus they generally have no manual labor or manufacturing experience. Remember when GM went BK bc of $70/hr total labor costs? $TSLA paying 2x that for workers with no experience
7/ Based on what I've heard, it sounds like Mary has worked manually moving cars between stations. I'm guessing this is in the tent, though perhaps GA3 also involves some manual moves?
8/ Wondering how this is going to show up in Q3 & GMs? Are they going to allocate the salaried workers to M3 GMs (and shrink R&D) or just wing it?
9/ I think this is evidence for @MontanaSkeptic1's theory about needing to hit 5k to raise. $TSLA is mortgaging the future, spending millions of engineering dollars banging M3's together. They are delaying their other products and key software products. To what end?
10 What does it matter if they build 3.5k or 5k/wk? From a cash flow standpoint doesn't matter. And $TSLA knows they are going to hit demand wall soon. Why mortgage the future here? 5k matters in some way we cannot directly see. Otherwise this is pure craziness.
11/ I hope to chat with Mary directly, though not before Q2 earnings. I'm curious her take on the absurdity of highly paid SW/HW Eng working on a manual car line. Why does she think it's so critical to hit 5k now? And if she has been in the Tent, what's the TAKT time?!
