According to media reports, some Tesla buyers who ordered recently refreshed Model S and Model X models are saying that deliveries are being pushed back because the EV maker is experiencing delays bringing the vehicles to production. Tesla unveiled the updated models in January, and company boss Elon Musk said the first deliveries would happen within a few weeks, but Tesla hadn’t delivered any refreshed Model S or Model X by the end of March.

In February Musk sent an email to Tesla employees that the website Electrek obtained that said Tesla was “almost done” retooling the production lines, and it expected to reach full production in Q2. “Model S/X production lines are almost done with the retooling,” the email said, “and will be aiming for max production next quarter. There is high demand, so we are soon going to need to go back to two shifts. Please recommend friends for recruiting.”

Here we are, six weeks later, and there hasn’t been a single reported new Model S or Model X delivery, and buyers who ordered the revised Model S are saying their estimated delivery dates have been pushed back a few months, from March/April to May, June or July.

It’s unclear what is causing the delays and Tesla hasn’t commented, but this morning (April 8) Musk did tweet his thanks to Tesla suppliers for “providing us with critical parts!”

Tesla has experienced several product delays over the years including a few on the Model 3 alone, way back in 2017. The delays might be finally catching up with the EV maker: Cox Automotive released a report in February saying Tesla’s star is fading. Cox’s Kelley Blue Book Brand Watch Report surveys consumer perception and weaves in consumer shopping behavior to determine how a brand or model stacks up with its competitors on several factors that consumers think are important.

The Brand Watch Report shows shopping for Tesla’s Model 3 plummeted 40 percent, more than any other model. The decline in shopping caused the Model 3 to drop from number one on the most-shopped luxury vehicle list, a spot it held for six-straight quarters, to 10th. The Model Y fell off the top 10 most-shopped luxury vehicles completely in Q4 2020; it had been the third-most shopped luxury vehicle in the third quarter.

Electrek speculates that since Tesla needed to redesign the software and user interface for the new Model S and Model X center screen, the delay could actually be a software issue. The site also pointed out Model S and Model X uses a different user interface than the Model 3/Model Y display, and that the S and X got new instrument clusters because Tesla changed the screen format. The site also pointed out that the second-row screen needs a new user interface since it didn’t exist before. The site saw a glimpse of the new Tesla v11 software in a Model S prototype last month.

The new center screen could be a reason for Tesla’s product delays.

Meanwhile, a few weeks ago word came that Tesla’s Semi electric truck was also delayed, with Musk tweeting that the company was experiencing battery cell supply constraints.

“Demand is no problem, but near-term cell supply makes it hard to scale Semi,” he tweeted. “This limitation will be less onerous next year,” the billionaire entrepreneur said.

When Tesla first showed the prototype of the electric semi in 2017, Musk said the Class 8 truck would go into production by 2019. Last week he suggested bottlenecks would cause production delays until next year.

BERLIN — Tesla sharply criticized lengthy regulatory processes in Germany ahead of the planned opening of its first European "Gigafactory" this summer.

Tesla plans to have the factory up and running by July 1, 2021, to start building the Model Y but the process has been slow and complicated by environmental disputes.

A Tesla spokesman confirmed the plant's opening was still scheduled for summer, adding as many as 500,000 Model Y cars could be produced there annually once the factory is completed.

In December, Tesla was told by a court to suspend clearing of a forest at the site of the proposed factory after environmentalists said cutting down more trees could endanger hibernating snakes.

"The German approval framework for industrial and infrastructure projects as well as spatial planning directly contradicts the urgency to plan and realize such projects that is necessary to battle climate change," Tesla said in a letter to a local court seen by Reuters.

Tesla, in the letter dated April 7, said it was "particularly irritating" that there was still no timetable for the final approval of the plant, located in Gruenheide outside Berlin, 16 months after the carmaker applied for it.

It remains unclear when Tesla will receive final approval for the site. A decision by the environmental agency had been expected months ago.

The letter, first reported by newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, urges authorities to speed up processes to ensure investors have more transparency about when their investments in climate-friendly technologies pay off.

Red tape in Germany has also been a problem in the area of wind energy expansion, with some projects taking several years from application to realization.

Tesla Inc. TSLA is facing the prospects of legal action from customers after the company sharply increased the price of solar roofs even for customers who have signed installation contracts over a year ago, Electrek reported Sunday.

What Happened: Customers were informed by Tesla of price increases of around 30% or more above the previous agreed-upon pricing, according to the report. The price increases also seem to apply to Tesla Powerwall installations, with the cost of those being hiked by about 30%.

Further, Tesla reportedly said it “will be prioritizing customers based on the order in which they accept their updated agreements.” This means customers could face more delays in solar roof installations if they do not sign the new agreements as soon as possible.

A thread on the Tesla Motors Club also provided details about the massive price increases for the solar roof installations, with some of the customers indicating the possibility of legal action against Tesla.
According to the Electrek report, Tesla’s primary reason for increased prices is the “roof complexity” factor, which takes into account how difficult it would be to install solar on a particular home’s roof and will be factored into the final purchase price.

However, Tesla’s price hike does not seem to track accurately with either roof complexity or a recent price spike in construction materials, as per the report.

Why It Matters: Tesla's solar business, born out of its 2016 acquisition of SolarCity, installs rooftop photovoltaics, carport and ground-based solar energy systems. However, Tesla has been slow with solar roof installations and customers have urged the company to improve its sales and customer service.

It was reported in October last year that Tesla was sued by a solar roof customer over allegations it misreported a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) as a loan the latter had undertaken.

Tesla has also been accused of failing to communicate accurately with customers over fire risks in its solar installations. Retail giant Walmart Inc. WMT filed a lawsuit against Tesla in August 2019, claiming that "no fewer than seven" stores experienced a fire due to Tesla's solar panels. However, the companies settled their lawsuit in November 2019.

Deep down inside, Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a twelve-something-year-old who loves potty humor and pranks. That makes him an even bigger hit with the incredibly large and supportive Tesla community and gives Tesla a vibe all of its own.
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Not that Tesla needed anything more to stand out right now. Tesla is the current leader in the EV market and the highest-ranked carmaker on the stock market; it’s doing great. It doesn’t need gimmicks to stay in the lead, which makes Easter Eggs like this one all the more hilarious.

Apparently, some Teslas will respond to the spoken command of “open/close butthole” by opening or closing the charging port. The discovery was made and revealed by Twitter user @tesla_master and has since been confirmed by many others. Teslarati notes that some users report using the command with a different result: the Tesla opens the trunk. So, while it’s definitely a feature, it’s not yet standardized.

The discovery of the Easter Egg has opened a new can of worms, in addition to the “butthole,” as most things Tesla do. The debate raging right now on social media is whether a carmaker of Tesla’s standing can still make potty jokes without coming across as immature, offensive and stupid. To this, Tesla owners respond that yes, it can. In fact, it’s part of the charm of Tesla and what sets it apart from everyone else.

Hilariously, there’s also a debate on whether “butthole” is even the right term since that would be the “exhaust” in human anatomy, whereas the charging port is more akin to the mouth that receives nutrients. You can see where this line of argument is flawed, so there’s no need to explain how deep Musk’s potty humor goes.

The idea is that Easter Eggs like this should come as no surprise, let alone as some type of scandalous revelation. It stems from the mind of the same man who recently crowned himself technoking on official papers and who programmed cars to make fart sounds. Plus, who doesn’t love potty humor?

New York (CNN Business)Two passengers were killed in a crash of a Tesla Model S on Saturday in which there was no one sitting in the driver's seat, according to police.

The crash in the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, killed a person in the front passenger seat and one in the rear seat of the car, according to Constable Mark Herman, the head of the Harris County police precinct that responded to the crash.
"I can tell you our investigators are certain no one was in the driver's seat at the time of the crash," he told CNN Monday.The names of the two crash victims, a 69-year old man, and a 59-year old man, were not immediately released by authorities. The car, a 2019 Tesla Model S, apparently went off the road after being unable to navigate a curve and hit some trees. Herman said the crash is still under investigation and that the exact speed was not yet known. But he said evidence suggests the car was moving at a "high rate of speed."

Based onthe model year, the Tesla Model S has an "Autopilot" feature designed to assist the driver by keeping the car in a lane of traffic and slowing or stopping the car to avoid obstacles ahead. It may also have been equipped with a more advanced feature called Full Self-Driving capability, or FSD, which is now being tested by what Tesla CEO Elon Musk described as a small group of members of the public.It is unknown if the Tesla involved in Saturday's incident was equipped with that advanced software.Telsa's website does caution that "current Autopilot features require active driver supervision and do not make the vehicle autonomous." But just this past Saturday, Musk tweeted out a claim that the Autopilot feature was significantly safer than human drivers.


"Tesla with Autopilot engaged now approaching 10 times lower chance of an accident than average vehicle," he tweeted.
Musk was referring to company data that showed Teslas with the Autopilot engaged were involved in just one accident for every 4.19 million miles driven in the first quarter of this year, compared to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data that Tesla said shows one crash in every 484,000 miles for human-operated cars.
But those miles-driven comparisons are not necessarily valid, since the drivers using Autopilot may be more likely to activate it on limited access highways where there is reduced chances of a crash, while the NHTSA data covers all miles driven, including those on local streets with intersections.

Safety concerns

There have been numerous criticisms of the Tesla Autopilot system from safety experts, including the use of the name "Autopilot," which some of those critics say encourages owners to believe the car can actually drive itself.
The National Transportation Safety Board, when issuing a report on a 2018 fatal crash involving a Tesla using Autopilot, said that the car maker was not doing enough to ensure that drivers remained aware of their surroundings and ready to take control of the car in order to avoid accidents.

"This tragic crash clearly demonstrates the limitations of advanced driver assistance systems available to consumers today," said NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt in a February 2020 report on the 2018 crash in Mountainview, California. "There is not a vehicle currently available to US consumers that is self-driving. Period. Every vehicle sold to US consumers still requires the driver to be actively engaged in the driving task, even when advanced driver assistance systems are activated."

Tesla (TSLA) did not respond to a request for comment about the crash. In the past Tesla has defended the use of the Autopilot name, saying that even in the case of airplane autopilot systems, the pilot is still required to be attentive and ready to take over in case of an emergency.
Constable Herman said his department has already been in contact with the NTSB and NHTSA about the crash. It has not been in contact with Tesla as of yet, he said.
The NTSB said it is aware of the accident and is not yet certain if it will investigate. But NHTSA said it has already deployed a Special Crash Investigation team to investigate the crash.