Missed deadlines are nothing new for Musk and his vehicle company; the Model X, once promised for 2014, won’t be released until this September and the mass-market Model 3 is now slated for late 2017.
Advertisement
Security analysts, Kevin Mahaffey and Marc Rogers, who observed the architecture and engineering programming of the Tesla model, managed to hack into the car’s system and effectively influence its functions. CEO Elon Musk said he’s considering options to raise more capital, and didn’t rule out selling more stock. Meanwhile, Tesla is hard at work on the forthcoming Model X SUV-due to arrive early next year-and 2017’s Model 3, which should combine a 200-mile range with a $30,000 (£20,000) price tag. A typical new vehicle can cost US$1 billion or more to engineer and bring to market.
Tesla reported an operating loss of $47 million, which makes the loss per auto more than $4,000. Tesla in other words has a very narrow margin for error. As per the reports, Tesla has already taken out $359 million out of the cash stash for the luxury cars.
Tesla has signaled capital spending will drop next year because the company will not be spending on a major vehicle launch. The crossover vehicle should help Tesla boost sales, and Seyrafi is expecting non-leased Model X units of 500 in the third quarter and 6,500 in the fourth quarter.
Elon Musk may be afraid of a robot apocalypse, but Tesla is going forward with an automatic charger, that looks a bit like a robotic eel, anyway.
Interestingly enough, Tesla’s losses may be much higher than the company reports.
Tesla Motors posted a video on its Twitter to show off a “snake charger” that does not require any human effort to complete an entire charging process for a Model S.
As with all of the hacks revealed at the Black Hat conference – which also include – the researchers that made them public hope that doing so will lead companies to be more secure in the future.
Advertisement
Right now, Model S owners can either plug their cars in at home (or anywhere else they might have the proper equipment installed), or they can use one of the company’s “supercharger” stations. Analysts say they add back the deferred revenue to make Tesla s figures more comparable to the reporting used by other automakers.
