Issue 25  July 12th 2016

Over the weekend, Tesla CEO Elon Musk clarified the automaker’s use of the word ‘Beta’ in reference to the Autopilot system after Germany’s Federal Office for Motor Vehicles (KBA) said that it wouldn’t approve a feature on German roads if it is described as ‘Beta’. The agency said that the ‘beta-phase’ could mean ‘an incomplete status of the software’.

Elon Musk claimed that the word “beta” is not used in the “standard sense” of the word, but to make sure drivers “don’t get comfortable” with the system. In a Twitter conversation on Sunday, the CEO explained that the company’s fleet would need at least 1 billion miles of data to stop calling the Autopilot ‘beta’.

He added that the automaker will probably hit the mark in about “six months” and that the system will “include hundreds of refinements to handle rare corner cases”. The next improvements will come in the form of Tesla’s v8.0 software update. He emphasized again that the use of the word beta is to highlight that the system is not perfect and that Tesla drivers don’t have to use it.

If there’s a list Tesla is probably OK with not being at the top of, it’s ‘Best Car Salesmen’. The company boasts about its distribution and servicing model being unlike any other in the industry and the latest mystery shoppers study by Pied Piper, a real consultant and market research firm (not based on the HBO series Silicon Valley), kind of proved that it is the case by placing Tesla dead last.

Apparently, Tesla doesn’t follow standard sales processes in the industry because Pied Piper placed the company last with 86 points, 10 points behind the second “worst”, Volvo with 96, and 28 points behind the highest ranked, Infiniti with 114 points.

A new report from Global Equities Research analyzes just how much each car company actually spends on selling its cars. Not surprisingly, makers of premium brands spend the most. For every Jaguar that finds a buyer, parent company Tata Motors spends $3,325. Lincoln shells out $2,550 on advertising for every car it sells.

At the other end of the spectrum, Toyota and Honda spend the least, at approximately $250 per car... A new study approximates that Tesla spends even less at $6 per vehicle.

Tesla employees who maybe didn’t have the chance to see the vehicle in person before were able to get a close look at the Black Matte version. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that people responded well to the color and that it bodes well for it to make it to production.