Tesla 1Q24 Deliveries, What’s up With Tesla?, Ford Increases Bet on Hybrids, GM Shakes up Software Team

One member in the forum raised a good point regarding livestreaming Apple Immersive Video. Last year, Apple acquired WaveOne. We talked about the acquisition in the March 28th, 2023 update (available here). The company was in the business of AI algorithms for video compression. The takeaway from that acquisition wasn’t specific to livestreaming sports but rather the broader trend of consuming video and your surroundings on spatial computers.

Today’s update will be dedicated to the auto space.

A few quick notes regarding how we will approach the auto industry following Apple halting Project Titan. In summary, there won’t be any major issues to coverage.

  1. It is good to keep abreast of what’s unfolding in the car industry as the market is too large for Apple to ignore. While the ingredients may not be in ripe for Apple’s entry over the next few years, we can’t rule out the company having renewed interest down the road.

  2. Apple’s CarPlay initiative is one of the more promising integrations between first-party hardware and non-Apple hardware. There are plenty of related implications worth monitoring including Apple Services’ role on the road (maps, music, etc.). It is good to stay up to date as to how CarPlay is being embraced via vehicles sales trends etc.

Let’s jump into today’s update.

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Tesla Earnings, Tesla Lessons for Apple (Daily Update)

Hello everyone. Earnings season is upon us.

The plan for this earnings cycle is to focus in particular on larger themes and base our discussions around any changes or developments to those themes. We will kick things off with Tesla and the auto space. After going over the main takeaways from Tesla’s earnings, we look at some lessons that Apple can learn from regarding how best to navigate the EV space.

Tesla Earnings

Here’s the WSJ:

“Tesla Inc. felt the pain of a recent wave of price cuts, as a reduction in the average price of its cars contributed to a 24% decline in first-quarter profit.

Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle maker has lowered prices for models in the U.S. by between 14% and 25% this year as it contends with weaker demand, higher interest rates and burgeoning competition. The latest round of reductions came on the eve of earnings.

‘We’ve taken a view that pushing for higher volumes and a larger fleet is the right choice here versus a lower volume and higher margin,’ Mr. Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said Wednesday on an earnings call, adding that he expects to be able to harvest additional software revenue down the line.

Teslas sold for an average of around $46,000 in the first quarter, less than the company had forecast and down from some $52,200 in the first three months of 2022.”

Tesla's core automative gross margins – excluding ZEV credits – declined to 16% from 26% the previous year. While those are good margins for an automaker, many have spent years saying Tesla wasn't a regular automaker. Vehicle deliveries were

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