The State of Play - August 12, 2023

In this edition: Elon Musk being Elon Musk, the Heritage Foundation's proposed policy response to climate change, streaming losses, and picking individual stocks is difficult

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Elon Musk just can’t seem to get out of his own way

27 July 2023 - Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints (Steve Stecklow and Norihiko Shirouzu, Reuters)

Tesla years ago began exaggerating its vehicles’ potential driving distance – by rigging their range-estimating software. The company decided about a decade ago, for marketing purposes, to write algorithms for its range meter that would show drivers “rosy” projections for the distance it could travel on a full battery, according to a person familiar with an early design of the software for its in-dash readouts.

Then, when the battery fell below 50% of its maximum charge, the algorithm would show drivers more realistic projections for their remaining driving range, this person said. To prevent drivers from getting stranded as their predicted range started declining more quickly, Teslas were designed with a “safety buffer,” allowing about 15 miles (24 km) of additional range even after the dash readout showed an empty battery, the source said.

The directive to present the optimistic range estimates came from Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, this person said.

“Elon wanted to show good range numbers when fully charged,” the person said, adding: “When you buy a car off the lot seeing 350-mile, 400-mile range, it makes you feel good.”

Considering that the majority of car trips are 3 miles or less and only 2% are greater than 50 miles, the idea of range anxiety - the fear of not having enough charge to reach your destination - is arguably moot.

Source: Department of Energy

However, stunts like this by Musk don’t engender goodwill to consumers, and make the path to decarbonize our roads a bit more difficult.

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Republican climate plans

The Heritage Foundation released its policy plan for 2025, should a Republican win the White House. Spoiler alert: if the Heritage Foundation gets its way, the response to climate change would not be good.