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A wave of Post Traumatic Stress may await health care workers and first responders on the COVID fron – Tampa Bay Times

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It has been more than a decade since I shared my diary in these pages about my experiences visiting military troops around the world, counseling them about how to handle the trauma they faced daily in the line of duty. All these years later, one moment I chronicled still stands out vividly. During the summer 2009, I was embedded with the 25th Infantry Division, Camp Marez, Mosul, Iraq led by then one-star (and now retired four-star) Gen. Robert Brooks Brown.

Gen. Brown would have me visit soldiers throughout Iraq and one such visit was to the Camp Diamondback base hospital. While on a tour conducted by a medical staff member, we entered the emergency room. I was introduced to the attending doctor and after a short conversation I asked: 'Who is taking care of you? He responded with a smile and had me follow him to the rear of the hospital. We walked through a back door and there in the middle of the desert was a Zen garden, complete with a small patch of grass and a fountain.

It was a place of solitude, a place where doctors and nurses could clear their heads and emotions, a place that made the ugly facts of war the traumatic events they were facing everyday fade away for a period of time. The garden gave the doctors and nurses an inner peace that rejuvenated them. It was a crucial part of the healing process.

Not all wounds bleed and, at times, invisible wounds cut as deep as the wounds we see. That is certainly the case with a new kind of warrior on the front lines of a brutal fight against COVID-19. The health care workers doctors, nurses, EMTs, paramedics, police and more are heroes, dealing with a constant drumbeat of death while we are asked to sit on a couch, or social distance during a driveway happy hour.

It reminds me of soldiers handmade signs I saw in Iraq and Afghanistan, We are at war while America is at the mall. The battle against COVID-19, like all past wars, carries the potential for the same kind of post-traumatic experiences faced by our combat troops. My good friend, and a true American hero, former Army Ranger Nate Self, shared the 2002 Afghanistan battle of Roberts Ridge in his book titled Two Wars, The One Abroad And The One Within. All wars are different, and all wars are the same, he explained. The COVID-19 battle against an invisible enemy will undoubtedly cause trauma for those on the front lines.

Being aware of the potential war within is vital for self-care. For those who have been waging this new war with the coronavirus, trauma is inescapable, according to Dr. Richard Mollica, director of Harvard Global Mental Health and one of the worlds leading psychological trauma experts.

This past year, I had the good fortune of getting to know Dr. Mollica while participating in the Harvard Global Mental Health Trauma and Recovery Program; I spent two weeks in Italy and had six months of collaborative learning. We studied with trauma experts and learned from their experiences, knowledge and leadership skills on a global stage.

Dr. Mollica, the director of Harvards Program in Refugee Trauma, has received many awards for his work, published more than 160 articles on trauma over 30 years, and is the author of Healing Invisible Wounds: Paths To Hope And Recovery In A Violent World. Dr. Mollica and his Harvard Global Mental Health staff offer a Self-Care Pocket Card for the tool kits of all those serving in the COVID-19 fight.

The truth is that we are all susceptible to post-traumatic stress. It is a human condition that can be triggered by hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, accidents and horrific crimes. However, those who serve are in the higher risk group because they go where trauma is. Military, law enforcement, firefighters, first responders and health care workers see what the rest of the world does not.

Post-traumatic stress has been with us forever. Sophocles wrote about the warrior not understanding emotions after coming home from battle. After the Civil War, we called it Soldiers Heart. Then came World War I, when it was known as Shell Shock. The World War II term was Battle Fatigue, while the Korean and Vietnam wars had the flashback terminology. Today, it is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It became a diagnosis in 1980 and, from my view, we have over-medicalized the issue ever since, pushing people away from the conversation due to the stigma attached.

The COVID-19 pandemic will create similar post-traumatic stress experiences for front-line medical workers. Allow me to share the similarities between them and our amazing men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In presenting to members of the military, I quickly came to realize that the title of PTSD Education and Awareness caused some in the audience to react defensively because of the stigma associated with the term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. So I decided to rename it Operational Stress Education and Awareness. Words matter. Military, law enforcement, firefighters and first responders relate to operational responsibilities, and using a term that sounded less medical allowed for more honest discussions.

Those in military uniforms like to think they can leap tall buildings in a single bound. But we can never lose sight of the fact there is a human being wearing it.

The uniform called scrubs does the same for the health care professionals. They also serve, protect and save lives. Similar to soldiers, they see death, however, not at the rate they are witnessing due to COVID-19. They are in a fight where they can feel helpless at times yet steel their personal emotions in order to do their job. They have learned to repress feelings and emotions, and being immersed into their work protects them for a period of time.

I share this analogy regarding emotions. I ask folks to imagine I am holding a large balloon in front of the room and ask how can we get the air out. More often than not the words pop it are said and yes, we can take a pin and pop it to get the air out, but we no longer have a balloon. We can let it go and it flies all over the room and goes out the door never to see the balloon again. Or we can turn the balloon upside down and let a little air out at a time it will make a noise we may not want to hear, a noise that hurts our ears, yet at some point we will get the air out and we will have a full balloon we can use again one day. We need to get the air out of our balloons. However, more often than not, we push things down, one after another, and if you take that analogy to its fruition at some point the balloon will burst.

The largest window in a car is the windshield because it allows us to see where we are going, and the small rear-view mirror gives us the opportunity to see where we have been. We need both to navigate the paths we take, and it is no different with COVID-19. We have learned trauma lessons from past battlefields, and we need to prepare for the future care of COVID-19 front line health care warriors. This pandemic shadow will be with us for a time; however, we should never fear a shadow because if there is a shadow that means there is light nearby. It is our responsibility to ourselves, and each other, to get to that light and it starts with self-care because heroes are human.

Bob Delaney is an author and has been a post trauma advocate for more than four decades who presents worldwide. He is a former New Jersey state trooper who went undercover and infiltrated the Mafia in the 1970s. His healing journey with PTS brought him back to the game of his youth, basketball leading to a 30-year career as a referee in the National Basketball Association. He is an NBA Cares Ambassador and advisor to the Southeastern Conference. He has received numerous national awards, including the Presidents Volunteer Service Award from President Barack Obama and the NCAAs highest award named after President Theodore Roosevelt. His story has been told by numerous media outlets and has been a guest of Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN.

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A wave of Post Traumatic Stress may await health care workers and first responders on the COVID fron - Tampa Bay Times

FROM THE OPINION PAGE Health care transition: Emergency room still available in Bluefield – Bluefield Daily Telegraph

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Rural hospitals across America have been struggling in recent years, and those challenges were furtherexacerbatedwith the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last March.

The Stay at Home orders issued by West Virginia Governor Jim Justice and Virginia Governor Ralph Northamearlier this yearfurther added to the challenges faced by rural medical centers. The state-ordered closures included a moratorium on all elective surgeries at hospitals like Princeton Community Hospital and Bluefield Regional Medical Center. At the time, we didnt know a lot about COVID-19, so folks were naturally worried about this global pandemic. So worried, in fact, that many citizens made it a point to stay away from hospitals, with others opting to delay important medical procedures and routine medical treatment. All of this led toa significant decline in patient volume and services at rural hospitals across the nation, including right here in southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia.

This brings us to where we are today. All in-patient and ancillary services have ceased at Bluefield Regional Medical Center, a tremendous loss for the region.

We know many area residents are concerned some are downright alarmed by this development. We have read, and published,many letters from our readers over the past couple of weeks where you have expressed your concerns about the closure of Bluefield Regional Medical Center.

We understand your concerns. However, it should be noted that all of the news isnt bad.

The newly renamedPCHBluefield Emergency Department is now operational at the same location where Bluefield Regional Medical Centers emergency room was.And thePCH Bluefield Emergency Department will be open24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, to help meet the emergency needs of residents in Bluefield and surrounding communities. It is staffed by a team ofexperienced and highly qualified emergency physicians and nurses who are ready to provide care to area residents during an emergency.

Services provided by the newPCHBluefield Emergency Department include:

Emergent treatment/stabilization for all illnesses and injuries, including cardiac, stroke, respiratory and traumatic injuries

A full array of laboratory services

A decontamination room

Imaging services with low-dose CT scan, Digital X-Ray and CT scans

Helicopter transport to other facilities

Ambulance transport

Keeping the Bluefieldemergencydepartment open on a full-time basisand fullystaffedis an absolute necessity. This is a good, first step in ensuring that medical services are available to residents in the Bluefield area when they experience an emergency.

But there is still much more work to be done. The city of Bluefield, working in conjunction with Princeton Community Hospital and other community stakeholders, must continuesearchingfor a way to provide expanded health care services to the residents of the two Bluefields. Finding new uses for the Bluefield Regional Medical Centercampus also is a necessity, and already potential partnerships are being discussed with entities such as Bluefield State College.With more than 90 inpatient rooms that could serve as dorm rooms and the possibility of expanding BSCs medical field programs,the educational option is absolutely on the table,according to Princeton Community HospitalChief Executive Officer Jeffrey Lilley.

Lilley says a possible cancer treatment center also is an idea under consideration for the Bluefield facility.

We look forward to learningmoredetailsabout such plans and partnerships in the weeks and months ahead.

But for now the immediate focus must be on health care, particularly in light of the continuing pandemic.

Ensuring the health and well-being of the citizens of Mercer County and surrounding areas should be the priority of all parties involved as we transition through this difficult period.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

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FROM THE OPINION PAGE Health care transition: Emergency room still available in Bluefield - Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Four healthcare security lessons learned during the initial COVID-19 surge – Security Magazine

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Four healthcare security lessons learned during the initial COVID-19 surge | 2020-08-10 | Security Magazine This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more. This Website Uses CookiesBy closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn MoreThis website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.

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Four healthcare security lessons learned during the initial COVID-19 surge - Security Magazine

COVID-19 Underscores Why Certain Aspects of the American Healthcare System Should Change Forever – – HIT Consultant

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Irv Lichtenwald, President & CEO of Medsphere Systems Corporation

In the late 1940s, the United Kingdom was busily reassembling country and what remained of the empire in the aftermath of World War II. Among many revelations, the war had convinced Britains leaders of the need to provide healthcare for all in the event of calamity upending the basic functions of a civilized society. With that, the UKs National Health Service (NHS) was born.

In 2020, all perspectives about quality and the time it takes to see a provider aside, the NHS remains quite popular among UK citizens and is an enduring source of national pride.

With the United States in the midst of its own upheaval, its for a related question: Might the current COVID-19 situation give rise to significant changes to the American healthcare system?

Virtually no one thinks the correct answer is No. Things will change. The question is how and to what extent. The healthcare system in place in the United States now is dramatically more complex than that in use by Britons after WW II. There are so many moving parts, so many things that can break.

So, in which aspects of the current American healthcare system are we likely to see changes after COVID-19 is dealt with?

Telehealth: Someone always benefits in a catastrophe. In this case, that someone may be Zoom shareholders.

From 10 million daily users in December, Zoom rocketed to 200 million in March and nearly 300 million a month later. Much of that was healthcare related.

Of course, Zoom is not the only direct beneficiary of coronavirus as venerable meeting platforms like WebEx and Skype, among others, have also experienced dramatic growth.

Hospitals and health systems were incrementally implementing telehealth services prior to the coronavirus outbreak, but there was no sense of urgency that accompanies a rapidly spreading virus. Since then, the federal government, states and insurance companies have allocated funds and rewritten regulation to expand the use of telehealth.

But there are more telehealth related-issues to address, some of which have thorns. Service and payment parity across insurance companies is an issue. If telehealth is going to be a regular component of healthcare, technology gaps will have to be addressed, especially in rural areas.

This is something the federal government recognizes. The White House recently drafted an executive order oriented around improving rural health by expanding technology access, developing new payment models and reducing regulatory burdens. The EO tasks the secretaries of health and human services and agriculture to work with the Federal Communications Commission to develop and implement a strategy to improve rural health by improving the physical and communications healthcare infrastructure available to rural Americans. But until Congress gets involved and provides funding for something like this, it will probably never get out of the proposal phase.

In fact, there are enough concernsparity, technology gaps, added costsassociated with telehealth to wonder if it will endure after coronavirus is in the rear view. Enough about telehealth benefits both providers and patients for it to stick and proliferate, but that could also be said about any number of healthcare initiatives that seem to languish for lack of coordination and political will.

Health Insurance: This is where the NHS analogy is the most relevant. Many millions of workers are furloughed or simply laid off with the impact of COVID-19 on frontline jobs like restaurant worker, massage therapist and barista. Those who had insurance through work may not have it anymore, leaving them doubly vulnerableno coverage, no incometo illness or accident.

Mass unemployment episodes reveal, each time, the weakness in the patchwork employment-based healthcare insurance system weve sort of made peace with for decades. Sure, Medicaid exists to fill the gaps, but it may make sense to render Medicaid unnecessary, especially since its value is questionable in particular states.

You notice the number of band-aids that Congress is having to apply to help people who have lost their jobs, said former CMS Administrator Don Berwick, MD. What we have now is a whole series of band-aids and special measures. What if instead, we just had universal health insurance?

What if, indeed. Will COVID-19 be the straw that burns the bridge of employer-based health insurance, to mangle a metaphor? That may depend on how long the pandemic lasts, who is president sometime after November 3 and how much damage is done to the national fabric before economy and society start a process of repair.

Payment Models: For years now, hospitals have been in the middle of slow shift from fee-for-service care to value-based care and alternative payment models. That transition didnt happen quickly enough to prevent most hospitals from falling into a financial chasm. If elective procedures are a big part of revenue, it follows that revenue will fall if those procedures disappear.

To be fair, the hit to hospital finances has been catastrophic enoughmore than $200 billion in losses over four months, according to the American Hospital Associationthat federal government support would have been necessary even if a full pay-for-quality model had been in place.

But the pandemic spotlights the downside of treating essential services like healthcare as though they are mere services one selects or rejects. And it exposes the folly of not making sure everyone has insurance coverage (a payer) when the individual costs for COVID-19-related hospital admission can range from $20,000 to $88,000.

End-of-Life Care: According to one analysis, 42 percent of COVID-19 deaths have occurred in nursing homes or assisted living facilities. The families of those unfortunate souls whove died while in a facility have generally endured the agony of saying goodbye outside a window or over a video link. Its hard to believe, after COVID-19, that the assisted living industry will continue as before.

The crisis surely will lead nursing home administrators to reconsider the way patients are cared for, says Modern Healthcare. Among the ideas Harvards [Professor David] Grabowski believes will get a longer look in the wake of the pandemic are using telemedicine services, creating specialized Medicare Advantage plans for the homes and pursuing smaller settings.

Perhaps. And perhaps a son or daughter that remembers coronavirus will simply choose not to risk everything by putting their parent in a home. Could enough of them make such a decision that the industry contracts? Is forced to take quality care more seriously? Attracts more serious federal regulation?

As the deaths mount, its hard not to give every option serious consideration.

Supply Chain: These days were bickering in public and on social media (looking at you, maskless Karen throwing food in Trader Joes) about whether or not masks should be mandated. Look back with me to February, however, and youll fondly recall concerns about there being enough masks at all.

Back then we learned that the United States had exactly one mask manufacturer, and that all other masks are sourced from overseas. That it takes longer to get stuff from China than from Amarillo creates obvious potential problems when a crisis hits, but it also pits hospitals and government entities against one another and guarantees that the winner will pay more for supplies than they would in less-critical times.

It also creates weird, unnecessary scenarios that could be avoided using coordination and leadership. The governor of Maryland, for example, used his wifes connections to South Korea (her country of birth) to secure 500,000 coronavirus tests, which he then put in an undisclosed location and protected using national guard troops.

Whats the remedy?

Modern Healthcare has called for a national supply chain czar, which in other times may have just been the head of FEMA. The suggestion, however, highlights the need for a coordinated central clearing house where supplies can be ordered, managed and dispersed based on need.

Individual hospitals, clinics and health systems can also help themselves by using a robust supply chain software system that keeps track in real time of available supplies, covers all ordering systems and methodologies, and reacts swiftly to certain thresholds.

The uniquely unfortunate aspect of the American political system among western democracies is that, for the most part, it responds to the demands of special interests. Think about your local representative. Chances are good the shouts of specific business interests are ringing in his or her hears so loudly that little else is audible.

As such, there is a significant danger that the American healthcare system will return, post-COVID-19, to the same dynamic it had when the virus arrived, which will be unfortunate. What we need post-pandemic is not necessarily specific changes to hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, etc., though they could be part of an overall solution. What will be necessary is an examination of where every aspect of the healthcare system overall, inasmuch as there is one, didnt do its job.

Disasters are social sodium pentothal that, while active, force groups of people to take an honest look at their failures. Once the disaster is passed, however, there is a danger that Upton Sinclairs maximIt is difficult to get a manto understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding itwill rule the day.

No one hopes for more dramatic damage to the American economy and social fabric, but the irony is that necessary change sometimes only comes when reality is undeniable, as in a shellshocked Britain instituting the NHS. If COVID-19 doesnt shock us sufficiently into making substantial changes to the healthcare system, its a pretty safe bet the same disaster will occur again.

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COVID-19 Underscores Why Certain Aspects of the American Healthcare System Should Change Forever - - HIT Consultant

Bitcoin vs Quantum Computers: Real and Imagined Fears – CryptoGlobe

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Crypto enthusiasts have long-held fears of the future that quantum computing might bring. But are those fears overblown?

Quantum computers are a near-perfect embodiment of Arthur C. Clarkes third law, Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. A fully functional quantum computer would be orders of magnitude more powerful than any conventional supercomputer in existence.

The positive applications are numerous and include accelerating discovery of cures to diseases to revolutionizing investment management and presenting better and lower-cost trading opportunities.

This could provide a huge boost to the sciences but it also represents a threat to existing cryptographic algorithms. Many crypto enthusiasts are concerned that this could compromise the blockchain and render cryptocurrency worthless. The question is, how real are these fears?

Traditional computers use bits, or 1s and 0s, in order to represent data. Everything youre seeing on your screen right now can be broken down into a string of binary digits. Quantum computers are based on the qubit, a two-state quantum system.

As a result, they are able to perform processes significantly faster than any conventional computer could. This involves quantum physics so well focus on the broad strokes here. For those interested in a deep dive, there is a great series of articles on this at the MIT Technical Review.

A quantum computer is one that is designed to capture and contain qubits in a stable state. They are then able to take advantage of two key mechanics in order to process large amounts of data:

The downside of quantum computers is that they require a significant amount of energy to run and are error-prone because of decoherence. Even slight vibrations or temperature changes can cause a quantum computer to cease functioning.

This had prevented quantum computers from achieving quantum supremacy, which is the ability to outperform traditional computers. But that changed in September 2019 when Google claimed that it had succeeded in reaching quantum supremacy, sending a shockwave through the cryptography world.

The big fear with quantum computers is that they would render all real-world uses of cryptography obsolete overnight. This would make online banking, messaging, and e-commerce completely unsafe and cripple the internet as we know it. It would also render cryptocurrencies inoperable.

Most of the major blockchains, including Bitcoin, rely upon ECDSA (Elliptical Curve Digital Signature Algorithm). This allows blockchains to create a random 256-bit private key and a linked public key that can be shared with third parties without revealing that private key.

Quantum computers could unravel the relationship between these keys thus allowing cryptocurrency wallets to be hacked and a holders funds to be liquidated.

The short answer: Maybe, but not yet. The truth is that, as Peter Todd confirmed, we still dont know how close we are to a viable, scalable quantum computer. It could be 6 months from now, or it could be never.

Another point is that if users follow the standard practice of only using Bitcoin addresses one time, it limits the amount of time a quantum computer has to break the key.

But the threat is still present, if a little distant. The good news is that some projects are actively working to counter it. The Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL) is the first industrial implementation of the eXtended Merkle Signature Scheme (XMSS). This hash-based signature scheme is significantly more advanced than ECDSA and should be harder for a quantum computer to crack.

In general, cryptocurrency investors shouldnt be too concerned about quantum computing in the short-term. But it would still be prudent to keep an eye on the quantum computing world and projects like QRL.

Featured image via Pixabay.

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Bitcoin vs Quantum Computers: Real and Imagined Fears - CryptoGlobe

Japan science society lures online readers with column on physics applied to virus fight – The Mainichi

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A screen capture of The Japan Society of Applied Physics webpage for the online column on using physics for coronavirus measures.

TOKYO -- An online column on using physics for novel coronavirus countermeasures run by The Japan Society of Applied Physics (JSAP) has become a hit with readers, despite its discussion of highly technical details about the virus and the pandemic, garnering some 10,000 pageviews since its July launch.

Applied physics is the study of technological development using physics theories. When it comes to the coronavirus pandemic, physics is the foundation for the now well-known polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and the electron microscopes that captured the virus's appearance.

Other examples include non-contact thermometers used at event venues and elsewhere that use infrared sensors to measure heat emissions from the body's surface. Thermo-fluid analysis -- in which a space is divided into grids to measure factors such as temperature, air pressure and air flow -- is used to project how droplets are diffused.

The JSAP started the column on its website in early July as a way for people to learn about the background of how these technologies were developed, as well as to provide information about physical laws related to coronavirus measures. The 25 installments published so far have both a condensed version written at a high school science level, and a main version for those who want to dig deeper. The society has formed an editorial committee for the column, and checks every entry for factual errors.

JSAP president Mutsuko Hatano, a professor of quantum sensing at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, noted that Isaac Newton discovered universal gravitation in the 17th century when he was spending time in his hometown after his university in London closed down due to the plague.

"We too wanted to use this time when we're asked to refrain from various types of activities as an opportunity for the future. We hope that our column serves as a motivator for those who aspire to study physics," she commented.

(Japanese original by Ryo Watanabe, Science & Environment News Department)

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Japan science society lures online readers with column on physics applied to virus fight - The Mainichi

When Will Tesla Be Added to the S&P 500? – TheStreet

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By posting a second quarter profitin late July, Tesla(TSLA) -Get Reportbecame eligible for inclusion in the massive S&P 500 index. But weeks have passed and TSLA hasn't been added, leaving one question echoing around Tesla's corner of the internet: when will Tesla be added to the S&P 500?

First, it is important to remember that changes to the index are made by the S&P 500 selection committee, and while there are guidelines like profitability, they are only guidelines and are subject to change at the discretion of the committee.

"Unlike many other S&P Dow Jones Indices and the majority of indices offered by other index providers, there are no rigid or absolute rules for the S&P 500; the Index Committee have some discretion in selecting stocks or responding to market events," said former committee Chairman, David Blitzer, in a 2014 post.

So there is no guarantee Tesla will be added this quarter, or ever for that matter. For example, maybe the index committee would prefer to wait until Tesla is showing consistent profits without reliance on regulatory credit sales.

If we assume the committee does want to add Tesla, looking at historical changes to the index may give us some clues on timing. Here are key dates for each company added since 2017, further explained below:

From the table, we can see that on average, the announcement of inclusion happened 43 days after these companies' last earnings report, and 39 days after their last quarterly or annual filing. However, because the S&P 500 is a large-cap index, most companies are not added due to achieving profitability for the first time. Generally they are added because their market caps have grown sizable enough to warrant their addition.

TSLA's market cap has been large enough to warrant inclusion for a long time, but the company didn't have the profitability. Only two other companies seem to have been included due to achieving profitability in the quarter before their addition to the index, Twitter and ServiceNow. These companies were announced 32 days and 25 days, respectively, after their quarterly filing.

Tesla published their second quarter 10-Q filing on July 28th. Using Twitter and ServiceNow as benchmarks could suggest an inclusion announcement for Tesla around August 25th. Using the average from all companies would suggest sometime around September 4th.

If we use the total dataset, understanding its imperfections, announcements do seem to appear slightly before the midpoint of the quarter, but there is a lot of variance and announcements can happen at any time. The following chart shows the distribution of inclusion announcements from the time of their last filing, separated in to ten day buckets.

More announcements occur in the first 0-60 days than after 60 days, but the distribution from 0-60 days is relatively even.

There has been speculation that the committee may wait until September due to their quarterly rebalancing meeting that month. Historically, this has seemed to play a role in the first half of the year but not so much in the second. Still, September may be a bit more likely for this reason.

Some have questioned if a particular day of the week is more likely for an announcement to occur. Here is a distribution of the announcements by day of the week. No announcements have happened on weekends.

Distribution by day is relatively consistent, with Friday being most likely and Tuesday being least likely. Generally, changes to the index are announced at 5:15 pm Eastern Time on S&P Global's announcement page. On occasion, some changes have been announced later in the day.

For more analysis, including relative performance of stocks added to the index, please see the included video.

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Disclosure: Rob Maurer is long TSLA stock and derivatives.

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When Will Tesla Be Added to the S&P 500? - TheStreet

Johnny Cash’s ’70 Rolls-Royce Converted into a Stealth Tesla – Car and Driver

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John Friedlander/Shift EV

As the man himself said, if you're gonna buy yourself a new car, you just better hope you're lucky enough to get one made on Wednesday. Failing that, perhaps you'll be lucky enough to get one converted to electric power.

Yes, a classic long-wheelbase 1970 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow once owned by Johnny Cash is back on the road with a new, zero-emission spirit, as first reported by Digital Trends. When the Rolls's powertrain reached its end after 130,000 miles, its owner decided to convert the Man in Black's ride (well, one of them, anyway) into an EV using a Tesla Model S as a donor vehicle. The work was done by Shift Electric Vehicles of Albany, Oregon, which has been converting cars to electric power since 2009. The company mostly works on classic cars and hot rods, so this was an ideal pairing for both company and car. Shift EV has worked on other unusual conversions like the record-setting Streamliner, a 1904 Electric Woods Road Wagon, a 1978 Porsche 911, and a helicopter. Yes, a helicopter.

Shift Electric Vehicles

Given Shift EV's history, it should not come as a surprise that the people involved were able to avoid some of the problems that might have bedeviled less-experienced conversion mechanics. For example, on a short project rundown on the company blog, they mention that the donor EV was a 2016 Model S with a 75.0-kWh battery pack. That's key because Shift EV knew the lump in the pack would be easy to modify and fit better in the Rolls, since that part of the pack was not full of batteries. The pack would hang down below the Rolls, but some things couldn't be avoided. And anyway, there would be more than enough ground clearance to make it work.

Shift EV founder Kirk Swaney told Digital Trends that the anonymous Rolls owner asked Tesla if it would do the conversion, but the offer was declined. Shift EV did not respond to Car and Driver's request for more details about the conversion, but they do write on their blog that they will publish more information in the future, "drawing from the thousands of build pictures, some video, and the endless challenges that had to be overcome."

John Friedlander/Shift EV

There were plenty of these difficult choices to make during the restoration, like where to put the big Tesla infotainment screen (answer: the trunk, to keep the Rolls's interior looking as original as possible) and how to get the original steering wheel to work with Tesla's modern controls. We look forward to learning more about them whenever Shift EV is ready to share.

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Johnny Cash's '70 Rolls-Royce Converted into a Stealth Tesla - Car and Driver

Tesla Haters Need New Lines of Attack if They Want to Keep Betting Against the Stock – Barron’s

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Tesla is a stock that carries wildly divergent opinions between bulls and bears. Despite the companys recent successes, hedge fund manager and longtime Tesla bear David Einhorn is still bearish. And he isnt the only one looking for points of attack.

To quantify the divergence, Wall Street analyst price targets for Tesla shares (ticker: TSLA) range from GLJ Research analyst Gordon Johnsons $87 to Piper Sandler analyst Alexander Potters $2,400. The plus-$2,300 bull-bear spread is more than 150% of the current stock price and almost four times as wide as the average bull-bear spread for stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Whats more, only six of 36 analysts rate shares Buy and 15 rate shares Sell. The average Buy-rating ratio for stocks in the Dow is about 55%. The average Sell-rating ratio is about 7%. More than 40% of analysts covering the company rate shares Sell. Thats pretty high.

Einhorn has traded barbs with Tesla CEO Elon Musk over Twitter (TWTR). And in his recent Greenlight Capital investor letter, he says that Tesla vehicles have had reports of unintended acceleration.

The reports arent new and must be balanced by reports that Teslas autopilot software has recorded one accident per 4.5 million miles driven. The U.S. average is one accident per roughly 500,000 miles. Also, the Tesla Model 3 earns a 5-star safety rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and is classified as a 2020 top safety pick.

Tesla wasnt immediately available to comment about any of the recent safety reports.

In addition to Einhorn, David Trainer, CEO of New Constructs, an investment research firm, said in a Wednesday report that Tesla is the most dangerous stock of 2020. Trainer thinks the shares could hit $250 to $300 as traditional auto makers introduce more electric vehicles.

The threat of new competition also isnt new and, indeed, most auto makers have EV models planned. It isnt certain, however, that more EVs will be bad for Tesla. Electric cars represent roughly 2% of global sales. That has to be closer to 50% in about a decade for Tesla stock to keep gaining. No one on Wall Street assumes Tesla will represent a majority of EV sales far into the future. The industry transition to electric powertrains can be a good thing for all EV makers.

Einhorn and Trainer arent the traditional Wall Street analysts that publish research on Tesla stock. Neither is Gary Black, a former Wall Street analyst and fund manager, who posted the Greenlight letter in a tweet. (Greenlights second-quarter letter is available to review through multiple outlets.) He is a Tesla bull and thinks shares can finish the year north of $1,800. Black is banking on the stock being added to the S&P 500 index, and positive reaction to Teslas September battery technology day, to be catalysts for the stock in coming months.

Tesla qualified for S&P 500 inclusion after reporting another GAAP profit in its most recent quarter. GAAP is short for generally accepted accounting principles.

Whatever happens, Tesla will continue to be a much-debated stock. Stocks with eye popping gains tend to be that way. Tesla stock is up roughly 250% year to date and 550% over the past year, far in excess of comparable returns of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average over the same spans.

Tesla stock is off 0.1% to $1,483.47 in Thursday trading.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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Tesla Haters Need New Lines of Attack if They Want to Keep Betting Against the Stock - Barron's

Does This Guy Really Gas Up His Tesla Model S To Extend Its Range? – InsideEVs

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What do you do when your Tesla Model S fully depletes its battery and you need to extend its range? You ask for some gas, right? That's the strange thing you'll see here, but there's a twist.

Right away we know that's there's something fishy about this video. Why? Well, the license plate on the Tesla appears to be the same as the one we saw in a recent Tesla gas station prank video. That caught our attention, but we still decided to watch the video.

In the video, you'll see a Tesla stopped on the side of the road. A car pulls up behind it and the driver of the Tesla asks the occupants of the other car for some gas. The occupants of that car seem a bit confused, as they're mostly aware that Tesla's are electric and don't use gas.

Regardless, the Tesla driver insists he need some gas and the friendly guy in the other car obliges and pulls a gas can out of his trunk (seems convenient to have one on hand, right?). The gas can appears empty though, or at least it's quite spillproof and very light.

The Tesla driver tanks the gas tanks and proceeds towards his car. He pops the charge port open, but that's not where he's gonna put the gas. Instead, he opens the trunk and within lies a fancy Honda generator. He apparently needs the gas for this so that he can use the generator to charge up his Tesla so that he can make it to the nearest gas (whoops - charging) station.

Yes, it's all a joke, but well played with the generator that we honestly didn't see coming. We figure the Tesla driver would attempt to pour the gas into some orifice on the Tesla, but nope, it's for the generator.

We've grown accustomed to these videos where someone is trying to gas up a Tesla. To the best of our knowledge, everyone to date has been setup, staged or faked. We're not aware of one single such incident in which the driver of the Tesla truly thought the vehicle ran on gas. So yes, these are done for the humor and to perhaps try to convince some that the act of gassing up a Tesla is indeed something that some Tesla drivers try to do.

But you won't believe what has been done with gas before and this one, to the best of our knowledge, is not a fake.

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Inside the industry: How selling emissions credits helps Tesla grow – Autocar

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Hidden in whatyou might call the small print, were it not such a large number, of Teslas recent Q2 financial report were the latest figures highlighting its income from selling emissions credits to rival car makers: $428 million, or 7% of the companys revenue.

The moral standpoint of these credits is hotly debated. They work in a variety of ways, such as car makers with emissions below the mandated target selling them to car makers above the target, or car makers with zero-emissions capability selling them to car makers without it, allowing them to then sell cars in various US states, including California.

These credits have played a crucial role in Teslas against-all-odds growth. Its net profit for the Covid-19-afflicted quarter running from March to June was $104m, and without the credits, it would not have recorded accounting profitability across the past 12 months, a milestone that unlocks a variety of potential benefits for the firm, not least increased standing in the all-important investor circles, where even the most conservative of commentators can now justify getting a bit giddy. An operating margin of 5% okay in car industry terms would be a perilous 1% without them.

The estimate is that Tesla will earn more than $1 billion from these credits in 2020 alone, and while senior executives concede that they are staring down the barrel of a decreasing income stream as rivals get their acts together and launch some BEVs of their own, the rate at which Tesla is earning has so far kept accelerating. Its a lucrative if unpredictable income stream currently enjoying exponential growth: in 2018 Tesla earned $419m from them and in 2019 $593m.

Who is buying the credits, and what they are paying, is hidden mostly in opaque accounting. Of everyone, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is the most open because of its ownership structure, so it is on record that FCA has a deal to buy $1.1bn of credits through to 2023. Court filings last year revealed that GM, which has its own EV capability with the Bolt, is also a customer.

However, one CEO, well known for being brilliantly connected and with recent experience of mainstream premium brands, recently told Autocar that almost every car maker is buying credits in some form, but we dont have to declare it.

None of this is Teslas fault, of course. Indeed, a fair mind can only give credit where it is due. But when its cheaper to pay a competitor than build cars to meet regulations, you have to wonder if the system itself is fit for purpose.

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Inside the industry: Will a radical shake-up save Ford?

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Inside the industry: How selling emissions credits helps Tesla grow - Autocar

GMs Cadillac Is Coming for Tesla. The Lyriq Is on the Way, – Barron’s

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The 111-year-old General Motors is serious about a future with all electric vehicles, and about making sure Tesla, the husky teenager on the automotive block, doesnt shove it into the shadows. GM launched its electric Lyric Cadillac SUV Thursday evening.

It feels a little odd to say General Motors (ticker: GM)a firm selling millions of cars generating hundreds of billions in salesis coming for Tesla (TSLA)a company selling hundreds of thousands of cars generating tens of billions in sales. But thats automotive reality these days.

Tesla, including stock-market value and debt, is valued at roughly six-times more than GM. The traditional industry is chasing the EV upstart. Volkswagen (VOW. Germany) management suggested recently that Teslaor, perhaps, Volkswagencould become the largest company in the world in the coming decade as autonomous driving, software, and electrification come to define the driving experience.

GM would like to be included in that conversation. The Lyriq will be available in late 2022 and boasts fast charging and a range of 300 miles per charge. Lyriq will start at about $70,000.

Led by Lyriq, Cadillac will redefine American luxury over the next decade with a new portfolio of transformative EVs, said GM North America President Steve Carlisle in the companys news release. We will deliver experiences that engage the senses, anticipate desires and enable our customers to go on extraordinary journeys.

Its an attractive vehicle. The comparable Tesla Model X gets 300 to 350 miles per charge, depending on battery configuration. A Model X starts at about $80,000; sales started in 2015. .

GM also boasted the ability to deliver truly hands-free driver assistance. That is presumably similar to Teslas autopilot, which comes as an upgrade on all Tesla vehicles.

Investors have to decide how not only which vehicle is better, but how fast electric vehicles will penetrate the overall car market. More EVs are coming from myriad auto makers. And traditional car companies, such as GM, have to manage converting legacy gasoline-based sales to battery-powered vehicles. Tesla, of course, only makes electric vehicles.

The market, at this point, is betting Tesla will be a long-term winner in the EV wars. Tesla stock is up 256% year to date, far better than comparable returns of the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average as well as its automotive peers. GM stock is down about 27% year to date. Volkswagen shares have fallen about 17%.

Recent gains have made Tesla the worlds most valuable car company.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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Shares of electric vehicle makers Nio and Nikola could be a better bet than Tesla, traders say – CNBC

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Two electric vehicle stocks are catching up to Tesla. Nio and Nikola shares have been speeding higher.

Both have kept up to Tesla's more than 200% rally in 2020. Nikola surged another 22% on Monday after catching a buy rating from Deutsche Bank heading into its earnings after the bell Tuesday. Nio gained 14% on Monday after reporting a 322% increase in July deliveries.

Boris Schlossberg, managing director of FX strategy at BK Asset Management, said the electric vehicle group remains too speculative to make a solid bet. Still, he does see one name emerging as a true rival to Tesla's dominance.

"Nikola is the first real interesting competitor to Tesla, because it's providing the first true value proposition with a 600-mile range and the ability to essentially create a power plant out of its truck for a lot of the construction industry. So to me, the big question is if Nikola can deliver even 70% of what it promises, I think it becomes an interesting viable competitor," Schlossberg said Monday on CNBC's "Trading Nation."

Deutsche Bank said it is looking to hear what the company says in its earnings conference call about how many customers it has attracted for its pickup truck. The firm gave a short-term catalyst buy call on the stock, though kept a long-term hold rating.

Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, sees better opportunity in Chinese EV maker Nio.

"The stock has consolidated since peaking in July and I think this consolidation, it's allowing previously overbought conditions to recede," he said in the same "Trading Nation" segment. "It's allowing the moving averages to catch up to the price and I think what you're going to see is a resumption of the uptrend."

Nio has raced from a low of $2.11 in March to a high above $16 in mid-July. Since that peak, it has fallen back below $14.

"In terms of trading levels, $10.46 cents is an important support level. That was the stock's July low. As long as the stock is above there, our assumption is that this is going to make a new high above that July peak," said Wald.

Nikola closed Monday's trading session at $36.49 a share. By contrast, Tesla closed at $1,485.

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Shares of electric vehicle makers Nio and Nikola could be a better bet than Tesla, traders say - CNBC

Anand Mahindra is impressed by this Honda powered Tesla – Livemint

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The concept of 'jugaad' is not only limited amongst Indian masses. Anand Mahindra was left surprised when he came across a video of a Tesla owner using a Honda gasoline generator to charge his all-electric car. Anand Mahindra, chairman of the Mahindra Group, posted the video which has gone viral on social media wherein a Honda generator is being used to charge his Tesla car.

Mahindra shared the video and wrote, "And we thought jugaad was purely an Indian talent! Hilarious. A Honda-powered Tesla..."

The viral video shows a man using his innovative trick for charging his electric car through a gasoline-powered generator. The car owner explained the entire process of the charging innovation. The viral video also led to a war of arguments where people raised ethical questions about this 'jugaad.'

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The perfect all-electric Ford Mustang is actually a souped-up Tesla – The Next Web

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When American carmaker Ford announced that it was breathing new life into the Mustang name and resurrecting it in the form of an electric vehicle people were a bit miffed. Electric and Mustang they scoffed, those two words just dont go together!

Im not even going to touch the whole whats a Mustang badge doing on a crossover SUV conversation.

Bringing back iconic names is a bit on trend at the moment, Ford isnt alone in reviving a defunct name and reinventing it with more environmentally sound drivetrains. GMC is also bringing the Hummer name out of retirement and slapping it on the grille of an all-electric pickup truck.

[Read: Tesla launches car wrapping service because its colors are boring AF]

The thing with the Ford, though, is that the Mustang Mach-E bears virtually nothing in common with its spiritual grandparent. It just has a charging stallion on the front, and thats about it. If youre one of those cars looked better in the 60s people, then I might have the answer.

A boutique electric car startup from Russia, called Aviar, is working on a Mustang-styled concept thats built atop a Tesla Model S platform.

Called the R67, the modern take on the classic American muscle car has all the features youd expect. Its got a wide rear-end, its ridiculously fast in a straight line, and it makes no apologies about that fact.

According to Aviar, the R67 will do zero to 100 kph in 2.2 seconds, which will make any classic Mustang look like a shopping cart in comparison. Its also going to have a 100 kWh battery thats good for over 500 km of range. So youll be able to burn rubber, with a slightly cleaner conscience than if it were powered by a big block V8. (But please dont burn rubber, thats bad too.)

Note that this isnt some kind of restomod like the Jaguar XK120 I wrote about a few months back. Its an entirely new body built atop a Tesla Model S platform. It uses all of the Teslas drivetrain components, and most of the interior by the looks of things. The R67 spec list reads exactly like a Model S, so think of this as a Tesla thats actually interesting to look at and has character.

Im sure itd be enough to convince even the most hardcore of classic Mustang fans to give electricity a try. If not, Fords also showed off whats possible with electric drivetrains with an experimental race-edition Mustang that has seven motors!

Perhaps the best bit of all this, though, is that the car will be certified for use at Tesla Supercharger stations. Just imagine the heads youd turn arriving in the R67, and plugging in among the lineup of derivative T mobiles.

Theres no word on pricing yet, but I wouldnt expect this to come cheap.

The electrified Jaguar X120 which is part restoration and part modification, starts at around $200,000. Given that Aviar needs to acquire a Model S to build the R67, and those cost north of $82,000, I wouldnt be surprised if the Aviar R67 ended up selling for more than $300,000.

But hey, true style comes with a price tag.

This article is brought to you by Polestar. Its time to accelerate theshiftto sustainablemobility. That is why Polestar combines electric driving with cutting-edge design and thrilling performance. Find out how.

Published August 7, 2020 14:16 UTC

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Tesla Gets Crushed in Germany by EVs from Volkswagen, Renault, and Hyundai Group: It Woke Up the Giants – WOLF STREET

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Teslas share of the EV market plunged to 8.7% year-to-date, from 18.4% last year. Competition is now huge and across the spectrum. Tesla faces the same situation globally.ByWolf RichterforWOLF STREET.

It has been a very ugly year in Germany for auto sales, except for EVs. The overall new vehicle market in Germany has plunged by 30% in the first seven months of 2019 to 1.526 million units. But EV sales have skyrocket by 65% over the first seven months, after having already skyrocketed by 88% in the same period in 2019, according to KBA, the German agency that handles nationwide new-vehicle registrations. Year-to-date, 61,105 EVs were sold, giving EVs a share of 4% of total new vehicle sales, up from less than 1% in 2018.

But Tesla got crushed. Its sales over the seven-month period fell from 6,816 in 2019 through July to 5,306 over the same period this year, and its share in the EV market plunged from 18.4% to 8.7%.

There are now three automakers that blew past it in Germany Volkswagen Group, Renault, and Hyundai Group while Daimler Group came in even with Tesla, and BMW group wasnt far behind. This chart shows market share of each automaker, with all their EV brands and models combined:

By Automaker: The table shows registrations by automaker, each with all their EV makes and models combined, in July and year-to-date through July, in order of their share of the total EV market (right column).

By major brand: The table below splits out the major brands of each automaker that offer EVs. So, Volkswagen Group has five brands with EVs on this list: VW, Audi, Skoda, Porsche, and Seat. BMW Group has two brands on the list: BMW and Mini. Daimler Group also has two brands on it, Mercedes and Smart, as has Hyundai Group, Hyundai and Kia. In this lineup, Tesla is in third place, behind the brands VW and Renault. There are still a bunch of major brands that do not offer EVs in Germany, including Toyota, and those are not on the list:

Tesla is now in the process of building an assembly plant in Germany. But by the time it is up and running, more of the other major automakers that currently dont offer EVs in Germany will offer them. And the giants with their numerous brands are gearing up to offer a whole spectrum of vehicles, across all categories and price classes.

To Teslas credit, it shook up the German automotive industry that for years had pooh-poohed EVs in favor of internal combustion engines, particularly diesels. Volkswagen Group was so focused on diesels that it couldnt even see EVs.

But the fallout from the diesel-emissions-fraud scandal, which continues to fester in the German court system, has changed that. Consumers are turning away from diesels. And for automakers, EVs are the only major segment that is red hot, even during the pandemic. Its where growth is. What Tesla accomplished was that it woke up the giants. And now theyre going after this market with all their might.

Tesla is facing the same situation globally: The giants have woken up and many of them are now offering or will soon be offering models across the spectrum, and Tesla has to get down in the trenches with them and compete on price, service, quality, reliability, and all the other mundane factors that regular consumers not true believers demand. And its going to get very tough.

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Tesla Gets Crushed in Germany by EVs from Volkswagen, Renault, and Hyundai Group: It Woke Up the Giants - WOLF STREET

Aviar R67 Is Russia’s Tesla-Based Ford Mustang With 840 HP – autoevolution

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Blending features and styling from two very American icons, the Ford Mustang and Tesla, Aviar R67 aims to be the worlds first electrified muscle car. It uses the platform from Tesla Model S and design language from the unmistakable 60s Ford Mustang, to create a powerful machine that is as impressive in looks as it is in performance. On paper, for the time being.

I like the 60s, Aleksey Rachev, founder of Aviar Motors, says. By charisma and style, they have no equal. Their powerful and aggressive silhouette is really recognizable, and the appearance on the road always attracts admiring glances. [] We tried to catch the spirit of the legendary cars of the 60s and rethink it in a modern way.

This means taking the unmistakable design of the Mustangs of that time and packing it with tech from Tesla, to create the ultimate dream machine for todays generation. While there is little chance to mistake the exterior for anything else but a Stang, despite the Aviar logo on the grille, Tesla elements have seeped in on the inside most notably the large, central infotainment screen.

Its a tasteful blend of the two, at least from the available renders. But R67 promises to be even more impressive as regards performance.

With 840 electrified hp from two electric motors, R67 boasts a top speed of 250 kph (155 mp) and 0 to 100 kph acceleration (0 to 62 mph) in just 2.2 seconds. The 100 kWh battery is good for 507 km (315 miles) on a single charge, Aviar Motors says. R67 will be compatible with Tesla Superchargers.

I will not say we have made the best car in the world, but still as a tool for making a special mood, there is none even likely to it. None at all, Rachev says without false modesty.

Aviar Motors is currently working on a prototype of the R67, so there are concrete plans to bring it to market. As for the price tag it might come with, no word yet. But you can imagine it wont come cheap.

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Aviar R67 Is Russia's Tesla-Based Ford Mustang With 840 HP - autoevolution

Tesla Battery Supplier LG Chem Expects Revenue To More Than Double At $25.3B In 5 Years – Yahoo Finance

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LG Chem Ltd (OTC: LGCLF) expects its business to double in size by 2025, driven by ever-increasing penetration of the electric vehicle industry, CEO Hak Cheol Shin said in an interview with Bloomberg Thursday.

What Happened

The South Korean companys revenue is expected to reach $11 billion this year,and could shoot up to $25.3 billion by 2025, according to Shin.

The global electric vehicle industry itself is growing fast, but the penetration rate is about 3% now, the CEO said. The rate will be about 10% in 2025.

Shin added that the company is in a position to deliver all orders from customers despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why It Matters

LG Chem emerged as the largest battery supplier in the first half of 2020 with its sales growth soaring 83% to 10.5 gigawatt-hours, according to SNE Research.

The battery firm benefitted from the growing popularity of Tesla Inc.'s(NASDAQ: TSLA) Model 3 vehicles in China as well as firm European demand for EVs.

European governments are using virus recovery funds to boost EV sales,which is helping the Korean firm, along with increase in sales of new models from the continent's automakers like Volkswagen AG (OTC: VLKAF), SNE Research noted, as per Bloomberg.

Yuanta Securities Korea Co. analyst Hwang Kyu-Won pointed out that that the scale of orders from Tesla will be an important factor for LG Chem's growth going forward, but that the battery maker has "diversified customers" and can benefit from growth of other EV companies as well.

LG Chem is helping Tesla grow its battery production capacity in South Korea.

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2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Tesla touchscreen wiper controls akin to texting and driving: German court – Business Insider – Business Insider

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A 2017 wreck is still causing headaches for Tesla.

A German judge ruled earlier this year that the touchscreen controls for Tesla's windshield wipers usually automatic, but manual speed controls can be used constitute an illegal mobile device, according to the BBC.

Newfound interest in the case spiked because of a local legal blog's recent reporting on the accident, which was spotted by US media this week. The judgment from March sets a precedent for further Tesla cases and backs up the driver's original punishment, a fine and license suspension, which is the same as using a phone while driving.

Jalopnik's Jason Torchinsky puts it a little more bluntly: "You should not have to look at a damn center-mounted touchscreen button to change your wiper speed."

German courts have had it out for Tesla this year.

In July, a judge sided with a German trade organization when it ruled that Tesla's Autopilot ads were misleading about the driver-assistance software's capabilities.

The software has been blamed in a handful of wrecks where inattentive drivers lost control of their vehicles. Tesla maintains the quick reactions and automatic braking improves traffic safety.

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Tesla touchscreen wiper controls akin to texting and driving: German court - Business Insider - Business Insider

Is Tesla’s Obsession With Manufacturing Really Starting To Pay Off? – InsideEVs

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This article comes to us courtesy ofEVANNEX, which makes and sells aftermarket Tesla accessories. The opinions expressed therein are not necessarily our own at InsideEVs, nor have we been paid byEVANNEXto publish these articles. We find the company's perspective as an aftermarket supplier of Tesla accessories interesting and are willing to share its content free of charge. Enjoy!

Posted onEVANNEX on August 07, 2020byCharles Morris

The most critical part is manufacturing the carswhat Tesla calls the machine that makes the machine. As they teach us in Business 101, the secret of Henry Fords success wasnt so much the Model T itself as the assembly line he developed to build the Model T.

For Big Auto, manufacturing is something theyve been doing for a century or so, and its not something they talk about much. True, concepts such asthe Toyota Way andkaisenare taught in advanced biz classes, but theyre nowadays considered pretty mature technologies.

When Eberhard and Tarpenning set out to build an electric vehicle back in 2003, they knew they could never duplicate the Toyota Way, and they didnt bother to trythey subbed out almost every component of the Roadster, and contracted with Lotus to do the manufacturing.

With Model S however, Tesla set out to do its own manufacturingand it wasnt easy. As Matthew DeBord notes in a recentBusiness Insiderarticle, the company has struggled through Production Hell, from the fit-and-finish issues with Model S to the flaky Falcon Wing doors on Model X to theoverzealous automationon the early Model 3 assembly line, which necessitated the infamous tent in the parking lot.

DeBord was one of many in the media whoinitially ridiculedthat tent (its actually a sprung aluminum structure, and its still in service). Now, however, he understands that it was an innovative solution to a pressing problem, and helped Tesla deliver around 250,000 vehicles in 2019. That hastily improvised solution was not the first in Teslas history, and it probably wont be the last. The companys startup mentality includes a willingness to try unorthodox ways of getting things done in order to get its products to market quickly. Thats one of the reasons its been able to leapfrog the legacy automakers, despite their vastly greater resources and expertise (it also generatessome cracking good stories).

YouTube:Jason Yang

Over the years, manufacturing has gradually moved to center stage at Tesla, so much so that Elon Musk recently described it as nothing less than an obsession. We bring a massive amount of effort into manufacturing engineering, the machine that makes the machine, he said on Teslas most recent earnings call. We love manufacturing...Its awesome. And I really think more smart people should be working on manufacturing.

The relentless focus is now starting to pay off in a big way. By all accounts, Teslas quality control has improved exponentially, and were seeing nowhere near the number of complaints about panel gaps and paint defects that we did a couple of years ago. When manufacturing engineering expert Sandy Munro tore down a Model Y, he foundhuge improvements in the build quality. The body build is 1,000% better, said Sandy, who famously made some scathing comments about Model 3s body construction. There are still issues, but theyre minor in comparison to what I have seen in the past.

The constant improvements to Teslas production process translate not only into better quality, but reduced costs. Munro has predicted that the upcoming Cybertrucks simple body design and lack of paint should make itvastly cheaper to buildthan a traditional truck.

As Teslas production gradually expands from its Fremont factory, which it inherited from Toyota, to purpose-built facilities where it can build production lines from the ground up, incorporating the latest and greatest production learnings, the quality and cost improvements are bound to accelerate. DeBord notes that this should enable Tesla to reduce the cost of its vehicles, while continuing to report consistent profits. That means more market share and a bigger lead over much larger automakers that, when it comes to the electric future, find themselves in serious catch-up mode, he writes.

DeBord estimates that each of the new Gigafactories could build 250,000 vehicles a year, bringing Teslas total production to over a million units per year. The alien dreadnoughts are multiplyingand theyre coming for the legacy automakers.

===

Written by:Charles Morris; Source:Business Insider

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Is Tesla's Obsession With Manufacturing Really Starting To Pay Off? - InsideEVs