People complaining about Elon's charisma are missing a lot of Tesla's history and brand. It has a very significant customer base that almost consider themselves part of the company (e.g. throwing parties for employees at a Tesla store). Part of the reason is because Elon Musk treats these events not as a marketing presentation but basically like someone showing off their latest creation to their family (a lot of customers are invited to the events).<p>Also, Tesla is seeing awesome success right now, but there was a time (pre Model S) when Elon Musk was basically begging customers to trust him and keep their preorders because they were close to going bankrupt (eventually a govt loan combined with the faith those customers placed in Elon Musk is what saved them). He had enough charisma to convince a significant chunk of people to give him a significant amount of money when it was looking like the company would not even be there a few months from then. Tesla's brand is that they genuinely care for their customers (and I have not seen any reason to disbelieve that so far), and Elon Musk's presentations while not spiffy help reinforce that.
Caught the tail end of the event. Elon definitely comes across as genuine and a real person. That said, a little practice in the stage presence / showmanship department could certainly help things flow smoother and amp up the excitement a bit; something this brand and its cars deserve!
He's claiming 6% possibility of injury during high speed collision. Imagine any other CEO saying something similar for their product - Elon is the man!<p>Any other suit would say "Five star" over and over.
The doors opening in that narrow space; crowd went insane.<p>Livestream link: <a href="http://livestream.com/accounts/4186560/events/4387735/player" rel="nofollow">http://livestream.com/accounts/4186560/events/4387735/player</a>
The Model 3 will be my first car, unless my circumstances necessitate that I have one sooner. The stuff that Tesla is doing is just so bonkers cool. Not only that though, I'm sure it's going to be safe, reliable and fast.
Been waiting 45 minutes now. Some updates are available on<p><a href="http://fortune.com/2015/09/29/live-tesla-model-x-event/" rel="nofollow">http://fortune.com/2015/09/29/live-tesla-model-x-event/</a>
I admire Tesla as a company, but I can't help but wonder why they still have Elon Musk do the entire presentation himself. Sure, he's their superstar, but he comes off as a very underprepared public speaker. I wish they had him do an introduction, and then have a spokesperson do the bulk of the talking. Instead, he's showing off these new and amazing products with nearly no charisma and enthusiasm.
The car looks absolutely beautiful. Sadly, as much as I want to go electric, I have no use for it, at $140K for an SUV I expect a lot more than this.<p>I think the falcon doors solve a non-existing problem while parking. I can't remember the last time this was an issue, with or without kids, with or without cargo or bags on the back seat of either an SUV or a minivan.<p>The same is true of the third row seat. We've had both SUV's and minivans with third rows. Never an issue, even for adults.<p>The falcon wings are very cool from a technological perspective but a complete non-starter for me. Bikes, surfboards and other stuff need to go on a roof rack. I can't see any way to transport our Maas rowing shells on this thing. They are 24 feet long and have to go on the roof. I've even brought home 2x4's and sheets of plywood from Home Depot on top of SUV's and minivans.<p>Can you open the falcon wing doors by hand if you have no power? I'd be surprised if this was not possible.<p>Towing is another aspect of this car that is likely to disappoint outside of a stage. If anyone expects to be able to do 250 miles while towing a 5,000 lbs trailer on anything other than an absolutely flat road with a 60 mile per hour tail winds they are going to be disappointed. As drag increases so will current draw and electrical losses, which will be constant and very significant. Weight is more of a factor on non-flat roads, which is nearly 100% of them anywhere I've been. I'd be surprised if the actual range while towing is much more than half the rated non-towing range.<p>What's good?<p>Crash performance is fantastic!<p>HEPA filter: Unreal. Nice.<p>It looks amazing.<p>It's electric!<p>I sincerely think Tesla should have come up with a new acronym for Model X: LUV - Luxury Utility Vehicle. That, no doubt, it is.
I found a Periscope stream on Twitter, keeping an eye on that to know when the event starts.<p>Hitting play on the live stream logs a 403 forbidden from Akamai on the official stream, I'm not confident it'll work when there's actually some content.
I'm on the market for a car in Bay area and was considering Tesla until met with somewhat uninspiring people at Tesla dealership delivering conversation in kind of "Yes. No. Thank you" manner leaving me with impression that they were busy with something more interesting than my presence and hoping i won't keep asking these stupid questions about tesla cars.<p>Were i suppose to make an appointment to avoid being an intrusion factor? Not sure how it works there.<p>Their self-guided, touch screen TV was way more entertaining but not enough to convince me to become customer though.
He seemed to get a bit technical when talking about filters. I wish he had been more clear and described exactly what the use of filters were to normal people. In that when you're in the vehicle, you'll be breathing in less toxins emitted by other vehicles etc.