🍪 Tesla's secret team

Happy Thursday, friends. This is Bite Sized Beta, the tech newsletter you look forward to seeing every week. We're like your favorite cousin you can't wait to see at family parties.

Let’s get to the good stuff.

In the oven this week:

• 🚗 Tesla’s stealth operation

• 🗳️ Poll of the week: How’s your range?

• 🍪 Cookie crumbs: 6 bite-sized headlines

• 💬 Tweet of the week: looking dumb pays off

• 🍫 Chocolate chips: 3 of our favorite finds

• 😂 Snickerdoodles: Thursday memes 

FRESHLY BAKED

TESLA’S STEALTH OPERATION

Is it breezy outside? Cause Tesla’s sure lookin’ shady these days.

A few months back, they were caught covering up thousands of customer complaints about their autopilot malfunctioning and causing crashes.

But it looks like they never learned their lesson, because now they’ve got another cover up blowing up.

You know the ol’ Alby Einstein saying, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?”

Well, Tesla’s Exhibit A.

Here’s what happened.

Over the summer, Tesla created a secret team of employees called the "Diversion Team."

Not gonna lie, it sounded kinda cool... Ocean’s 11 anyone??

No? Just us?

They were even based out of Vegas.

Their mission?

Cancel as many range-related service appointments as possible.

SKRRRRT.

Back up. Why?

Apparently, tons of Tesla customers have been complaining about how their cars aren't actually getting the advertised amount of range shown.

It turns out, Tesla has been rigging their range-estimating software to display a "rosy" mileage projection on the car dashboard for the distance it could travel on a full battery.

You know, like how 5’10” turns into a rosy 6’ at the club.

Same same, but different.

Apparently, Tesla’s range is actually 20-50% lower than what’s advertised, depending on the model.

In comes the Diversion Team.

They hit ya with two texts.

First: “remote diagnostics” has determined your battery is fine, and then: “We would like to cancel your visit.”

They’re canceling hundreds of cases a week, which saves Tesla $1K for every canceled appointment.

It looks like this is a broader issue, since EVs fall 12.5% short of their advertised ranges on average.

But being 20-50% off is a huge gap.

We’ll be waitin’ for regulators to get a good whiff of this one…

POLL OF THE WEEK

HOW’S YOUR RANGE?

We know we got a lotta EV peeps out here reading this, so we gotta know - how’s the actual range on your car compared to what’s advertised?

COOKIE CRUMBS

BITE SIZED HEADLINES

FROM THE COOKIE JAR

TWEET OF THE WEEK

Looking dumb pays off.

Another version of this: “We spend the first 18 years of our life in school just trying to fit in with the other kids. Then the next 18 years trying desperately to stand out as adults.”

CHOCOLATE CHIPS

OUR FAVORITE FINDS

• 78 charts that explain the US economy. Apparently California has 70% of the top 50 AI startups, and now US life expectancy is only 76 years?!

• Random but cool: how silent props are made for movies and TV shows

• If you know Keith Rabois, you know he can be kinda polarizing.. kinda like pineapple on pizza. But if there's one thing people can agree on, it's that the guy is pretty smart. Someone created a repository of everything he’s said, like how to manage your time, learnings from startups/VC, and how to achieve success in life. It’s a banger.

SNICKERDOODLES

THURSDAY MEMES

 😂 

Review of the week

We love hearing from ya! Comment in the poll below and let us know what you really think. We’ll feature ‘em in the next one!

What'd you think about this email?

• 🍪🍪🍪 Top notch!

• 🍪🍪 Meh... could use more milk

• 🍪 Undercooked, do better