Another Year, post dumpster fire

2021, What a Year

Last year, about this time, I posted a 2020 “year in review” – my Dumpster Fire post. This year, things are only slightly better, but as you can tell by taking the temperature of the nation, not all is well. After all we started out the year with an insurrection that a lot of the country is saying now was nothing more than some tourists at the capital. Certainly the economic numbers are better, thanks to the injection of cash directly to taxpayers (due to the crushing issue of the pandemic). This will almost assuredly increase the rhetoric about inflation, but isn’t that to be expected with the pandemic and the following cash inflows to keep people afloat? Once in a century, we should be allowed to have some inflation. However, the question will always be how much can we stand. It’s a non-zero number, in spite of what some republican members of congress will say.

But let’s go by some of my favorite talking points:

Tesla had, by June 10, 2020, reached a stratospheric price of $1,019 per share and a market cap of $188.2 billion – and of course since then there was a 5:1 stock split, which doesn’t affect the market cap, but does make the stock more affordable for the individual investor. Well, we’re back, meaning at least 5x since then since the price at year end is $1,070 hovering around 1100 this past week. The actual peak, which reached approx $1,230 in early November, suffered some setbacks, probably mostly because Elon Musk was selling shares and exercising options, both of which are taxable events for him. Ultimately the last quarter revealed stellar results with record deliveries at the car part of the company. This made his remaining shares even higher in price and thus his net worth.I’m struck by this latter point, since a lot of the “news” talking points and especially tweets from ultra liberal democrats hoping for a “tax the rich” change in tax policy think he doesn’t pay any taxes. Obviously, he will this year (he takes no salary, but will have to pay capital gains on these sales). It might be a record for what one person has to pay in taxes, literally Billions of $$dollars$$. But that truth will not get people to donate to campaigns. You see, it’s not just the Republicans that lie, surely Sen. Elizabeth Warren is aware of how much taxes he is going to pay, WITHOUT a “tax the rich” change in tax policy. So Democrats, they lie, too. She ran a bunch of Facebook ads saying it wasn’t fair for him to pay no tax and would you please, just to get that $10 donation to me so I can make it happen?
Schools – my god; what is wrong with people. I have sisters that are teachers, and it’s very bad with the “freedom” issue, of mask wearing. I’m sure you’ve seen the “school board meeting” skirmishes. Science on the matter would seem to be settled, but if we were to settle for science, we’d be out of this mess, wouldn’t we? All for politics, that we as a country are willing to let people die, families in grief, not to mention shoving disinformation up their ass so far, that they will punch a doctor because their favorite horse medication wasn’t given to their loved one, never mind that it won’t actually work. Again, facts and beliefs – totally reversed.
The vaccines came online this year and many of us got “the jab”, but in a nutshell, If you’re able to stay home, do so. If you need to be out, please take precautions to keep you and those around you safe. I personally know some immunocompromised (weakened immune system) people and wow – what if we all got the vaccine to protect them? Allow them to lead a normal life? Even if the Omicron variant isn’t as bad (if you’re vaccinated) you can still carry it to those that cannot take the vaccine, legitimately. You are wearing the mask to protect those around you. Not the other way around.Obviously, many more people died this year. At this stage those most at risk are those that are knowingly avoiding the vaccine, mostly because of disinformation. Sure there are those with legitimate religious or medical reasons, but frankly those are few and far between. Do you know someone with a fake vaccine card? I have utter disgust at the fact that certain opportunists decided to make vaccination a political issue with the misinformation, make it a political fund raising tool. Unvaccinated deaths account for almost all of the deaths at this point. So many families of the unvaccinated are begging for the vaccine, but it’s too late by the time you have to go to hospital, go on the vent, and perhaps never go home.So much anguish over this, they’ve been told lies and have done or are doing their “research” when they could just do themselves a big favor and talk to their doctor, jeez. There is one lady I read about that says she bleeds rectally when she simply stands next to a vaccinated person. Crazy, misinformed, or perhaps has rectal cancer, she should be seeing her doctor, but won’t because she doesn’t want to hear the truth if it goes against her worldview. There are those that say they don’t want to get the vaccine because it causes you to die if you get infected with Covid, which is the opposite of the truth. Where are these people getting their information? From Joe Rogan and people like him.I mean, really – do you need to research the physics of how an aircraft flies through the air in order to take a trip on an airplane? Do you research the training of the flight crew? Maybe you should individually ask them to submit to a breathalizer? Or do you just rely on scientists and some government agency to mostly get it right and keep you safe in that airplane? Does that doctor with a decade of training vs. what you can read in a week or a month – you really think you can do better? Claiming that vaccines don’t work because you can still contract Covid despite being fully vaccinated, that’s not the purpose of the vaccine. It’s like getting hit by another car while driving…but had your seat belt on and perhaps not badly injured. You were smart. You saved your own and perhaps others’ lives. It’s why you put passwords on your email and websites you visit. Or use an umbrella in the rain. It’s not 100%, but it’s better if you do.
Seriously, shut the fuck up, get the shot, help mankind. Be on the right side of history.
We had more forest fires this year, so did most of the rest of the west coast and even into Canada, even on the eastern side of the divide. Now there are fires on the high plateau in Colorado. I have family in Minnesota that was being smoked out by a fire in central Canada. I don’t know what else to say, other than the climate change, we’ve ignored it so long, it’s not to be ignored any longer. It’s one of the reasons I have solar and batteries and drive an electric car, charging it from the sun. It’s my part.Then this last week of the year, lots of rain (snow in the mountains). A skier had been missing since Christmas. He’s probably dead, but the search continued (he was later found some hundreds of yards from a residential area that he apparently was trying to get to when he succumbed). Food and gas in Lake Tahoe, for example, were in very short supply. Come spring, there will be mudslides, we can count on it.There was the inevitable traffic jam for 48 hrs in Virginia and Tahoe and a “PREDICTION” (Wall Street Journal, no less) that in such a situation, EV owners would freeze. This honestly just begged to be fact checked. First, there were no reports of EV owners being stranded and then 2nd, one Tesla owner did his own experiment, related here: (https://cleantechnica.com/2022/01/09/how-long-can-a-tesla-keep-you-warm-in-a-frozen-traffic-jam-dirty-tesla-finds-out/).And of course, because our social media cannot resist but to amplify a stupid person that would be otherwise ignored, there was a post about California needing to use it’s water (in a drought) more wisely, what with 7 inches of rain in LA and 18 inches in the nearby mountains. Not knowing how this all works is just the same as Ted Cruz complaining about illegal dancing in Washington state, not realizing that the “WA government” reference was to Western Australia. Back to the water, a friend of mine also slapped back on the California water use tweet with her own reference to all of us leaving our garden hoses running all day/night, such water is carried to the ocean and contributes to rising sea levels. If you don’t catch the sarcasm, I can’t help you.
The party that only has the “stop the steal” as anything they have done this year fully expects to overtake the house in this year’s midterms. The party that is progressively building the country back up and making things better has their eyes closed, I guess. The fact is the economy is RAGING! This is what should be on the news programs, not this other crap about how Biden this or Biden that. I have a great sense of fear, because it’s so unnecessary to go backwards. How could we have sunk so far? Some say it’s been going on since Regan, others say stuff like white supremacists have been going on since the civil war, that we as a society have not addressed this for a long time.Of course, the Democrats need to play hardball. Because the other side is and has been playing hardball all this time, that’s why they can’t do anything to actually help the country. The economic news is great now, why isn’t that being shouted from the rooftops? The game has changed, I think everyone can sense this, and the left has not changed tactics. So for that, we can really fear what will happen after the midterms. If they are even close, the “big steal” will be shouted again and this time, the laws in the states have been changed. A third party offering might have value to push the election into the house of representatives, but the two party system is extremely entrenched. There is a story of one man, Stacy Blatt. He was dying. In hospice care, his monthly income was $1,000. He sends $500 to Donald Trump, after Rush Limbaugh says Trump needs money to overturn the election. The next thing that happens is the Trump people tap his bank account again and again until they take every penny the dying man has. He meant to give one contribution, a very generous one. Not just to Mr. Blatt, these people did this to thousands of loyal trumpers, thousands of them. Some people contested the extra charges on their credit cards, but debit cards don’t work that way. Either the credit card company is out the money and they try to get it back or the people themselves are out this money. Some have said that ½ billion dollars has been raked in. Of course, If you or I did this, we would be arrested. I don’t know why Trump and the people around him haven’t been held accountable. This was thievery, plain and simple. And it’s just one example. Is the Justice department ineffective?
My daughter, Julia, has really turned her life around with school and work. She used to be a barista at Starbucks, but it’s not so great a work environment there. Anti mask and anti vax people really make things difficult for front line workers. She did get started with finishing her bachelor’s degree at Arizona State University because Starbucks paid the bulk of the tuition. She’s left Starbucks, doesn’t regret it, but it does mean she has to tap her education account to continue to pay for tuition. She has also found a few grants and scholarships, so it’s not all on her dime. The investments I’ve made in her education account have done well this past 10 years or so, so there is money for her to finish, one way or another. As far as her progress, she’s done really well, progressing far from some of her troubles during community college to where she is now, a young accomplished and very good student. This coming semester she gets to come back to the subjects she likes the best, writing. She is exploring internships at newspapers and the like. Even one at Tesla! She’s had pretty good luck with various internships up to now.
We are getting started on our tiny house project, although we’ve shifted to what California calls an ADU, Accessory Dwelling Unit. It’s on a permanent foundation rather than a tiny house on wheels. After months, we were able to obtain the money needed as a mortgage on the main house, and it’s sort of funny that this little house is going to cost as much as our house did back in 1985, 36 years ago. But considering the housing crisis we have, it’s also sad that inflation in housing has driven things to such an expensive point.We’ve settled on the overall design of the ADU and next the company we’re working with will be submitting plans, etc. to the local building department. Because of a law in California, ADU designs are centrally approved by the state, the local building people only approve the things outside, like electric and water hookups, trenching, etc. The building design is also submitted, but local building division cannot argue much about the design, since these are pre-approved by the state. It’s one of the most progressive things I’ve seen and it should address some of the housing shortages here. The governor also signed a law this year that expands this ADU concept from being limited to only one ADU per parcel to multiple units per parcel, within the limits of the size of the parcel.
Ultimately, perhaps, with Julia being the first resident (it’s more economical for her to start home ownership this way rather than trying to buy a first house or condo) eventually she would move out, and maybe then we move in; the expansion on our parcel can really begin at that point. This house is really positioned wrong for adding other units. It was originally a farmhouse for the walnut orchard that used to be here. Eventually that orchard became a new subdivision built in the late 1960’s with the farmhouse remaining on about 2 acres. Anyway, we expect that the main house could be torn down and 5-6 new houses be built on the parcel in its place. But as time progresses, we’re getting older and such details start to matter less and less. Still, I’d like to be here when this is undertaken, sort of be a supervisor to the contractor, perhaps a partnership. We shall see…
Matt continues at the drug store, CVS, but really doesn’t like it. If you haven’t heard there is pretty much a constant theft problem, more so in San Francisco, but it does happen here as well. Last year, a big theft ring was busted up. Lots of stolen merchandise was seized in a warehouse, which the crooks were re-selling on Amazon and Ebay. It’s amazing to me that they (stores and law enforcement) cannot get control of this problem, but it’s many layered. The luxury stores in San Francisco have resorted to gates and solid barriers, perhaps you’ve seen the video of these stores being robbed in a coordinated fashion. Some arrests have been made, but I suspect the police will have to get more intelligence on how these coordinated activities come together. It seems like a sign of societal deterioration and I for one, do not have any answers that seem right.I do worry about us individually, being targeted, because we look like we might have money. Just this week, in a neighboring town of Danville, a lady had her purse violently snatched and within minutes they were using the credit cards 5 miles away at some upscale stores to buy stuff. When the perps were caught, they were in possession of lots of credit cards.
Matt also has to deal with everyone that comes in without a mask. Some are belligerent, have to be removed (police), some innocently forgot. Every public facing person has to deal with this and he says it is so tiring. He works the evening shift, starts in the afternoon, often gets home after we’ve gone to bed. We don’t see much of him.
Movies – obviously, we refrained from the theater experience for the most part, we did the Netflix and Disney+ thing at home. But Julia and I went to one theater for Black Widow and another time for Eternals. There was only one other person in the theater at the time, an afternoon matinee show.It must be really hard to have a movie theater these days. I used to drive by one during 2020 at the height of the pandemic, and it was closed and boarded up with a sign saying they hoped to be back in a year. Obviously, this is an example of what the government programs were supposed to help. I heard this story about a televangelist that applied for one of those loans that would turn into a grant, designed to keep the staff employed, but instead of using the $3.9 million for that purpose, he bought a jet aircraft with it. After the outcry, he did give the money back, but jeez, everyone is taking advantage. There isn’t much accountability, from what I’ve read. I told Eunice we should open a church, but not worry about any people coming.

So that’s the “way it was”, at least my nine things. Really this is a fair amount like last year’s Dumpster Fire, and frankly it shouldn’t have to be.

The monarch butterfly migration shortly begins in January and a lost dog from the Caldor fire was rescued in the snowy mountains, here in northern CA. Finally Klay Thompson is about to return to regular play for the Warrior’s, so some things are going right.

The public utilities commission is proposing to “tax” those of us with solar installations, which is really bizarre when you think that the opposite should be the way forward. The utility companies really hate homeowners being allowed to own solar panels. Some things are not going right.

Wildlife and, of course, Tesla

It’s been very cold after the rain, this last couple of days. Of course, we need the rain, no doubt. It was getting into the 70’s (Fahrenheit) and no rain in sight and I was seeing this in my back yard and thinking, gawd, lots of weed abatement to come. My usual guy has kind of disappeared, so I need to search out someone new.

Then I noticed, driving over the creek bridge, that a heron was fishing from his perch and I wondered, are there even any minnows in the creek? This thing dries up every year and it’s only this time of year that it has water. It used to overflow before the Army Core of Engineers came in and widened it and put additional rock on the steep banks to prevent erosion. All this asphalt up top, water doesn’t soak into the ground, it runs to the storm sewers and into creeks like this.

This morning, I noticed, in spite of the cold, that I had two “friends” pooping on my pool deck. Notice the male on one leg, which tells you it’s cold out. Maybe it should be called the poop deck. But then, that would not be correct (link). Did you know the origin of the word?

And because no post should be without a cat, I give you my cat, Schrodinger.

Life is tough.

I had a great time at the recent Tesla meet-up in Alameda. Close to the old runway for the base, with a great view of SF. But it’s not so much the view as it is the friendship, talk, product demonstrations and the crazy things we do.

The Dumpster Fire that was 2020

In no particular order

June 10 – $TSLA market price reached $1,019 per share, pushing the company’s market capitalization to $188.2B – higher than Toyota, which was previously the world’s most valuable, publicly-traded automaker. In 2019, the Hyperchange podcast predicted Tesla would beat Toyota in market cap. At the time, Tesla’s market cap was $44B, while Toyota’s was $172B. Since then, there has been a stock split, so today’s market reflects that to a degree, but things have been on a tear. I own some of the stock, so I worry. I also think Elon Musk is a genius, especially in how he runs his companies, Tesla being one of them. So I hold the stock for now.
Sept 14 – A Nikola short seller, Hindenburg Research, published a series of fraud allegations about the hydrogen and electric truck startup (Nikola). The CEO would subsequently resign, valuation of the stock becomes in question, investigations start, GM backs out of a joint venture. I never owned any of this company, it was kind of a too-good-to-be-true story.
March – Schools adopt virtual learning methods to teach kids, even elementary and high school. Hangry kids, IT nightmares, and Zoom bombings ensue. Zoom valuation as a stock becomes stratospheric, but security aspects are lacking. I have sisters that are teachers, they literally started doing two jobs, with no extra pay for the 2nd one. One of them has now retired, the other is thinking about it. As with other things in the pandemic, it’s like we are burning people out, whether it’s first responders or medical support OR teachers.
It was the 50th anniversary of Feliz Navidad in a weird way of showing that Latina music has finally come of age (30% of all Youtube streams). This is showing that streaming has really messed with the way the recording industry can declare something a hit or not. But, check it out:

50th Anniversary – Feliz Navidad

Taylor Swift does not have one single “Top” track in the U.S. or world.
“Top Tracks of 2020 USA”: https://spoti.fi/2WIorFR
“Top Tracks of 2020”: https://spoti.fi/38xYheF

Once again, the media is out of touch with what is really going on. Not that I have anything against Taylor Swift. On a more important level the media had no idea what was going on in the 2020 Presidential race, had no idea so many people would support Trump, and that packing the court was not an issue, although there’s a chance stuff could be happening in Georgia, but odds are … What do odds even mean these days?

What are facts? Well, whatever they are, beliefs come first. Facts are scary, like that you cannot make any money to feed your family. Income gap keeps widening and no one is helping to correct this. The rich stay silent, they keep their money. Will the poor bridge the income gap? They’d be lucky to survive, maybe a few can get comfortable. But then something like a Pandemic comes along and threatens your very survival. If the virus doesn’t get you, maybe the lack of food or medicine will. How is this even a possible situation in our country?

As I write this, 341,000 people have died of Covid-19. Many people don’t believe these numbers, it’s all a hoax to them. Do you see protesting in the streets about the people dying, demanding that something be done? No, partly because there is a pandemic and most of us are in lockdown because of the 3rd (or 4th) wave of infections that are sweeping the country, while our current president continues to play golf.

Actually, I think this more of a reflection upon us as a country, rather than just Trump. We have come to accept that (at current rates) over 3500 people can die in a week (compared to 2606 people that died in the twin towers of New York during the 9-11 crisis). And we all thought 9-11 was absolutely terrible, but now we think this Covid response is acceptable? Remember, for 9-11 commissions were formed, investigations undertaken, changes to air travel, security, our very lives changed.

It started (the current iteration) with a few little lies, then lying all the time. The pandemic is changing our lives, too. Just in any way that I’d say is not positive, at least not now. Even the vaccine delivery is an issue. It’s here, 2 million doses are currently available. At current rates it will take 10 years to vaccinate enough to get herd immunity (70-80% of population), something the administration was trying to achieve by just allowing people to get infected (and a percentage would have died). This week, a hospital worker literally threw away vials of the vaccine, intentionally. All of this is crazy. Workers at a nursing home are going to refuse to take the vaccine. What? I am not an immunologist, but I do understand basic science. So, Crazy. We should be excoriating this administration for screwing up to badly on the vaccine roll-out, not to mention a bunch of the other things. A miracle was just witnessed, a new vaccine was created in under a year. It took 4 years to get a Mumps vaccine. What good is it if the Covid-19 vaccine doesn’t get into arms?

It’s your choice to listen to this president and his lies. You can support your gerrymandered part of the country and how it got that way. Maybe people just want the nightmare to be over. I get it, your average citizen feels powerless and fireside chats used to soothe, and we want this all to go away. The tweets have replaced the news and the chats. Kids have to be back in school, back to work, can’t sacrifice the economy, I want to go to a movie, to a party, traveling to see Mom at Christmas because she’s important, like I said, Crazy. At this point, all I want to say is “No shirt, no shoes, no mask, no service.” Period. I don’t want to hear about any of your excuses. This is the small thing, what your contribution is worth is so much more. The science is in, your “freedom” from a piece of fabric is hurting the country too much. Seat belts and motorcycle helmets are mandatory, what’s the problem? You’re hurting people. Really. That’s it. Enough.

My mother died, actually in November 2019 to be precise. We went through all the motions, funeral, burial, some stuff was a mystery, she didn’t want to tell us much about end-of-life planning.

But I put this into 2020 because it actually happened toward the end of 2019 and I don’t think I much processed any of this until 2020. There was lots of financial stuff for 2020, Mom left a house, annuities, IRAs to us, Dad had died before her. The taxes were done by me and her tax man. We’re trying to sell the house now. I think about her just about every day.

Lots of people talked about how much they loved and respected her, but it was not easy to be her child. As the oldest, lots of expectations were heaped upon me. In the end, 3 of us became her executors, and two of my sisters largely helped her in the last years of her life (she was confined to a memory unit in the assisted living facility after she got a pacemaker implant). My brother and I live in California, while she was in Minnesota. I talked to her at least every other day until she started to mistake the TV remote for her mobile phone, which was hard enough for her to deal with, being 96 years old with dementia.

Reggie Jackson claimed when he went to the Yankees, he was “the straw that stirred the drink.” Mom was kind of like that, although because she really didn’t like alcohol, the analogy would have bothered her. Something in her upbringing and the evils of booze. Dad took care of us, made breakfast before school, gave me an occasional job from his various jobs, like painting barns, refinishing woodwork, etc., but Mom is who we had to really answer to. Mom had to go back to work, teaching. Our family needed the money but we didn’t know that. She only had a 2 year teaching degree and she understood she had to go back to school to get her bachelor’s degree in order to make more money than she was. A strong lady, and all of us are better for her being strong.
I fell while trimming a tree in the backyard, broke my collar bone, the clavicle and scapula, plus ribs on the right side. Ribs, well you probably know, take a long time to heal. In September, I drove to MN to help with the estate sale, house cleanup, and had lots of trouble breathing especially when I was traveling (at altitude) through Utah, Wyoming and South Dakota. When I got back an X-Ray showed fluid around my right lung, so my “something’s wrong” msg to my doctor probably was being pushed aside due to his diagnosis of broken ribs causing this shortness of breath. Pandemic infused logic brought on because we have virtual appointments with our doctors now. Almost 2 liters fluid was removed and I felt better within minutes and within 2 days was normal, with the lung reinflated and doing it’s job. I had stopped in Wyoming and purchased a small tank of oxygen <put in picture of tank>. BTW, driving in the Tesla Model Y was a breeze, it did take 4 days, because of my condition and not wanting to drive much more than 6-8 hrs / day.
I’m looking at a tiny house, to build one, for Julia. Don’t know if it’s going to happen, but we’ll see. Just looking at this stage. The planning commission in our city/county may not allow them. After lots of shit last year, she’s got her head on straight. She’s going to use her Starbucks / Arizona State University (ASU) connection to pick up her activities for a degree.
Matt’s dealing with the public is extremely hard for me, because he is the likely vector for bringing the virus home to Eunice AND because he’s got to deal with the shit where professional shoplifters come into his store, steal a backpack’s worth of merch (like 20 thermometers) and they wind up selling for $1-$2 each to street fences, a criminal crew leader of sorts, who get them to a distributor who sells them below market on Amazon. Major San Francisco Bay Area Retail Theft Ring Busted; Five Suspects Arrested; $8 Million In Stolen Merchandise Recovered

Sure we all like cheaper stuff, but if we receive stolen merch, we have to realize we all are, in a way, subsidizing the shoplifting behavior.

Plus it’s leading to lots of people just leaving San Francisco, by way of example, because of failed policies at the local government level; they are not prosecuting any minor crimes. As things do tighten in SF, the crime just floats out to the suburbs, like at Matt’s store. And guess what, the ringleaders laundered their money through real-estate transactions. Sound familiar? In some ways, less government is not necessarily a good thing.
The George Floyd racist acts and subsequent black lives matter actions that followed, the peaceful protests, the violent responses… I used to live in Minneapolis, and this shocked me to my core. Black (or literally, non-white) people have been living with this for literally decades and somehow I had become dismissive of the issue. Now I’m really disturbed by the racist actions of many people in my orbit. People that on the one hand should be kicked out of my orbit, but I’m going to take the time to listen to them, understand them, hopefully get them to understand me. All people being equal is something my mother and father lived, even though southern Minnesota doesn’t have very many black people to associate with. I have to believe that dialog is a way out of this.

When I started my first real job, at 23, I worked alongside great people and the color of their skin did not even register with me. We had a job to do and we worked together. Black or white, it didn’t matter. Now I understand that maybe my inaction is a contributing factor to lack of change. Unfortunately it appears, too many people are like the Bele and Lokai hatred of each other in Star Trek (TOS) Season 3 Episode 15, aired January 1969. (Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield )

Sometimes it’s really hard for us to understand, but we really do need to move forward, not backward. At the end of this episode, Lokai and Bele as the last of their kind, probably killed each other, principally because of their hatred. That’s the lesson.

Spock: “The obvious visual evidence, Commissioner, is that he is of the same breed as yourself.”
Bele: “Are you blind, Commander Spock? Well, look at me! Look at me!”
Spock: “You’re black on one side and white on the other.”
Bele: “I am black on the right side.”
Spock: “I fail to see the significant difference.”
Bele: “Lokai is white on the right side. All of his people are white on the right side.”
Star Trek (TOS) Season 3 Episode 15 – c/o MemoryAlpha

My car is not sleeping – now fixed

see below for an update to this post

Since the 2020.24.6.1 software that Tesla pushed to my Model 3 in late June, my car has not been sleeping correctly. I know this because of the before and after data that TeslaFi (a 3rd party app I use) showed me right away after the update that my car was not sleeping.

Typical day Before and After the 2020.24.6.1 software release

What is TeslaFi? It’s a cloud based server side data logger which amasses data from my car, you see, Tesla provides an API which which gathers and aggregates data you can use to understand the energy use and recharging times and costs, showing, over time, the dreaded battery degradation, knowing when the car is awake vs asleep, alerting if the car is left unplugged or a window is down for more than x minutes, tracking mileage if you need it for business or tax reimbursement, tracking the car if used by other people (i.e. kids)

Since the TeslaFi data was showing the car mostly in idle throughout the night instead of asleep, along with the corresponding higher battery consumption during the night, I put a ticket into Tesla, got a mobile ranger out to my house, and he plugged in and found API requests from a 3rd party every minute. Well that sounded like TeslaFi, but I hadn’t worked enough with the TeslaFi support staff to understand exactly how TeslaFi dealt with the sleeping mode of the car. I had explained to the ranger that I had disabled TeslaFi (and other apps) by changing my user/pass which invalidates API tokens, but he explained that sometimes the tokens don’t really become invalid. I understood that checking the “vehicle list” in the API doesn’t come to the car, but it looked like it was now. Only I should have asked, why just my car? Many TeslaFi users should have been complaining about this.* My ticket with Tesla was closed but I then worked with TeslaFi support and found out so much more about how they behave and interact with the car. Tesla shouldn’t have really dismissed this (and I suspect others) as a well known “app” which keeps pinging the vehicle, thus keeping it awake.

What I know now, having not only removed all 3rd party API use, removed user/pass from my own Tesla app, removed the app, even moved the car to “not my garage” so the WiFi and LTE environment is different, is that something is waking the car, usually just after it goes to sleep. This is what TeslaFi was reporting to me right after the 2020.24.6.1 software release. Frankly, while my configuration settings were not “perfect”, they shouldn’t have been contributing to this situation. Common sense would dictate that something changed with the software release, because the behavior of the car changed. And I should have been more insistent.

So, I have a new ticket open with Tesla, I’ll have to have a ranger hook up to the car again, only this time, I’m armed with a specific API request for this “vehicle list” which I can invoke from a web browser. E.g., we can do an experiment, where I can invoke the API, he can see it or not. My expectation is he won’t be able to see it, thus proving or disproving the point that Tesla has been making all along, that 3rd party apps, if you use them, are the problem.

Part of why I believe this is not the case now is that TeslaFi and I put the car into a very long interval polling mode where API requests were done at 20 minute or longer intervals, and the car should be asleep for those, especially in the middle of the night (you see, normally I have it configured to allow “deep sleep” mode where from 11pm to 6am, no vehicle interaction is done.) So at 6:01am I should normally find the car asleep, but as I say, this has not been the case. Even in my everything has been removed situation, the underlying question is why is the car losing 6-10% of charge overnight? Because it’s in IDLE, obviously, but why?

Update August 2020 – A Tesla Mobile Ranger replaced my autopilot computer because they saw Ethernet port errors in the logs. Unfortunately, this did not resolve the sleeping issue when he left and the car had 24 hours to “do it’s thing”.

Update later in August 2020 – a Service Center visit resulted in a sensor in the driver’s seat being replaced. This was the Driver Occupancy Sensor. Like the autopilot computer, this did not resolve the issue. They have ordered a new seat for me, believing the wiring harness is the issue. One would think this is easy to test, driver in the seat, driver not in the seat…

Later – Well, the seat replacement did not fix this and I took the car back. It’s September now, and I’m pondering what to do, because after the seat replacement failure, Tesla investigated further and simply said, it’s a 3rd party app, but we don’t know which one…

Thinking further on this, I think I had mistakenly left Teslafi on for my account, which also has a Model Y on the account, no problems sleeping there… Anyway, I think they see the vehicle list API request at the account level and simply say, it’s a 3rd party app, you figure it out. So, what I really needed to do was disable Teslafi at the account level, both cars, and then see what they say.

So, I’ve done this, for 5 days (disabled both Teslafi accounts, pointing at the same Tesla account) and provided detailed dates, times, specific repairs, etc. to a very helpful support person who forwarded the whole mess to Advanced Engineering. I heard back from them last week (Oct 15) and they want to have to car back so they can look again, something in the hardware is obscuring what is happening in the car. So, I bring it on Oct 23, with Teslafi completely disabled, both cars, and we’ll see what gives.

Late October – so, hopefully, I’ve got a conclusion now… After 2 weeks, the car is sleeping. Tesla Service Center replaced a voltage controller for the driver’s seat. It was periodically dropping voltage to the seat occupancy switch. This appears to solve the problem, car now going to sleep on its own. Previously they replaced the switch and the entire seat suspecting the wire harness, but neither was not the solution. Tesla advanced engineering was instrumental in resolving this. I had to provide them, through support, with a very exhaustive list of actions taken prior to this.

* A few TeslaFi users are complaining about strange sleep patterns and it seems very similar to my own situation, but going back to the end of 2019 and certainly on other software releases. There have been issues with “hot” rear cameras (energy usage) and HV Battery firmware questionable behavior, but I think we’ve not yet seen the end of this. I asked some of these users if they had two cars and I’ve gotten 3 “bites” so something is going on with this commonality. Notice below, the Model 3 is online and the Model Y is Asleep. The other users all say the first entry, the older car, AMP in my case, is the one not sleeping.

Vehicle List API response: Array ( [response] => Array (

[0] => Array ( [id] => 32847053162823755 [vehicle_id] => 438746238 [vin] => 5YJ33333333333333 [display_name] => Amp [option_codes] => AD15,MDL3,PBSB,RENA,BT37,ID3W,RF3G,S3PB,DRLH,DV2W,W39B,APF0,COUS,BC3B,CH07,PC30,FC3P,FG31,GLFR,HL31,HM31,IL31,LTPB,MR31,FM3B,RS3H,SA3P,STCP,SC04,SU3C,T3CA,TW00,TM00,UT3P,WR00,AU3P,APH3,AF00,ZCST,MI00,CDM0 [color] => [access_type] => OWNER [tokens] => Array ( [0] => 17a9f08445f2214c [1] => c91a61248ca6580d ) [state] => online [in_service] => [id_s] => 32847053162823755 [calendar_enabled] => 1 [api_version] => 10 [backseat_token] => [backseat_token_updated_at] => [vehicle_config] => )

[1] => Array ( [id] => 31695657956927095 [vehicle_id] => 2130063041 [vin] => 5YJYYYYYYYYYYYYYY [display_name] => Volt [option_codes] => AD15,MDL3,PBSB,RENA,BT37,ID3W,RF3G,S3PB,DRLH,DV2W,W39B,APF0,COUS,BC3B,CH07,PC30,FC3P,FG31,GLFR,HL31,HM31,IL31,LTPB,MR31,FM3B,RS3H,SA3P,STCP,SC04,SU3C,T3CA,TW00,TM00,UT3P,WR00,AU3P,APH3,AF00,ZCST,MI00,CDM0 [color] => [access_type] => OWNER [tokens] => Array ( [0] => 74952f4bcd414992 [1] => 7b24edad1afecc5f ) [state] => asleep [in_service] => [id_s] => 31695657956927095 [calendar_enabled] => 1 [api_version] => 10 [backseat_token] => [backseat_token_updated_at] => [vehicle_config] => )

) [count] => 2 )

Tesla Stops Itself

A recent software update (2020.12.6) for my Model 3 has added the capability for the car to stop itself at stop lights and stop signs. Actually, for traffic light controls it currently slows down for all lights; red, yellow, green, but I can signal for it to continue thru green lights in advance of it slowing to a complete stop. (a later update allows the car to follow other cars through green lights without driver interaction) Once a red light changes to green, pushing down on the control stalk or pressing the accelerator (intuitively) signals to the car to continue on, up to the speed limit of the road.

Some people find this annoying (always telling the car to go ahead), but what Tesla owners are all doing collectively is training a neural net so that all conditions for these traffic controls can be trained into the neural net. What is also annoying is the other drivers… my car is doing the speed limit of the road throughout all of this, and everyone is honking and speeding by me, at least by 5 mph, often higher. IF I’m in the right lane, what is it that allows you as a fellow driver, concerned for your and my safety, to be so insistent that honking to “get out of the way” in the right lane is the correct behavior?

If you have indicated to go ahead and a light changes from green to yellow to red, then the car will instead stop itself. And, if you are behind another car, just like before, the car will keep it’s follow distance from that car.

The technology involved here, I believe, is outstanding. Eventually, for a full self driving capability, this training will not be necessary, but right now it’s a beta version of stopping for traffic controls and it does the job. Of course, as the operator of the vehicle, you still have to keep your hand on the wheel and be ready to take over if something unforeseen occurs.

FSD 3.0 Hardware

Monday, Tesla finished the upgrade of my 2.5 autopilot hardware on my Tesla Model 3. It’s still not ready for “feature complete” aspects of the Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, which is due shortly, but at least my hardware is now in place.

Right now, I can see that it “sees” stop lights, signs, traffic cones, etc. Autopilot seems a lot more responsive while I drive. The new CPU’s in this computer are clocking a lot less utilization than the Nvidia CPU’s in the previous hardware.

Last week, when I had my Model3 into Service Center for HW 3.0 update, coincidentally, another owner’s Model3 was in for the update same day as mine, and the vehicle ID numbers (VIN) were switched. It was an honest mistake by the technicians involved. The VINs were very similar to each other, ending in 420 vs. 042. So think about those odds: two techs, two similar VINs, same SC…

Anyway, afterwards, my car would not get any software over the air (OTA), it was reporting the wrong color and the wrong tire size, wrong odometer, and my phone/app would not pair to car to act as a key to the vehicle. I discovered the VIN issue with Tesla over the phone help on 2/21, but it could not be resolved via OTA. So another service visit (the next working day) was necessary for correct VIN to be put into my car.

I did not catch this myself when picking up on Friday, only after I was home and car was not getting it’s OTA updates and subsequent phone call analysis. Somewhere during this diagnosis I thought VIN did not “look right” and on the phone, the tech confirmed it by having me check the VIN under the windshield and on driver door jam.

I think now an additional step in the HW 3.0 install process will be to confirm VIN’s before finishing up and returning the car to the customer. Tesla called the other customer to have them return for service to his car. He had noticed wrong car color on his screen, but not yet taken any action yet.

Go figure…

Enhanced Summon

Yesterday, on Sept 27, my vehicle was updated with the Version 10 software, in which is contained the updated “Summon” software, known as Enhanced Summon.

In the parking lot or garage scenario, the car will come out of it’s parked location, opening the garage door, if necessary, and travel, slowly, to the location you indicate, such as the doorway of a nearby building (in the rainy day example of “Why do I need this?”).

Tesla Model 3

Indeed, my car will do this, having tested it out after getting chinese food last night. I think the lady in the SUV behind my car was a little surprised, because she didn’t realize that there was no driver in the car in front of her! And then I got in.

We live in amazing times.

updated 10/3: There are many many youtube and other mentions of people trying this out, some of them very stupid. It’s a beta feature and it should be tried with caution and attentiveness, this is still not Full Self Driving. But then there are always going to be people pushing the envelope to the crazy side, right?

Americans are not interested in electric vehicles

This statement may be a shocker to you, unless you are part of the subset of Americans that fall into this category. Many of you probably know I bought a Tesla Model 3 over a year ago, and I’ve loved every minute with it, even with some very small issues. Those were fixed really quickly by the customer service center or the mobile rangers. But there is a recent Forbes article with much the same headline as above and they go into a bunch of stats and arguments about how people don’t like to change. That is why no love in the EV space.

Recent Event

Today I want to write about a recent experience with another Tesla owner, not a bad experience, but upon reflection, perhaps an indication of the human condition.

I had recently purchased a glass roof sunshade which further cuts the infrared radiation coming into the cabin on my Model 3 (search for “BougeRV Tesla Model 3 Glass Roof Sunshade” on Amazon). It was easy enough to put in, it simply works, I’ll probably take it down for the winter months (it folds up nicely), so I can look out the glass roof from time to time. Many have written about the roof in this car, a technology milestone on it’s own. The roof does an amazing job with cutting the radiation, I just wanted to have it cut some more, make it easier for the AC. The company I bought the sunshade from, BougeRV, provided me with a gift, unsolicited. A set of cup holder and center console inserts, but I had already purchased these a while ago. They are removable (for cleaning) and protect the cupholders from crumbs, condensation from glasses, and generally make clean up easier. Like I said, I already had some.

A couple of days later I saw another Telsa Model 3 in a parking lot where I used to work. Maybe you can guess what’s going to happen next. Once I saw he did not have any cup holder inserts of his own, I left a note on one of my old business cards. He called, I drove over, he saw my car, he looked at the inserts and he bought them for a whole $7.00. Wow, like, right?

Knowledge

is power, I know. But what has struck me about both the Forbes article and the reaction of this former co-worker is that people just don’t understand what they have or could have in this technology that has 4 wheels.

Yes, its a bit of a joke, I think other people like the joke, too, about Tesla’s are not cars, they are computers with wheels.

Forget the basic high value of the car itself, what my co-worker did not understand that they are a lot of options in the accessory market that can improve your experience with your Model 3 (or X or S). Many people don’t even know how to operate all of it’s features.

The people in the Forbes article that are not interested in electric cars, they don’t understand how they can get a better car, a safer car, a better experience, for less than they are going to pay whichever Japanese car maker. I’ve even had one person on a road trip that came over to look at my car, tell me they don’t like Tesla cars because they are not an American car.

It’s really hard to argue with people like this.

When I bought this car, I sought out knowledge about the car, about the technology. I also found people were 3-D printing accessory parts, for security clips, for phone chargers, lots of things. Maybe I am an outlier and the statement should really not be “Americans are not interested in electric cars” but rather “Americans are not interested in knowledge.” — Even if you are plunking down tens of thousands of dollars for an automobile.

And to that point, I don’t know what to say.

P.S. for the “for less” point above, here is some extra reading for your research “https://cleantechnica.com/2019/06/22/toyota-corolla-vs-tesla-model-3-5-year-cost-comparison/”

P.P.S. there is a referral program, use this link and you can earn 2,000 miles of free Supercharging with the purchase of a new Tesla car delivered before October 1, 2019, https://ts.la/thomas44545 . I can get some miles too. The referral program changes from time to time, sometimes it goes away for a bit, so it may be different than what’s noted here. There is a referral incentive for solar on your roof as well.