Did Tesla Just Release The “Perfect" Car? | The Brainstorm 139

**Sam** (0:00)
Welcome to The Brainstorm.
Has Tesla just released the perfect car for America? And we've got Iridium finally being acquired here after a lot of speculation by Rocket Lab. And then Fable 5 released back into the wild. Brett, you are a Model X owner and advocate here. What do you think of the Y L?

**Brett** (0:24)
I think it's kinda, I still mourn the loss of the Model X, though I understand why they had to do it. The Falcon Wing doors were insanely expensive and complex. And I'm not sure, you know, ask my wife, she would say, she would rather they didn't have the Falcon Wing doors. So why not give the six seat configuration, which people with a family need, where you have kind of these, you can slip into the back without having to climb over anything without the Model X price or the crazy doors. And that's basically what they've delivered with the Model Y L, as in it has almost the same seating configuration as the best Model X, but it's in a Model Y package. So I think anybody with a family will love it.
And yes, I have a traditional Model Y, and I'm like, oh, this looks like a clear upgrade, particularly if I could transfer that FSD, which I don't think is in the cards, but that's my take.

**Sam** (1:21)
And so what do you make of the fact, so this was originally launched in China, said that this was never coming to the US. I think our take was always, it's probably going to come to the US.
Does this tell you anything about RoboTaxi timing or strategy there or unrelated?

**Brett** (1:42)
I would say semi-related. I mean, I think no matter what robot, you'll need a variety of form factors for RoboTaxi. I think the cyber cab is going to be the dominant form factor. But if you have a family of four or six or five, you'll want to be able to call a taxi that can accommodate that many people and so this could serve that purpose.
It also, anything they can do to drive unit sales increases the potential fleet for RoboTaxi once it scales. I do think that there was a gap in their lineup after they discontinued the Model X. When they made those comments about not bringing the Y L to the US., that was back when I think the Model X was still in production. And Elon has indicated that even a three door type vehicle, something that's more, that can accommodate even more people more comfortably could be in the cards in the future.
And you have to imagine that like the future world of transport is kind of you are getting the car you need at the time you need it for the purpose you need it. At least when you're hailing a robotaxi. And so I do think you'll have like you could imagine this form factor, but you take out two of the seats and then you have a big wide flat space. That being a useful form factor for people who want to like lie down on an intracity trip or something like, I think there are various ways that the platforms will be able to be manipulated to accommodate a robotaxi world when it becomes like the reality that we think it's going to. And so it does not surprise me that they're thinking about kind of form factor and form factor diversification here. Sam, are you going to buy it?

**Sam** (3:31)
I'm very tempted. I, pure anecdote here, I called the Tesla showroom closest to me and I said, okay, can I come in, see how much cargo space this has and, you know, checked out, am I going to fit in the back seat if I need to squeeze back there? And the person answering sounded exasperated. They're like, so many people have called. We won't have it until late summer or early September for people in the showroom.
So clearly, I think lots of demand out there. This is the most tempted I've been to own a car.
And so it might, it might just do it. It might just do it. All right, Daniel, Iridium.

**Daniel Maguire** (4:15)
Yes.

**Sam** (4:16)
Finally, getting acquired after lots of speculation from other players. I think it's a natural fit here, but it was a surprise, I think, to a lot of people by who acquired it. So can you break down what happened and what you make of it?

**Daniel Maguire** (4:33)
Yeah, sure. So Iridium, for those of you who don't know, it's a satellite communications company. They've been around for decades. They have a constellation in low Earth orbit and really their pitch is quite a niche service. It's really for safety critical. They own a global bandwidth, which provides safety critical applications. So very, very low speed, but it can work almost around the clock in most weather conditions.