Article: Slate Wants You To Do Warranty Work On Your Own Truck

[cadblu]

I know it's been discussed at length on the Jay Leno review, but here is a new article on the subject:

Slate wants you to do Warranty Work on your own truck

 

[E90400K]

Thanks for posting, but nothing burger. Just the questions we've been asking and pondering how an owner DIY warranty will work.

Agree though, Jay should have asked "WTF, Jeremy?" Instead he made a joke of it.

 

[ScooterAsheville]

I don't care to make any predictions on how all this is gonna fly with the auto buying public. But it's gonna be crazy interesting. Seriously. when it comes to predicting public response to Slate's offerings and plans? I don't think even Slate knows.

 

[AZFox]

I don't care to make any predictions on how all this is gonna fly with the auto buying public. But it's gonna be crazy interesting. Seriously. when it comes to predicting public response to Slate's offerings and plans? I don't think even Slate knows.

The article sums it up with this sentence:

"Building cars is hard, and only time will tell."​

 

[Adam W]

The article assumes the plan is to not pay customers for the labor time if they're servicing their own vehicle. Maybe they would pay customers a similar amount to the contracted shop rate. Would it be a unique departure? Sure. But I don't see there being much difference to Slate if they're paying a shop a flat rate for specific warranty repair, or paying that money directly to the customer to do the same work.

With the limited kinds of things that could possibly go wrong on these simplified trucks, unless it's high voltage, I'd much rather do the work myself anyway.

 

[cadblu]

The article assumes the plan is to not pay customers for the labor time if they're servicing their own vehicle.

Slate should in incentivize or reward those customers who take on their own warranty work. Following Tesla / Rivian’s example, they can award “credits” to Slate merchandise, or even credits for Supercharging. The credits earned can be gaged to the level of complexity (eg. Labor hours) of the repair work. It can be done.

 

[beatle]

I think it depends on what the problem is and whether someone has the means or desire to fix it themselves.

Replace a 12v battery? Probably.

Leaky rear shock? Maybe.

Troubleshooting A/C issues? Forget it.

It's not unheard of for a manufacturer to send out parts for you to repair something yourself. It's just unusual (first time?) for an automaker. Think kitchen fixtures (a new cartridge or valve) and higher-end office chairs (gas cylinder, wheels, arms). When I supported a data center, some parts would be "CRUs" or Customer Replaceable Units like tape drives, power supplies, or hard drives. A tech from the vendor would come out to do more complicated things like backplanes, tape robot parts, or motherboards.

 

[KevinRS]

I think it depends on what the problem is and whether someone has the means or desire to fix it themselves.

Replace a 12v battery? Probably.

Leaky rear shock? Maybe.

Troubleshooting A/C issues? Forget it.

It's not unheard of for a manufacturer to send out parts for you to repair something yourself. It's just unusual (first time?) for an automaker. Think kitchen fixtures (a new cartridge or valve) and higher-end office chairs (gas cylinder, wheels, arms). When I supported a data center, some parts would be "CRUs" or Customer Replaceable Units like tape drives, power supplies, or hard drives. A tech from the vendor would come out to do more complicated things like backplanes, tape robot parts, or motherboards.

In the last 21 years, 2 cars, over 200k miles total, I had to replace battery a few times each, shocks I think once each vehicle, and no AC issues. The first car did throw a rod, then on the replacement engine had a valve seat issue. The second car has a CVT transmission on it's way to failure, full replacement appears to be the only option for ~$7k.

 

[ScooterAsheville]

The article sums it up with this sentence:

"Building cars is hard, and only time will tell."​

The only thing harder than building cars is selling cars.

I'm confident Slate can build the truck. I'm not confident they can sell it at scale. And in the same breath, I'd follow that with "But I'm an idiot layman not in the industry and what do I know"".

 

[smack daddy]

I would do it for merch credits however how idiot proof are they going to make it? What will the consequences be if the owner jacks something else up while fixing the issue or just jacks everything else up worse or they get half way in then isn’t competent enough to complete the job. Just thought of this what if the part sent isn’t the part needed to fix it. A lot of variables

 

[ScooterAsheville]

I am envisioning hospital emergency rooms having to set up electrocution units for Slate owners doiing "warranty work".

I can also see American lawyers salivating at the idea of lawsuits for people getting hurt doing warranty work on their Slates.

Little known factoid: 50% of legal activity in the USA is automobile related. That's why autonomous driving has me ROTFL at the prospect of half of all lawyer income vanishing in the next decade or two. No accidents, no lawyers.

 

[The Weatherman]

Is the glass half full or half empty?

 

[beatle]

Glass is too big.