Tesla killed off its customer referral program way back on Feb. 1, 2019 because the popular program was getting too costly to maintain. But now, less than two months later, Tesla is bringing it back with new incentives aimed at rewarding its customers, and bringing in new ones.
Tesla’s customer referral program had offered a bevy of incentives, including six months of free charging at Supercharger stations, launching a chosen photo into deep space orbit, VIP invitations, and even free Roadsters. The prizes, CEO Elon Musk said at the time, were beginning to add cost to its vehicles. In short: incentives to keep existing customers engaged and drive new sales were cutting into the company’s margins.
Tesla announced Thursday it would introduce a new referral program, a decision that was driven, in part, by customer feedback.
“While our previous Referral Program was very successful, it came with significant costs, and ending the program last year allowed us to pass those savings along to customers,” Tesla wrote in a blog post. “We’ve since restructured the program to save the company money while also offering rewards that are super exclusive.”
Under the new program, if a customer buys a new Tesla using a referral code, both the new and existing owners will receive 1,000 miles of free Supercharging.
Each referral also gives people a chance to win a Founder’s Series Model Y each month and a Founder’s series Roadster supercar quarterly, both signed by Elon Musk and Franz von Holzhausen, the company said.
The Model Y, which was revealed in earlier this month, is expected to come to market in fall 2020. Tesla owners who already have unlimited Supercharging get two chances to win with each referral.
The prizes are still big, but there are stricter rules. In a series of tweets Thursday, Musk said customers can only win each prize once, adding “intent over time is to enable those without a massive social media presence to win.”
Source: TechCrunch
The EV company found that after years of servicing its vehicles, components weren’t wearing as quickly as it originally anticipated.
Source: CNET
Document in court case includes employees’ discussion about violating company policies, according to a court filing.
Source: CNET
The iconic Apollo 11 photo of astronaut Buzz Aldrin and an amateur astronomer’s photo of the moon are featured on the two stamps.
Source: CNET
Nintendo takes a creative — OK, weird — approach to virtual reality.
Source: CNET
Oh, and the fingerprint reader might be in the display.
Source: CNET
The director of HBO’s The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, plus the whistleblower who brought the wrongdoings to light, talk about the woman at the center of it all.
Source: CNET
Even the most successful tech company is going to have a stumble from time to time. Nintendo’s 45 years in the video game industry is spotted with a few doozies, but none are more infamous than the Virtual Boy. The 1994 portable console was marketed as an early home entry into virtual reality, but in actual reality ended up being little more than a blood-red headache.
Nintendo knew the comparisons to the doomed console would come fast and furiously when it launched its next VR venture, so the company took the time to get it just right. In a sense, Labo VR is a cautious push into the virtual realm. It’s nowhere near the all-in approach of Oculus, Vive or even PlayStation VR, for that matter — but it’s uniquely Nintendo.
Like the first Labo kits, it’s a friendly reminder that Nintendo’s chief job is to surprise and delight, and it happily delivers on both fronts. But just as the Labo piano shouldn’t be mistaken for a real musical instrument, Labo VR ought not be viewed as a real virtual reality.
It’s not just the pop-out cardboard form factor, either. Google made that a perfectly acceptable beginner’s approach to VR. It’s more that Nintendo has taken a very casual approach to all of this. The kit’s virtual reality experience is an extension of Labo itself. It’s no more important than the process of building the headset and various accessories step by step on the app. Or, for that matter, sharing all of the above experiences with others.
During a demo of the new kits in New York this week, Nintendo was quick to point out that the headsets are built without a strap. It claims this was a conscious decision so that the experience can be passed around and shared. I’m sure there are some practical reasons behind this decision as well, but it’s certainly a nice thought.
Virtual reality is, by nature of its form factor, a solitary experience. Labo VR doesn’t have any sort of video-out feature to share the experience on a big screen (for now, at least), so the idea of offering it up in a more social play-and-pass scenario is appealing. This goes double for the fact that, like the original Labo kits, all of the games included fall under the casual banner. The experiences share a common lineage with Nintendo analog titles like Mario Party or Mario Paint.
Your mileage with each title will vary. Certainly some (Bird and Blaster spring to mind) will stay with you longer than others and demand more repeat play. On the whole, each buildable peripheral launches with one (maybe two) compatible games. The good news, however, is that, like Labo, the company packs a lot of controllers (and therefore experiences) into a single kit.
The standard Labo: VR Kit ships with six Toy-Con projects (VR Goggles, Toy-Con Blaster, Toy-Con Camera, Toy-Con Bird, Toy-Con Wind Pedal and Toy-Con Elephant), while the cheaper Starter Set comes with two (Goggles and Blaster). If you go for the latter to dip your toes in the water or just to save on cash, there are a pair of “expansion sets” to get the full experience.
Unlike the last time Nintendo came to town with a Labo press tour, we didn’t actually get any time to build. That said, if previous kits are any indication, that’s half of the fun and value proposition here. Also, the amount of time you’ll spend building varies greatly from project to project — take it from me, someone who spent most of a work morning building that damn piano.
Once built, the VR experience is about on-par with what you’d expect from a Google VR. Again, it’s a set of lenses attached to a hunk of cardboard. This is no Rift or Vive and the immersiveness of your own experience will vary. The graphics are cartoony and oftentimes just large polygons. But a well-crafted casual gaming experience can be enough to pull you out of your own head for a bit. Bird is the best example of this.
The controller clips on the headset, with a Toy-Con popping out the other end like a beak. As a player, you hook your hands on either side of the display and flap along as you play a bird, flying around trees and completing different missions to feed an army of hatchlings. It’s a relaxing reprieve from some of the faster-paced games, as you glide around the skies. Add in the foot-controlled Wind Pedal, and the system delivers a puff of air to your face as you boost your bird, adding to the effect.
Blaster, a big, fun novelty gun, is the most engaging of the bunch. When I ended my demos with some extra time to spare, the Nintendo rep asked me if I wanted to give any of the games another go. The answer was simple. A simple first-person shooter, Blaster pits you against an army of alien blobs. You load the gun by cocking it like a shot-gun, and pull the trigger to an explosive effect.
Honorable mention goes to Doodle, which uses the bizarre elephant-shaped controller. The experience is unique from the rest in that it’s not actually a game, but rather a 3D drawing tool. It’s one of the more clever additions to the pack, though actually drawing on a 3D plane with a cardboard controller shaped like an elephant’s trunk is easier said than done. The implementation is a bit lacking, but it offers interesting insight into where Labo VR might go in the future.
Honestly, I just scratched the surface during my briefing. But there’s little question that Labo VR is a fun and singular experience. There’s also a special screen holder, so users who have rough time with VR can experience a 2D version of the games and accessories. Also, as with the standard Labo kit, Nintendo has bundled in Toy-Con Garage, so users can start building their own games when they tire of the pre-packaged experiences.
If there’s one disappointment in all of this, it’s that it will likely be a while before we see a full standalone VR experience from Nintendo. The idea of playing as Mario, Link and the like in virtual reality is no doubt something of a lifelong dream for plenty of gamers who grew up on the characters. But while Virtual Boy is a quarter-century in the past, the memory still lingers.
Until then, Labo VR is a fully engaging take on VR, and a uniquely Nintendo one, to boot.
Source: TechCrunch
Catch up on the most important tech news today in two minutes or less.
Source: Wired
For every three scooters that don’t share GPS data, 10 will.
Source: CNET