Iāve already posted this. Hopefully this comes to the masses and not just the rich folks. At the end of the day, you have to sell to the average joe/jane and not just to the high rollers or you simply aināt going to make it.
Selling to rich folks initially is the right strategy:
a. Cost of manufacturing is high >> canāt price low for mainstream.
b. Low yield >> not enough for mainstream.
The title of the article is wrong. Elon Musk talks about it long ago.
If it will save me money vs conventional roofing, Iām all for it. Call me in 10 years when I need a new roof and the tech is mature
I havenāt put solar on because of the aforementioned 10 years and itās ugly to boot
Same here. In theory, if this is somehow stronger than conventional tiles and overall cheaper (combo of roof and cells) shoot, could be game changer. I am not holding my breathe though that this is cheap stuff. And then you have the batteries. Way cool. Collect the energy during the day, store it to use in your house and car. Nice.
He claims it will save money over new roof with no panels, which probably means itās more expensive than conventiona roof plus conventional solar.
He tiles are made of Quartz, so itās potentially a forever roof as long as you donāt get impact damage. I bet the tiles will last longer than the solar will be productive
Aah, but thatās the rub, the pricing has to be in between in order to get cheapskates like me to consider itā¦
They are made of tempered glass (supposedly stronger and more durable than traditional materials) with embedded PV material. I think that the difference in expense may come with the installation, though I know little about that.
You are definitely on the ball @sfdragonboy, keeping ahead of Bloomberg! The point is that Elon is putting out a whole system which badly needs a strong set of initial adopters to take off so that it eventually gets to the masses (ala Tesla) Is it not natural to expect SV with their technocrats to put forth some investment in leading the way? The countryās future is depending on you (not you personally, but you know)!!
How do you walk on a glass roof? Still a lot of kinks to work outā¦
It must be some strong transparent fiber plastic. Nowadays, gears are made by fiber plastic ! Seen such gears in lathe 25 years before.
ever walk on a quartz countertop? it just needs to be thick enough
Walking on a flat surface is one thingā¦ sloped glass roof, fugetaboutit
Itās textured, though-- for example the one the that simulates slate has a slate surface pattern. Would you walk on slate ?(maybe not? Iāve never done it)
Maybe they will have robots install the roofs? It may be ahead of our time in some ways, but I hope that the company does not die off before it has a chance to reach the mainstream. Glass combined with technology could be applied to all kinds of home surfacesā¦
One of the people Musk is calling āphenomenalā would be Mike Pilliod, who is the director of the Tesla Glass group. As we reported in our original coverage of Tesla Glass, Pilliod was one of Appleās top materials engineers. He is named on a long list of patents at the Cupertino company, most of them having to do with innovations in glass touchscreens and electronic devices using glass, like the iPhone.
According to the patents, he even worked directly with Jonathan Ive, Appleās Chief Design Officer.
It will be interesting to see what Teslaās new āglass technology groupā can come up with for the Model 3.
Knowing Elon is he already collecting deposit for the tiles to be shipped out sometime in the next 10 years? 
You arenāt suggesting that Mr. Musk is running a pyramid scheme, are you???
I do plan to buy a model 3. I made a lot of money investing in TSLA so about time to spend some of it 
Ditto ! I have got full Model 3 money from TSLA stocks volatility this year. I knew it will take another two years before getting model 3 ! Like you, I spent that but to my benefit, paid down one of my rental mortgages which has 4.25% fixed rate.