From: snidely.too@gmail.com   
      
   On Monday or thereabouts, Howard declared ...   
   > Snidely  wrote in news:   
   >   
   >> Howard submitted this idea :   
   >>   
   >>> and while I've heard about car makers being effected,   
   >>> a quick look at the website of a couple of dealers seems to show they   
   >>> have a lot in stock.   
   >>   
   >> You do know that the cars sold in the fall were made in the summer or   
   >> spring, right?   
   >   
   > Uh, sure. But there's also typically a lot of movement between lots and   
   > dealers, which may or may not be affected by supply issues. Which is why   
   > I was wondering about specific cases rather than generalized news   
   > stories.   
      
   The cars on the lots now have chips that were delivered sometime ago,   
   or are getting the trickle of chips that are available.  Both GM and   
   Ford have shutdown some plants (GM 8 in September), with pickups most   
   affected, and I think Volkswagen has been looking at shutdowns.   
      
      
      
   Meanwhile Tesla uses [at least some] different chips than the other   
   automakers, and apparently has already done work to enable various   
   substitions.   
      
   The sister company Starlink has released their 2nd generation ground   
   antenna, which is supposed to be easier to manufacture at high rate,   
   but they can't get the chips to sustain a high rate [company   
   announcement, IIRC, but could also be an Elon tweet].   
      
   The chip problem is at both the wafer production stage and at the fabs.   
    Shutdowns of both at the COVID peak, and restarts take a bit of time.   
   This has occurred world-wide, including a fab in Texas (grey cells   
   claim it was Samsung, but I may get around to verifying).  And I know   
   that at a higher level of assembly, there were months when you had to   
   have a VP sign off on your pass to get into their building (Austin?).   
      
   I think the consumer product I hear the most about for chip shortages   
   is the new gaming consoles (PS5, the new Nintendo, and even XBox).   
   This is an exception to my rule of thumb about not seeing shortages for   
   Christmas and high margin items.   
      
   /dps   
      
   --   
   Rule #0: Don't be on fire.   
    In case of fire, exit the building before tweeting about it.   
   (Sighting reported by Adam F)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)