Tesla does not exist to solve just transportation issues. It exists to drive down the cost of utility scale battery storage to allow for renewables alone to supply power to grids.
Why? It's wasn't because Elon was dicking around with design details, it was hubris.
Keep in mind, this is a company that is _fifteen years old_ now, and still has huge trouble in their bread and butter, manufacturing and logistics. These are all issues that should have been sorted out 5+ years ago _before_ they built out at break-neck speed. But, hey, Elon and the other leaders thought they were smarter than everyone. They thought they, unlike every other car company in history, could just wing it.
If Musk had been willing to wait one more year to begin commercial production, the Model 3 could have been amazing. Instead, it's a 90s era Kia with a body and a better-looking body.
Tesla didn’t have a year to wait. That’s why you sell to fanatics and those passionate first. Early adopters are more forgiving. I’ll worry if quality isn’t high after the preorders are cleared out.
Fit and finish is also the most important elements to most buyers. Nobody cares if the skateboard has oodles of praise if the dashboard panels are misaligned and the window makes a squeaking noise and Bob next door has a much cheaper car with a much nicer interior.
EDIT: Can anyone of the downvoters please explain what I said wrong? Are we expecting a ten thousandfold increase in battery production? Or are they not going to use batteries like they would in cars?
Remember the confident predictions a few years back that photovoltaic could never be cost effective? I do, because I was one of them and I was totally wrong. I even knew the trends but somehow felt confident they couldn’t continue.
1: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/976414452106055680?lang=...
"If the options fully vest, Musk could wind up owning a 28 percent stake of Tesla, which could be worth nearly $200 billion."
Dude is a brilliant sleight-of-hand artist, he's got all his sycophants focused on the "saving the world" thing, meanwhile he's picking pockets and stealing watches right off their wrists.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/21/17147678/elon-musk-tesla-...
I find it amusing that his fans reach for these “law of the jungle, apex predator” metaphors to describe him. He’s like the villain of an Ayn Rand novel who has somehow passed himself off as John Galt.
The idea that Tesla’s purpose is primarily anything but a Musk power play is a testament to the brand and cult of personality he’s worked dutifully to create and maintain.
We are all flawed characters, some more than others. Yet, we all have our parts to play. I can appreciate his positive influences while admitting he’s probably terrible to work for and has a diasterous personal life.
All of these billionaires are despicable crooks, but at least some of them don’t insist, like Musk, that we constantly applaud them.
There’s faith that big rockets somehow are the missing link to living on Mars. Otherwise reasonable people hang up their skepticism in favor of ignoring the evidence that Musk craves money and power, in favor of believing that he has a master plan to save the world. It’s infuriating, and ironically in a few years they’ll be the first screaming bloody murder when he fails to live up to their impossible dreams. Of course by then he’ll have enough money that he won’t need to care, and rockets working LEO rather than Mars.
I guess it’s easier praying that a billionaire has a vision to save us from ourselves without us having to make any sacrifices, than it is to do the hard work of saving ourselves.