side thought: Maybe TESLA turns into a research company that sells its IP to manufactures instead of actually building cars.
Does Tesla have that much valuable research ? I thought their manufacturing process came from external actors with experience in “legacy” car makers. Same with their batteries technology, didn’t big players like Panasonic intervene to bring their experience ?
Regarding AI or software they don’t seem to be ahead of the other players either.
From a distance, Tesla looks like a company that believed in bold ideas and had the chops to execute on them. Is there a “secret sauce” outside of that ?
This is all basic electrical engineering, and now reproduced by other carmakers, but Tesla did it first.
For example, when I was at National Semiconductor working on Solar tech (2010ish), another team was building systems for lithium ion battery management for cars. They did this to sell the tech to car makers.
I dispute that claim. They may have created a solution for use in their vehicles but did not "invent" anything, they just upscaled existing solutions and used existing know-how.
Perhaps they feel that a little espionage is worth it to get 500000 electric cars a year onto Chinese roads?
The advantage of those cars on the Chinese market is that they cost only a fraction of any Western car and middle-class Chinese can actually afford them.
Additionally, the sheer number of copycat vehicles available from Chinese automakers suggests that distribution of IP and technology within the industry is pretty common. Be it from sharing, theft, or reverse engineering.
[1]https://www.marketwatch.com/story/tesla-to-build-factory-in-...
TESLA's secret is that they're a battery company. I don't think people understand how big of an issue energy storage is, and what the resulting opportunity is. Energy storage to Tesla is what AWS is to Amazon.
E.g. https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2017/08/18/ho...
If you point out that Tesla is a car company using Panasonic batteries, you get speeches about how they’ll be the next GE and you don’t get it. If you point out that Tesla is up to its eyeballs in debt and can’t peoduce even the cars it tries to make without serious flaws, in a tent, you get speeches about WSJ, Big Oil, Shortsellimf conspiracies. The True Believers ignore the reality of a publicly traded company struggling, in favor of a narrative spun around Musk’s tweets and promises.
It’s a cult, I think one born of existential dread about environmental collapse and a desire to see it fixed by a visionary billionaire who tells them they don’t have to make any sacrifices, just buy a fast car. I think that arguing with them ends up with a similar response as criticizing Google 7 or 8 years ago. Some things just have to play out, and until then it’s all “crush the non-believers!”
Edit: Again, don’t just downvote, downvote and rebut.
"...The founding of France's other great wine regions is not as clear. The Romans' propensity for planting on hillsides has left archaeological evidence of Gallo-Roman vineyards in the chalk hillsides of Sancerre. In the 4th century, the Emperor Julian had a vineyard near Paris on the hill of Montmartre, and a 5th-century villa in what is now Épernay shows the Roman influence in the Champagne region.[13] "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Rome_and_wine
If that's true, then it worked out well for Romans wine consumers, likely freeing them from local wine-making monopolies, and also for the development of regionally unique varieties of wine.
Also, what is the relationship between Roman wine making technology and Teslas? It's not like China doesn't know how to make electric vehicles - they already produce many more that the US does.
https://www.tesla.com/en_CA/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-y...
I mean maybe some research espionage might steal a technology from them before they patent it - but if they wait until AFTER then they can use it.
You could take all of Tesla's IP and hand it to any company and they couldn't do anything with it except use it to burn money.
Tesla is the first choice for great engineers interested in its fields of work. The reason is that Elon Musk wants to help them do great work and he actually knows how to help them do it. He's not perfect but he's the best there is today and he's only getting better.
Great technology companies are like massive gravitational anomalies for a specific field. Until their power fades or a more powerful anomaly comes along it's impossible to beat them.
So far, that's all Tesla has managed to accomplish as well...
The advantage of a great technology company is its ability to continue innovating, make hard decisions, and maintain a commitment to quality.
One noted problem that Tesla faces is that Musk is frequently unable to make hard decisions because he spends so much time micromanaging...he's easily distracted by the latest new "thing" he wants each car to have. As for quality...many people who have ridden in or owned a Tesla would dispute the notion that Teslas are quality cars. You can get much better built ICE cars for a quarter of the money, hybrids for half the money, and competing EVs for 2/3rds of the cost of a Tesla.
Tesla is the first choice for great engineers interested in its fields of work. The reason is that Elon Musk wants to help them do great work and he actually knows how to help them do it.
The many engineers and AI scientists who have left Tesla in the past year would strongly disagree with that statement. Musk has frequently forced his engineers to do things based on marketing goals rather than sound engineering principles.