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Comment by SimbaOnSteroids | Hacker News Reader

The battery and solar operations side of TSLA are critical to spaceX's mission to Mars. Can't have a martian colony without being able to harvest and store energy. Additionally the CV being done at Tesla could prove critical in automating prefabrication of living spaces and life support infrastructure. Can't be doing anything like that remote controlled with 8 min latency.

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I'm going to have to correct you on the solar part, Solar City is a dud. I was listening to a podcast and it was said that Solar City's acquisition would be Tesla's undoing. I think that's Musk's biggest concern, not so much the $420 tweet but the fact that scrutiny directed at the Solar City acquisition that will land Musk in serious trouble.

https://twitter.com/qtrresearch/status/1024254098068176896

Allegedly, ex-Solar Cities are saying they were told to fake sales. Quoth the Raven podcast first brought it to attention but now that the SEC investigation is starting, it will be a matter of time before Musk is under the gun, this time with serious jail time, if the allegations hold true.

Not to mention the Solar City buyout was pretty explicitly a bailout. SC had already retained bankruptcy counsel.

Tesla is not the only provider of batteries and solar panels, and could sell them to SpaceX even if Musk isn't the CEO of Tesla. There is some technology sharing between the companies, but even that could continue. Lots of companies collaborate without sharing a CEO.

(Incidentally, a Mars colony could also use NASA's new fission reactor designed for space missions. It's likely that NASA will be deeply involved in the effort anyway.)

> The battery and solar operations side of TSLA are critical to spaceX's mission to Mars.

What stops them from buying off-the-shelf commodities? Why the NIH? Didn't they, to much nerd fanfare, famously make all of TSLA's patents public two years ago? What stops them from sourcing these components from someone else?

Batteries and solar panels are pure commodities. Solar city had little in the way of new tech.

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