This concluding paragraph contradicts a quote in the middle of the article that explained the loss is due to inefficiency ("spiking costs for obvious strategy missteps really drew blood at the bottom line"). NYTimes journalists enjoy making Elon Musk look dumb, like when he smoked weed with Joe Rogan.
Musk very clearly did _not_ get stoned with Joe. Taking a puff off of a joint is akin to taking a drink or two of beer. You're going to have much more of a placebo than anything.
There's no reason to lie to make Musk look stupid. He's doing that plenty well himself.
[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/07/business/dealbook/elon-mu...
And it's got nothing to do with the US either. Do you see many German, Swiss or Japanese Ceos smoking pot and getting drunk on podcasts?
The issue is Tesla feels personal. Other cars really don't have that feeling.
At least they should. I guess Musk plays by different rules than us plebians.
If you lack the self-control to not use a federally illegal drug on camera, then do you have the self-control to not leak secrets to score points in an argument or if you're drinking with a friend and they apply some social pressure, for instance? Maybe, maybe not, but it raises red flags about how trust worthy you are.
I think it's a similar thing for illegally downloading music or whatever..
Even the recently announced closing of retail sales centers (that's a bold strategy cotton, lets see if that pays off for him) and then "woops, can't shut them all after all", if this was anyone else but someone with an internet cult of personality, an objective analyst would be telling you to stay the hell away from this company, because from outside it looks like a mismanaged train-wreck being run by an out of control nutter...