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Comment by gwern | Hacker News Reader

You feel that way because you realize that it's a calculated attempt to ride the coattails of an infinitely more successful and reputable company, a deliberate confusion, like if you opened a coffee chain named 'Farbucks' (slogan: "We'll make your dollar go further!"), or the small pennystocks which aim for stock tickers deliberately similar to real companies (Matt Levine covers the occasional bumps in the stocks of 'accidentally' similar stock tickers).

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Is there official word on that being the reason for the name? That is certainly one of the theories I had and it shows a lack of ethics. However it isn't the only theory I had and they all looked bad.

For example, maybe they weren't being sleazy and they thought this was a clever play off Tesla. It isn't clever. It is unprofessional. It also shows a lack of clear vision in that they are fundamentally defining a company based off being an alternative to competitor. This shows a lack of leadership.

Or maybe they are even stupider than we gave them credit for. They saw the company was named Tesla and assumed Nikola Tesla had a direct hand in designing electric cars and were too lazy to look up the rather tangential connection between the man and the company. This shows a lack of knowledge or desire for knowledge.

I couldn't think of any positive reason for the name.

I think it follows a general theme where some people have a "tricks"-based mindset. Some people look at Tesla and think it's just tricks. Such as the idea that people are buying Teslas because of the drivetrain - which would be a simple trick, rather than the reality that Teslas are just all-around great cars - something much harder to understand.

The Nikola founder probably thought Musk had succeeded in unlocking a series of successful tricks, and set out to reproduce them. But when you don't know the reason for the formula, you don't know what steps you can leave in or out, so you just follow it mechanically.

I don’t think so. Nobody knows the word Nikola. That reference is pretty subtle. It’s Tesla Motors, Inc. that tried to ride the coattails of the famous inventor.

Laughable. I must have heard and read the full name, Nikola Tesla, a thousand times by the time I was 12. I am certainly not alone in this.

It’s one thing to name your company after an inventor, and another to name it after an infinitely more successful competitor.

Nice try.

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