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Comment by twelve40 | Hacker News Reader

This Nikola thing looks pretty weird indeed, but to be fair, Musk's name for his company is also not very original, since he (or whoever) also just took the dude's name even though he had absolutely nothing to do with him.

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Tesla's name is somewhat original because the connection between electricty and Tesla is certainly obvious and understandable, yet also rare enough in the US compared to Edison that it wasn't already taken.

A second company then copying exactly the same association? Different thing entirely.

It's also name for the SI unit of magnetic flux density, which fits with the electric motor theme.

Tesla invented the AC motor which was used in the first roadster so thats why they named it that. Very logical…

And I remember around the time Tesla-the-car-company first emerged, rolling my eyes at the name. Like "Oh here we go, another EV startup using the guy's name without permission because his estate isn't set up to sue anyone who speaks it the way Edison's is. Best we can hope for is they do something cool and don't dishonor his legacy."

There are times I'm glad to have misjudged someone.

I thought Musk joined after it had been founded? Did he change the name?

No, Musk had literally nothing to do with the name, just a continuation of his myth as anything more than a guy with a lot of money.

a guy with a lot of money

Well, in the words of Batman when asked about his superpower, "I'm rich".

Is it really a significant part of his myth that he named the company?

I didn't say it was significant! Though, being considered a 'co-founder' of Tesla was important enough to him to sue the actual founders.

I think Bezos has demonstrated quite convincingly that simply having a lot of money does not mean you can compete with SpaceX. Similarly, I don't know much about the automotive industry, but turning a company with a few employees into one of the most valuable companies in the world is not easy, even if you have $100 million to play with at the start.

It's OK to simultaneously believe that "Elon Musk is very effective at growing engineering businesses to the point that they disrupt entire industries" and also that "Elon Musk is not as smart as he thinks he is, and his tweets are embarrassing".

He started as a guy without money and got to briefly be the guy with the most money which is not so easy to do.

Are you sure he had no money? Was he born in a low or middle-class family?

"Tesla almost had a very different name—until Elon Musk and his co-founders bought the rights to “Tesla” for $75,000"

https://fortune.com/2018/12/09/tesla-name-faraday-elon-musk/

Tesla is also an SI unit associated with electricity. Then again, are there any companies called "Ohm" or "Ampere"?

https://ampere.shop

Not the company name, but the Chevy Volt was sold as the Ampera in Europe.

There's a computing startup founded by ex-Intel folks named Ampere

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