Musk’s Twitter Antics Are Tarnishing Tesla as Its EV Rivals Are Catching Up
forbes.com
forbes.com
However at this point in time they neither have the volume nor the price point to be a model T for the masses in the EV world.
In my humble opinion Musk's vision for 'auto-pilot' was too soon and completely misplaced. This has taken too much focus away from actual EV disruption.
What was needed from an environmental standpoint was for Tesla to leverage their battery factories to bring forward a mass market car at a price point that actually competes with ICEs pricing.
Irrespective of their build quality issues this would allow them to eat the competition's lunch in the EV world and to accelerate the much needed sunsetting of ICEs.
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/502208/tesla-quarterly-v...
I doubt Tesla is worried about it as long as they keep selling more high end models with massive profit margin compared to their competitors. EV is growing in terms of market share, Tesla will be fine even if they have a smaller slice of a pie that is getting bigger each year
And now with Twitter, Elon's aura is very, very murky, and more people now see his bullishness as deceitful.
My wife & I are soon-to-be in the market for an EV, but Tesla is absolutely beyond the line in the sand. Never will I give a single cent to that bloviating asswipe. If Porsche unveils the EV Macan in time, we'll go that way. Besides, the Tesla interiors are cheap garbage.
For software developers who haven’t gotten over their addiction to food and shelter and who trade labor for money via software development, the entire premise behind “all software should be free” is quite cultish.
Wound up buying an Audi e-tron instead. Range didn’t hold up to any of the Teslas at the time, but it was more than workable and the fit/finish and interior were excellent.
The e-tron is very nice looking. Haven't sat in one, yet. Personally, I'd even prefer a Lucid, as they're based in my state and have a great track record with Formula E. Unfortunately, they're quite pricey and I really don't need so much car, financially or physically.
You said you would never purchase one of their vehicles, which to me means that even if they "improved their interiors" you wouldn't buy them.
> I can choose to spend my money how I wish.
Obviously you can spend your money in a way that is not optimal from a game theory perspective. That doesn't mean it isn't "a bit silly".
Also the CEOs of other companies you would actually consider buying, might be "worse" by whatever metric you use. It's just that they don't display their personality and management style on Twitter so you just don't know.
That is correct.
> That doesn't mean it isn't "a bit silly".
Real life isn't a simplified game theory scenario presented by some undergrad college professor. Good god. Your stance is frankly ridiculous. I could easily name a dozen more reasons not to buy a Tesla. Life is a grey soup of decision-making. Is it silly to buy organic? Is it silly to be a vegetarian? Is it not silly to spend money on a luxury vehicle when a bicycle and Kia forte will suffice? People have numerous and varying motivations for purchase decisions and it is almost never as constrained and mathematically straightforward as A^2 + B^2 = C^2
Alternatively, if Tesla is getting along just fine without Musk then what do they need him for and why are they paying him? That's money that could be returned to shareholders or invested in the company.
A lot of the share price is for the future magic tech Elon keeps proposing, it is currently valued way more than car companies would ever be
Owning both Tesla and SpaceX is like owning Ford and Boeing to an extent.
Building them up from scratch in one lifetime is remarkable in addition.
These are technology companies that require technology progress to begin with, then continuously as you go along. With SpaceX it does take a rocket scientist to do this.
Plus they give users something to show for their money.
Owning Twitter is like owning the National Enquirer.
Not a technology company regardless of any technology that might be involved or developed.
This is a gossip rag with reader participation, where the one-to-many and distribution have been scaled by technical progress.
Where the ultimate outcome is putting advertising on steriods via gossip.
Not a technology company.
Just gossip media, and purchased when trending toward lower-class participation.
Remember, even Trump could start one of these with no engineering ablity of his own. Of course when it comes to engineering or leadership, he's no Jack Dorsey. As we have seen, his genius remains stable at a much lower point on the scale.
With Tesla and SpaceX being so significant, plus things like Boring and Starlink, Musk was always considered all-in on technology.
Now not so much, with gossip taking such a significant chunk.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to spread unflattering words.
And of course I'm no rocket scientist. Just a regular scientist.
He's suddenly lurching into MyPillow territory where his products might start feeling like a political statement
On the other hand, maybe he’s feeling that another government windfall is the only path forward and he’s hitching his wagons to a horse…
Elon on the other hand is part of the marketing machine of Tesla and he is rather a toxic individual right now to the common folks - as a South African it strikes close to home as he acts and behaves like those clueless white people from the 1980's who voted for the National Party and Apartheid.
Steve Jobs was also like that for Apple but his personal life and opinions very much under the radar except for his annual product releases.
Absolutely delicious tears, I never knew they could be so precious.
Any time you share a video, scrub through to the end! There's a lotta weird stuff out there.
As a consumer I want corporate attention to be focused on me, not people who will be alive 100 years from now.
I am also working on avoiding giving Misk and co. any of my tax money by moving to either Sao Paolo, Mexico City or Dubai
Elon is angering liberals and he has clearly crossed a line by exposing liberal bias.
If the south african had pushed money to democrats, like SBF, he simply would not be having this problem.
SBF stole billions and the FTX brand is stronger than ever, among democrats. That’s the power of campaign contributions.
That group really came into being under Obama, Trump solidified it, and then they got absolutely juiced up during the pandemic & BLM stuff.
The double standards and hypocrisy are absolutely breathtaking.
And since these people have decided they're just the only people operating in objective reality, they almost never examine themselves.
And for me, I don't even like Trump or his party. I'm left in the frustrating position where what angers me the most are his opponents who are so off-puttingly full of themselves.
I think that's why they're so opposed to Musk, a lifelong liberal & voter for Democrats who realizes how far things have drifted from sanity. He's cleaved from the groupthink. So now, like the immune system, he must be disassociated & eliminated.
You are painting with an awfully broad brush. I’m a dem, and I abhor what it seems SBF (allegedly) did. I hope every candidate who receive a contribution from him returns it, and if he did what he’s alleged to have done, I hope he spends a very, very long time in prison.
His political affiliations or preferences are completely irrelevant to me (though didn’t he say in one of his many, many recent interviews, he also donated a lot of money to republicans?).
Of course, the FTX brand was trash in my eyes before the collapse. Maybe your username and mine are equally apt.