I sold all my Tesla shares (TSLA), here's why | Hacker News Reader

I sold all my Tesla shares (TSLA), here's why

electrek.co

83 pointsbornelsewhere21 comments

I too divested. One concern I think about constantly these days is that the Tesla we supposedly own is vulnerable to the whims of the CEO. I worry that software updates pushed to my car to satisfy a man (who has absolute control) might not be responsibly thought out and could pose real risks to me and my family. While this might be an overblown concern, it is a real one. He believes he is responsible to no one but himself.

Never own an automobile made by someone who is mentally ill, or on drugs. Or both.

Meh, lots of great people in history were drug addicts. John hopkins was a raging cocaine fiend for example. Also this constantly writing people off as mentally ill who hold opinions you dont like is getting pretty tiring (especially when they are accomplishing way more than you probably are). You are just the straw that broke the camel's back on this issue. There isn't anything special about your comment to cause my comment other than being the latest in a long, exhausting and dissapointing line.

let’s be real. Musk is objectively not ok. This isn’t even about whether I agree with him or not. His behavior is concerning and even his fans have peeled away as he spiraled into an obvious social media addiction and childish banter unbecoming of a CEO.

It has always been OK to vote with your wallet. Sadly, we can’t “write off” Elon Musk because he simply won’t go away. The best we can do is take our money elsewhere and invest in more stable and trustworthy leaders

So your big complaint about the guy who significantly contributed to online payments existing, created the electric car market (and has the most advanced electric car to date that is actually profitable per unit and dragging the rest of the car industry into the 21st century), cut space launch costs to single digit percent of previous costs (and is trying to do that one more time with starship) is that you don't like the amount of things or how he says things on the internet? You aren't really convincing me anything I said was incorrect here. You are indeed free to vote with your wallet, at least in business areas he hasn't dominated so completely as to be the only option (i.e. things other than going to orbit for now).

Not the OP, but his past (very significant!) achievements doesn't excuse him for present or future behaviour.

But what specific behaviour? I went and looked at his last couple days of X posts before posting my second comment and I see a lot of things posted. I see lots of blunt language and opinions that "lefties" would not like but are not mental illness. They were said in a blunt format that hints at some autistic/ADHD traits, but almost certainly not enough for anywhere near an actual diagnosis. So tieing this all back around, saying things you don't like and/or in a way you don't like about issues you feel strongly on does not a mental illness make and I'm extremely tired of this trend to claim that. It's the kinder (so far), gentler (so far) version of othering so that one does not need to think of someone as a human being as one does horrible things to them that is pretty common throughout human history.

He self-sabotaged himself and employees of Twitter by telling advertisers to fuck themselves like a flustered thirteen year old. He has a very obvious personality disorder around rejection and not being seen as the smartest person in a room. He said he knew more about manufacturing than anyone in the world. He’s not just a megalomaniac, he’s unable to perceive reality. He lies over and over about his businesses and about his political ambitions. He is erratic, capricious, and vindictive. Something is clearly not right.

Tangent: Is this blogger (Lambert) stilled contractually owed a next-gen Tesla Roadster, as his affiliate reward for his lifetime number of Tesla purchase referrals? Or has that fallen apart in some way? He was a pro-Tesla superfan turned Tesla-skeptic blogger-journalist—I imagine he's near the top of that Tesla CEO's blacklist now, and I'm really curious how the extreme personal animosity intersects with (what I understand to have been) contractual obligations on Tesla's part.

I haven't followed this story in years.

I doubt it. Elon seems to be operating from Trump's "what the fuck are they gonna do about it?" playbook. To be fair, this playbook works really well if you have enough money to just pay lawyers to run interference for you 24 hours a day.

I'm aware of that reputation—that's precisely why I'm curious!

I divested too, last May. I was really hoping there would be a "Fire Elon" movement to save the company and all the heroes that made it such a success. Nobody else in the world could get away with keeping their job while basically:

- Not showing up for work - Working several other jobs simultaneously - Rigging their pay through scandalous board manipulation (embezzlement) - Alienating the core set of customers - Threatening to move future innovations to competing companies

I love my two cars, and I'm sad for state of the company. They should fire Elon, then file suit to take back what he stole.

From the author's point of view, one of the key issues is that Musk unilaterally terminated all employees' stock options, but spent tens of millions of dollars of shareholder money to argue that he (and he alone) should be given tens of billions worth of stock options despite his unilateral value destruction and multiple breaches of his fiduciary duties to the other shareholders.

Think about it from a talent acquisition standpoint as well - without Tesla's stock compensation, it's pay isn't that much more impressive than other companies (both EV and non-EV).

There are a lot of R&D labs now in the Bay Area touching various different parts of new mobility, and for the truly talented individuals, stock compensation is a major differentiator.

In addition, a lot of Tesla alums did leave for EV competitors or future competitors in the US, Europe, and Asia.

“Musk unilaterally terminated all employees' stock options”

Is that an accurate description of what happened?

Imo, it's going to get bad for Tesla in the next 5-7 years - Tesla doesn't own the underlying battery IP by leveraging Panasonic who also sells to domestic and international competitors, will lose charging as a differentiating factor now that the charging team was canned and Cheveron and Shell Ventures are entering the fray, and doesn't have a pipeline of heavy trucks just when Daimler entered the fray.

Self driving (Deepscale) might be their only differentiating factor, but even then that market would get commoditized within a decade just like EVs, and both GM (Cruise) and Alphabet (Waymo) could be first-to-market in the US.

In addition, a lot of Tesla alums have left for EV competitors or future competitors in the US, Europe, and Asia due to compensation shenanigans as mentioned in the article.

Also some of the Chinese competition is getting crazy good like this thing - a Xpeng similar to a model 3 for $17k in China https://youtu.be/ci5b3GgK7OA

Why is this flagged? I thought the topic was relevant, especially about how compensation may influence a company's culture and performance.

Probably because many of the comments are just emotional, nothing interesting or informative to read.

Memelord Mc. Musk's downfall.

"Forgot to say one thing at Tesla annual shareholders meeting: just as my money was the first in, it will be the last out."

- Impulsive Child, CEO and Visionary, Elon Musk (2013)

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