> Tesla came from nowhere, developed essentially one world-dominating product (lumping the 3 and Y together), then the CEO basically ruined everything.
It seems strange to attribute only the fall -- and not the rise -- to the CEO
It seems strange to attribute only the fall -- and not the rise -- to the CEO
I’m staunchly anti-Elon, but anyone who’s not giving him his due or acknowledging his very real successes before pointing out what a knob is he is not arguing soundly.
Elon Musk is a great businessman and develops great products for general consumers. There is not much wrong with him other than his online persona... which most normal people can ignore. He's probably more normal than any other business leader.
What's weird is people lumping in some of Elon's actions with falls in Tesla sales as if he didn't:
1. Predict it
2. Gift the whole world the motivation to do it
I don't care about Elon Musk. He's a good businessman and a weird personality. But it doesn't take a genius to realise that he can't lead a winning product unchallenged, forever.
The only thing he's great at is creating the illusion of genius.
He didn't found Tesla, despite his title. He's not an engineer at SpaceX, despite his title. He spent 44 billion on Twitter which is most certainly losing money hand over fist. The Boring Company is a flop. Tesla is famously anything but a car company because their cars are mediocre in every way except the battery range.
SpaceX is his only real success, but then again SpaceX only succeeded because of massive government funding, which Elon would happily decry as communism if the money went to anyone else.
He's not a genius and not a particularly good businessman. He's just a normie with Daddy's emerald mine money, who got lucky with a large severance package when he was fired from Paypal for being terrible, and now uses his wealth to create a cult of personality.
I can't say that I'm a big fan of this guy... But I can tell you this: I learned to drive only after moving to the U.S. recently, and when I had to choose my first car, I found Tesla to be the best among many I tried. It's just awesome, and I don't even use their FSD, the car itself is superb (at least the latest "3"). Minimalistic, no BS, drives well, quiet, comfortable. The same feeling I had with the first iPhone, compared to other phones.
What about his support of Trump, his direct involvement with the US government via Doge, and lying about widespread election fraud?
Elon is a loser socially and that's about it.
Turns out nazi salutes don't make one popular here in Europe.