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Comment by alex_c | Hacker News Reader

A Twitter message is a publicity stunt, not a sincere offer for help. I'm sure Elon knows the right people to contact at Boeing directly if he really wants to work something out.

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Aside from which, it would be a cold day in hell before Boeing took him up on this. A highly publicized left turn to an outside team, to re-do portions of a decades-long, $32 billion R&D program, which has already entered passenger service and is supposed to be completely safe? I can't even begin to fathom the PR shitstorm that would result from that.

Really? You have a problem with LiIon batteries and you get help from the best electric car company in the world? It's called consulting. It happens all the time. I don't see the public giving a shit.

I think what the OP is trying to point out is that this would be seen as an "oh shit we don't know what went wrong" consulting job rather than a "we knew we weren't good at this from the start, so we contracted out to another company who was" job. They've already implicitly asserted that they knew what they were doing by putting the batteries into a certified plane, so this would likely be construed as an emergency cry for help.

Also, most of the time the use of consultants isn't publicized - taking help from Elon Musk would no doubt be broadcast heavily by the media, and most likely not in a positive light.

"get help from the best electric car company in the world"

Tesla has revenue of 200m/yr. At this rate, it'll be 160 years before Tesla pulls in revenue equal to the R&D on this plane.

Tesla doesn't even manufacturer their own batteries.

Boeing doesn't need to go ask Tesla for help, they can buy the company with the change in their pocket if they thought there was anything there of value to them.

This is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

Did I already mention that Tesla does not manufacturer their own batteries.

Careful with your years. Teslas 2012 revenue will break $400mil. 2013 will likely break $1bil.

Aren't those the numbers that were released back in september? When they cut their revenue forecast from 600m to 400m?

Tesla hasn't released any numbers for 2012 yet.. so unless you work there, you have no idea if they will break 400m for 2012. And even if you do work there, 1b for 2013 is pure speculation on your part.

Or he could be looking at public guidance given by the company or estimates from wall st. The estimate avg for 2012 is 402 mil. The avg for 2013 is 1.6 bil, with a low estimate of 1.4 bil. I'd say he's perfectly reasonable, and you are being rude and unpleasant.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ae?s=TSLA+Analyst+Estimates

So you're saying that because analysts on wall street say they'll make 1.4b in 2013, then it's not speculation? Sure.

But isn't that the basis of the stock market? Analysts estimate and the CEO executes to meet or exceed those expectations. Are you just skeptical of Tesla meeting those expectations or all companies that are public? Do you have information that the Analysts don't have access to as the basis of your skepticism?

it is the basis of the stock market, but that doesn't make rgbrenner statement ("this is only speculation") less true

It is a highly educated guess. The point is that he didn't just pull the number out of his ass. Clearly nobody knows the future for certain, and there isn't any way to know exactly how much revenue they are going to have in 2013, but using company guidance and analyst estimates seems like a pretty good starting point.

  2012 Tesla revenue
  Q1 30m
  Q2 27m
  Q3 50m

So you're saying that in q4, they will post 293m in revenue? Wow, that's some impressive BS you're willing to believe.

http://news.investors.com/business/050912-610645-tesla-motor...

http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/25/tesla-motors-q2-revenue-mod...

http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/05/tesla-q3-2012-earnings/

Allegedly JP Morgan estimates $275.5M, and this analyst describes that as "tepid".

http://seekingalpha.com/article/1072761-the-true-genius-of-t...

In fact, even the articles you link all point to a plan that involves $400M revenue for the year, and each article indicates that they're on-plan. Of course, the plan COULD be wrong, and it could be deceitfully wrong, but it seems utterly plausible, and apparently all analysts agree (within say 10%).

And also you're being needlessly rude.

3.000 cars at $80.000,00 = 240m. Their initial estimate was 5k deliveries in the quarter.

"This is nothing more than a publicity stunt."

Agree and also cocky hubris as well. As if to imply that Boeing doesn't have capable people coming from someone who while certainly has had his achievements doesn't have that long of a history. 787 was a huge "bet the company" type undertaking. It's a black eye but they will fix it. Nobody can accuse Boeing as a company of just being lucky either with their history.

Not necessarily. Even if you're Elon Musk, unless you already know the direct number of just the right person to contact going about it publicly might be the fastest way of doing it, otherwise you end up having to go through layers of intermediaries.

Google it :D

Lori Gunter 787 Program Communications Manager 425-266-6256 loretta.m.gunter@boeing.com

Larry Loftis 787 General Manager (I don't have his confirmed information)

425... I miss Redmond...

I see it as being more on Boeing to initiate official correspondence if they want the help. Elon is just casually letting them know that they would be receptive to such a request.

Right, and as the poster above is saying, if he actually wanted to help, he would contact Boeing. If he wanted publicity, he would make a tweet offering help.

You realize Boeing is part of United Launch Alliance who has taken shots at SpaceX recently, right?

What's not to say that he did that also?

Dreamliner customers got a choice of GE or Rolls Royce for the engines.

Would there be anything unreasonable about Boeing also giving their customers a choice of Thales/Yuasa or Tesla/Panasonic?

If a Boeing customer has been informally talking with both Tesla, and their Boeing sales rep, and the Boeing sales rep thinks it's unlikely Tesla would be willing to help out, is it possible that a tweet like this would help the Boeing customer to get useful conversations going within Boeing?

Exactly. Words are cheap.

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