Elon Musk / Tesla Deathwatch

They're so popular in LA. Everyone fucking has one. It's crazy. I saw three in a row, all the same model and color, on Santa Monica Blvd near Century City.

That's the thing - I really want them to succeed too! They look great and assuming the autopilot mode can be made not to run into things, have some pretty neat technology behind them.

But at the same time, I really dislike egomanical assholes like Musk - however I don't think you can be a successful CEO in America without being a narcissistic sociopath.

I don't care about Grimes anymore, because of him.

Some automotive engineers in Detroit deconstructed a Model 3. They found the electronics quite advanced. The rest of the car was pretty primitive, from a manufacturing point of view, particularly the welds which were old and outdated.

r4 I read somewhere that he's learning a lot of the things the big automakers already know. I think he tried to automate too much too soon and while I think the big automakers could learn something from him, he went too far in the "everything we know is wrong" direction. Still, once he learns the lessons, I assume the cars will be better because of it.

As Visionaries For Our Times go, he’s a bit of a disappointment. Lots of talk without much substance. I’m critical of his plans for the LA tunnels. Really, what has he accomplishes outside of the not very revolutionary Tesla?

What happened to his face? He looks scary.

Dear Lord in Heaven! Is there no end to her suffering?

Musk is bit like a modern-day PT Barnum. He mostly sells snake oil to credulous fools. (Colonising Mars? Forty-minute commutes to any country in the world?)

That said, contra R6, the Tesla was a truly revolutionary invention and it's a huge shame that it looks like it will fail. I live in a small country town 45 minutes north of Melbourne and I've seen two Teslas here in the last week. There is clearly a market for a mass-produced electronic car. We are almost at peak oil, so someone has to step up and change the game.

It's just too bad that Musk is so detached from reality. For a start, he believes that we are living in a computer simulation, and is secretly funding research to 'prove' it.

His problems appear to be in mass production - but he was going to revolutionize that too, with the fully automated factory. I think that's where most of his problems are coming from. He was going to make the factory fully automatic and then resell the designs to make anything. The problems that have cropped up with the Tesla technology itself are relatively minor and can be fixed, but the major issue that seems to be annoying shareholders is the production one - units per month or whatever. And Musk is frustrated about that and not being able to make everything work like he wants it, so he's lashing out at reporters that are asking him for the actual legitimate figures and numbers.

I had a boss like this once - I'm sure we all have - he was a great salesman, but if you pressed him for specifics, he'd usually make them up off the top of his head. He often didn't check at all. It was only when he started trying to get bids from bigger companies that were calling for actual numbers, provable, that he got showed to be the fraud he was. He tried making the numbers up, they asked for proof, and he made up some of the proof. They realized the proof had been faked and cancelled the huge contract. He tried blaming it on other things, and he never admitted the real reason to the rest of the company, but enough of us knew what it was that it just caused everyone to lose faith in him.

Cars built by hand, fires that turned a paint sprayer into a flamethrower, rampant quality problems, and a bloated workforce plague the factory, the insiders say. That’s on top of an injury rate that Reveal News reports is higher than the industry average, with shocking examples. These interconnected symptoms of Tesla’s “production hell” raise questions about the company’s entire approach to manufacturing, which diverges significantly from the auto industry’s practices that have been honed over decades.

The sources requested anonymity to speak because of Tesla’s history of trying to catch leakers, including once reportedly leaving a “fingerprint” in memos to find who divulged them to the press.

That's the problem, R5: "Still, once he learns the lessons, I assume the cars will be better because of it."

That must also assume the money lasts until he learns those lessons and the way he's burning through bucks w/o coming anywhere close to projected production of the Model 3 (for all intents and purposes a year behind) meaning making money from sales coming in, he's going to have to go begging in the markets and they seem to have backed off the "Greater Fool" theory of valuing his auto enterprise by now.

That and he's a nasty piece of work personally and a lying sack of shit professionally and sadly, as someone mentioned above, that's what it takes these days.

Not Model 3's, but three friends who have the older more expensive model that's $75-100K tell me they remind them of 1970's GM products in terms of build quality and reliability. Lovely to look at but not quite so lovely to own. That alone keeps me from considering one.

[quote]I read somewhere that he's learning a lot of the things the big automakers already know. I think he tried to automate too much too soon and while I think the big automakers could learn something from him, he went too far in the "everything we know is wrong" direction. Still, once he learns the lessons, I assume the cars will be better because of it.

Then a partnership with one of the big automakers makes sense.

JFK once said that the fun part of being president is that you get to meet everyone, including the movers and shakers, all who he found to be patently second rate.

Musk seems like a second rate person. Anyway, the Chinese took American technology and have cornered the market on electric cars.

Musk should bring in a CEO with an excellent record of execution. Musk should then work as president and executive chairman.

I can’t see the board supporting him through the year unless he does this.

He's definitely losing control of the media narrative.

Dun dun DUN!!!!

---

Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk was bombarded with hundreds of questions from fans via Twitter — along with declarations of adoration and the occasional aspersions — ahead of the company’s annual shareholder meeting on June 5th.

The questions ran the gamut: Will Tesla create an electric microbus? Will it participate in the Formula E all-electric race? Will there be a Tesla motorcycle? How about an electric barbecue that plugs into your Tesla vehicle? "Amid the swirl of idealism, it’s easy to forget the present-day problems "

Whether these quixotic questions are answered doesn’t really matter, although it’s likely that some will be. Musk has shown an affinity for questions that focus on Tesla’s future rather than its present. Tesla’s annual shareholder meetings have historically delivered informational nuggets on existing products and plans for new ones — much to the delight of its base of true believers. The meeting is scheduled for 2:30PM PT on Tuesday at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California.

Amid the swirl of idealism and support for Musk and his vision, it’s easy to forget the present-day problems the company is facing. Tesla must resolve manufacturing problems and ramp up production of its Model 3 electric vehicle without compromising on quality or worker safety if it hopes to deliver on its many other plans, which include a Class 8 heavy truck, next-generation Roadster, solar roofs, and self-driving cars.

...

Uh oh, the car's autopilot steered the car towards the barrier, not the human:

Is he Aspergers?

Oh no!

Why doesn't he focus on one or two product lines, and nail down the technology and fit & finish on those first, and file away Mars, the tunnel, and the bus until after he proves his cars retain a high quality five and ten years down the road? As it is, he seems all over the place.

If he were a woman they'd say he was "flighty."

Because he's better at "envisioning" ideas instead of implementing them - that's what he enjoys doing. So he spawns new businesses and ideas but doesn't finish them very well.

R22 Because doing so will not inflate his grandiosity to the same extent that a new product line idea a day will. Fuck anyone who buys the cars - this is not all - but a lot if not mostly - about Elon feeding Elon's ego.

It's funny: Henry Ford was more than a little odd from the start and increasingly so as he aged, but he built his empire first before he went round the bend with the Peace Ship, the Jews, soybeans, Fordlandia, the bankers, and so on. Elon wants to do more (and take credit for it) with less.

The only Tesla I acknowledge. I wonder what he would've thought of Musk.

r25 Have any of my fellow eldergays had him?

The stock has been on fire lately so he’s doing something right.

R26, no darling, he hated to be touched. Hated pearls, too. Loved pigeons. Could you work with that?

Mary McCormack is NOT pleased!

Tesla on Fire.

MARY! Your husband is a flamer!

Dear Lord in Heaven!

That last name though...

It always reminds me of an old Nichols and May routine (yes, I'm old) where he played an interviewer, and she was some airhead starlet named "Barbara Musk."

Taking existing technology and producing it in sweatshop conditions is not innovation, it is Jewish.

I thought the flamethrowers were a separate product?

Now he's got the "sabotage" thing going. (email to employees with words to the effect that "saboteurs are among us") It's possible - no doubt he's pissed enough people off so maybe one of them did export some code and turn the paint machines into flamethrowers - but how likely might that be?

This morning it was taunting shorts on the stock. Doesn't the guy have a business to run?

Real or not, it's a great excuse for not meeting his stated goal for 5,000 units of consistent Model C production two weeks from now.

R37

If shorts weren’t so expensive I’d be swimming in them.

Even betting at $10/share next year is relatively expensive.

His questionable public commentary will come back hard.

Some news organization is going to get an undercover agent inside that “Hell” facility. When they show proof that they are assembling them BY HAND it will be over.

I forgot to mention this but I had a great conversation with a friend who lives in a nice community in Greensboro North Carolina. Several neighbors have teslas and he is an environmentalist – pretty hard-core. He has made it his mission to remind them that almost all of the “green energy” they are using is 40% coal and that transmission loss over the cables makes their cars more polluting than a typical VW with the engine “cheat” against the EPA fatwa.

He’s a former VW engineer.

When you plug yuor Tesla into one if the charging stations that are now popping up around the nation, how does one pay and what is the rate?

$/W?

Guess who subsidizes every car they make? The US taxpayer! We’re all paying for wealthy people to own the latest iCar.

"He has had sufficient"

"We’re all paying for wealthy people to own the latest iCar. "

One could make a case that we're all subsidizing Chevy, CMG, Buick, Cadillac, Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler cars/trucks/SUV's since we bailed GM and Chrysler out of bankruptcy.

R43 I agree... and the Banks. They should’ve all gone under in 2008.

r43, and r44, they paid us back.

R45

Are you really that stupid?

Not sure about the banks, but the auto companies did, yes.

He needs to change his name. Sounds like a really cheap cologne or incense you find in a dollar store.

[bold]Elon Musk races to exit Tesla's 'production hell'[/bold]

As Elon's executives race to exit Tesla and the battery factory

As he talked about “the machine that builds the machine” and envisioning a people-free factory that could churn out cars at a rate only slowed by air resistance.

As the robots bang into each other

As they hand-make parts

As they started a production line in a "very large tent"

As Elon sleeps under his desk at the factory

"For all his success, Mr. Musk can be his own worst enemy, setting unrealistic expectations publicly and at times displaying an erratic management style that add to Tesla’s challenges, say investors, former Tesla executives and close observers."

Fresh off his rant at people being mean to him over his stupid tube coffin suggestion. I love the trolling the Guardian is giving him with their photo choice.

r50 His media strategy is increasingly Trumpian: double down on being entitled and an arrogant dick. Now do it again.

He's trying to hijack the kids narrative and is now playing the victim card. That is indeed Trumpian.

Not much longer-

Calling the hero of Thailand was the end.

Dun dun dun!

Tesla shares drop after embarrassing memo leaks

Shares dropped almost 5% after the automaker was reported to have asked US suppliers for refunds, unnerving some investors

Telsa took another financial hit on Monday, with shares in the company dropping almost 5% after the electric automaker was reported to have asked some US suppliers to return payments to the money-losing company.

The disclosure was contained in a memo sent last week by a global supply manager and obtained by the Wall Street Journal. In it, the manager described the payments as essential to Tesla’s operation. Farting unicorn row: artist reaches settlement with Elon Musk Read more

The leak came soon after Tesla announced it was cutting several thousand jobs as part of an effort to reduce costs. Tesla has been burning through cash at a rate of about $1bn a quarter, or more than $7,430 every minute, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, and finished the first quarter with $2.7bn in cash on hand.

The company’s rapidly weakening cash position has spooked investors, and comes despite the claims of founder Elon Musk that Tesla is now a “real” carmaker after hitting a weekly goal of producing more than 5,000 mass-market Model 3s, the rate of production that the manufacturer hopes will turn the company’s economic position around.

The company has asked for an undisclosed rebate on money it has spent on suppliers since 2016.

After the memo was leaked over the weekend, Musk tweeted: “Only costs that actually apply to Q3 & beyond will be counted. It would not be correct to apply historical cost savings to current quarter.”

Still, industry analysts said it is unusual for automakers to request refunds for two previous years, as Tesla has demanded. “This is troubling for us to hear,” said Morningstar analyst David Whiston in a note to clients.

He should keep his face close-shaven. He grows facial hair like a FtM tranny

Why are these billionaire attention-seekers so fucking ugly? Musk, Zuckerberg, Thiel. I’m sick of seeing their ugly mugs all over the place

[bold]Tesla troll and short doxxed as heavily invested in oil industry, Musk reportedly calls his boss[/bold]

[quote]One of Tesla’s biggest anonymous trolls/shorts has been doxxed as an investment manager heavily invested in the oil industry. We are talking about ‘Montana Skeptic’ who has been using Seeking Alpha, a financial blog aggregator, and Twitter to push the bear case on Tesla for the past 3 years. He also used the platforms to send insults and attacks to Tesla bulls, bloggers, YouTubers, and reporters discussing anything that he saw as potentially being positive for Tesla.

[quote]But now that his real identity has been revealed to be Larry Fossi, a managing director at Rahr Enterprise, which is reportedly heavily invested in oil, we learn that his motivations could have originated from other reasons. Later, Fossi told his Twitter friends that he deleted his account because Musk called his boss at Rahr Enterprise to complain.

[quote]Interestingly, it comes after WSJ car reviewer Dan Neil reportedly deleted his Twitter account after he felt “attacked” on the social media by Tesla trolls and shorts, like Montana Skeptic, following his positive review of the Model 3.

Wouldn't surprise me if "Montana Sceptic" was trolling here on DL as well. These are the kind of unhinged lunatics in the pockets of the Koch brothers who are doing everything in their power to make this American company fail. I mean, the Chinese and us Europeans would be ecstatic if that were to happen because we'd just fill the void, but the US manufacturing sector? Not so much.

R57

Someone would have to be incredibly retarded to believe that. I just blocked you because you are too stupid to follow.

Tesla's Cash crunch, explained!

Tesla countersued by 'whistleblower' it accused of sabotage and shooting threat

Firm sued Martin Tripp after Elon Musk claimed the ex-technician had attacked Tesla computer systems

The Tesla “whistleblower” who was accused of sabotage has filed a counterclaim against Tesla and Elon Musk, arguing that his former employer defamed him when it told media outlets that he had threatened a mass shooting.

Martin Tripp, a former technician at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada, was sued by the electric car company on 20 June, just days after Musk had sent a company email stating that an employee had engaged in “quite extensive and damaging sabotage” against the company’s computer systems.

The lawsuit accused Tripp of hacking, theft, and making false claims to the media about punctured battery cells and excess scrap material.

Tripp fought back, telling reporters that he was not a saboteur, but a whistleblower who had leaked information to a reporter for Business Insider out of environmental and safety concerns.

In response to Tripp’s claim to be a whistleblower, Musk told the Guardian by email on the evening of 20 June that Tesla had “received a call at the Gigafactory that he was going to come back and shoot people”.

A good idea that was destroyed at the hands of a narcissist who needs to have adulation 24/7. It also doesn't help that the media propped him up without ever questioning him once. It happens all the time with entrepreneurs. It's almost as if being critical of one is forbidden in journalism. Josh Tetrick is another example.

Musk Personality issues aside, I am a highly satisfied customer. I am on my second Tesla Model S (yes, I have some bucks). It has turned a guy who didn’t especially care about cars into one who loves his wheels. The car is spectacular inside and out, a joy to drive, and I have not purchased an ounce of gas in 5 years. I have not had a major issue and the minor ones were resolved quickly and efficiently. The sales process both times was easy and efficient. The Automatic features work perfectly well if you use them properly, which many who have had accidents do not. Teslas do not have a rate of fires any higher than gasoline powered vehicles. Maybe it is because I am such a fan that I began to notice in my hometown paper, the LA Times, an increasing number of anti Tesla articles, especially by a guy named Russ Mitchell. It is like he has a personal vendetta. Anti Tesla articles appear almost daily, sometimes twice, even three times per issue in one case. Even positive news is twisted to highlight problems “as background.” I guess I’m wondering why? Is it all just to punish Musk, his ego and hubris? My suspicion is there is more than that. Big oil and Big Auto do not want the Tesla to succeed. I’m starting to think they are trying to destroy Musk as a means of keeping the car off the road, and reporters like Mitchell are aiding and abetting.

I’ve been trying for nearly 2 years to argue with some friends that Musk was unhinged. The current methods of creating batteries is far more ecologically destructive than oil extraction. Plus, physics that doesn’t include a nuclear component doesn’t really allow for battery powered cars that can mimic the recharge ability of gasoline powered cars. Emissions from cars has become almost nonexistent over the last two decades.

In the last 9 days I’ve had three of those people privately or publicly tell me that Tesla was a scam.

Gullible people are gullible. There’s a sucker born every minute. The clichés become cliché because they are cliché.

Just for shiggles, I also believe bitcoin is the AOL of the blockchain.

The transformation of banking is going to be frightening, ferocious and unpredictable except in the fact that it will happen. Fortunes will be lost and won.

And, just like the early Internet, it will eventually turn into porn and cat videos.

Finally, take a cursory look at the inside trading at Facebook. It will take two years before Zuckerberg gets fined a few billion dollars, and possibly serves a few months in prison, but I’m fairly certain it will happen. His congressional testimony was enough to make a professional CEO shit their pants.

up 9% after hours

Profit is actually making money. Tesla is burning over a million dollars every 11 hours.

Even the New York Times accurately characterized the investors conference call. Saying that profit is imminent isn’t the same thing is actually having profit.

-

Tesla recorded another huge loss last quarter and burned through hundreds of millions of dollars in cash as it ramped up production of its first mass-market model.

But the electric-car maker intends for that loss to be its last.

Tesla is about to turn the corner, Elon Musk, the chief executive, told analysts and investors on Wednesday during a conference call after the company announced its quarterly results.

“Our goal is to be profitable and cash-flow positive for every quarter going forward,” Mr. Musk said. Outside of a recession or major economic shock, the company is confident that it can reach that target, he said.

[quote]Saying that profit is imminent isn’t the same thing is actually having profit.

Thanks, captain obvious.

They are executing the plan and the only "investors" that will lose on this will be the idiots that shorted it. They are over the hump.

[quote]Just for shiggles, I also believe bitcoin is the AOL of the blockchain.

Blockchain is insane. Burning vast amounts of electricity to create expensive blocks of noise that have some kind of value someday if people are crazy enough. There simply is nothing there but buzzwords and hype. IT DOES NOT SCALE. It simply can not deal with more than a few transactions per second - ever. Banks need millions of transactions per second.

It's just tulip bulbs for Millennials.

R67 We shall see. I’m rooting for Tesla, despite Elon Musk, but I see it getting bought by another company for the technology. That company will kill off all the Musk crazy ideas.

The Tesla symbol is not a T, it's a goat head for the Baphomet.

Elon, hell will be hot!!!

I don’t think you understand the blockchain. Proof of stake systems are scalable.

Let’s revisit this thread when Q3 rolls around and Tesla is stilll burning money like cartoon super villain.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Tesla shorts are vindicated.

120-hour week:

‘The Devil’s Aspirin’:

"but I see it getting bought by another company for the technology."

Some Detroit engineers got a Tesla and deconstructed it. From a purely car manufacturing point of view, the car was primitive.

If the company is ever sold, better hope that technology brings in the big bucks because the manufacturing won't.

So many tears from little Elon 😭

R76

I doubt the patents are worth much, and the manufacturing facilities are pennies on the dollar. Both are probably worth a few hundred million dollars, nothing like the current $50B valuation.

The NYTimes interview was a joke. The SEC is fast tracking the investigation.

Tesla is just another scam created by Crony Capitalofascist insanity. There is absolutely nothing about tesla that is free market. The only time they have actually posted profits is from selling carbon credits. The technology for a long running, fast charging battery does not exist, and the laws of physics are not helping.

In the opening months of 2013, Tesla was just starting to plan deliveries for its Model S. At the time, the company was worth a mere $3.9 billion - just 7% of the value of Ford.

Since then, Tesla's value has skyrocketed to make it the most valued auto company in North America:

Despite only producing 76,230 vehicles in 2016, Tesla is now the biggest of the "Big 3" - and this puts a lot of pressure on the company to live up to the vast expectations held by investors and media.

THE SPECULATOR'S GAMBIT

With so much hype and value assigned to expectations of future performance, Tesla and its enthusiastic investors are in a potentially tough spot.

Even though it is the most valued car company in the United States, Tesla is much less impressive by more conventional metrics:

The company has just a fraction of the employees, vehicle deliveries, and revenue of its competitors. Tesla also treads a similar path to Amazon, in that it will likely take a while for the company to ever post a profit.

R79

When the value of Tesla reverts to the intrinsic value of zero, all the geniuses will still keep their offices and salaries, just in different companies.

Will Elon ever laugh again???

Today was just another in a long line of bad days.

$TSLA joke is about to hit the punchline.

When Tesla is worth $120-180 we will see.

R83

So, about a quarter of what the Markets value them.

Fossil fuel’s have a far higher density to power.

Electric cars are like play things that continue to fuck up.

Elon is being an ass again about the guy he called a pedo, from that Thailand kid cave thing. He seems like that insufferable relative who always has to be "technically" right.

Elon is asking why the guy hasn’t sued him yet.

Probably because Elon issued an apology statement already, or has he forgotten that?

R86

I’m wondering if the board of directors will be ejecting him.

Another high level employee left today. Same way that it happened with Lehman Brothers, and we know how that played out. I would place the future value of Tesla shares at $14.

Lololol

They tried! It seems like a lot of investors are convinced HE is the company. I bet he tried to push BlackRock out now.