Elon Musk had a meltdown during Tesla's Q1 earnings call.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: BotheLumberJack
That's not a valid answer.

Yeah, it is. Unicorns are mythical creatures and so is the 'right establishment'. No hands out, ever.

And what if You were to discover Unicorns were in fact 'unmythical'. What then?

originally posted by: MRinder
Plus I have never really understood why anyone would want an electric car. Who in the hell wants to wait hours for a car to recharge when you can buy a car that can be filled with gas in 5 or 10 minutes. Could you imagine taking a long trip in that thing? Every 200-300 miles (4-6 hrs of driving) you would have to stop for hours. I would lose my mind. So that means when you buy an electric car you have to own or rent a gas powered car to take any kind of long trip without losing your mind in the process.

A few weeks ago, we had some bad storms around here that knocked out power in our neighborhood for a few days. It did occur to me that if I owned an electric car, I wouldn't have been able to charge it, and could possibly end up getting stranded at home. Using the same power source for everything isn't necessarily a good idea.

originally posted by: BotheLumberJack
And what if You were to discover Unicorns were in fact 'unmythical'. What then?

I still wouldn't give the effing thing a penny.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: BotheLumberJack
And what if You were to discover Unicorns were in fact 'unmythical'. What then?

I still wouldn't give the effing thing a penny.

You realise that The Lion and the Unicorn are symbols of the United Kingdom, right.

originally posted by: AndyFromMichigan

A few weeks ago, we had some bad storms around here that knocked out power in our neighborhood for a few days. It did occur to me that if I owned an electric car, I wouldn't have been able to charge it, and could possibly end up getting stranded at home. Using the same power source for everything isn't necessarily a good idea.

That is a great point. I never thought about that. I see the sense in the hybrids and the Chevy Volt really made some sense. I am not sure why that didn't catch on better. I suppose it was the higher price tag.

originally posted by: BotheLumberJack
You realise that The Lion and the Unicorn are symbols of the United Kingdom, right.

And? Elon Musk is still a bad businessman.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: BotheLumberJack
You realise that The Lion and the Unicorn are symbols of the United Kingdom, right.

And? Elon Musk is still a bad businessman.

You didn't answer my question but thank you for the Elon Musk info. Im sure he's watching now and laughing.

Elon call me

originally posted by: MRinder
Elon Musk is his own worst enemy. He doesn't need someone to sabotage Tesla because he does a fine job of that himself. He constantly over promises and under delivers. He rarely (if ever) hits the production or sales targets he sets. He is all over the place. Digging tunnels, building spaceships, selling flame throwers, working on neural networking. I get that he is probably a genius, but even the best have to focus on a business until its profitable or at least has free cash flow. I think the best compromise would be to find someone a little more disciplined to be CEO.

Plus I have never really understood why anyone would want an electric car. Who in the hell wants to wait hours for a car to recharge when you can buy a car that can be filled with gas in 5 or 10 minutes. Could you imagine taking a long trip in that thing? Every 200-300 miles (4-6 hrs of driving) you would have to stop for hours. I would lose my mind. So that means when you buy an electric car you have to own or rent a gas powered car to take any kind of long trip without losing your mind in the process.

I think for electric cars to go mainstream they would need to be able to be charged from near empty to full in around 15 minutes. I am sure that one day someone will invent the ability to do just that but i don't think that day is anytime soon. Until then fully electric cars will just be a niche product for people who want to pretend they are carbon neutral and try to convince everyone that they are generating enough electricity from their solar roof to power a car or that electric companies make electric without burning fossil fuels.

99% of daily driving is less than 50 miles. Sure, there are some people who drive more, but the reality is that 99% of the public doesn't actually need more than about 100 miles of range on any given day. Teslas have a 200 mile range, far more than needed. For the few times that people do in fact drive more than 200 miles, we have this neat service called car rentals. The other reality is that electric cars are not usually the only car. Most households have two cars.

People keep asking for these unrealistic 500 mile ranges and charging in 10 minutes which is totally unnecessary for 99% of people. The car gets plugged in at night or at work and is ready to go.

Electric cars out perform gas engines in EVERY METRIC except range which statistically isn't even that important. Sure, you can't throw a fart can on and make some super loud grumbling exhaust to impress people. I bet you can just buy an app for that at some point. Most sports cars these days have fake exhaust noise anyway.

its not like they are actually making rockets or fabricating semiconductors. what they are doing, comparatively is easy.

just plain old mismanagement here.

a reply to: snarfbot

fuggit.nm.

originally posted by: snarfbot
its not like they are actually making rockets or fabricating semiconductors. what they are doing, comparatively is easy.

just plain old mismanagement here.

I beg to differ. Manufacturing a one off rocket and maintaining quality would be far easier than making thousands of complex cars. It is very difficult to manufacture thousands of cars and maintain quality.

It took Toyota decades extreme focus to get the reliability reputation they have. GE invested billions and extreme focus on their Six Sigma manufacturing / process techniques.

To be honest, I am surprised Tesla's are even as well made as they are given how short of time they've been a player. They will get better over time.

Electric cars are far more reliable than internal combustion cars as they have far fewer moving parts. Most electric stuff is probably programming gremlins moreso than component failures. It seems Tesla has more issues with supplier quality and putting the cars together (panel gaps, etc).

As far as I'm concerned as soon as he open sourced Tesla's intellectual property he forever put a flag in the ground as to his view of stockholders and earnings. His green energy dreams of solar on every house is awesome but also proves to be unprofitable. He'll just keep moving on with the next genius idea without a worry and continue to manage to get the government(taxpayer) to fund it.
s+f

a reply to: howmuch4another

NASA uses tax payer $.

a reply to: BotheLumberJack

Yes they do. And Apples grows from trees like Oranges. I remember the government creating NASA thus it follows taxpayer funding and it has been and will continue to be cut to a shell of its former self with what most of us would agree is a good thing "privatization" (ironic). An endeavor that Musks company SpaceX still couldn't achieve without billions in government funding let alone the actual service contracts. I know a ton of big companies are in that game (i.e. Boeing) but the ones that are public turn profits. His company Solar City also received billions from the government but lost hundred of millions to the bottom line. I admire his tenacity and crazy brilliance but I stand by my opinion of him and shareholders mostly because of his actions with Tesla and giving away value after selling shares. I still think it was borderline criminal.

Seems like it's open season on Musk... gee, I wonder why?

a reply to: howmuch4another

Yes they do. And Apples grows from trees like Oranges.

So you don't believe Nasa uses tax payer $?

Seriously don't you want anyone to succeed past what we're used to? I believe Musk has the balls to do this.

a reply to: BotheLumberJack

reread my post of course I do and of course I want Musk to succeed. But I also recognize he solely cost his shareholders a ton by devaluing his stock and mismanaging his business.

a reply to: howmuch4another

Ok.

originally posted by: NightFlight
I've always wondered if the oil companies were going to let him get away with building electric cars that are capable of running up to and more than 500 miles range. The batteries that his company designed have placed him in the cross-hairs of the big oil. Sure, his cars cost more, but think of the fuel savings. Electricity is much cheaper than gasoline. All one would have to worry about are tires, brakes and possibly wheel bearings.

Musk should have an internal audit of his company and find the oil companies saboteurs...

It isn't the oil companies. All the manufacturers are going electric and it's them that have the cross-hairs on Tesla. I give it three years before electric vehicles show up at regular consumer prices from the mainstream brands. The model 3 is nothing near affordable currently after adding a few desirable options. Meanwhile, the luxury brands will have their own electrics and that will be the end of the model S.

When the day comes that 85% or more of new vehicles are electric, the price of batteries will be what we discuss instead of the price of a barrel of oil. The Chinese, with their appetite for precious metals will be holding the cards. Not to mention, the environmental impact of building and discarding batteries. We'll go from one polluted air to polluted ground and water.

originally posted by: Edumakated

originally posted by: Woodcarver
a reply to: AndyFromMichigan

I think some groups of people are working against him to devalue the business so they can buy it for pennies on the dollar. He was not ready for the politics involved in an endeaver like changing the world.

That would make a good movie...

Saboteurs set up situations to get a few drivers killed using auto-pilot. Paying off politicians to stifle Tesla's lack of dealerships. Inflating battery costs.

I can see all kinds of ways to subtly hurt the company indirectly.

I will totally watch that. I want it to star George Clooney and only cast actors that have previously been in George Clooney movies so that it is an amalgamation of every movie George Clooney has ever made. It will be the best movie ever produced or conceived and complete the genre of Geo political suspense action thrillers with a feel good undertone.

It may sound like a joke, and it mostly was until I fully fleshed it out and realized it has serious appeal. We would all hate to love it, but we would love it. I would.