Live data from Hacker News

Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

bloomberg.com

51–60 of 307 posts

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#51
post #7

IMO, they should fire musk, slow down their blue-sky research projects, rip autopilot out of the cars, and just build "boring" luxury electric cars with huge profit margins and rake in cash.

I don't think they should fire him, but he should most definately do the un-american thing: work a sane amount of hours and go on vacation every now and then.

I completely agree with this.

I feel him taking some time off and easing off would benefit everybody. He is known for his super focused and driven way of work, and as he himself said:

“If other people are putting in 40 hour workweeks and you’re putting in 100 hour workweeks, then even if you’re doing the same thing … you will achieve in four months what it takes them a year to achieve.”

But he is only human, not a robot (to the best of my knowledge), and sleeping under the desk in the factory overworked will stress out everybody and the people in their close environment no matter how logical-thinking person you are. Building your company in a constant fight-or-flight mode is a disaster in the making.

Balance is important. For the sake of sanity, health and actual productivity.

Although this is completely anecdotal, I had a similar "100 hour never stop working" approach with my initial start-up ventures (obviously not of the scale of Tesla or SpaceX) which ended up me destroying my personal relationships and I cannot say my productivity was off the roof.

Then I slowly transitioned into having a proper balanced day, with exercise, meditation and PROPER time off. Also having healthy work habits inspired a lot by Learning How to Learn (popular MOOC on coursera) and work by Cal Newport ( Deep Work ) with a sprinkle of org-mode here and there.

I have to say that first time in my life, I feel happy, fulfilled and proud of my "weekly output"

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think they should fire him, but he should most definately do the un-american thing: work a sane amount of hours and go on vacation every now and then.

I don't care how much he works, but he's gotta do something about his thin skin and incompetence with the media.

Not everyone expect an industry leader to fake a persona in public so as to appear like the media want them to.

Wall Street might want that but hey, who cares?

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#53

And their Chief People Officer, is not coming back from her leave. From the outside it looks like Telsa is about going to go into a tough winter like moment. They are almost losing by winning. They are at capacity in their Fremont factory but still not making a profit. They need to start designing and building out manufacturing facilities for their next car and the help bolster Model X manufacturing. Stop and think f…

> they have about a year of cash runway left( optimistically) Much less than that actually. At their current burn rate they won't even be making it to the end of this year without either selling enough M3 to generate some real cash, or by raising some new money from the market. Also, they have a lot of debt come due next year (and even more over the following years) while yields are up to over 8%. However, M3 product…

They're also going to sell somewhere between $100 and $200 million in ZEV credits this quarter.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#54

And their Chief People Officer, is not coming back from her leave. From the outside it looks like Telsa is about going to go into a tough winter like moment. They are almost losing by winning. They are at capacity in their Fremont factory but still not making a profit. They need to start designing and building out manufacturing facilities for their next car and the help bolster Model X manufacturing. Stop and think f…

With their current production rate they have 11 billion in revenue from the Model 3 alone.

They guidance suggest they should be profitable this quarter because as of right now they are hitting their production target.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#55
post #28

I'm not losing optimism because of this. Musk fits right into the current political & cultural trajectory and the Tesla brand is sleek & timeless. The media is framing Musk's flaws (Twitter insults, weed & booze) as a bad thing, but outside of the media, people do not care about such things nearly as much. It just requires a few years of optimization and the cars are going to be en par with established brands.

Talk about gaslighting yourself. If you are not recoginizing that something fishy is going on at tesla you are not reading the same articles as the rest of us.

It doesn't seem anymore fishy than a lot of software/IT companies. Tesla is designed to produce a product not necessarily for profit. CFOs, like most corporate execs, are more concerned about money than philosophy. Musk thinks he is/can change the world. He's not concerned with how much he can profit.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#56
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a friend who bought a Tesla and is now asking for a buy-back. His experience has convinced me the negative hype isn't all just shorts propagandizing and "Musk fatigue." This company has huge, huge problems. When he first got the Tesla it had huge body panel alignment problems. Eventually these were fixed, but it took too long and was difficult to get Tesla to fully acknowledge them. After that he had a range o…

>After that he had a range of little annoying problems, many of which were likely software bugs, but then he (actually his GF) experienced something in autopilot mode known on the Tesla forums as "shadow braking" -- the car braking hard on the highway because it seems to see the shadow of an overpass and think it's a wall. This is extremely dangerous. It was on the I-405 (SoCal) going 70-80mph, and such a thing could…

It's been an overall bad experience. Here's a rough chronology:

(1) Serious and clearly visible body panel alignment issues. They got fixed, but it took a while and Tesla didn't have a loaner car. There was also a scratch on the car when it was delivered.

(2) Door handles not extending. This problem occurred multiple times. The first "fix" was to reboot the computer.

(3) A whole host of software bugs including constant apparently false (according to Tesla) warnings about suspension problems, inability to pair with Bluetooth devices, UI glitches, inability to lock the car (turned out this was a 'feature' but one with no documentation and no UI feedback), etc.

(4) Dangerous autopilot failure modes.

The car's drive train is indeed excellent. It accelerates great, has great range, and performs and drives well. The rest of the car however is really problematic.

The big thing causing him to want to return the car is that Tesla service has apparently been less than helpful and evasive. It's been back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... The dangerous failure modes in the autopilot are the brick that broke the camel's back.

He said he's been many times more patient than Tesla than he would have been with any other car company because he like me believes in what Tesla is trying to do.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk is truly visionary. But that doesn't dictate success. > It just requires a few years of optimization and the cars are going to be en par with established brands. The world is littered with visionary companies that paved the way for new technology but ultimately failed themselves. "A few years of optimization" gravely undervalues the complexity of modern auto manufacturing. I will concede that it's astonishing th…

I don't think he's visionary. We all want to play with rockets and electric cars. He just happens to have enough money to go out and do it.

Then why is Musk (and Bezos with Blue Origin) the only ones who have done so? There are a lot of people who have more money than Musk had when he founded SpaceX and Tesla.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#58
post #7

IMO, they should fire musk, slow down their blue-sky research projects, rip autopilot out of the cars, and just build "boring" luxury electric cars with huge profit margins and rake in cash.

This. A million times this. When a Tesla was $100,000 it was a status symbol. Seeing one on the road was cool and novel, like seeing a Maserati. Flooding the streets with Tesla is hurting that brand and causing the company to burn cash.

You’re in the SF bubble, my friend.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#59
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Talk about gaslighting yourself. If you are not recoginizing that something fishy is going on at tesla you are not reading the same articles as the rest of us.

It doesn't seem anymore fishy than a lot of software/IT companies. Tesla is designed to produce a product not necessarily for profit. CFOs, like most corporate execs, are more concerned about money than philosophy. Musk thinks he is/can change the world. He's not concerned with how much he can profit.

Can't complain about any of that if you're a public company.

Re: Tesla Accounting Chief, HR Head Resign on the Same Day; Stock Plunges

#60
post #7

IMO, they should fire musk, slow down their blue-sky research projects, rip autopilot out of the cars, and just build "boring" luxury electric cars with huge profit margins and rake in cash.

Here’s a reminder of what this company is about: https://www.tesla.com/about
Post reply on HN