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Ask HN: Why do so many people want to see Tesla fail?

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Re: Ask HN: Why do so many people want to see Tesla fail?

#11

Post by 3327 »

_bxg1 wrote: post #4

Elon Musk is brash, impulsive, and overly self-confident. These qualities are what make some people follow him with a cult-like dedication, but they make many others want to see him fail. Personally I don't care about all that. He's not a great person. He's a bit obnoxious. But I think that from a purely technological standpoint, Tesla is having an important positive impact on civilization. So I want to see it succee…

Elon can be obnoxious- I cannot, you cannot, everyone you know should not. We all know obnoxious people and none of them currently are walking around landing rockets on earth are they? When they also do something as such, they can be obnoxious too. I think people being critical of Elon for being obnoxious - are actually obnoxious and are missing the big picture for personal traits of one of the greatest inventors of our lifetime. How about- Sit the fahk down and have popcorn while your car drives you to work while you (and everyone else) watch a falcon heavy auto-landing its boosters.

Re: Ask HN: Why do so many people want to see Tesla fail?

#13

Post by 7e »

Check your assumptions. Many people are simply calling out Elon Musk on his bullshit. He harms the whole cause. Personally, I dislike his hypocrisy around carbon offset credits. The way he sells them to polluters sets the whole world back a decade or more.

Re: Ask HN: Why do so many people want to see Tesla fail?

#14

Post by _bxg1 »

3327 wrote: post #11
_bxg1 wrote: post #4

Elon Musk is brash, impulsive, and overly self-confident. These qualities are what make some people follow him with a cult-like dedication, but they make many others want to see him fail. Personally I don't care about all that. He's not a great person. He's a bit obnoxious. But I think that from a purely technological standpoint, Tesla is having an important positive impact on civilization. So I want to see it succee…

Elon can be obnoxious- I cannot, you cannot, everyone you know should not. We all know obnoxious people and none of them currently are walking around landing rockets on earth are they? When they also do something as such, they can be obnoxious too. I think people being critical of Elon for being obnoxious - are actually obnoxious and are missing the big picture for personal traits of one of the greatest inventors of…

I wouldn't call him "an inventor". He only knows enough about the technical side of things to make business decisions. Here's what's made him uniquely successful:

- He was fortunate enough to be a founder of one of the dot-com boom's most successful companies, starting him out as an Insanely Rich Individual.

- He has a smart mind for business, when he uses it.

- He has a knack for envisioning products that aren't just incremental steps forward from what's out there, but multiple steps forward, and then unifying people smarter than him into implementing that vision (the "Steve Jobs effect").

He didn't invent rockets that can land themselves. He had the idea, figured out the business plan, and funded it with his piles of money. That's not nothing, but it doesn't make him Our Lord and Savior. And even if it did, that doesn't give someone a free pass on being a jerk to others (he hasn't been that big of a jerk, as billionaires go, but the principle remains).

Re: Ask HN: Why do so many people want to see Tesla fail?

#16

Post by gitgud »

3327 wrote: post #11
_bxg1 wrote: post #4

Elon Musk is brash, impulsive, and overly self-confident. These qualities are what make some people follow him with a cult-like dedication, but they make many others want to see him fail. Personally I don't care about all that. He's not a great person. He's a bit obnoxious. But I think that from a purely technological standpoint, Tesla is having an important positive impact on civilization. So I want to see it succee…

Elon can be obnoxious- I cannot, you cannot, everyone you know should not. We all know obnoxious people and none of them currently are walking around landing rockets on earth are they? When they also do something as such, they can be obnoxious too. I think people being critical of Elon for being obnoxious - are actually obnoxious and are missing the big picture for personal traits of one of the greatest inventors of…

Ironically, this seems to come off as obnoxious...

Re: Ask HN: Why do so many people want to see Tesla fail?

#17

Post by gitgud »

related topic: Elon's "Hyperloop" project has gained a lot of criticism too. Many [1] long video essays have been made to debunk why it's not a good invention.

Now the hype has died down considerably and it seems a lot of people have lost faith in the idea... maybe they're losing faith in all of Musk's ventures...

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNFesa01llk

Re: Ask HN: Why do so many people want to see Tesla fail?

#18

Post by gitgud »

_bxg1 wrote: post #14
3327 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon can be obnoxious- I cannot, you cannot, everyone you know should not. We all know obnoxious people and none of them currently are walking around landing rockets on earth are they? When they also do something as such, they can be obnoxious too. I think people being critical of Elon for being obnoxious - are actually obnoxious and are missing the big picture for personal traits of one of the greatest inventors of…

I wouldn't call him "an inventor". He only knows enough about the technical side of things to make business decisions. Here's what's made him uniquely successful: - He was fortunate enough to be a founder of one of the dot-com boom's most successful companies, starting him out as an Insanely Rich Individual. - He has a smart mind for business, when he uses it. - He has a knack for envisioning products that aren't jus…

I'm not a huge fan of Elon, mainly because he puts himself forward as a lone genius inventor, when in reality there's hundreds of engineering teams below him accomplishing his goals...

Re: Ask HN: Why do so many people want to see Tesla fail?

#19

Post by unityByFreedom »

Because they're wasting money that would be better allocated to companies with better leadership.

Pre-Musk, they had a decent model. Sell luxury EVs. Now, they can't make a profit and still call themselves a startup after 16 years. Meanwhile, Musk keeps promising more and delivering less.

Re: Ask HN: Why do so many people want to see Tesla fail?

#20

Post by unityByFreedom »

rmason wrote: post #6

People who short Tesla stock have become an industry. Tesla is a volatile stock and they've made seriously good money on the dips. So they have a vested interest in amplifying all bad news about Tesla. At times as some have commented Elon has been his own worst enemy. It's messy but he's inventing the future with Tesla and SpaceX. I've got a friend with a brand new Tesla. He took bets a while back on when the first f…

> People who short Tesla stock have become an industry. Tesla is a volatile stock and they've made seriously good money on the dips. So they have a vested interest in amplifying all bad news about Tesla.

Sounds like Ken Lay at Enron. He continued to blame shorts and the media even after bankruptcy and criminal conviction.

Enron wanted to convince people they were a low-risk cleaner-energy (natural gas) company. In reality, they were a high-risk trading venture, whose losses in non-trading business were covered up by trading gains. When they stopped making money on trading, everything fell apart in a matter of weeks.

> He drove the entire 3.9 mile stretch with one finger on the steering wheel to prove a point.

That's a very short distance. It is odd that Tesla doesn't report testing miles to California's DMV like every other self-driving venture. Waymo is at about 1 driver takeover per 10,000 miles. Tesla is nowhere near that, probably more like 1 takeover every 5 miles.

Odder still is Elon declining to release data backing up his statement that driving with AP on is twice as safe as driving with it off [1]. In his words,

> "I think reporting the details just gives those who are opposed to Tesla that might data mine the situation and try to turn a positive into a negative, ... so we're going to keep reporting the numbers at a broad brushstroke level"

In other words, he won't release data backing up his statement about AP being twice as safe because he thinks some people will use that data to show his statement is wrong.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqvatzjHGyk&t=47m17s

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