Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 248 posts

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#71

Post by Jach »

falcor84 wrote: post #45
bob33212 wrote: post #21

"when you are weak, the enemy should think you are strong, when you are strong the enemy should think you are weak" -The Art of War

Who is the enemy in this situation? I don't see how this applies to publicly traded companies.

So much this... There are texts written with military contexts in mind from which you can extrapolate non militaristic lessons (The Book of Five Rings, for instance). The Art of War is not one of them. It's not surprising to see it quoted a lot though. I'll leave with a quote from Naggum; whether one thinks it's fair to Gates matters less in this context than if there's agreement that the outlined problem exists:

"the problem I see is not that Bill Gates has shaped the world of useless trinkets in software, but has also managed to spread his competitiveness and his personal fear of losing to imaginary competitors to businesses and homes everywhere, so now everybody is _afraid_ of losing some battle which isn't happening, instead of getting about their own lives."

https://www.xach.com/naggum/articles/3141310154691952@naggum...

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#72

Post by aortega »

Traditional car companies must be damn scared to have to publish this FUD.

Tesla cannot be possibly dying out. Don't you see Tesla cars everywhere in the US? yes they are spending money, buying things to grow as they are so incredibly successful they cannot satisfy demand. Dying out? you make me laugh.

If you spend 10M dollars buying equipment that in a year is worth 100M dollars, you are not dying out.

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#73

Post by dylan604 »

jancsika wrote: post #43

Suppose you buy a Tesla and in 10 months they fold. Who then maintains the proprietary software that keeps the vehicle running?

Would this not be just like any other software that becomes abandon-ware? Use it if you want, but just know there's no recourse if it doesn't work. Also, this would be a good example of why right-to-repair should be allowed.

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#74

Post by unforeseen9991 »

Causality1 wrote: post #47

As far as I know Tesla is still stuck in the rut of trying to over-automate their production while spending more money for worse outcomes than just hiring human assemblers.

If they weren't already spread thin this would be a good investment, as they are learning and pushing the envelope. That's a valuable asset and could make a huge difference in long term.

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#75

Post by nathanaldensr »

aortega wrote: post #72

Traditional car companies must be damn scared to have to publish this FUD. Tesla cannot be possibly dying out. Don't you see Tesla cars everywhere in the US? yes they are spending money, buying things to grow as they are so incredibly successful they cannot satisfy demand. Dying out? you make me laugh. If you spend 10M dollars buying equipment that in a year is worth 100M dollars, you are not dying out.

No, I do not see Teslas everywhere in the US. In fact, I see the same brands I've seen forever: Fords, Chevys, Hondas, Toyotas, etc. etc. Tesla makes a niche product for a dedicated few. How is this debatable?

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#76

Post by nathanaldensr »

sergiotapia wrote: post #66

What happens to Tesla cars on the road if Tesla the company is gone? Who do the cars phone home to? Who can perform maintenance and repairs? Edit: Why did people downvote this question lol

What happens to online-connected video games when the servers go down?

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#77

Post by melling »

charlesdm wrote: post #24
whyenot wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your link is to what is represented as the authentic text of the memo. If genuine, to me, this seem like the most important bit: "It is important to bear in mind that we lost $700 million in the first quarter this year, which is over $200 million per month. Investors nonetheless were supportive of our efforts and agreed to give us $2.4 billion (our net proceeds) to show that we can be financially sustainable. That is…

> With relatively low gas prices at the moment, decreasing federal subsidies for electric cars, and more players entering the market, it seems like Tesla is in a pretty tough spot. Nothing you couldn't see coming 5 years ago, however.

6 months ago Musk said they would profitable going forward.

The trade war might be part of the problem. They need to get the Shanghai factory online.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/tesla-hurt-by-trade-war/

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#78

Post by Aeolun »

ajross wrote: post #49
Waterluvian wrote: post #36

Am I right to assume that if Tesla files for bankruptcy protection, all car deposits basically vanish? I assume there's miles of higher priority creditors lined up than consumers who paid a deposit. Do we have any sense of how many outstanding deposits there are still?

No. Bankruptcy isn't debt forgiveness. Buyers and the lawyers representing the class action suit would have a seat at the hearing and would be able to get in line for whatever is left. That said: come on, people, Tesla isn't filing for bankruptcy. There are hundreds to thousands of perfectly normal financing options available to run a company with revenues like this that will stretch a cash shortfall into a decades-l…

I think it’s more that I think there’s something fundamentally wrong about a company existing for 7+ years, spending billions and having yet to turn a profit.

It doesn’t really matter whether it is Tesla or Uber.

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#79

Post by Reason077 »

jancsika wrote: post #43

Suppose you buy a Tesla and in 10 months they fold. Who then maintains the proprietary software that keeps the vehicle running?

"Who then maintains the proprietary software that keeps the vehicle running?"

There are a number of Tesla vehicles out in the wild that for various reasons no longer connect to Tesla and do not receive over-the-air software updates. Some of them are running software versions that are now several years old.

Sure, they don't get the latest software features or UI design, but as a car they still work just fine.

Re: Musk to review all of Tesla's expenses in new cost cutting plan

#80

Post by mehrdadn »

ajross wrote: post #49
Waterluvian wrote: post #36

Am I right to assume that if Tesla files for bankruptcy protection, all car deposits basically vanish? I assume there's miles of higher priority creditors lined up than consumers who paid a deposit. Do we have any sense of how many outstanding deposits there are still?

No. Bankruptcy isn't debt forgiveness. Buyers and the lawyers representing the class action suit would have a seat at the hearing and would be able to get in line for whatever is left. That said: come on, people, Tesla isn't filing for bankruptcy. There are hundreds to thousands of perfectly normal financing options available to run a company with revenues like this that will stretch a cash shortfall into a decades-l…

> whatever is left

I think the point was that by the time it gets to you there's hardly anything left though?

Post reply on HN