Tesla Q1 2020 Update • Hacker News Board

Re: Tesla Q1 2020 Update

#251

Post by Barrin92 » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:33 AM UTC

oska wrote: post #247

Barrin92 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference being that Steve Jobs wasn't up at 2 am in the morning ranting about taking his company private at 420. The reason why there's a pretty compelling reason to point out that Steve Jobs was a good leader was because he actually did good things, and the company struggled in his abscence. What has Elon himself actually done that looks like good management? Put an adult in charge of the company and see if th…

> What has Elon himself actually done that looks like good management? Plenty. I'm a huge critic of Elon's tweeting on Covid-19 (see elsewhere in this thread) but to argue that Elon is not a good manager of the companies he runs is completely in conflict with reality (the reality of his successfully founding and running two massively successful companies).

>but to argue that Elon is not a good manager of the companies he runs is completely in conflict with reality

it's really not because there are plenty of reasons why those companies are successful, none of which can be traced to Elon. If people want to fawn over someone they should pay some respect to Tom Mueller who actually builts the engines that make those rockets fly.

Again, if he is such a good manager, which of his moves were that great? In concrete terms, rather than just giving me some argument from correlation.

I would really like to be convinced why i should believe that those companies are successful because of, not despite of him running them. History has more than enough examples of horrible managers in charge of great businesses.

Re: Tesla Q1 2020 Update

#252

Post by dlp211 » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:35 AM UTC

GhostVII wrote: post #240

vgchh wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to know why you think it's a conspiracy theory that hospitals are reporting cases of COVID for profit. It's not like healthcare has never gamed the system. Not saying you are wrong, but it's a possibility that they indeed gamed the system. If he has made predictions that we will have 0 cases by end of April, that's just clearly brain-dead of him and it's fine if we are lamenting him for those stupid pred…

The 0 cases tweet: https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/12407546572631449... And to expand on the reporting of COVID for profit, I think it is possible for hospitals to be over reporting COVID cases, but I think it borders on conspiracy theory to suggest that it is a significant contributor to the numbers we are seeing now. Deaths don't lie and the increase in deaths we are seeing lines up with the positive tes…

Considering that there are 40,000 unaccounted for deaths[1], it is far more likely that hospitals/municipalities are under counting COVID19 deaths.

[1]https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronav...

Re: Tesla Q1 2020 Update

#253

Post by caf » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:36 AM UTC

_ea1k wrote: post #198

blizkreeg wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe the Tesla crowd bought theirs to save on gas anyway, so not sure if this is true.

I've always felt like the base Model 3 and base BMW 3 series were very comparable. Add in a couple of thousand, and the 3 looks like a bargain. That becomes a harder sell when the Model 3 is actually more expensive to operate, as it is in some places now. Its not that they are buying to save money vs the economical choices, but it does make a difference relative to their comps (RWD & AWD sport sedans).

Do customers really believe the current exceptionally low oil prices are going to be a permanent feature?

Re: Tesla Q1 2020 Update

#254

Post by awinder » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:37 AM UTC

vgchh wrote: post #186

Serious question: I am confused as to why do we see so many comments lamenting, what is essentially freedom of speech of EM? I mean, it's not like he is conclusively wrong about "Free America Now" comment. He may be proven wrong over time or even right.

You can see some of the even more colorful stuff Elon said on the investor call covered here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/29/tesla-e...

Re: Tesla Q1 2020 Update

#255

Post by petilon » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:43 AM UTC

Excerpt:

"We enabled stop sign and traffic light recognition and braking for our Early Access Program users at the end of Q1 and to the wider public in April 2020".

That's awesome! They may very well release FSD in a year or two!

Re: Tesla Q1 2020 Update

#256

Post by jaimex2 » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:45 AM UTC

vgchh wrote: post #186

Serious question: I am confused as to why do we see so many comments lamenting, what is essentially freedom of speech of EM? I mean, it's not like he is conclusively wrong about "Free America Now" comment. He may be proven wrong over time or even right.

When you are miserable yourself all you can do is focus on the negative and dramatically make a big deal about everything.

Musk has probably been quite restrained in his tweets as it's pretty clear he thinks lockdowns are a stupid solution.

Re: Tesla Q1 2020 Update

#257

Post by jaimex2 » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:48 AM UTC

awinder wrote: post #254

vgchh wrote: post #186

Serious question: I am confused as to why do we see so many comments lamenting, what is essentially freedom of speech of EM? I mean, it's not like he is conclusively wrong about "Free America Now" comment. He may be proven wrong over time or even right.

You can see some of the even more colorful stuff Elon said on the investor call covered here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/04/29/tesla-e...

He's not wrong.

Re: Tesla Q1 2020 Update

#258

Post by Consultant32452 » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:50 AM UTC

wilg wrote: post #213

Reedx wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Will Elon stop with tweets that hurt Tesla? Appoint a CEO, or COO to run things People have been saying that for years and years. It's beyond stale. Meanwhile Tesla and SpaceX have continued to succeed beyond expectations for over a decade now. If there's occasional twitter volatility in-between simultaneously landing two rockets returning from space... so be it. Besides, if it bothers you that much, you don't have…

Is it so much to ask for him to tweet responsibly so we can enjoy the fun future stuff without all the bullshit?

Is it so much to ask of the world to just get over the fact that sometimes highly intelligent and highly effective people are also sometimes highly disagreeable? I would argue this is often the case, but most of them are never allowed to flourish. Forcing everything to be cookie cutter agreeable niceness is how you achieve stagnation.

Re: Tesla Q1 2020 Update

#259

Post by Twixes » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:50 AM UTC

ashtonkem wrote: post #100

tempsy wrote: post #72

I’m watching in disbelief at the stock market making a V shaped recovery. Nasdaq is only a few percentage points off it’s all time high. I guess don’t underestimate the American consumer even at a time of economic uncertainty? I don’t know how else to explain record sales from Tesla, Facebook, and Microsoft today.

Massive infusions of cash from Congress & the fed will do that for you. It’s far, far, far too early to draw conclusions about long term recovery.

As always, the capital owners just have their significant net worths temporarily reduced by 10-18% (looking at NYSE/NASDAQ/LSE) while millions lose 100% of their paychecks.

Re: Tesla Q1 2020 Update

#260

Post by clouddrover » Thu, Apr 30, 2020, 2:55 AM UTC

maxharris wrote: post #121

refurb wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Tesla falls firmly in “luxury good” and with mass unemployment, Tesla might see much less demand for much longer than just the lockdown.

You're forgetting about Battery Day next month! You will find out that Tesla hits $100/kWh, which means they'll be able to sell an electric car for the price of a gas one, without giving up range. You're also forgetting that what they're selling has no real competition, just like the iPhone didn't skip a beat through the 2008-2009 crisis. Also their full self-driving tech is ahead of everyone, including Alphabet. I t…

> You're also forgetting that what they're selling has no real competition

Europe is the world's second biggest car market after China. Volkswagen Group and the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance have both sold more BEVs than Tesla in Europe so far this year:

https://twitter.com/auto_schmidt/status/1250880399137529864

Across the course of the next year or two Hyundai Group will also start to sell more BEVs in Europe than Tesla does.

So far in 2020, the Audi e-tron has sold 3 times more in Europe than the Model S and Model X combined and it has also outsold both models globally:

https://ev-sales.blogspot.com/2020/04/europe-march-2020.html

The coronavirus pandemic is going to put a dent in everyone's sales for a few years but BEV production will continue to ramp up. None of this is surprising. They're big car companies and they sell a lot of cars. The same pattern will play out in all markets eventually.