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Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

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271–280 of 348 posts

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems a little dramatic to delete your account, don't you think?

It really depends on if he follows through on what he is proposing, which seems to be to allow for disinformation and hate speech. If that turns out to not be the case, then I might reconsider.

Exactly. If Musk has his way it'll be nothing but people picking quarrels and provoking trouble.

We can't have that.

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a car company, it’s a battery+software company with some wheels (literally) attached, hence part of the high valuation. It took me a while to realize this, had I put my money on this back then I would have had more money right now (10x times, I’d say). The likes of Mercedes and VW are orders of magnitude behind, both when it comes to batteries and especially when it comes to software

This is a very strong narrative making the rounds. Unfortunately it is not quite so. The batteries Tesla uses are a commodity - they are partnered with Panasonic and more recently the Chinese CATL (these guys do actual battery research, you know, with chemicals and lab coats). Certainly packaging Panasonic rolls into 2170s gives them a nice edge but it isn't exactly rocket science. The Giga press is made by the Itali…

Not a fanboy by any stretch, as I'm totally anti-EV (I find the regressive taxes supporting this industry quite repulsive, to be honest), I've written down just what I thought was happening/what the reality on the ground was.

> o much as organizational agility

That's why I insisted on the "better software" part, that's where much of their advantage comes from.

Maybe the Germans and the French can also source their batteries from the Chinese but they just haven't been able to put them to good use the way Tesla did (and does). For example right now Renault is selling a 20,000 euro EV (produced in China, of course) [1] which has atrocious autonomy, to say nothing of the fact that it feels very small. And that is supposed to be one of their main vehicles when it comes to targeting the EV mass-market, from one of the biggest car makers in the world. It's a complete joke.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_Spring

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a car company, it’s a battery+software company with some wheels (literally) attached, hence part of the high valuation. It took me a while to realize this, had I put my money on this back then I would have had more money right now (10x times, I’d say). The likes of Mercedes and VW are orders of magnitude behind, both when it comes to batteries and especially when it comes to software

Batteries are coming from Panasonic. Other OEMs have working EVs as well. And Tesla is way to small in terms of economic foot print that its disappearance would make a dent. Economics, not on the stock market. Nothing about Tesla is strategic. SpaceX is different, sure. But with the exception of a yet-to-come lunar mission and astronaut trabsportation to the ISS the "West" got needed stuff into orbit just fine.

No other major car-maker has been able to come close to Tesla when it comes to the sleekness of their software and (especially that) when it comes to the cars' autonomy, Tesla is in a class of its own. And it's not for lack of trying, the Germans have already poured tens of billions of euros (at least) into the EV market.

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#274
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet that is what he has done at both Tesla and SpaceX. He set the company vision and direction and his hand picked executives execute that... I look forward to seeing who Elon pickes to replace all board members and executives at twitter

I dont really understand how Elon could just ignore Twitter, if something happens in Spacex, they can handle it in private, but if something happens in Twitter, like Trump is unbanned and he starts to share Russian propaganda, everyone is going to know about it right away. Is Elon going to sit and focus on other things while his phone is going mad?

>>Is Elon going to sit and focus on other things while his phone is going mad

I would assume he would smile and laugh just like the rest of us non-authoritarian left people (we are the majority) as the Left drives itself insane with non-sense like what you just claimed....

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#275

I have a question for those who say things along the lines of twitter becoming "more open platform, with reduced censorship of unpopular people and ideas" Wasn't the only "censorship" twitter has done simply against harmful misinformation and hate speech? What exactly is twitter censoring that's outside of those two? I haven't used HN long enough to know why I can reply to some posts but not others, so sorry for this…

Here is a just one major example of censorship that was neither misinformation nor hate speech: The Hunter Biden laptop story. This story was broken by the right-leaning New York Post. Twitter banned its sharing in the weeks before the election, claiming it to be misinformation (with the implication that the leaking of its contents was part of a Russian plot). ~2 years later (when its relevance is greatly diminished)…

what is the meat of the hunter biden laptop story exactly? and how did twitter prevent it from behind shared on their platform?

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#276

I have a question for those who say things along the lines of twitter becoming "more open platform, with reduced censorship of unpopular people and ideas" Wasn't the only "censorship" twitter has done simply against harmful misinformation and hate speech? What exactly is twitter censoring that's outside of those two? I haven't used HN long enough to know why I can reply to some posts but not others, so sorry for this…

Here is a just one major example of censorship that was neither misinformation nor hate speech: The Hunter Biden laptop story. This story was broken by the right-leaning New York Post. Twitter banned its sharing in the weeks before the election, claiming it to be misinformation (with the implication that the leaking of its contents was part of a Russian plot). ~2 years later (when its relevance is greatly diminished)…

It's also interesting to contrast it with Trump's tax returns. It was claimed even if true the hunter biden laptop was obtained illegally and therefore cannot be shared publicly.

Now, there are about a million other things that are probably obtained illegally talked about on twitter, but even so, obtaining and posting someone's tax returns online is actually illegal, and it was also for a presidential candidate, so it really should have qualified under the same rules to be censored if Twitter was consistent. Yet that was never blocked on Twitter.

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, it sounds plausible, because if Tesla is threatened by certain SEC sanctions or legal troubles, banks could withdraw funding or raise interest rates on Tesla's debt, which would bankrupt the company. Or insurance companies could raise premiums or refuse to insure the company which again - could lead to catastrophe. This is what Elon is saying and it sounds like a perfectly plausible scenario, under which you'd r…

It sounds plausible to you that SEC lawyers drew up a settlement that forced Musk to lie publicly about the funding situation of taking TSLA private? This would open up that lawyer for all sorts of criminal and private lawsuits and that poor guy doesn't even have anything personally to gain from forcing Musk to lie. Sorry, those are ludicrous allegations.

The SEC isn't forcing anything, as such, but public information about being investigated for something like this, in a public company, might well affect the market's willingness to lend to you.

Musk has also said he is going to launch legal action on this. Because that's almost exactly what happened, and it is unfair. So you are correct, and this saga probably still has more to go.

What's funny is almost anyone on the planet couldn't go up against someone like the SEC, which is why they can get away with this. Good on Musk for doing it.

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#278

Regardless of who owns or controls twitter, is there anything twitter can do to make more money? IMHO, it's maxed out..

They’d make more money from me (and I imagine at least a handful of others) if I could pay to have no ads, tracking, data sharing, or “algorithms” that I don’t explicitly control sorting and filtering content.

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Batteries are coming from Panasonic. Other OEMs have working EVs as well. And Tesla is way to small in terms of economic foot print that its disappearance would make a dent. Economics, not on the stock market. Nothing about Tesla is strategic. SpaceX is different, sure. But with the exception of a yet-to-come lunar mission and astronaut trabsportation to the ISS the "West" got needed stuff into orbit just fine.

No other major car-maker has been able to come close to Tesla when it comes to the sleekness of their software and (especially that) when it comes to the cars' autonomy, Tesla is in a class of its own. And it's not for lack of trying, the Germans have already poured tens of billions of euros (at least) into the EV market.

Autonomous driving is totally unrelated to EVs, an ICE powered car can be as (non-)autonomous as an EV one. There was a nice thread recently about Mercedes liability regarding "autonomous" driving.

Well, that the "sleakness2 of software is a thing now when it comes to cars might make an Apple car difficult, the "sleek software" crowd is covered already. And there I was build quality, ride comfort and maintenance costs were also important when it comes to cars... Stupid me. But then I'm German, not sure if me driving French and old British cars offsets my ingrained sense of superiority of German car brands.

But yes, I agree Tesla is on its own in tremendously over selling its self driving tech.

Re: Twitter re-examines Elon Musk’s bid, may be more receptive to a deal

#280
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In his latest TED interview [0], Musk said that he had the funding secured for that Tesla private offering. He said that he needed to settle with the SEC so that they wouldn't freeze Tesla's bank accounts, and as part of the settlement he needed to publicly say that he hadn't secured funding. I don't think he's lying. 0: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdZZpaB2kDM

That sounds super dubious, the SEC forced him to publicly lie in a settlement? Sorry, I am not buying it. You would have to put at least a dozen SEC lawyers on suicide watch after such a deal. And not only did they force him to lie in a settlement, now he suddenly breaks what he agreed to in that settlement without any consequences, so what was that settlement worth to begin with.

And the alternative is what? The SEC is an altruistic, diligent protector of consumers and investors? lol

It is hard to look at the SEC’s most public actions in the last few years and not believe Musk here.

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