Investors conclude that Tesla is a carmaker, not a tech firm

It contains information systems, but it is not an information system. It is a vehicle. Its purpose is to provide transportation.

That's just it. I see it as follows. Back in the 2000s, the iPhone came out. Especially with the 3G, it was miles ahead of the competition, and it took Android manufacturers five years to catch up and overtake it.

I believe Tesla holds - or, held - a similar position. They had a head start in many areas, but they could not keep it up.

One big difference is quality; Apple phones have great build quality, always have - although they had issues with bending and holding the phone a certain way iirc. Nothing like that in recent years though. But Teslas are known for poor build quality, mainly in the bodywork - expensive construction methods, poor and inconsistent spacings, etc.

Tesla hasn't innovated in recent years. Their last 'big' one was announcing the semi, cybertruck and a new Roadster, but it went radio silent for all of those for years after the announcement until recently when they finally started delivering the first semis.

Apple on the other hand has consistently released a new phone every year since the iphone 1, and more models and innovation to boot.

Tesla had so much money but they don't seem to have invested it efficiently. They also failed to advance their self-driving much further, which seemed to be the USP they were pushing for for a while.

Its owner messing around with the stock price by announcing a privatization, then buying Twitter on what seemed like a whim was another big issue of course. He lost a lot of credibility over the years.

I think Tesla will pivot from a car manufacturer to a battery manufacturer, and that its long-term strategy is its Turbocharger network. Electric cars are here to stay, and whoever owns the charger network now will benefit for a long, long time - like the oil industry has for a hundred years on fuel.

> They also have by far the best charging network.

In the US.

And the US drives these crazy valuations.

> There was a survey a few years ago of how much more people would be willing to pay for cars that could drive themself, and the median answer was $0. This is because quite a few people gave a negative number, that is, they would pay extra for a car that could not drive itself.

I think there's an inherent distrust (which I share) of giving technology the power to end our lives with one bug. Trust in technology, in general, is pretty low right now, so that reflects back on perceived future technology where one bad steer or missed brake ruins your life. Although I happen to share this pessimism with the human aspect of driving as well, I've almost died before because I wasn't focused while driving (IRL nerd sniping basically), and I know it could happen again in the future no matter how much I want to be a safe driver.

The truth is, if full self driving cars actually happened, with safety statistics better than humans and with a low barrier to entry, you can bet that people would change their opinion real fast. Much like Americans who have a revelation after experiencing European or Asian public transit, the realization that they could have an extra hour per day that was previously spent staring at a road, would be a big motivator to change opinions on technology. Add in that three of your friends already use it daily and they're not dead yet, and you rode with them and it seemed like a safe driver.

Every time there is an article about Tesla, the vast majority of comments here are either too critical, too ignorant, or just FUD. It's too unbalanced, no other company (good or bad) gets such bad treatment here. I see many of the HN audience here are just repeating the media narrative without their own experience or even trying to understand the topic. Yes, Tesla is moving at the forefront of EV development, and yes, sometimes not everything is delivered as promised or on time. But on the other hand, this is HN, we're supposed to love new technology and engineering! Why so negative? It's pathetic.