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Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk's industrial empire [video]

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91–100 of 149 posts

Re: Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk's industrial empire [video]

#91
post #81

Is that old footage ? Just wondering because it portrays his second wife Talulah Riley, but (german) wikipedia states they have been divorced for 2 years already.

Not sure about their marital status but her twitter account suggests they are still a family: https://twitter.com/TalulahRiley

Re: Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk's industrial empire [video]

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with a lot of what you said. However, this: "Competitors will not have the ability to compete on charging when they release cars because Tesla will already have an established network." is dramatically wrong. They will absolutely compete on charging, stubbornly so, and probably leveraging politics in the process. The major energy companies will also get into the charging business (much like the oil companies…

I very much agree with you: energy companies and other auto manufacturers will get into the charging business. They have to! But I defend my point based on this: Would you buy a car that has an established charging network, or a car with only a few chargers nationwide? Of course, the established network since there is less worry about "filling up". This is a direct mirror of today's issue with electric vehicles: ther…

I think the best way to think about this is to think of the mobile phone network. Do you sign up with AT&T or do you sign up with T-Mobile? Despite T-Mobile's (allegedly - I don't live in the US, so I'm just going on what people say) better customer service, their network is just far less prevalent compared to AT&T's which enables AT&T to maintain its hold on customers. But T-Mobile continues to build out its network, having already achieved the point where there is enough of a network to pick up the necessary customers to fund the continued expansion of the network.

I would see car chargers going the same way. From now on, if you want to play in this market, you're going to have to face down Tesla's advantage in the charging network. This is Tesla building a moat to make it harder for competitors, but as with all moats, it is not unbreachable - with enough resources, a competitor can achieve a minimal viable network which gets them a foothold in the market.

Re: Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk's industrial empire [video]

#95

I'm only half way through, but so far, I find it very disappointing that CBS has not given credit to anybody else who Musk has worked with. They discuss "you decided to start a car company", but it was started by two other engineers, and Musk came in as an investor first, and joined the company later. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors It would have been nice to see Musk give some credit to the original vision…

Fair enough to a point, but was chairman of the board from seven months after it's founding and personally lead the design of the first car, the roadster, and even won two design awards at the time. He's absolutely earned the accolades he's got for his work there.

Re: Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk's industrial empire [video]

#96

Musk is thinking 8 steps ahead of almost everyone. While Tesla is a huge play with revolutionizing the car world, there are some other parts in play. First, his Gigafactory to produce batteries. When the other big automakers get into the electric car mindset, who are they going to buy batteries from? Musk who owns the single largest and high-tech battery factory (that produces on an enormous scale), or other battery…

I'm not convinced about the success of their mega battery factory; after all, wasn't there a big problem with getting rare earth materials for things like batteries a while ago? Is there enough raw material to keep it supplied?

Re: Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk's industrial empire [video]

#97
post #66

I wonder how fast everyone forgets the real founders of Tesla: Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, and all credit is put on Elon. I am sure he deserves a lot of credit for his foresight, strategic decisions and also his execution... Bottom line he bought himself into the electric car game, which was itself a very good strategic move.

He was chairman of the board from month 7, and personalty won two design awards for his work leading the engineering team on the first car. Bottom line, he deserves all the credit he gets.

Re: Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk's industrial empire [video]

#98

I'm only half way through, but so far, I find it very disappointing that CBS has not given credit to anybody else who Musk has worked with. They discuss "you decided to start a car company", but it was started by two other engineers, and Musk came in as an investor first, and joined the company later. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_Motors It would have been nice to see Musk give some credit to the original vision…

To be fair, having a single face of the company being enforced constantly is probably an intentional PR decision. And it is quite effective from my perspective.

It's also a self reinforcing loop. In other words, even if Musk would _try_ to give credit to the team, much of that would be ignored in the reporting about Tesla/SpaceX/...

Re: Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk's industrial empire [video]

#99
post #59
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A few large companies and governments were his obvious targets. Just like large defense contractors exist on "public" money. Exactly. The military-industrial complex lives mostly on public money.

"Exactly. The military-industrial complex lives mostly on public money." That's what I said. Is there some other point that you're trying to make? Getting a government contract isn't taking donations. You deliver a service or a product and you get paid for it. The US government spends a lot of money. Cray Supercomputer sold systems to the government too, for example. I imagine that if Elon wants to build his electric…

There were cheaper alternatives, especially for light rockets (Soyuz, Dnepr, PSLV, Vega, etc). Financing him has been a political choice.

Re: Tesla and SpaceX: Elon Musk's industrial empire [video]

#100

Musk is thinking 8 steps ahead of almost everyone. While Tesla is a huge play with revolutionizing the car world, there are some other parts in play. First, his Gigafactory to produce batteries. When the other big automakers get into the electric car mindset, who are they going to buy batteries from? Musk who owns the single largest and high-tech battery factory (that produces on an enormous scale), or other battery…

I'm not convinced about the success of their mega battery factory; after all, wasn't there a big problem with getting rare earth materials for things like batteries a while ago? Is there enough raw material to keep it supplied?

There aren't any rare-earth materials in Tesla's batteries.
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