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Tesla Reports a Profit (Sorta) While Elon Musk Regrets Mentioning Hyperloop

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Re: Tesla Reports a Profit (Sorta) While Elon Musk Regrets Mentioning Hyperloop

#21

Post by mtgx »

mparr4 wrote: post #16
ajiang wrote: post #9

"I'm sorry. I'm too busy revolutionizing the automotive and space travel industries."

Musk has unquestionably changed the space transportation industry. It remains to be seen whether he's "revolutionized" the automotive industry. With self driving cars on the horizon, it certainly feels like a revolution is looming, but Tesla doesn't seem to me to be nearly as singular of a force of change as SpaceX is to it's respective industry.

Self-driving may be a bigger revolution in the end, but getting everyone off oil is also a huge revolution on its own. Yes, I know they're not the only ones to have an electric car ever, but without Tesla everyone would be dragging their feet with this.

Heck, they are still doing that. Just look at BMW i3. BMW is still treating electric cars as some sort of "concept cars" for the mass market, rather than "real cars" for the mass market.

We could also say touchscreen smartphones would've inevitably arrived, too, since we already had PDA's with crappy resistive touchscreens, and LG Prada even launched before the iPhone in 2007. But how much slower would they have improved to reach they level they are now, if it wasn't for Apple? And how much worse would they be now?

Re: Tesla Reports a Profit (Sorta) While Elon Musk Regrets Mentioning Hyperloop

#22

Post by mparr4 »

mtgx wrote: post #21
mparr4 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk has unquestionably changed the space transportation industry. It remains to be seen whether he's "revolutionized" the automotive industry. With self driving cars on the horizon, it certainly feels like a revolution is looming, but Tesla doesn't seem to me to be nearly as singular of a force of change as SpaceX is to it's respective industry.

Self-driving may be a bigger revolution in the end, but getting everyone off oil is also a huge revolution on its own. Yes, I know they're not the only ones to have an electric car ever, but without Tesla everyone would be dragging their feet with this. Heck, they are still doing that. Just look at BMW i3. BMW is still treating electric cars as some sort of "concept cars" for the mass market, rather than "real cars"…

I'm not quite sure if the Tesla is to electric cars as Apple is to smartphones analogy works just yet.

Perhaps it will, but I live in the US and have still never even seen a Tesla vehicle. I've seen Nissan Leafs and Chevrolet Volts. My town even has charging stations.

Maybe that's how things will shake out, but I don't think they're there yet.

Re: Tesla Reports a Profit (Sorta) While Elon Musk Regrets Mentioning Hyperloop

#23

Post by nchuhoai »

Commentors point out that Elon is not really backtracking, though I would still be curious what he means by shooting himself in the foot. The article says he regrets mentioning the Hyperloop. So despite his intentions to open up his designs, there must be some downsides he is considering, whether outstanding personal profit or otherwise.

Re: Tesla Reports a Profit (Sorta) While Elon Musk Regrets Mentioning Hyperloop

#24

Post by noamsml »

revelation wrote: post #5

How is this backtracking? Nothing has changed. He made it very clear from the beginning that this is an idea of his that he wants to release to the public, not work on it himself. Somebody then had the audacity to pester him with Hyperloop on the earnings call for Tesla. It's like asking the president about his veggie garden while hes giving a press conference on the war on (whistleblowers|drugs|terror).

That's not a fair assertion. Hyperloop has the potential to change the world far more than tesla and spaceX

Re: Tesla Reports a Profit (Sorta) While Elon Musk Regrets Mentioning Hyperloop

#25

Post by kbenson »

Expeck wrote: post #14

There is interesting article about hyperloop desing, based on Musk's hints: http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/how-elon-musk-can-build-the...

I just read that yesterday.

I think it's sad that Musk doesn't have (public) plans to actually work on the hyperloop. As many here have said in the past, him being behind the project is what moves it from fantasy to actually having a shot in a lot of people's minds.

It's probably smart of him to not start it himself though, as it's risky, and a failed venture of that sort could bleed uncertainty into the minds of investors when regarding his other ventures.

Re: Tesla Reports a Profit (Sorta) While Elon Musk Regrets Mentioning Hyperloop

#26

Post by spdy »

mtgx wrote: post #21
mparr4 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk has unquestionably changed the space transportation industry. It remains to be seen whether he's "revolutionized" the automotive industry. With self driving cars on the horizon, it certainly feels like a revolution is looming, but Tesla doesn't seem to me to be nearly as singular of a force of change as SpaceX is to it's respective industry.

Self-driving may be a bigger revolution in the end, but getting everyone off oil is also a huge revolution on its own. Yes, I know they're not the only ones to have an electric car ever, but without Tesla everyone would be dragging their feet with this. Heck, they are still doing that. Just look at BMW i3. BMW is still treating electric cars as some sort of "concept cars" for the mass market, rather than "real cars"…

BMW has a huge bet running on electric cars with the massive investment in developing technics to build mass production carbon chassis.

They intend to build lighter cars which will benefit electric mobility.

The BMW i3 is only the first of its kind but if its lightly successful they will iterated on that.

The Quandt Family (Susanne Klatten) is a huge driver in this space.

What we miss the most right now for electric mobility is infrastructure.

Re: Tesla Reports a Profit (Sorta) While Elon Musk Regrets Mentioning Hyperloop

#27

Post by jack-r-abbit »

nchuhoai wrote: post #23

Commentors point out that Elon is not really backtracking, though I would still be curious what he means by shooting himself in the foot. The article says he regrets mentioning the Hyperloop. So despite his intentions to open up his designs, there must be some downsides he is considering, whether outstanding personal profit or otherwise.

Maybe the downside is that now everyone is watching him, waiting for the next update, speculating, criticizing, etc. Shooting himself in the foot may have been just talking about it prematurely.

Re: Tesla Reports a Profit (Sorta) While Elon Musk Regrets Mentioning Hyperloop

#29

Post by Shivetya »

mtgx wrote: post #21
mparr4 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk has unquestionably changed the space transportation industry. It remains to be seen whether he's "revolutionized" the automotive industry. With self driving cars on the horizon, it certainly feels like a revolution is looming, but Tesla doesn't seem to me to be nearly as singular of a force of change as SpaceX is to it's respective industry.

Self-driving may be a bigger revolution in the end, but getting everyone off oil is also a huge revolution on its own. Yes, I know they're not the only ones to have an electric car ever, but without Tesla everyone would be dragging their feet with this. Heck, they are still doing that. Just look at BMW i3. BMW is still treating electric cars as some sort of "concept cars" for the mass market, rather than "real cars"…

The Leaf had been in development over the same period of time as the S, if not before. The difference is that Nissan was trying to hit a harder goal, selling to the everyday driver, selling a car most buyers could afford. Similar to the requirements of the Volt and other electrics.

The i3 is a special vehicle which has too many compromises to meet stupid laws in place by various governments, the worst being a requirement to qualify as an EV its range extender cannot provide more range than its batteries. The real eye opener from BMW is the i8. The i3 is more mass market than the S, its in the range of affordability of most car drivers.

The key difference in the markets between the S and the rest is, the S targeted consumers whose income levels usually results in large amounts of disposable income. Levels where having an extra car or two isn't unusual.

So, until they deliver on their 35k 200 mile range car, I am not going to go as far as you did in claims they are changing the game, they simply went for a more sure market.

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