Elon has been quite open about the fact that he wants to just try new things. If things work great he gets the shift economy's, otherwise he just keeps going to the next thing. If you can't get with it then hop off
Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity
231–240 of 282 posts
Re: Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity
#232There are real "solar shingles", but not from Tesla/Solar City.[1] The big player is CertainTeed, which makes roof components. CertainTeed is for real; you can order those. The strange thing is CertainTeed makes both regular and solar shingles, but don't offer a matching set. DeSol has a product line of roof components, with solar, non-solar, and edge parts that all fit together. Theirs looks good, but may be vaporwa…
Amusingly, the DeSol web site has a copyright date of 2023 on it. I sent them a message asking if the product existed yet. They sent back, from a GMail account, "Who are you". I replied that I'd signed my message with my name and sent it from my own domain, what more did they want? Asked "You're sending from GMail, who are you?" Got back "(HN does not do Unicode emoji)". So, not sure what to think of that outfit. The…
> Amusingly, the DeSol web site has a copyright date of 2023 on it.
It's a Wix website (which probably tells you a bit about the company) - many of them have Copyright 2023 on them[1]. It's a phenomenon I've noticed for a while, but never worked out why. If anyone knows the reason I'd love to know.
[1] https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&q="copyright+2023"&...
Re: Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Now Tesla shareholders, who overwhelmingly voted for the merger, made a big mistake. But Tesla shareholders own the company, they are allowed to make whatever decisions they want. They voted for the merger based on Musk's claim that SolarCity had a good financial position and that they were releasing a revolutionary solar shingle product. Both of those were wrong.
Note: the financial positioning of SolarCity was obvious to anyone who could read a 10k. SolarCity never made a profit, and it spent tons of money chasing imaginary products (similar to a lot of other Musk-based properties). 10k documents exist for a reason. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1408356/000156459017... In 2016, SolarCity lost a full, solid, $Billion. The Tesla investors who voted for SolarCity / Te…
> In 2016, SolarCity lost a full, solid, $Billion.
Amateurs. Uber does that every quarter.
Re: Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity
#234There weren't many pertinent facts or details included in this story.
The article focuses on how poorly SolarCity seems to be performing post-acquisition. However, hindsight is 20/20. The fact that the acquisition turned out to be a mess doesn't make it a fraudulent transaction -- many if not most large acquisitions don't live up to expectations.
The facts that need to be considered to deem this fraudulent are the data/arguments that drove the decision to acquire SolarCity at the time of the acquisition. Mainly, were the arguments to acquire SolarCity honest and factual? Here is the acquisition pitch deck that Tesla put out at the time of acquisition: http://www.solarwakeup.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Tesla-...
Unsurprisingly, the author of the article doesn't address any of the primary points contained in this pitch deck.
Re: Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
Transporting goods via a purpose-dedicated system via fixed points without using highways would be great. And it is! America's use of trains to move goods around this country is amazing. Come to think of it, moving people efficiently is a largely-solved problem given sufficient population density. Hyperloop is just dumb.
If you are referring to urban areas - what about the crippled subway system and insane traffic congestion in NYC?
NYC has 5 4-track trunks moving 10-car trains through its densest core. If that's insufficient, then the only thing that's going to improve throughput is getting everybody out and having them walk. And there are places (hi Times Square!) where that is insufficient to move the demand.
NYC has a throughput problem. High speed doesn't improve throughput, it worsens it.
Re: Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity
#236What are actually Elon Musk's engineering talents? It seems he is not much more than a marketeer. It's not even clear his visions of reusable rockets and electric cars were original...he is known to take credit for subordinate's ideas and achievements.
The interviews I’ve seen of Musk subordinates (particularly engineers but also middle management) has consistently included statements to the effect of, “We are always terrified he will walk into a meeting, go way deeper than we are prepared to discuss, come up with a simple solution that evaded us for months, and walk out thinking we are all idiots.”
The guy has plenty of flaws, but he’s apparently terrifically good at synthesizing complex technical data in an extraordinarily wide range of topics, and arriving at solutions that others missed but look obvious in retrospect.
Re: Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
All the talented people that you mentioned were laughing when he proposed reusable rockets, and we all know how it ended.
You think Musk was the first to propose reusable rockets?
I think that Musk was the first and the only one to propose, build and continuously operate reusable rockets capable of autonomously landing at a fraction of the price per launch of whatever existed before.
And the only one that made possible a safe landing of three rockets in the same mission with Falcon Heavy.
Do you have any proof that anyone else did the same before him?
Re: Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity
#238For all the negativity here about Musk and his business decisions, there is something to be said for integrating transport and energy services in one great package. I consult for a large energy conglomerate that wants to get into this market from the energy suppliers side, but the problem is that they are completely clueless when it comes to expanding beyond their traditional business. In their vision, they'll supply…
Maybe Musk will be proven right in time but having followed Tesla for a long time and having recently purchased a Model 3 (It's an incredible car). The Solar City purchase is the one thing that never made a lot of sense to me. Even if you start from the premise that it makes sense for Tesla to be in the solar business, it's hard to rationalize that the best way to break into that market was to buy a debt laden solar…
AFAICT they are still losing money on every Model 3 though?
Doesn't matter that your cars are really good if you're not profitable. Just look at Saab.
Re: Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity
#239This bit seems pretty damning: > As SolarCity struggled to raise money from institutional investors, it began offering individuals a chance to buy what it called Solar Bonds. (“Now you can get paid while driving the solar revolution,” the marketing material said.) But there were few takers—so other parts of the Musk empire took up the slack. According to the shareholder lawsuit, SpaceX acquired $255 million of the bo…
SpaceX typically starts taking payments for launches years before they actually take off, which means they can end up sitting on cash that needs investing. It isn't entirely clear that solar bonds are the best vehicle for that, but it's not entirely ridiculous either.
Re: Elon Musk Gambled Tesla to Save SolarCity
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe Musk will be proven right in time but having followed Tesla for a long time and having recently purchased a Model 3 (It's an incredible car). The Solar City purchase is the one thing that never made a lot of sense to me. Even if you start from the premise that it makes sense for Tesla to be in the solar business, it's hard to rationalize that the best way to break into that market was to buy a debt laden solar…
AFAICT they are still losing money on every Model 3 though? Doesn't matter that your cars are really good if you're not profitable. Just look at Saab.
> AFAICT they are still losing money on every Model 3 though?
Citation needed...