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Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

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Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#261
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of any product I'd rather have than a Tesla. I think Tesla will sell millions of Model 3. Which other car is 400,000 people waiting patiently to buy for two years, even putting down a $1,000 deposit? Tesla is doing to traditional car manufacturers what Apple did to Nokia.

> Tesla is doing to traditional car manufacturers what Apple did to Nokia. Sincerely, and with all due respect, this is a false analogy. What happened to Nokia was pretty much self inflicted. Mismanagement, competing empires, complacency. Apple did not start shipping low end brick phones and eat Nokia's market. Post '08 bailout automotive manufacturers are lean and hungry (for the most part) Furthermore, the 'traditi…

I dont know...

Tesla is currently training their driving AI using the existing fleet in shadow mode. How do you skip this step and go straight to level 4? They need months of tuning outside a lab, worldwide.

A lot of car manufacturers still refuse to build an EV from the ground up. They are reusing an ICE platform and converting them to EVs.

Mazda don't even acknowledge that they need to build EVs. https://electrek.co/2017/03/07/mazda-no-pressure-from-custom...

heh, I'm sorry. Musk is still alive and surpassed Jobs long ago now, he's up to his 5th disruptive successful company. Online Payment, Cars, Space, Solar roofs and AI beat shiny laptop and smartphone.

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#262
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of any product I'd rather have than a Tesla. I think Tesla will sell millions of Model 3. Which other car is 400,000 people waiting patiently to buy for two years, even putting down a $1,000 deposit? Tesla is doing to traditional car manufacturers what Apple did to Nokia.

> Which other car is 400,000 people waiting patiently to buy for two years, even putting down a $1,000 deposit? None, but I would hazard a guess that's because if you want to buy a BMW, a Mercedes or an Audi, you don't need to. You can simply go and buy one!

But the closest thing to a $35k electric car from BMW, Mercedes, or Audi is BMW's i3 - which I think is targeting a different market.

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Tesla is doing to traditional car manufacturers what Apple did to Nokia. Sincerely, and with all due respect, this is a false analogy. What happened to Nokia was pretty much self inflicted. Mismanagement, competing empires, complacency. Apple did not start shipping low end brick phones and eat Nokia's market. Post '08 bailout automotive manufacturers are lean and hungry (for the most part) Furthermore, the 'traditi…

I dont know... Tesla is currently training their driving AI using the existing fleet in shadow mode. How do you skip this step and go straight to level 4? They need months of tuning outside a lab, worldwide. A lot of car manufacturers still refuse to build an EV from the ground up. They are reusing an ICE platform and converting them to EVs. Mazda don't even acknowledge that they need to build EVs. https://electrek.c…

I see car companies getting off the shelf solutions from companies like Nvidia, which is what is being trained in Tesla's today. And Nvidia have their own demo. I genuinely wonder who owns the algorithm...

It actually makes sense to jump to level 4 from both a liability & design/platform perspective.

The fact that Tesla is bleeding through the first few stages with driver-in-the-loop doesn't necessarily mean they get to maintain a competitive advantage long term.

(Also, Mazda is a 2nd tier manufacturer, little resources, mostly Ford parts Inc drivetrain, engine and firmware)

Finally, I appreciate the Musk fandom. As someone with a little skin in TSLA, I aim to take an objective view fwiw.

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think for a young late 20s, early 30s professional with disposable income, maybe a baby on the way, it's really a no-brainer deciding between a 3-series, C-class, Volvo, vs a Model 3. And if you can only afford a Camry/Altima/Jetta/etc. a 5-10K increase in price for a much better (perceived) product is also a no-brainer. People will def max out their credit to get the upgrade to a Tesla. The above, doubly-so for Ch…

Does the model 3 have sufficient room for a rear facing car seat? One of my main concerns

[deleted]

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#265
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or withdrawals from people. The deposits are non-committal so people can cancel without losing anything.

I can't think of any product I'd rather have than a Tesla. I think Tesla will sell millions of Model 3. Which other car is 400,000 people waiting patiently to buy for two years, even putting down a $1,000 deposit? Tesla is doing to traditional car manufacturers what Apple did to Nokia.

How about retiring 2-5 years early? That's about what you get if you invest the $35k instead...

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#266
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Close to 200,000 Prius's are sold each year. While that's no where near the "best selling" car, their Camry (400,000 cars a year), that's substantial.

Ford sold 66,000 F-Series pickups in February 2017, alone. Small car sales are declining, across the board. https://www.cars.com/articles/top-10-best-selling-cars-febru...

You can't really compare the "F-Series" with a single car. A more accurate comparison would probably be all sedan's with the F-Series.

But yes, trucks are on the rise again.

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#267
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't think of any product I'd rather have than a Tesla. I think Tesla will sell millions of Model 3. Which other car is 400,000 people waiting patiently to buy for two years, even putting down a $1,000 deposit? Tesla is doing to traditional car manufacturers what Apple did to Nokia.

How about retiring 2-5 years early? That's about what you get if you invest the $35k instead...

https://xkcd.com/947/

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#268
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having access to the internals at Tesla is interesting and potentially powerful -- significant ownership share brings many benefits that are by no means small. Albeit on a need-to-know basis and through a peephole, it is nonetheless advantageous. It may cost $1.7B but it guarantees continued access, whereas throwing technical exfiltration (ie: hacking) and manual exfiltration (ie: mole in Tesla staff) whose resources…

Can you explain what kind of access you mean? I thought preferential information sharing with specific investors violated SEC rules?

This is my understanding as well. I get great info talking with smallcap to the just barely midcap companies if you ask the right questions. Heck, usually, I am able to get a conference with a VP or CEO if my questions go above paygrade. I am no whale.

In practice, you will not get the same level of info on larger companies if you are not institutional or in a group of retail investors holding a decent share-count. Information obtained is usually a small amount above what is found on the conference call or via google.

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#269
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or withdrawals from people. The deposits are non-committal so people can cancel without losing anything.

A $1000 deposit is a significant commitment to ordering the car, even if it is fully refundable. Very few people would do this until they are basically decided on buying this. For everyone who would reconsider, there are for certain plenty of people, who are interested in the car but would not put down money without a test drive first. So, judging from the deposits, I would rather assume the actual list of interested…

I disagree. I put down the deposit because I wanted to reserve my spot in line. Putting down $1k now isn't that much if it might save me $8K in tax credits by having an earlier spot in line.

I still haven't figured out if I can get a charger in my apartment building. I haven't decided I like the look of the car. I haven't even decided I want a sedan.

I love Tesla, so on the chance that I do want the car I put down the deposit. But I'm still 50/50 on actually buying it. I imagine many are in a similar positions.

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#270
post #102
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is anyone actually short Tesla to a significant degree? I can understand the normal hedging positions and daily trading, but shorting a stock with so much positive sentiment is folly...

Isn't the time to short a stock when there is too much positive sentiment? I would never short stocks because I don't believe in timing the market, but if I were to, I wouldn't seek out stocks with overall negative sentiment as those would seem to have the most upside.

Yes and no.

At the end of the day, stock prices are moved by demand/supply of the shares themselves. Whether or not there's demand depends on sentiment.

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