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Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

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Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#281

Post by Jarbooski »

MikeCapone wrote: post #67
rossdavidh wrote: post #48

After his failure, as virtually the only Theranos board member with a high-tech background, to provide any good advice on tech development to Elizabeth Holmes, this seemed incredible to me. Then, I read this in the statement: "Larry is also a big believer in Tesla’s mission, having purchased 3 million shares earlier this year." So, Musk was required to introduce more outside independence to his board, per agreement w…

Owning shares is not a negative. It's a positive. It means that he's more aligned with shareholders than with management. Boards full of non-shareholders tend to prioritize the paycheck they get as board members, so they tend to not want to rock the boat or get into conflicts with mangement. Those that are shareholders first tend to have a bigger incentive to confront or fire management if they start doing things tha…

Wow, SV has warped your mind into down is up.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#282

Post by leesec »

darkpuma wrote: post #253
leesec wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Required for what, the self driving cars that don't exist yet? Radar and computer vision is simply a separate approach, not a wrong one. Tesla is as much an expert in the field as anyone, given that, you know, they have the best self driving commercial product by far.

> "Required for what, the self driving cars that don't exist yet?" Required for Level 5 automation. Tesla claims to be selling the required hardware, waiting only on the software and legislation allowing it. All other players in this field are focusing on a combination of cameras, radar and LIDAR . Since LIDAR is expensive and the self-driving hype is real, Tesla have a strong short term financial incentive to forgo…

I work for an automotive tech company and have installed an L2 self driving system into my friends Camry, I don't think you've thought critically about this. LIDAR is currently a prohibitively expensive technology that provides a point map of the surrounding area. The LIDAR that Waymo uses is nearly as expensive as the car itself. This same point map can be done with computer vision/cameras, and good software. There are many other "experts" that think this is equally viable e.g. George Hotz at Comma AI or Anthony Levandowski at Pronto.

I am not opposed to LIDAR. I just think it is unnecessary and that computer vision is likely to get good enough before LIDAR gets cheap enough.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#283

Post by Jarbooski »

throwaway98121 wrote: post #206
ElijahLynn wrote: post #196

In my eyes, Larry Ellison on the Tesla BoD just damaged the brand of Tesla by an order of magnitude.

Can you elaborate why? Edit: reading others’ posts about him in this thread. Okay, wow. Not sure how accurate this information is though.

Hey look, it's the idiot who hates all "dealers". Turns out he's clueless about cars and also has never heard of Larry Ellison.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#284

Post by leesec »

Jarbooski wrote: post #280
leesec wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Required for what, the self driving cars that don't exist yet? Radar and computer vision is simply a separate approach, not a wrong one. Tesla is as much an expert in the field as anyone, given that, you know, they have the best self driving commercial product by far.

Cite anything that says Tesla has "by far" the best software. Laughable.

Go ahead and name a better self driving tech that you can buy right now. There is only 3 btw.

Tesla's Autopilot / GM's Supercruise (only available on Cadillac CTS and certain highways) / Comma AI's Openpilot.

You also misconstrued my point. I said best commercially available self driving. Seemingly Waymo has better tech but I can't buy or use a Waymo.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#285

Post by sokoloff »

DevX101 wrote: post #242
dotancohen wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thoughts exactly. I've lusted over the Model S for years, and the minute that they become available in my country I'll be the first in line. But, now that means doing business with a company owned by One Real Asshole Called Larry Ellison? I wouldn't dare. The way his most well-known company treats its clients is so grotesque that I wouldn't even want to work at a company that uses its products. They are extremely…

How does Oracle treat their clients badly? Honestly curious, never worked with them.

They're absolute assholes during license audits and negotiations. They're one of only two companies to earn a spot on my "Never voluntarily do business with" list.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#286

Post by TheRealDunkirk »

burtonator wrote: post #117
dforrestwilson wrote: post #8

The same guy who encouraged Elizabeth Holmes to ignore her engineers in favor of over the top promotion. Also a board member who failed (or chose not) to detect the underlying fraud... Every time I consider closing out my Tesla short position something like this happens and I get more confident that something is awry.

This was my thinking... Ellison spend the early part of Oracle's career overselling, then locking people into a product which they were now stuck with using. It also had the double impact of pricing out honest competitors. One of the BIGGEST things we need to do is STOP punishing honest companies and politicians. In the 2008 financial crisis we BAILED OUT banks who basically gambled. Banks who were honest didn't bene…

> In the 2008 financial crisis we BAILED OUT banks who basically gambled.

There was no "gambling." The system was rigged, and the bailout proved that the rigging went all the way to the top.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#287

Post by extrapickles »

Jarbooski wrote: post #279
extrapickles wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it turns out the hardware is not good enough I would expect them to replace it with something that is once hardware requirements are known.

And who will pay for it? Or do you believe it's profits from here to infinity, as Elon claims?

Tesla will in some form, though it’s hard to guess what color the money will be from the outside. It would be a goodwill jesture, so probably out of a marketing, customer retention or warrenty account.

If they upgrade hardware more than once I would worry about where the money came from.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#288

Post by grecy »

darkpuma wrote: post #239
golfer wrote: post #88

Bruce Scott, the co-founder of Oracle says, “I remember Larry very distinctly telling me one time: Bruce, we can’t be successful unless we lie to customers.” And adds: “All the things that you would read in books of somebody being a leader, he wasn’t. But he was tenacious; he would never give up on anything.” [0] Elon stretches the truth constantly. Should be a good fit. [0]: https://techcrunch.com/2010/12/01/larry-e…

> "Elon stretches the truth constantly." That's putting it gently. Putting aside his twitter spats, Tesla is still prominently advertising "Full Self-Driving Hardware on All Cars" [0] even though their cars do not contain LIDAR, which essentially every expert in the field unconnected to Tesla seems to agree is necessary to implement Level 5 self driving cars[1][2]. [0] https://www.tesla.com/autopilot [1] https://www.…

> their cars do not contain LIDAR, which essentially every expert in the field unconnected to Tesla seems to agree is necessary to implement Level 5 self driving cars

Calm down a second.

Elon/Tesla are trying to do things differently/do things that other people are not or think can't be done.

To name a few"

Every "export in the field" said you can't land an orbital class booster vertically.

Every "expert in the field" has not figured out how to save billions and years digging tunnels.

Every "expert in the field" seems to design electric cars that look like a cartoon joke.

Every "expert in the field" was pretty sure Tesla could never be profitable.

Don't confuse "has never been done before" with "Can't be done". Let the results speak for what's possible.

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#289

Post by Bucephalus355 »

To put in context the remark that Ellison made about lying to customers that is referenced in the top rated comment, this happened during a sales cycle to Bank of America in 1981-1983 timeframe (can’t remember exact year). It’s featured in the 2006 Bloomberg Ellison video bio (link below) and it’s where Ellison wanted to exaggerate the number of Oracle programmers/engineers from 3 to 15. I have no sympathy for Bank of America, but that’s because they’re a bank who screws over regular ppl somewhat directly. Oracle has the decently to put a few middlemen in the process.

NOTE: I’m a liberal arts major who was hired straight out of college during the GFC of 2008 for a non-technical role by Oracle and then later they trained me and put me in an engineering slot (!) so I’ll always be in their debt/totally bias. The above story I thought was somewhat relevant / interesting nonetheless + I hate Bank of America and now bank at USAA.

https://youtu.be/mB2V0BXH608

Re: Tesla Adds Larry Ellison and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson as Board Directors

#290

Post by going_to_800 »

dotancohen wrote: post #215
ElijahLynn wrote: post #196

In my eyes, Larry Ellison on the Tesla BoD just damaged the brand of Tesla by an order of magnitude.

My thoughts exactly. I've lusted over the Model S for years, and the minute that they become available in my country I'll be the first in line. But, now that means doing business with a company owned by One Real Asshole Called Larry Ellison? I wouldn't dare. The way his most well-known company treats its clients is so grotesque that I wouldn't even want to work at a company that uses its products. They are extremely…

Lol. Grow up! Not buying a car because of one of the company's board members?
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