31–40 of 149 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Public money saved him.
There are two sides to that coin. Without an opportunity and potential like SpaceX, all the public money would have are cases like Solyndra. The reality was, NASA needed SpaceX as much as SpaceX needed NASA.
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…
"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 did with gasoline stations), and they too will fight with Tesla on standards, and attempt to set their own. The one guarantee is that the energy industry, filled full of extremely powerful companies used to dominating and getting their way, will not simply go along with Musk because he got there first (ditto for Ford and GM). That's not to say Tesla's standard will or won't prevail (or whether several will win out), but rather that there will be a long fight over it, and the competition will be belligerent.
I, for one, welcome Elon Musk's empire! He couldn't possibly be paying for all the hype, all the influence, backing a worldwide PR campaign about himself and his stunts. He's on the media simply because he's freaking awesome compared to other millionaires industrialists. Come on, look at what the guy has done so far... we need more Elons Musks. There, end of fanboyism :-)
Also, it's clear that all he did wouldn't be possible without a superb team behind him. But he's got such a strong character that it's just a talent magnet -- if not more, probably the best motivator one institution could ever hope, specially for engineers. I think he's aware and quite pleased at all this image building as a "RL Iron Man", because it does wonders for the success of the companies. It's this kind of sp…
That's something that would look great in a marble facade.
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…
Link to last 10-K: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/0001193125140...
Tesla will definitely make a killing on batteries. I actually think the supercharger network is going to REMAIN proprietary as a competitive advantage for Tesla vs. other electric car companies. As someone who's done research in this in the past, there are already well-established standards adopted by the IEEE and companies like GE for charging. This is obviously to encourage the adoption of the technology.
However, since most electric charging networks are run by private companies or utilities, we may have the "roaming charge" issue that telecom had once upon a time. In other words, if you lived in Texas and got your electric charge from your local utility as part of your monthly bill, you may have to pay "roaming charge fees" for charging in California.
But if you're on the Tesla network, the "fuel" is part of your purchase price. This is Apple-level walled garden tactics and it demonstrates the foresight of Elon Musk and his team. What an incredible entrepreneur.
Anyone have a mobile link that works? edit: link
Video playback on the web is such a farce. Luckily with some poking around you can find the m3u8 playlist URL in the HTML source in plain sight: http://ipad-streaming.cbsnews.com/media/mpx/2014/03/30/21153...
As for CBS. I don't want your g@$
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…
Makes me think how much we need a revolution in batteries. I am wondering if there will be a new type of batteries soon or maybe we'll get improved capacity by slapping a software layer that manages charging/discharging.
* tons of energy is lost as heat * volatility of the chemical storage mechanism occasionally causes that heat to get released as an explosion
I'd love to see Musk's solution end up in a massive increase in battery performance.
He doesn't so much as say it, but show it in his eyes how much the NASA contract meant and how much passion he has.
Public money saved him.
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 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…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are two sides to that coin. Without an opportunity and potential like SpaceX, all the public money would have are cases like Solyndra. The reality was, NASA needed SpaceX as much as SpaceX needed NASA.
That's ridiculous. There are tons of successful developments using public money besides SpaceX.