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In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

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Re: In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

#61

Post by anovikov »

mkramlich wrote: post #60
guimarin wrote: post #33

I really enjoy this article and hope tesla succeeds, but I am always turned off by plug-in EVs. Say for example, he does achieve 30 minutes charging for 3 hours driving. And say I drive from SF to LA. after about 3 hours, there is this one in n out station, that everyone stops at, are we going to have 20 superchargers at that station? in off hours of the day, those will not all be utilized, thus lose money. It seems…

When there's a much smaller number of electric cars you can get away with a much smaller number of recharging/swapping stations and "pumps". They can incrementally add more stations as more electric cars are operating. Swapping stations would probably take a greater real estate footprint and require more human staffing than a charging station, which can be fairly small and automated (picture a coin-operated tire air…

>When there's a much smaller number of electric cars you can get away with a much smaller number of recharging/swapping stations and "pumps".

No they don't, and this is a big catch for them. This is a chicken and egg problem. People will be reluctant to buy electric cars until there are fast recharge stations everywhere around, because home charging takes a lot of time, and needing to travel far away you're essentially stuck. These charging stations are not quickly appearing because there are too few people with electric cars to use them. This will fix, but much, much slower than technically/economically possible.

Re: In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

#62

Post by arrrg »

zachalexander wrote: post #14

Who am I to criticize Elon Musk, but several things in this interview seemed puzzling to me, and concerning if I were an investor in Tesla. And I'm not even talking about the explicit discussions of their corporate finances. > ... deliver cars to customers who have been waiting for a long time If the demand for Tesla cars at a given price point exceeds their supply, shouldn't they be charging more? > Q: Have you had…

How perfect a product is might have an impact on brand perception.

Example: I recently bought a MacBook Pro Retina. From time to time (rarely) it makes creaking sounds. The bottom plate doesn’t sit quite perfectly on the chassis. Do I send it back because of that? No. Does that impact my perception of Apple as a brand negatively? Absolutely.

Re: In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

#63

Post by GeneralMaximus »

prodigal_erik wrote: post #41
wazoox wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the ones who are working 60+ hours a week, and who are about to kick your company's ass, because there's no place on Earth they'd rather be than in that garage. Because they're 20 years old, and they'll do that only for a limited time anyway because even the energy from youth won't protect them from burnout. This is nice, heart-warming story we like to believe, but this is anecdote. In general , people work efficie…

Eight hours per day came out of studies of rote assembly line labor. Has there been evidence that's also the optimum for a creative desk job?

I've heard four to six hours a day, but I cannot cite sources. This Google query returns some promising results but you'll have to dig deeper than this for scientific studies: https://www.google.com/search?q=six+hours+per+day+creative+w...

Re: In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

#64

Post by wazoox »

joelrunyon wrote: post #49
wazoox wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who want to be pilots love flying. Nonetheless they're not allowed to fly more than a number of hours, because passion, motivation and whatever you want won't prevent you from messing up when you're tired. Amphetamines were invented for the military and particularly the special ops, mind you. As you know they come with their problems, too. So please stop bullshitting yourself. As much as I like and respect Elo…

Also, while you may think 40 hour work weeks are the optimal time, you'll have to admit it's a completely arbitrary number. Elon himself, first and foremost, is proving your assertion wrong by easily working more, while simultaneously running 2 (I would suggest) of the most important emerging companies around. Sure, other aspects of his life may suffer, but he's willing to make that tradeoff. Don't try to project you…

> Elon himself, first and foremost, is proving your assertion wrong by easily working more, while simultaneously running 2 (I would suggest) of the most important emerging companies around.

See my other comments. As a CEO, spending an afternoon chit-chatting with journalists, then having a filmed interview with Kevin Rose, then more chit-chatting qualifies as several hours of work. It's not remotely as strenuous as carefully aligning car doors for the same duration, though. Or writing down the specification of an important program without any interruption for facebook or HN.

It's much, much easier to work 60 to 100 hours a week as a CEO (because your work includes things like golfing with customers or dining with investors).

> Don't try to project your personal limitations onto someone else or create a population generality from a personal anecdote.

I don't deny Musk the ability to sleep 3 hours each night and work like a slave 16 hours a day, I really have no idea. However when as the CEO of a ~3000 people company he says he's expecting everyone to work 50-60 hours week, particularly auto workers, I pretend he's making a huge, grave management mistake.

Re: In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

#65

Post by srik »

mkramlich wrote: post #59
srik wrote: post #53

> Usually, when people say it's the all-new blah-blah-blah, whatever car, that's bullshit. 40 percent of that car, if not 60 percent of that car, if coming from some parts bin. In our case, two percent is coming from the parts bin. I was definitely not aware of this practice. Recycling material is one thing, but reusing parts is something customerss need to know about, especially if it's about 40-60 % like Musk claim…

I'm pretty sure he didn't mean recycling previously owned/installed/used/worn parts. I think he meant using previously designed parts --- parts that are components because they have been used in other models before. In other words he's saying most of the parts in this Tesla are debutting with this model, for the first time, anyway. So there's going to be teething issues. R&D rather than pure heads-down production.

Oops, misunderstood that. Got to work on my English. Thanks for clarifying :)

Re: In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

#66

Post by srik »

skrebbel wrote: post #56
srik wrote: post #53

> Usually, when people say it's the all-new blah-blah-blah, whatever car, that's bullshit. 40 percent of that car, if not 60 percent of that car, if coming from some parts bin. In our case, two percent is coming from the parts bin. I was definitely not aware of this practice. Recycling material is one thing, but reusing parts is something customerss need to know about, especially if it's about 40-60 % like Musk claim…

I agree. Reusing well-working and trusted components is a horrible engineering practice and customers should be notified of this. In other news, I told my boss that I'm going to be pushing native code in a hex editor until my assembler is done.

Hah. Sorry for the misunderstanding, I thought he meant reusing parts from other cars, when he actually mean reusing designs. That actually makes so much more sense. My bad.

Re: In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

#67

Post by skrebbel »

srik wrote: post #66
skrebbel wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Reusing well-working and trusted components is a horrible engineering practice and customers should be notified of this. In other news, I told my boss that I'm going to be pushing native code in a hex editor until my assembler is done.

Hah. Sorry for the misunderstanding, I thought he meant reusing parts from other cars, when he actually mean reusing designs. That actually makes so much more sense. My bad.

ha! Ok, now your comment makes more sense to me, at least :)

Re: In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

#68

Post by wololo »

confluence wrote: post #55
hinathan wrote: post #6

It was a difficult thing that was made more difficult by one of our investors who was just an absolute bastard, nobody should ever take money from them. Anybody know whom he's referring to? Pretty harsh.

From Crunchbase here are my likely sources of bad investor groups (I've excluded individuals and Google): > Compass Technology Partners 4 investments - from the start (probably not). Valor Equity Partners 3 investments - from the start (probably not). > JP Morgan 2 - maybe (unlikely) Technology Venture Partners US 1 - (unlikely) > Capricorn Management 2 - maybe (probably not) VantagePoint Capital Partners 2 - maybe D…

am i missing something, or does crunchbase have the investors wrong?

ie, that it was Technology Partners (http://technologypartners.com/cleantech.html), and not Technology Venture Partners US (http://tvp.com/Investments.aspx has no mention of Tesla), who made the investment (not to be confused with Compass Technology Partners who also invested). oi, names...

http://gigaom.com/cleantech/who-wins-in-the-tesla-ipo/

Re: In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

#69

Post by guimarin »

mkramlich wrote: post #60
guimarin wrote: post #33

I really enjoy this article and hope tesla succeeds, but I am always turned off by plug-in EVs. Say for example, he does achieve 30 minutes charging for 3 hours driving. And say I drive from SF to LA. after about 3 hours, there is this one in n out station, that everyone stops at, are we going to have 20 superchargers at that station? in off hours of the day, those will not all be utilized, thus lose money. It seems…

When there's a much smaller number of electric cars you can get away with a much smaller number of recharging/swapping stations and "pumps". They can incrementally add more stations as more electric cars are operating. Swapping stations would probably take a greater real estate footprint and require more human staffing than a charging station, which can be fairly small and automated (picture a coin-operated tire air…

I disagree. I've modeled it. If 500+ of these cars go from SF to LA on a weekend, it's going to be utter chaos. One pump at one service station servicing 500+ cars is barely a win on the SF to LA route for gasoline, so it's beyond incredulous to think that charging stations that take at least 10 times longer are going to change that or make the economics even remotely desirable from a business standpoint.

I am a firm believer in "the medium is the message." For 15 years before the iPhone, Microsoft parroted your comment above almost exactly about smartphones and tablets, needing to hit "critical mass". It didn't happen. They had a shitty UI, and people didn't want to develop for it, and so people didn't buy their hardware.

Simply. Batteries are very expensive. They are not going down in price like transitors, not even linearly with a reasonable slope. We are already at 'economies of scale,' due to the electronics industry. ( you can think of the electric packs, as N MBP batteries strung together ) Batteries will always be the most expensive part of the car ( it's like buying 80% of all the gasoline your car will ever need when you purchase it initially, rather than incrementally over the life-time of the car ). Charging stations are both too dangerous and too expensive to implement for even 1% of vehicles to be electric. It will be like parking spaces, but much more expensive. The only solution for EVs, on technology even on the horizon, is battery exchange systems.

I believe Elon could do it, if anyone can, but not with how Tesla is set up now.

Re: In deep with Tesla CEO Elon Musk

#70

Post by mahyarm »

LockeWatts wrote: post #54
mahyarm wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must see the model s in person. It's so well designed, I wish you could buy one for $30k new as a hybrid version. Just get rid of the front trunk.

Having a hybrid version of the Model S would completely defeat the purpose of the design.

I'm saying it's well designed as a car cabin. Not about it's propulsion technology.
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