Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

“The Tesla Model S is our top-scoring car”

news.consumerreports.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 290 posts

Re: “The Tesla Model S is our top-scoring car”

#81

Post by loceng »

[deleted] wrote: post #76
maratd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why all the mediocre product that's the tail end of pumping billions of dollars into R&D staffed by largely the same folks Tesla has been hiring? In an established firm, existing product lines pay the bills. No company is an island onto itself. Companies have partners, large clients, relationships, etc. Bottom line? To keep existing product lines healthy, you must pay respect to your loyalties. You start seeing the…

[deleted]

A few reasons come to mind. Either they are planning to do something cool, though it's not public yet, or people who have the cool / life changing ideas will go off on their own to do them.

The way you keep people like Musk in companies performing is giving them a large portion of ownership of their particular endeavor, so they benefit based on how successful they are - however then they're really just becoming investors.

Re: “The Tesla Model S is our top-scoring car”

#82

Post by JPKab »

jfb wrote: post #39
moconnor wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The classic "Innovator's Dilemma" attempts to address this - the idea here would be that electric cars are disruptive technology, one which otherwise good management practices more or less prevent market encumbents successfully exploiting. Read the book, I highly recommend it if you're interested by these kinds of questions!

But electric cars aren't a disruptive technology. The only thing that might qualify as disruptive about Tesla is their direct to customer sales model, and I have a hard time seeing how they'll get around the entrenched interests there. The Model S is by all accounts an excellent car, and I want one, but I am bearish on Tesla the company.

Of course they are disruptive. They achieve the same capability as an internal combustion engine, but they do it in a different way.

ICE automakers can't retool their supply chains overnight (or even over several years) to make an equivelent product.

How are they disruptive? They achieve identical (performance wise, superior) capability with reduced maintenance and reduced fuel cost due to electricity being cheaper than gasoline.

In the short term, the increased cost makes them disruptive only in the high-end sedan market. As the production scales up, this will move into the lower-tier markets. I think you are intelligent enough to get this.

Re: “The Tesla Model S is our top-scoring car”

#84

Post by randallu »

[deleted] wrote: post #76
maratd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why all the mediocre product that's the tail end of pumping billions of dollars into R&D staffed by largely the same folks Tesla has been hiring? In an established firm, existing product lines pay the bills. No company is an island onto itself. Companies have partners, large clients, relationships, etc. Bottom line? To keep existing product lines healthy, you must pay respect to your loyalties. You start seeing the…

[deleted]

Apparently you don't need to move people like Musk to large companies for them to change the world.

(And many would argue the world is a better place for people not being dependent on existing large companies to have an impact).

Re: “The Tesla Model S is our top-scoring car”

#85

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #76
maratd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why all the mediocre product that's the tail end of pumping billions of dollars into R&D staffed by largely the same folks Tesla has been hiring? In an established firm, existing product lines pay the bills. No company is an island onto itself. Companies have partners, large clients, relationships, etc. Bottom line? To keep existing product lines healthy, you must pay respect to your loyalties. You start seeing the…

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: “The Tesla Model S is our top-scoring car”

#86

Post by technoslut »

lanstein wrote: post #66
beachstartup wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I humbly submit that you haven't been driving the right cars.

There has to be a market for a company to add a V12 sound to the Tesla S.

Well it was a secondary underlying theme to the lousy movie "The Dilemma".

I'm sure it can be done but the question is whether someone wants it. Many in that class would probably adjust quicker to the silence of EV's than a lie.

Do keep in mind that engine noise is not only beneficial to the driver but cyclists, other motorists and at crosswalks as well.

It's not a problem that is easily solved and satisfied by all parties.

Re: “The Tesla Model S is our top-scoring car”

#87

Post by pchristensen »

enraged_camel wrote: post #41
jfb wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But electric cars aren't a disruptive technology. The only thing that might qualify as disruptive about Tesla is their direct to customer sales model, and I have a hard time seeing how they'll get around the entrenched interests there. The Model S is by all accounts an excellent car, and I want one, but I am bearish on Tesla the company.

>>But electric cars aren't a disruptive technology. Of course they are. They work completely differently from ICE cars and even hybrids to solve the same problem (transportation). That's the definition of a disruptive technology.

Disruptive technologies serve customers that are unprofitable ornindesirable for incumbents to serve. Tesla is a direct competitor to luxury sedans, and is beating them at their own game.

A disruptive electric car would be if a golf cart maker made a $7500 car with a top speed of 60mph and a range of 50 miles. No current car customer would want that, but people that couldn't afford a new reliable car, or teenagers whose parents only sort-of trusted them, etc would love to buy it.

Re: “The Tesla Model S is our top-scoring car”

#88

Post by joezydeco »

newbie12 wrote: post #47
maratd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why all the mediocre product that's the tail end of pumping billions of dollars into R&D staffed by largely the same folks Tesla has been hiring? In an established firm, existing product lines pay the bills. No company is an island onto itself. Companies have partners, large clients, relationships, etc. Bottom line? To keep existing product lines healthy, you must pay respect to your loyalties. You start seeing the…

Plus no autoworkers' union, and no inefficient dealer network.

He's still got an uphill battle on the dealer network thing. North Carolina being the latest problem:

http://insideevs.com/hearing-on-tesla-selling-cars-in-north-...

Re: “The Tesla Model S is our top-scoring car”

#90

Post by randallu »

pyre wrote: post #42
bane wrote: post #8

There's something that's been bothering me about this whole thing. Not the Tesla, but the rest of the market. Is that it? Is it that easy? A guy who made his money selling a phonebook and then an online payment processor can read a few books, hire a few people out of the same industry he's disrupting and build a goddamn amazing car (electric or not)? Why can't the existing industry do this? Why all the mediocre produ…

There's something to be said about a driven leader pursuing a vision. The other good example would be Apple + Steve Jobs. For example, I know that with Ford Motor Company, as an example, the Ford family has a heavy hand in the top-level management (i.e. previous CEOs have been kicked out 'unofficially' because they didn't follow what the Ford family wanted or didn't live up to their expectations). That kind of stuff…

Henry Ford almost destroyed the Ford Motor Company because he believed the Model T to not need improvement. So the Ford family doing things that don't benefit the company has some history :).
Post reply on HN