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To crib the top Reddit comment on this article for free internet points: "Yeah, they laughed Elon Musk off so much that Daimler acquired nearly 10 percent of T

by herge 10y ago

To crib the top Reddit comment on this article for free internet points: "Yeah, they laughed Elon Musk off so much that Daimler acquired nearly 10 percent of Tesla in the early days. But at least they found an 88 year old (!) former executive of Daimler that dismissed Tesla." "https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/4fmrrl/german_automakers_who_once_laughed_off_elon_musk/ https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/4fmrrl/german_a...?

mc32 10y ago
I don't know that that means much. When the American big three saw Japanese carmakers overtaking them in terms of quality, delivering products people wanted etc., many entered into these ventures and bought sizable stakes, etc., but maybe except for Ford, I don't think they extracted much out of those partnerships.
- thrownaway2424 10y ago
  I think GM would have gone straight out of business if they hadn't had their joint venture with Toyota (NUMMI). You can say they didn't learn as much as they could have, but I don't think you can say they got much out of it. You could say that GM owes its existence to Toyota.
  - mc32 10y ago
    I think there was untapped potential and undelivered potential. And the things they learned propagated way too slowly. That's my take.
  - ams6110 10y ago
    GM is too big to fail though....
SilasX 10y ago
That comment was also posted in /r/Futurology, where it got even more points, but they deleted the submission there -- which is really saying something for that subreddit! (They normally have an extremely optimistic attitude toward Tesla, electric cars, and future technologies in general.) https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/4fmrt6/german_automakers_who_once_laughed_off_elon_musk/d2a6j2t https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/4fmrt6/german_a...