4 ms·

It's sad. I am a big fan of Tesla and had/still have very high hopes from them, but it's decreasing. It seems Tesla is hell-bent on committing suicide. This way

by tmptmp 10y ago

It's sad. I am a big fan of Tesla and had/still have very high hopes from them, but it's decreasing. It seems Tesla is hell-bent on committing suicide. This way, they don't need the fossil-fuel car lobby to destroy them. The BMW, Volkswgen and the likes of dirty-gas-guzzlers-producers would be chuckling now. Why the hell are they so bullish on auto-pilot? I cannot see any sense in it. They must just concentrate more on the battery, charging-stations and efficiency/performance part of the equation. Instead, I am seeing more efforts are being thrown in not-so-relevant areas and that too aggressively. Semi-automatic auto-pilot is the idea rejected even by Google. Tesla should learn fast and get back to its core business: battery powered electric cars, period and not the battery powered automatic electric cars. I'd be happy if they prove this wrong. edit: many typos and grammatical mistakes, sorry.

_pmf_ 10y ago
> It seems Tesla is hell-bent on committing suicide. It's unfathomable why they don't just concentrate on their core competency (EV technology) and keep their AI experiments in R&D (where they belong).
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
gutnor 10y ago
It really fits well with their image of an agile tech company producing car from the future. Also they need those software upgrade as it buys them some time to focus on new car model rather than replacing existing one. Tesla is still a tiny player in the car business and at some point a big brand will enter its market in force. They need to be bullish to maintain their image. That said, their PR has always been overreactive. Remember all the dirt they thrown at people reviewing their car. Or how they came hard on people with their burning Tesla. Those were unnecessary "dickish". If Tesla has some actual blame to take, the tone set by their PR people is going to seriously backfire.
kuschku 10y ago
> The BMW, Volkswgen and the likes of dirty-gas-guzzlers-producers would be chuckling now. Funnily, all of those are investing heavily in automated electric cars already, or even have products for semi-automated electric cars on the market. Just less hype around those. If Tesla just continues, they'll be dead in a year, and Volkswagen, which also got further encouraged by the EPA to develop electric cars, will just take over their market share.
return0 10y ago
> The BMW, Volkswgen and the likes of dirty-gas-guzzlers-producers would be chuckling now. Why? Autonomous cars =/= electric cars
- tmptmp 10y ago
  With Tesla in the picture, there is a lot of pressure on the BMW, Volkswagen etc to invest in the EV technology. So they would be chuckling now because with Tesla getting out of the competition (or with Tesla becoming weaker), they would have an easier task pushing their dirty-gas-guzzlers and of getting loads of easy profits. With Tesla out, they can even squash the entire electric car efforts altogether and will plunder the money thus "saved" in the form of fat bonuses to the higher-ups (ala Volkswagen style), which they would have to invest in EV research otherwise. I may seem exaggerating, but with the recent Volkswagen pollution scandal, many will agree with this. Tesla is better, Elon Musk is better in terms of innovation and their direction seems more promising for the public good. They are disrupting the fossil fuel giants who are hellbent in garnering as much money as they can at whatever costs. I know I may (turn out to) be a foolish naive believing too much in Tesla and Musk, but I find myself helpless here.
  - return0 10y ago
    > Tesla is better, Elon Musk is better Perhaps you live in a bubble, as most car makers barely raise an eyebrow over tesla as a competitor so far. Making tonloads of batteries is not necessarily better than making efficient, safe and less polluting "gas guzzlers". From the outside, it seems there is a push to revive the american car industry through EV, supported by lenient and eager to see results US regulators. Of course, time will tell, and in the process hopefully we will all have safer and eco-friendly cars.

by tmptmp 10y ago

_pmf_ 10y ago

> It seems Tesla is hell-bent on committing suicide. It's unfathomable why they don't just concentrate on their core competency (EV technology) and keep their AI experiments in R&D (where they belong).

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

gutnor 10y ago

It really fits well with their image of an agile tech company producing car from the future. Also they need those software upgrade as it buys them some time to focus on new car model rather than replacing existing one. Tesla is still a tiny player in the car business and at some point a big brand will enter its market in force. They need to be bullish to maintain their image. That said, their PR has always been overreactive. Remember all the dirt they thrown at people reviewing their car. Or how they came hard on people with their burning Tesla. Those were unnecessary "dickish". If Tesla has some actual blame to take, the tone set by their PR people is going to seriously backfire.

kuschku 10y ago

> The BMW, Volkswgen and the likes of dirty-gas-guzzlers-producers would be chuckling now. Funnily, all of those are investing heavily in automated electric cars already, or even have products for semi-automated electric cars on the market. Just less hype around those. If Tesla just continues, they'll be dead in a year, and Volkswagen, which also got further encouraged by the EPA to develop electric cars, will just take over their market share.

return0 10y ago

> The BMW, Volkswgen and the likes of dirty-gas-guzzlers-producers would be chuckling now. Why? Autonomous cars =/= electric cars

tmptmp 10y ago
With Tesla in the picture, there is a lot of pressure on the BMW, Volkswagen etc to invest in the EV technology. So they would be chuckling now because with Tesla getting out of the competition (or with Tesla becoming weaker), they would have an easier task pushing their dirty-gas-guzzlers and of getting loads of easy profits. With Tesla out, they can even squash the entire electric car efforts altogether and will plunder the money thus "saved" in the form of fat bonuses to the higher-ups (ala Volkswagen style), which they would have to invest in EV research otherwise. I may seem exaggerating, but with the recent Volkswagen pollution scandal, many will agree with this. Tesla is better, Elon Musk is better in terms of innovation and their direction seems more promising for the public good. They are disrupting the fossil fuel giants who are hellbent in garnering as much money as they can at whatever costs. I know I may (turn out to) be a foolish naive believing too much in Tesla and Musk, but I find myself helpless here.
- return0 10y ago
  > Tesla is better, Elon Musk is better Perhaps you live in a bubble, as most car makers barely raise an eyebrow over tesla as a competitor so far. Making tonloads of batteries is not necessarily better than making efficient, safe and less polluting "gas guzzlers". From the outside, it seems there is a push to revive the american car industry through EV, supported by lenient and eager to see results US regulators. Of course, time will tell, and in the process hopefully we will all have safer and eco-friendly cars.