4 ms·

What a strange combination of naive fanboyism and conspiratorial thinking.

lawnchair_larry 10y ago
Nah, he's making a (probably correct) observation of the market. Tesla is like the Apple of cars, and Elon is the Steve of the auto industry. It doesn't have to make sense in order for it to be true.
- tempestn 10y ago
  Exclusivity does indeed impact people's decisions, but it's far from the only driver. If a major brand made a new electric car that was demonstrably better than a comparably priced Tesla, it would sell well, and word would quickly spread. There is also significant appeal in having the "best". Musk organizing lobbyists against his own company makes no sense. If they wanted to make the cars scarce they could simply produce fewer of them. Instead they're scaling production as quickly as possible, because obviously selling more cars results in more revenue.
- snovv_crash 10y ago
  And Google did the same thing with GMail, being exclusive at the beginning.
- walshemj 10y ago
  trouble is with that analogy is there are plenty of other car makers that fit the luxury end of the market Tesla is going to have a hard time replacing, RR Bentley, BMW Mercedes and BMW. Let alone the really guci brands like say Bristol where if you are not the right sort of chap you can't buy
rdtsc 10y ago
Please, "conspiratorial thinking" ... it was obviously a joke. But the observation that an a restriction or prohibition on something making it more desirable wasn't. As for fanboy-ism, I just described how I saw the market. I am certainly not camping under Musks' window. But many consider him the equivalent of some technological messiah, whether you like, or I like or anyone else. A sibling comment compared it to Apple, that's a good analogy. It doesn't matter how fast or cool Dell or Microsoft is, those people want an Apple and will not buy anything else. I think Tesla is the same way. So so besides the one-line zinger, how would you describe the fact that people who can't afford this product and go out of their way to just to drive it.
- sndean 10y ago
  > A sibling comment compared it to Apple, that's a good analogy. It doesn't matter how fast or cool Dell or Microsoft is, those people want an Apple and will not buy anything else. I think Tesla is the same way. Just as a worthless set of anecdotes, the Apple and Tesla fanboy groups have a pretty large overlap, based on people that I know who own a Model S.
  - rdtsc 10y ago
    > Just as a worthless set of anecdotes So what are you arguing against? That these fanboys don't exist? I think we are talking about the same thing... I was saying there are irrational fanboys that will not buy anything else, and then you chime in "Oh, that's a worthless observation! There are lots of irrational fanboys"?
    - sndean 10y ago
      > I think we are talking about the same thing... Yeah, I think we are. Rereading my comment, it was poorly worded... My point was that the irrational fanboy-ism that's sometimes associated with Apple and Tesla is, in my experience, exhibited by the same people. So the Apple analogy is a good one, possibly because they're the same group of people (?).

Nah, he's making a (probably correct) observation of the market. Tesla is like the Apple of cars, and Elon is the Steve of the auto industry. It doesn't have to make sense in order for it to be true.

tempestn 10y ago
Exclusivity does indeed impact people's decisions, but it's far from the only driver. If a major brand made a new electric car that was demonstrably better than a comparably priced Tesla, it would sell well, and word would quickly spread. There is also significant appeal in having the "best". Musk organizing lobbyists against his own company makes no sense. If they wanted to make the cars scarce they could simply produce fewer of them. Instead they're scaling production as quickly as possible, because obviously selling more cars results in more revenue.
snovv_crash 10y ago
And Google did the same thing with GMail, being exclusive at the beginning.
walshemj 10y ago
trouble is with that analogy is there are plenty of other car makers that fit the luxury end of the market Tesla is going to have a hard time replacing, RR Bentley, BMW Mercedes and BMW. Let alone the really guci brands like say Bristol where if you are not the right sort of chap you can't buy

rdtsc 10y ago

Please, "conspiratorial thinking" ... it was obviously a joke. But the observation that an a restriction or prohibition on something making it more desirable wasn't. As for fanboy-ism, I just described how I saw the market. I am certainly not camping under Musks' window. But many consider him the equivalent of some technological messiah, whether you like, or I like or anyone else. A sibling comment compared it to Apple, that's a good analogy. It doesn't matter how fast or cool Dell or Microsoft is, those people want an Apple and will not buy anything else. I think Tesla is the same way. So so besides the one-line zinger, how would you describe the fact that people who can't afford this product and go out of their way to just to drive it.

sndean 10y ago
> A sibling comment compared it to Apple, that's a good analogy. It doesn't matter how fast or cool Dell or Microsoft is, those people want an Apple and will not buy anything else. I think Tesla is the same way. Just as a worthless set of anecdotes, the Apple and Tesla fanboy groups have a pretty large overlap, based on people that I know who own a Model S.
- rdtsc 10y ago
  > Just as a worthless set of anecdotes So what are you arguing against? That these fanboys don't exist? I think we are talking about the same thing... I was saying there are irrational fanboys that will not buy anything else, and then you chime in "Oh, that's a worthless observation! There are lots of irrational fanboys"?
  - sndean 10y ago
    > I think we are talking about the same thing... Yeah, I think we are. Rereading my comment, it was poorly worded... My point was that the irrational fanboy-ism that's sometimes associated with Apple and Tesla is, in my experience, exhibited by the same people. So the Apple analogy is a good one, possibly because they're the same group of people (?).