4 ms·

Tesla Rejected Uber Partnership on Self-Driving Cars

67 points by chirau 9y ago

hkmurakami 9y ago
I wonder if it's possible to have a negative value for the Goodwill line item of the balance sheet.
- smallnamespace 9y ago
  You're joking, but yes.
- withdavidli 9y ago
  If they give a positive value to brand then why not a negative value.
tibyat 9y ago
wow what a truly shit article.
thedevil 9y ago
So every day on HN I see articles explaining 1) why Elon Musk and Tesla are great, 2) why Kalanik is evil and Uber is going to fail, and 3) why Trump is evil and stupid. This article comes very close to all three (only briefly mentioning Trump). Now, I dislike Trump and Elon is my hero (don't know much about Kalanik), but clearly there's a very serious groupthink problem going on here on HN. All three of these men are mere mortals and only have 24 hrs/day. They can't commit great crimes or great heroic acts every single day. Yet, these articles hit the top of the feed every day and seeing these articles every day is going to cause your brain to outweigh these articles, seriously distorting your perception of reality. I suspect this is why some were so surprised by the election result. I actually bet my money on Trump even though I dislike him (he's a slimy jerk, but he's not stupid). And while many here are 100% sure Uber is going to flop, I'd be tempted to put money on Uber. Their business model looks insanely good to me (if self-driving cars or government actions don't wipe them out). Unfortunately, this reality distortion isn't a problem restricted to HN.
- vitobcn 9y ago
  Of course you're saying that, you're the devil /s To be honest, I didn't think this Bloomberg piece was worth it; and I did perceive the advice from Elon ("stick to what we do best and focused") to be more about a focus on execution than to stay away from self-driving cars, which in my view seems quite reasonable for an earlier stage company.
- simplehuman 9y ago
  Yeah, paulgraham had an article about these constant pr pieces. http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html
  - swang 9y ago
    this is not a submarine piece... which company's pr firm paid for this? tesla? (why?) uber? (serious?) how about the guy who is writing "wild ride" who only got one sentence in the article? (well maybe.. but that's kinda weird if he only asked them for one quick blurb)...
- JauntyHatAngle 9y ago
  >Now, I dislike Trump and Elon is my hero (don't know much about Kalanik), but clearly there's a very serious groupthink problem going on here on HN. Not that I disagree in premise, but when does an obvious conclusion become group think? On the flipside to what you're saying, there is also a risk in being contrary simply to avoid group think. e.g. Look at people calling climate change "group think". Well supported positions shouldn't be necessarily conflated as group think.
- xapata 9y ago
  > clearly ... groupthink That's not clear to me. And it's quite plausible that a US President could take an important action every day. One might infer the intent to overwhelm the public's sense of outrage so that at least some of Trump's agenda takes effect. As we tire of the news, we submit to whatever "they" want.
- thisisit 9y ago
omarforgotpwd 9y ago
Of course they rejected the partnership. Why wouldn't Tesla compete rather than partner? And Uber is valued at $60B while Tesla is valued at $50B. Hmmmmmm....
- arthurcolle 9y ago
  error
kreetx 9y ago
"That’s when I knew Tesla was competing." ^ Reactions like this will make it even harder to strike partnerships in the future.
bfu 9y ago
If they didn't both projects would be "tizenified".

67 points by chirau 9y ago

hkmurakami 9y ago

I wonder if it's possible to have a negative value for the Goodwill line item of the balance sheet.

smallnamespace 9y ago
You're joking, but yes.
withdavidli 9y ago
If they give a positive value to brand then why not a negative value.

tibyat 9y ago

wow what a truly shit article.

thedevil 9y ago

So every day on HN I see articles explaining 1) why Elon Musk and Tesla are great, 2) why Kalanik is evil and Uber is going to fail, and 3) why Trump is evil and stupid. This article comes very close to all three (only briefly mentioning Trump). Now, I dislike Trump and Elon is my hero (don't know much about Kalanik), but clearly there's a very serious groupthink problem going on here on HN. All three of these men are mere mortals and only have 24 hrs/day. They can't commit great crimes or great heroic acts every single day. Yet, these articles hit the top of the feed every day and seeing these articles every day is going to cause your brain to outweigh these articles, seriously distorting your perception of reality. I suspect this is why some were so surprised by the election result. I actually bet my money on Trump even though I dislike him (he's a slimy jerk, but he's not stupid). And while many here are 100% sure Uber is going to flop, I'd be tempted to put money on Uber. Their business model looks insanely good to me (if self-driving cars or government actions don't wipe them out). Unfortunately, this reality distortion isn't a problem restricted to HN.

vitobcn 9y ago
Of course you're saying that, you're the devil /s To be honest, I didn't think this Bloomberg piece was worth it; and I did perceive the advice from Elon ("stick to what we do best and focused") to be more about a focus on execution than to stay away from self-driving cars, which in my view seems quite reasonable for an earlier stage company.
simplehuman 9y ago
Yeah, paulgraham had an article about these constant pr pieces. http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html http://paulgraham.com/submarine.html
- swang 9y ago
  this is not a submarine piece... which company's pr firm paid for this? tesla? (why?) uber? (serious?) how about the guy who is writing "wild ride" who only got one sentence in the article? (well maybe.. but that's kinda weird if he only asked them for one quick blurb)...
JauntyHatAngle 9y ago
>Now, I dislike Trump and Elon is my hero (don't know much about Kalanik), but clearly there's a very serious groupthink problem going on here on HN. Not that I disagree in premise, but when does an obvious conclusion become group think? On the flipside to what you're saying, there is also a risk in being contrary simply to avoid group think. e.g. Look at people calling climate change "group think". Well supported positions shouldn't be necessarily conflated as group think.
xapata 9y ago
> clearly ... groupthink That's not clear to me. And it's quite plausible that a US President could take an important action every day. One might infer the intent to overwhelm the public's sense of outrage so that at least some of Trump's agenda takes effect. As we tire of the news, we submit to whatever "they" want.
thisisit 9y ago

omarforgotpwd 9y ago

Of course they rejected the partnership. Why wouldn't Tesla compete rather than partner? And Uber is valued at $60B while Tesla is valued at $50B. Hmmmmmm....

arthurcolle 9y ago
error

kreetx 9y ago

"That’s when I knew Tesla was competing." ^ Reactions like this will make it even harder to strike partnerships in the future.

bfu 9y ago

If they didn't both projects would be "tizenified".