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I have no interest or involvment in Tesla. But from an outsider's perspective I can't help but notice that when you're this little company with no chance of mak
by keyle 9y ago
I have no interest or involvment in Tesla. But from an outsider's perspective I can't help but notice that when you're this little company with no chance of making it, the press is very bulish about your company.
As soon as you become large, they look up at you and can't wait to see you fall, overly negative.
Who thought making cars was difficult? And mass production? And electrical cars, pushing the boundaries or batteries.
The light are still on in the factory, so the company's doing well.
- duhast 9y agoTesla revenue in 2017 exceeded 12bln$. How is Tesla “little”?
- amerine 9y agoYou missed the OPs point entirely. He literally said that now Tesla is big they are rooting for its failure.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- CharlesW 9y ago> But from an outsider's perspective I can't help but notice that when you're this little company with no chance of making it, the press is very bulish about your company. As soon as you become large, they look up at you and can't wait to see you fall, overly negative. This isn't just a press bias, but a seemingly-universal human bias. [1] https://undark.org/article/why-we-root-for-the-underdog/ https://undark.org/article/why-we-root-for-the-underdog/
- WheelsAtLarge 9y agoHis big problem is over promise. Yes, he promises big but does not deliver. The press loves to play both sides. It reports the promises and the lack of delivery on his part too. The press couldn't care either way as long as it brings in readers.
- heisenbergs 9y agoHe only overpromises when it comes to timelines. Most other things he actually achieves. Elontime is a real thing though...
- VVyattPrentice 9y agoFWIW a Martian year is 687 days.
- dx034 9y agoUnfortunately that's not their financial year. They still need to generate cash or find more investors.
- unknown_apostle 9y agoI would say the big problem is financial. Tesla is not profitable and needs money. The thing which keeps the lights on is the willingness of investors to keep supporting high valuations of stock and bonds.
- sametmax 9y agoOh come on ! The guy delivered the first practical electrical car and a freaking spaceship 10 time cheapers than the competition. Show me somebody in this comment thread that remotely matches this. Of course he messes it up and he is late. He is not creating a twitter clone.
- bpicolo 9y agoHe still overpromises frequently, the model 3 is one example. His claims of how soon Tesla's vehicles will be self-driving ready is another.
- api 9y agoThere seems to be a strong anti-Tesla campaign afoot. I'm not surprised given that the entire auto industry wants them to fail and a significant portion of the auto industry (and unions, etc.) want EVs to fail in general. Tesla seems to be having some severe growing pains, but I have learned not to count Elon or any of his ventures out. Self-landing reusable rockets were impossible too according to pretty much the entire aerospace industry. If it comes down to it Tesla could still raise quite a bit of money almost overnight, albeit probably with more dilution than they would prefer. I have little doubt that they will eventually scale up. Question is how much blood they will have to spill in the form of liquidity and market cap before they get there.
- ams6110 9y ago> Self-landing reusable rockets were impossible too according to pretty much the entire aerospace industry. I guess they didn't ask the people who designed and built the Apollo lunar landing modules in the 1960s?
- acover 9y agoThere is an implicit "on earth". Gravity wells being vastly different. If the earth was bigger then we wouldn't even be able to get to orbit.
- dalanmiller 9y agoWouldn't we just need to generate more velocity?
- URSpider94 9y agoEasier said than done. Rockets have to carry their own fuel, so they are heaviest at launch. If you’re in a deeper gravity well, then you need a longer burn to reach escape velocity, and then also more thrust at launch because you have to carry more fuel (which means still more fuel...) It never becomes mathematically impossible to achieve escape, but it can become engineering-impossible, ie the propellant fraction becomes so high that it’s impossible to build a structure that can contain the propellant and maintain mechanical stability. Just for reference, modern rockets are 90+ percent propellant by mass. For more, see https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition30/tryanny.html https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/exped...
- cornellwright 9y agoThe press loves controversy.
- omarforgotpwd 9y agoPeople are so excited about Tesla that they may overlook the risks. It is responsible of the press to highlight the problems Tesla faces so people can make responsible financial decisions when buying Tesla bonds and stocks, and so Tesla is pressured to minimize these risks.