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"The fact that Tesla can simultaneously demonstrate brilliance and incompetence in the same vehicle is not surprising, considering it is a high-tech software co

"The fact that Tesla can simultaneously demonstrate brilliance and incompetence in the same vehicle is not surprising, considering it is a high-tech software company trying to master complex manufacturing processes that took established automakers more than 100 years to perfect." High-tech software company? Tesla is an automaker, not a software company. Sure, Elon comes from the software/tech/payments industry, but putting Zuckerberg in charge of Exxon wouldn't change the fact that Exxon is an energy/oil company.

sjm-lbm 9y ago
It's a bit awkwardly worded, but I get their point (I think) - take your example and swap it, for instance: if you were to exchange all the employees at Facebook for employees at Exxon, the company structurally and culturally would still be an energy/oil company even if the product they were making was software. Likewise, Tesla runs, structurally and culturally, like a software company, even though they are building cars.
- samfisher83 9y ago
  You definitely don't want to "Move fast and break things" at an oil company. They have very defined procedures for everything. Now days safety is paramount. You can't just change procedures even if its better because they can't afford a blowout or leak or accident. At Exxon you have a manual for everything and deviating from it is frowned upon.
  - wand3r 9y ago
    To carry the analogy from above, Exxon moved fast and broke the Prince William Sound. Safety is important obviously but innovation has real costs and software companies seem to learn a lot more and innovate more when they break things vs energy companies-- at least that is the meme. Also, energy companies move slow and still break things like the environment.
    - jackfoxy 9y ago
      IIRC The alcoholic master handed over navigation to a very inexperienced 3rd mate and left the bridge for him to navigate out the channel by himself. That's an individual screw-up that can happen in any organization's culture. I wouldn't say the whole organization (Exxon) moved fast and broke things.
      - opencl 9y ago
        The boat had a collision avoidance radar which had been non-functional for over a year because Exxon wouldn't spend the money to maintain it.
        jackfoxy 9y ago
        It collided with an underwater reef.
        opencl 9y ago
        There was an above-water radar reflector in place specifically so shipboard radar could warn of an impending collision with the reef.
        jackfoxy 8y ago
        ...and an inexperienced 3rd mate was alone on the bridge.
    - fma 9y ago
      I'd prefer my car not to be broken, even at the cost of innovation. This is a product that protects my family going down a highway at 70mph, not an electronic device used to play candy crush.
- ams6110 9y ago
  I think this is it. Same reason traditional car companies are notoriously bad at software. Different mindset, different culture, different skills, different history and institutional knowledge.
garyfirestorm 9y ago
I work in one of the big 3's. we do crazy things too, its just that gizmodo isnt interesting in any of it :D I tend to walk in at 9 or 10 am and walk out of 7 or 8 pm. Our culture isn't any different than tech industries (maybe a little exaggeration there) I find it a little intriguing when people label(mislabel) a particular industry. edit - one of the big 3 automakers
- driverdan 9y ago
  > I tend to walk in at 9 or 10 am and walk out of 7 or 8 pm. Sounds like a shitty place to work.
  - wjamesg 9y ago
    How so?
    - tropo 9y ago
      It's fine if you work 4-day weeks. (36 to 44 hours) With a 5-day week, you're working 45 to 55 hours. That wears on you. It could be OK if the pay is unusually good.
      - icebraining 9y ago
        I'm a big advocate for work life balance, but since when did 40 hours/week became the single universal limit for everybody? Humans are not that standardized.
        ggg9990 9y ago
        40 hours isn’t the standard. France does 35 and gets better productivity per hour because of it
elihu 9y ago
Another point of view is that Tesla isn't either of those things but rather an energy company.
- RivieraKid 9y ago
  They're mainly a car maker, energy storage is just about a tenth of their revenue.
  - java-man 9y ago
    for now...
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
martyvis 9y ago
At least they didn't say Tesla was a rocket company.
mlindner 9y ago
Automotive companies don't usually write large amounts of their own software for infotainment, vehicle controls, machine learning, factory systems engineering and the actual embedded programming for the electronics. Yes Tesla is a software company. They hire a huge amount of software engineers. Is Apple not a software company because they make phones and give away all their software for those phones for free like Tesla does?

sjm-lbm 9y ago

It's a bit awkwardly worded, but I get their point (I think) - take your example and swap it, for instance: if you were to exchange all the employees at Facebook for employees at Exxon, the company structurally and culturally would still be an energy/oil company even if the product they were making was software. Likewise, Tesla runs, structurally and culturally, like a software company, even though they are building cars.

samfisher83 9y ago
You definitely don't want to "Move fast and break things" at an oil company. They have very defined procedures for everything. Now days safety is paramount. You can't just change procedures even if its better because they can't afford a blowout or leak or accident. At Exxon you have a manual for everything and deviating from it is frowned upon.
- wand3r 9y ago
  To carry the analogy from above, Exxon moved fast and broke the Prince William Sound. Safety is important obviously but innovation has real costs and software companies seem to learn a lot more and innovate more when they break things vs energy companies-- at least that is the meme. Also, energy companies move slow and still break things like the environment.
  - jackfoxy 9y ago
    IIRC The alcoholic master handed over navigation to a very inexperienced 3rd mate and left the bridge for him to navigate out the channel by himself. That's an individual screw-up that can happen in any organization's culture. I wouldn't say the whole organization (Exxon) moved fast and broke things.
    - opencl 9y ago
      The boat had a collision avoidance radar which had been non-functional for over a year because Exxon wouldn't spend the money to maintain it.
      - jackfoxy 9y ago
        It collided with an underwater reef.
        opencl 9y ago
        There was an above-water radar reflector in place specifically so shipboard radar could warn of an impending collision with the reef.
        jackfoxy 8y ago
        ...and an inexperienced 3rd mate was alone on the bridge.
  - fma 9y ago
    I'd prefer my car not to be broken, even at the cost of innovation. This is a product that protects my family going down a highway at 70mph, not an electronic device used to play candy crush.
ams6110 9y ago
I think this is it. Same reason traditional car companies are notoriously bad at software. Different mindset, different culture, different skills, different history and institutional knowledge.

garyfirestorm 9y ago

I work in one of the big 3's. we do crazy things too, its just that gizmodo isnt interesting in any of it :D I tend to walk in at 9 or 10 am and walk out of 7 or 8 pm. Our culture isn't any different than tech industries (maybe a little exaggeration there) I find it a little intriguing when people label(mislabel) a particular industry. edit - one of the big 3 automakers

driverdan 9y ago
> I tend to walk in at 9 or 10 am and walk out of 7 or 8 pm. Sounds like a shitty place to work.
- wjamesg 9y ago
  How so?
  - tropo 9y ago
    It's fine if you work 4-day weeks. (36 to 44 hours) With a 5-day week, you're working 45 to 55 hours. That wears on you. It could be OK if the pay is unusually good.
    - icebraining 9y ago
      I'm a big advocate for work life balance, but since when did 40 hours/week became the single universal limit for everybody? Humans are not that standardized.
      - ggg9990 9y ago
        40 hours isn’t the standard. France does 35 and gets better productivity per hour because of it

elihu 9y ago

Another point of view is that Tesla isn't either of those things but rather an energy company.

RivieraKid 9y ago
They're mainly a car maker, energy storage is just about a tenth of their revenue.
- java-man 9y ago
  for now...
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

martyvis 9y ago

At least they didn't say Tesla was a rocket company.

mlindner 9y ago

Automotive companies don't usually write large amounts of their own software for infotainment, vehicle controls, machine learning, factory systems engineering and the actual embedded programming for the electronics. Yes Tesla is a software company. They hire a huge amount of software engineers. Is Apple not a software company because they make phones and give away all their software for those phones for free like Tesla does?