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Agreed, Musk/Tesla/SpaceX set very ambitious targets and then scramble like mad to meet them or almost meet them. This means they're always pushing the limit, a

Agreed, Musk/Tesla/SpaceX set very ambitious targets and then scramble like mad to meet them or almost meet them. This means they're always pushing the limit, and hence you get an endless parade of 'Tesla are going to go bankrupt' stories. In a way they are kind of right, Musk is pushing Tesla so hard that they teeter on the edge of disaster quite often. I wouldn't quite say bankruptcy, but they teeter on the edge of a serious loss of confidence quite often. I think this is kinda deliberate, a tactic of shoot for the stars or just dont bother. I wouldn't invest, but its great to watch whats being acheived from the sidelines. I think people have forgotten what innovation looks like. Innovation, from the outside, looks like a huge gamble, and thats because it is. Tesla is a series of huge gambles, and the people pointing out 'hey what Tesla are doing could go terribly wrong' have a point. But they are also missing the point. Thankfully I think Tesla have enough cars on the road now that if they do strike disaster, there will be enough momentum to have some sort of Tesla remnant to keep the fleet running. But the progress would stop.

hef19898 7y ago
Nothing wrong with innovation. But innovation on one front, in Tesla's case EVs, doesn't mean you have to innovate on other fronts like manufacturing and production. And the last thing is what might be killing Tesla at the moment. When "we always did it that way" is a big corp disease, "we are doing it differently because we innovate" is just the start-up version of it. Tesla had, and still has, a great opportunity to disrupt the automotive industry. But not if they execute a lot worse then incumbents.
- codeulike 7y ago
  There is an interview somewhere where Musk admits that their 100% automation plan was a bad idea. And the interviewer says 'well everyone told you it was a bad idea'. And Musk says (something like) 'everyone tells us everything we do is a bad idea'. edit: interview is here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-13/-the-last-bet-the-company-situation-q-amp-a-with-elon-musk https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-13/-the-last... 100% automation was a gamble that didn't pay off. They scrabbled around a bit, and got to more-or-less where they needed to be via a different route.
  - Aromasin 7y ago
    From watching some videos on the workings of their factory, it still seems like they've automated significantly more than their competitors. They reached for the stars and fell short, but that short is still ground-breaking.
    - hef19898 7y ago
      And resulted in production hell, didn't it?
      - Aromasin 7y ago
        This is only going off of what I've read from private interviews with Tesla employees (I'm sure there are some lurking on HN that can give a better idea), but it seems the production hell came mostly from the constant product updates that were rolling through. A connector on a wire harness becomes obsolete, and all of a sudden your camera that picks out that connector from a bucket needs updating, the arm that grips it needs changing, the milling machine that machines the hole for the connector needs changing etc. One up-issue knocks on to the entire production process. This isn't an issue with humans. You tell them the new part they need to use and that's it.
      - hi5eyes 7y ago
        building cars in a tent is called disruption
        hef19898 7y ago
        That's called dilettantism at best combined with desperation. How would call manufacturing chips in a warehouse instead of a chip fab?
        natch 7y ago
        Yep and scrappy, a very good attribute for a startup or even for a maturing silicon valley company.
    - 7y ago
- TimTheTinker 7y ago
  > When "we always did it that way" is a big corp disease, "we are doing it differently because we innovate" is just the start-up version of it. That's a very insightful and prescient statement -- thanks for that. Certainly food for thought.
  - hef19898 7y ago
    Hard learned insight, at least for myself :-)

hef19898 7y ago

Nothing wrong with innovation. But innovation on one front, in Tesla's case EVs, doesn't mean you have to innovate on other fronts like manufacturing and production. And the last thing is what might be killing Tesla at the moment. When "we always did it that way" is a big corp disease, "we are doing it differently because we innovate" is just the start-up version of it. Tesla had, and still has, a great opportunity to disrupt the automotive industry. But not if they execute a lot worse then incumbents.

codeulike 7y ago
There is an interview somewhere where Musk admits that their 100% automation plan was a bad idea. And the interviewer says 'well everyone told you it was a bad idea'. And Musk says (something like) 'everyone tells us everything we do is a bad idea'. edit: interview is here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-13/-the-last-bet-the-company-situation-q-amp-a-with-elon-musk https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-13/-the-last... 100% automation was a gamble that didn't pay off. They scrabbled around a bit, and got to more-or-less where they needed to be via a different route.
- Aromasin 7y ago
  From watching some videos on the workings of their factory, it still seems like they've automated significantly more than their competitors. They reached for the stars and fell short, but that short is still ground-breaking.
  - hef19898 7y ago
    And resulted in production hell, didn't it?
    - Aromasin 7y ago
      This is only going off of what I've read from private interviews with Tesla employees (I'm sure there are some lurking on HN that can give a better idea), but it seems the production hell came mostly from the constant product updates that were rolling through. A connector on a wire harness becomes obsolete, and all of a sudden your camera that picks out that connector from a bucket needs updating, the arm that grips it needs changing, the milling machine that machines the hole for the connector needs changing etc. One up-issue knocks on to the entire production process. This isn't an issue with humans. You tell them the new part they need to use and that's it.
    - hi5eyes 7y ago
      building cars in a tent is called disruption
      - hef19898 7y ago
        That's called dilettantism at best combined with desperation. How would call manufacturing chips in a warehouse instead of a chip fab?
      - natch 7y ago
        Yep and scrappy, a very good attribute for a startup or even for a maturing silicon valley company.
  - 7y ago
TimTheTinker 7y ago
> When "we always did it that way" is a big corp disease, "we are doing it differently because we innovate" is just the start-up version of it. That's a very insightful and prescient statement -- thanks for that. Certainly food for thought.
- hef19898 7y ago
  Hard learned insight, at least for myself :-)