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It’s a shame. I really wanted Tesla to succeed. But as time goes on, their products become less impressive and their CEO is not helping the brand.

robonerd 4y ago
They could turn this around if they gave up on the futurologist software bullshit and strived to simply sell battery-powered cars. Stop selling dreams of robotaxis, just sell cars.
- extheat 4y ago
  Yes become a boring company nobody cares about like the rest of the car industry. Nobody should try and innovate with futuristic products and become bureaucratic behemoths like the government, which has an excellent track record of success.
  - freeflight 4y ago
    Having your paying customers act as alpha testers, for software that can potentially injure and kill other people, is imho not exactly the kind of "innovation" we should strive for. Btw; Weird dig at "the governments success", considering a whole lot of Musk's ventures wouldn't be around without all kinds of government subsidies.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
  - rurp 4y ago
    For all of it's flaws the US govt does have a remarkable track record. It has presided over one of the most stable and productive societies in history. Sure it hasn't always been great, and the future outlook isn't looking so strong at the moment, but it has been wildly successful for the past few centuries.
- nawgz 4y ago
  That doesn’t sound like it would lead back to obscene valuations decoupled from today’s reality
- ken47 4y ago
  Some form of Tesla would exist under this future. TSLA the stock might not.
  - rtlfe 4y ago
    That sounds better for basically everybody except Elon.
- b112 4y ago
  Or maybe use radar or real sensors, again.
- bamboozled 4y ago
  This is actually what excited me about Tesla, I thought I’d just get a great car that was electric. I didn’t really ask for a smart car. I also drove my friends Volkswagen the other day, all the lane assist was just ridiculous. I was driving on a remote road pretty fast and the line markings went missing, it was a dark night. It immediately disengaged and had I not been paying attention we wouldn’t went straight into a barrier or other lane. It doesn’t claim to be autopilot but either I’m driving the car or not imo.
mise_en_place 4y ago
TSLA will succeed, if you believe the hypothesis that oil prices will continue to climb to the point that many buyers are priced out of that market and switch to electric vehicles. It’s screwed if the alternate hypothesis is true (that is we continue to use oil forever).
SoftTalker 4y ago
Tesla succeeded in showing the world that an electic car can be something more than a glorified golf cart. That is frankly a huge achievement, compared to what came before. EVs are now the centerpiece of every manufacturer's plans for the coming decades, and that is because of Tesla. Whether they succeed as a brand is not really important anymore.
- seadan83 4y ago
  "EVs are now the centerpiece of every manufacturer's plans for the coming decades, and that is because of Tesla." 100% because of tesla? I remember in college before any EV being asked to sign a petition to car manufacturers, "please build EVs so I van buy one" I agree Tesla has shifted the perspective on EVs. The absolutism that there was nothing else going on before in the absence of Tesla and nothing else since - seems perhaps myopic
  - SoftTalker 4y ago
    I think it is. GM had their EV1 experiment, but they weren't serious about it and destroyed all the cars after the experiment was over. Tesla was the first serious effort at an EV that wasn't a shed-built project car, that had something approaching usable range, and looked like a normal car not a cartoon. I don't think any other major auto manufacturer had EVs on the radar in a serious way before Tesla. I'll add that I think the self-driving, glass panel display, and all of that was unnecessary. They would have had as much success with normal manual controls and simple conventional cruise control with maybe lane assist and auto-braking like other luxury cars had. But that's mostly based on what I like in a car, I could be wrong from the perspective of the market.
    - seadan83 4y ago
      Would the Chevy volt be a counter example,or the wildly popular prius? Arguably range is still a problem for any EV on a long distance road trip - lack of charging stations (even for a Tesla, some routes are ok, but nothing guaranteed about any route). So if long distance trips are generally out, the previously mentioned cars did have enough range for around town and then some - similar to Tesla My opinion, I feel like Tesla ownership is overrepresented in specific metro areas, creating a bit of a bubble perception effect (if a person looks at SF or Seattle alone, one would think Tesla is crushing everything else, yet overall they still sell a fraction of what the other automakers are selling)

robonerd 4y ago

They could turn this around if they gave up on the futurologist software bullshit and strived to simply sell battery-powered cars. Stop selling dreams of robotaxis, just sell cars.

extheat 4y ago
Yes become a boring company nobody cares about like the rest of the car industry. Nobody should try and innovate with futuristic products and become bureaucratic behemoths like the government, which has an excellent track record of success.
- freeflight 4y ago
  Having your paying customers act as alpha testers, for software that can potentially injure and kill other people, is imho not exactly the kind of "innovation" we should strive for. Btw; Weird dig at "the governments success", considering a whole lot of Musk's ventures wouldn't be around without all kinds of government subsidies.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
- rurp 4y ago
  For all of it's flaws the US govt does have a remarkable track record. It has presided over one of the most stable and productive societies in history. Sure it hasn't always been great, and the future outlook isn't looking so strong at the moment, but it has been wildly successful for the past few centuries.
nawgz 4y ago
That doesn’t sound like it would lead back to obscene valuations decoupled from today’s reality
ken47 4y ago
Some form of Tesla would exist under this future. TSLA the stock might not.
- rtlfe 4y ago
  That sounds better for basically everybody except Elon.
b112 4y ago
Or maybe use radar or real sensors, again.
bamboozled 4y ago
This is actually what excited me about Tesla, I thought I’d just get a great car that was electric. I didn’t really ask for a smart car. I also drove my friends Volkswagen the other day, all the lane assist was just ridiculous. I was driving on a remote road pretty fast and the line markings went missing, it was a dark night. It immediately disengaged and had I not been paying attention we wouldn’t went straight into a barrier or other lane. It doesn’t claim to be autopilot but either I’m driving the car or not imo.

mise_en_place 4y ago

TSLA will succeed, if you believe the hypothesis that oil prices will continue to climb to the point that many buyers are priced out of that market and switch to electric vehicles. It’s screwed if the alternate hypothesis is true (that is we continue to use oil forever).

SoftTalker 4y ago

Tesla succeeded in showing the world that an electic car can be something more than a glorified golf cart. That is frankly a huge achievement, compared to what came before. EVs are now the centerpiece of every manufacturer's plans for the coming decades, and that is because of Tesla. Whether they succeed as a brand is not really important anymore.

seadan83 4y ago
"EVs are now the centerpiece of every manufacturer's plans for the coming decades, and that is because of Tesla." 100% because of tesla? I remember in college before any EV being asked to sign a petition to car manufacturers, "please build EVs so I van buy one" I agree Tesla has shifted the perspective on EVs. The absolutism that there was nothing else going on before in the absence of Tesla and nothing else since - seems perhaps myopic
- SoftTalker 4y ago
  I think it is. GM had their EV1 experiment, but they weren't serious about it and destroyed all the cars after the experiment was over. Tesla was the first serious effort at an EV that wasn't a shed-built project car, that had something approaching usable range, and looked like a normal car not a cartoon. I don't think any other major auto manufacturer had EVs on the radar in a serious way before Tesla. I'll add that I think the self-driving, glass panel display, and all of that was unnecessary. They would have had as much success with normal manual controls and simple conventional cruise control with maybe lane assist and auto-braking like other luxury cars had. But that's mostly based on what I like in a car, I could be wrong from the perspective of the market.
  - seadan83 4y ago
    Would the Chevy volt be a counter example,or the wildly popular prius? Arguably range is still a problem for any EV on a long distance road trip - lack of charging stations (even for a Tesla, some routes are ok, but nothing guaranteed about any route). So if long distance trips are generally out, the previously mentioned cars did have enough range for around town and then some - similar to Tesla My opinion, I feel like Tesla ownership is overrepresented in specific metro areas, creating a bit of a bubble perception effect (if a person looks at SF or Seattle alone, one would think Tesla is crushing everything else, yet overall they still sell a fraction of what the other automakers are selling)