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> I always thought the Autopilot name and the claims about having all the equipment for FSD were basically fraudulent and Tesla would be liable for false advert

• tenpies 4y ago
  The whole Musk saga is basically a cautionary tale for regulators, and a classic American story of regulatory capture. The second something that's not autopilot was marketed as autopilot should have been an instant barrage from the FTC. The second Musk committed securities fraud for "funding secured" he should have been banned from ever being an officer or director in a publicly listed company. The second it became clear that Tesla was ignoring the requirement to have a Twitter Nanny on Musk's Twitter, the SEC should have obliterated the Tesla board. But this is the post-Obama US, where insider trading is fine as long as it's the Right People doing it. Where bankers and investors can take obscene and reckless risk knowing the tax payer will cover their loses. Where a President's son can openly try to sell influence - who knows with what degree of success - and the intelligence agencies won't move a finger. So the Musk saga makes perfect sense.
  • AlexandrB 4y ago
    I agree, but I think this predates Obama. More like post Reagan US? Maybe post Clinton?
  • renewiltord 4y ago
    And thank god for that. Because we have, as a result, an EV revolution, a space revolution, and a communications revolution. We can only be glad that the regulators were asked to back off what is openly a good thing for America.
    • wewtyflakes 4y ago
      This seems dishonest, as the things you mention happened before, or were in motion before, Elon went full-on nutter over the past 2 years, and you make it sound like Elon acting like a nutter is somehow a prerequisite for for these things, when they are clearly not.
    • Spivak 4y ago
      If what you took away was that it’s fine to commit securities fraud if you also make rockets then I don’t even know what to say. A person is allowed to do good and bad things. Musk was not facing overregulation by not having to commit fraud and misleading consumers.
    • davewritescode 4y ago
      I think Elon Musk is a great person to have at the helm when rapidly growing a company. He’s a visionary and he’s clearly good at taking calculated risks despite what I think about him personally. What’s not clear is whether or not he’s any good at running a large and mature business where you need to be somewhat risk averse to protect revenue streams. I personally think Tesla would be a better company today without Elon Musk. The reality is they’re not executing on the one thing that makes them money. They’re nearly 2 years late on their pickup truck which is a license to print money in the United States. We’re JUST seeing the first deliveries of the semi but who the fuck knows when production scales. The kind of risks he’s taking (removing radar from cars, losing billions of dollars while putting up Tesla stock as collateral to buy twitter, cryptocurrency nonsense) is just not the type of thing you do when you’re the size Tesla is today. Tesla is just insanely distracted right now shareholders are eventually going to be punished. If I only knew when, because I believe there’s money to be made.