Maybe I'm naive but I don't think you need to construct an argument of ill intent/deceit to explain Tesla's actions and marketing. Nothing Tesla has done is in conflict with the strategy laid out at the beginning which was to first sell expensive cars, and then selling increasingly cheaper cars.
FSD is not in the strategy to frame it as a tech company, but to make use of software margins. If you can sell a car that cost 30k to manufacture for 40k instead of 35k because it has software on it, that greatly improves your margins because the software doesn't have manufacturing cost beyond the initial R&D.
There's a lot about Elon to dislike, but his business ideas are sound. At the same time I fully believe his behavior is going to run Tesla into the ground which will be a real shame. He really took the incredible amount of goodwill they got for being the first to make a car that could be both cheaper and better for the environment in the face of both established car companies and the oil industry, and he just flushed all that goodwill down the shitter.
Tesla's saving grace would be to produce cars at a competitive price point, I think money always trumps politics, and with tariffs on Chinese imports that might be achieved, but they'd still be losing the European market and any extra margin they might have gotten from their previously good reputation.
>Maybe I'm naive but I don't think you need to construct an argument of ill intent/deceit to explain Tesla's actions and marketing.
Yes -- given who Musk is, it's naive to construct an argument of what Tesla is doing that doesn't include malicious intent.
> There's a lot about Elon to dislike, but his business ideas are sound.
If his ideas were sound, the valuations wouldn't be sky high. His ideas are anything but sound, so the valuations are sky high because he has such a small chance of pulling them off.
FSD is not in the strategy to frame it as a tech company, but to make use of software margins. If you can sell a car that cost 30k to manufacture for 40k instead of 35k because it has software on it, that greatly improves your margins because the software doesn't have manufacturing cost beyond the initial R&D.
There's a lot about Elon to dislike, but his business ideas are sound. At the same time I fully believe his behavior is going to run Tesla into the ground which will be a real shame. He really took the incredible amount of goodwill they got for being the first to make a car that could be both cheaper and better for the environment in the face of both established car companies and the oil industry, and he just flushed all that goodwill down the shitter.
Tesla's saving grace would be to produce cars at a competitive price point, I think money always trumps politics, and with tariffs on Chinese imports that might be achieved, but they'd still be losing the European market and any extra margin they might have gotten from their previously good reputation.