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Originally Posted by peter12
Well, maybe. But if his ideas are so great, why can't he sell them to the market on their own merit. If things can't scale, and make money, well, then they aren't really all that much good.
As for being a decent futurist, Pirrong makes a compelling case that Musk has exercised his market power before to artificially increase the price of his stock to raise capital.
http://streetwiseprofessor.com/?p=7294 |
The internet, fission and space exploration are all the result of government funding. If we'd had to rely on Goldman Sachs to get to the moon, we would still be waiting.
New technology is inherently not cost effective, and the only ones who can afford to underwrite it are governments.
As to why they can't be sold straight up on their own merit, well originally, the infrastructure wasn't in place. You couldn't start with a car like the Model 3 without the vast supercharger network they've been constructing for the past ten years. You also couldn't just show up with a Model 3 and expect the world to fall over itself because of the very valid concerns you and others have raised.
Instead, they started with a sexy little roadster designed to realign the way we think of electric vehicles. Forget the goofy little Yaris-sized exercises in pandering - this thing is fun, fast, and can go 200 miles.
Then you come out with the Model S which allows the public to see from a distance how the technology works in the real world. And when every major automotive publication calls it one of the greatest cars ever built by man, the public begins to take notice. As was always the plan, hype builds.
Tesla's autonomous driving tech is the industry standard. They update software over the air. Their service intervals are insanely long, and they don't have many maintenance issues associated with conventional cars. The Model X P90D, for all its problems with the falcon doors and production, is 2/10ths quicker 0-60 than a Ferrari Enzo. You remember the Ferrari Enzo, right?
A 5440 lb electric SUV is quicker than this. In Ludicrous mode, the Model S P90D beats the Enzo to 60 mph by a full 1.2 seconds!
Say what you want about the business side of things, but these people know how to build some INCREDIBLE things. And you could bet against people that can do this, like you could've bet against Steve Jobs and Apple.
But you shouldn't.