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Comment by joobus | Hacker News Reader

> At the same time, it's rarely a good idea to underestimate Musk. Musk has a long history of setting optimistic deadlines for his companies and then failing to meet them.

What? Don't underestimate him because he can't do what he says?

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Maybe you should quote the entire paragraph instead of truncating it in a way that makes it look ridiculous. As I said in the next sentence, "Musk is persistent and a quick learner."

And then as I write later in the piece:

"Musk ignored the conventional wisdom, and he has gotten much further than anyone expected. He has sold hundreds of thousands of cars and has hundreds of thousands more people eager to buy the Model 3 as soon as it's available. Moreover, Tesla has had a huge influence on the broader car industry, forcing every major carmaker to take battery electric vehicles seriously."

I liked the balance in the article—that his eagerness to forge a new trail is both a strength and a weakness.

I didn't think the rest of the paragraph helped your cause in any way. You appear to admit he fails at his objectives, but threw in an unsubstantiated claim that he's a quick learner. If he was a quick learner, he would have learned he makes outrageous claims, and tempered his statements.

Failing at your objectives is different than consistently succeeding later than you expected.

I think the idea is that this isn't a new problem for Musk and it hasn't actually stopped his companies from hitting milestones, albeit late.

The only question is if his milestones are actually any better than the milestones for the most of the market. Blitzkrieg only works if the other parties do not take it into account.

Considering Tesla is outselling all the other electric car makers (edit: in developed countries) and still ramping up, I’d say it’s working.

Pretty sure BYD beats Tesla in EV numbers. I'm already seeing EV fleet taxis in Asian cities.

https://www.google.com.sg/amp/s/insideevs.com/byd-1-world-pl...

China, sure. I believe that. But the car standards are different. These cars are not available in the west because they do not meet standards of developed countries. (Not saying they won't, eventually! I expect BYD and other Chinese firms to eventually be competing in the West as well.)

Take your racist BS to another message board. All EV busses in Sweden are BYD. They're popular throughout Europe.

My comment intended no racism whatsoever, just acknowledging the current state of the Chinese automobile market, and I acknowledged this was only temporary.

You are correct about buses, though. BYD is dominating everyone else in electric buses.

Just checked, and Tesla now beats even BYD, although it’s close. Tesla sold more in Q4 2017 and Q1 2018 (each at just under 30,000) than BYD, so recently they have even eclipsed BYD: https://insideevs.com/byd-increases-plug-in-car-sales-to-ove...

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