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Comment by babypuncher | Hacker News Reader

This doesn't sound like the behavior of a growing company that can afford to pay it's CEO $50 billion.

The new narrative is that Tesla is a 'Technology Company'. There is Tesla AI for example that is building Robots etc. Musk's competitor to OpenAI (x.AI ?) has raised $6 billion at a $18 billion valuation. Unclear if that is related to Tesla. I guess he decided that if AI is going to destroy humanity he might as well make some coin helping it happen.

Pivot to ~~video~~ AI

Pivoting to being an AI company while under investigation by the NHTSA for doing wire and/or securities fraud in relation to their AI product?

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/05/teslas-self-driving-cla...

> There is Tesla AI for example that is building Robots etc. Musk's competitor to OpenAI (x.AI ?) has raised $6 billion at a $18 billion valuation.

This is just giving Musk more runway to make promises that Tesla will fail to deliver on. When the robot fails, he'll pivot to promising something different, and the cycle will repeat.

New? They have been claiming this from day one when people called out the fact that they produce a fraction of what other car makers produce yet are valued x times over the others.

A lot of stock values are based on expectations of future earnings. Whether or not it was a valid expectation idk

How is this a "new narrative"?

Tesla has been lying about being a "tech" company to justify its obscene stock price for a decade. "Look we write software so it's okay that we are priced more than the entire rest of the industry combined"

Or of a company run by a competent board.

Especially, when the CEO's very confrontational public opinions has soured potential customer from wanting to be seen driving a Tesla. There is a political divide for those interested in green energy and those who are not. It has become a tribalist identity issue in US politics. Liberals are generally those buying EVs, while conservatives are more inclined to buy IC vehicles. It is a dumb issue to be politically divided on, but here we are. When Elon says things liberals don't like, liberals do not want to associate with him or Tesla.

If Tesla's plan is to sell more EVs, they should find a new CEO.

"Liberals are generally those buying EVs, while conservatives are more inclined to buy IC vehicles"

I don't think the divide is all that significant. There may be a slightly bigger percentage buying for a perceive environmental reason, but Teslas are mainly purchased by the rich, politics be damned.

Income doesn't matter if your brand is seen as tarnished by a group of people. Many wealthy liberals may have hang ups about the Tesla/Elon association.

"Teslas are mainly purchased by the rich"

Is it really a status symbol? Have you seen the people who drive a model Y?

The model Y was the best selling car in the world in 2023. I don't think most of the potential customers know or care about the chief executive of tesla any more than they care about the chief executive of Mercedes.

In 2023 Ford F-Series sold 750K units, about twice as many as the best model Y estimate.

The F series is not a car.

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