confiscate

Your world view is too narrow. That 5000 figure is important, but it's not really meaningful in the grand scheme of things.

There is a 4th or 5th scenario, where

4. other car makers trail behind Tesla more and more in terms of technology. Remember, all these car makers had DECADES of head start developing EVs before Tesla was even born. Tesla was supposed to trail them in tech, not the other way around.

It's easy to assume that because a company is bigger, and have more resources and manufacturing experience, that they can move fast in developing tech. It's easy to judge a book by it's cover. Incumbents move slow ALWAYS. If moving fast was so easy, they would of done it before Tesla was born.

5. solar panels from SolarCity come into play.

Tesla has already deployed Solar grids in Australia. It's not just "smoke and mirrors", it's actually in production.

While the competitors are still trying to "match Tesla", Tesla has already moved on to find other areas to grow in tech advancement.

Right now, solar panels are considered a "toy". It's not even on any of the car makers' radar. It's like how Tesla's first Roadster cars were not on any of the car maker's radars 5 years ago. It's a "toy" until one day, it becomes a reality, and you tout your ability to "catch up" with your "vast experience"

5 years from now, folks like you will write another article, about how GM will be able to produce solar panels to "catch up to Tesla in just one or 2 years"

Wall street analysts are going to start writing articles about how this is a only a "burst week" and "not sustainable", and that the "rational" way of quantitatively analyzing the Tesla says the stock is worth zero.

They are from Siberia "You know, it takes a lot to travel from Siberia"

True. Agree. I did not think of that possibility.

Agree 100%.

OP can go to conference, in his/her "own time". OP is an adult and does not need an OK from manager to go to the conference in his/her private life.

But, OP cannot expect the manager to give the OK. OP is not "entitled" to an automatic OK. The manager does not owe OP an OK.

agree. Especially with #3 "understand what boss wants"

From the way OP phrased the question, it sounded like the OP felt the manager "owed" the OP.

As in, OP feels going to the conference is a must, "a given", a "constitutional right", and that the manager "wronged" him by not letting him go.

It's a very childish way of viewing the world. As in, I deserve to go to Disneyland. My mom won't let me, so I will now get a "thick skin" to "manage her". An adult would be thinking of helping mom pay the bills.

OP focuses on himself, on what he wants. There is no mention in the question of what the manager wants. It screams "me me me"

if there is a forest fire and all crops were lost, how would futures help the farmer?

Futures let farmer lock-in a sell price for the crops, but without any crops due to the fire, the sell price wouldn't matter

one reason, that is not gambling, is insurance

e.g. for farmers, they can predict their harvest 5 months later, but can't know for sure.

They can short their own industry stocks. If the harvest goes good, they have crops to eat. If the harvest goes bad (e.g. forest fire), the short would net them some money.

http://www.theoptionsguide.com/short-hedge.aspx

what happened in Q2 2013? sorry I did not follow news about Tesla until later

updated the title. Thanks

I assume it is because he thinks engineering involves making physical objects, rather than abstract ones.

I am a software guy, and I have heard other hardware guys make similar statements as well.

An example is a physical car engine (hardware), vs a video game rendering "engine" (software)

agreed. Whether someone cares only about price, is a separate trait from whether that person is a big/little guy

in the very original comment, it said "I do expect to hear about pricing on the first call, otherwise there won't be another call. Disclaimer: I have zero patience for abundant sales processes."

this person isn't asking about price because he/she is "little" and can't afford it. Even if the person is a big guy with a lot of $, he/she will still haggle you on price, because that's his/her worldview.

besides, it's unclear that a little guy with a "zero-patience policy" that fixates on price price price as a principle, will likely become a big guy some day.

Even if they did become a big guy some day, you would still have a lot of problems making money from them.

ya but, other cars that DON'T have autopilot/self-driving tech (e.g. Subaru Eye Sight as mentioned above) already have reliable emergency braking in case of obstacles. Aren't they already able to tell the difference between a plastic bag and a big rock? If they can, then it's already a solved problem, and Tesla should be able to do it reliably too, no?

that's a very good explanation

I don't get it, why is it so hard to detect stationary objects in front of you? wouldn't that be the "hello world" of any self-driving tech?

Every time I ask this question, the response is "radar as a technology has too much noise, not accurate enough to detect stationary objects".

But it DOES detect stationary objects. Otherwise no one would even turn on Tesla AP at all.

Why is it so hard to detect stationary objects in front of you?

even if this is not accurate and the woman exaggerated her claims, just look at all the comments in this post. She already got the effect she was looking for.

People freak out the moment they hear privacy violation. They get angry and stop thinking. The comment above from AdmiralAsshat already says "the practice should be shut down". Some comments above say "it's an open and shut case" without even knowing the details of the proceedings.

Can you imagine if as a doctor, you kept your patient's info private, but a patients says you "posted her medical record" even though it was sealed for her court proceedings? Wow

why do you blame the tabloid? The quote said "They posted my", so it looks likely that it was the woman who said it, no?

Can you describe more what you are asking?

It sounds like you have supply (subcontractors) but not enough demand (clients). Is that what you are asking?

how much did he sell you his shares for, if you don't mind me asking? because it sounded like it's for the first company, not the new one

Thanks for the explanation.

"radar won't see anything stopped on the road, because it's filtering out a huge number of returns from the road"

what does that mean? sorry i am still confused.

Isn't the whole point of radar to detect objects around you?

It shouldn't matter if the object is in the road ahead, or on the side of the road, right? Because they are all obstacles that the car should avoid, no?

Like, a stopped car in front of you, vs a tree next to you on the side of the road, are both things the software should avoid, and NOT filter out, right?

why would that be a hard problem? Shouldn't it be easy for the radar to detect if there are stopped obstacles ahead?

I am not familiar with AP tech. So would appreciate if someone can explain why it's hard to detect stopped objects using radar.

I agree.

You can't blame the news though. If the news headline was "Toyota Camry rear ends truck" you would not have clicked on it :)

"it was unfortunately phrased"? Why don't you just own up to it. You phrased the statement, "it" did not phrase itself.

You said several times Elon has "mediocre intelligence". I asked you questions about it, and you repeatedly clarified and doubled down on that statement multiple times. I don't see where the misrepresentation is. It seemed we are both pretty clear on each other's position, no?

Now you are saying others are "misrepresenting the statement"? Come on. What part did I misrepresent?

All those factors of company success you mentioned, like hiring, getting external funding, are all things Elon was responsible for. You literally just listed those exact things as things Elon is good at.

Maybe give Elon a break? Is that too much to ask?

1. You literally just said "He may have the ability to hire people who can execute well". He hired those large teams of people.

2. I never said he alone takes all the credit. I would never say that. All I am saying is, maybe Elon is not mediocre?

Maybe give the guy a break? The guy worked his ass off and ended up flying his car to Mars. Is asking you to admit "Elon is not medicore" too much to ask? At what point do we say "hey, may be we have been too hard on Elon. Maybe all this negativity about his intelligence being mediocre is a little too much?"

I think you underestimate the degree to which skills and intelligence plays in building a company that goes to space.

No you seem to be the one taking this personally. The topics you mentioned "superman" "alien" "individual identity" "hero" "universe"... seems like you are off on a tangent? I have no idea what you are talking about.

Even if you ignore all his other achievements, the man sent his car to Mars. And people are still sitting there going "meh, not impressed. Hyperloop. Average intelligence. Medicore".

THAT attitude has an overall negative effect on SV culture.

Nice!

So you look at Elon's entire history of ideas, and the one thing that caught your eye first was Hyperloop?

Why did you name the Hyperloop? Is Elon working on a Hyperloop company?

Those things you mentioned "hire people who execute well on ideas", "good business sense", "ability to raise money". Those are medicore skills?

We don't know each other in person, but from online-chatting with you, you sound like you have good intelligence. Can you do any of those?

You said "What evidence can you provide that Elon is highly intelligent and skilled?"

You sound like a 100% rational person who looks at only hard evidence, instead of making rash assumptions based on emotions.

What evidence can you provide that Elon is mediocre?

sure "most amazing" is debatable

but that's not what you said. You said he is mediocre. What made you say he is mediocre?

what made you decide Elon has medicore ability? Because I am curious how one would arrive at that conclusion.