Elon Musk documentary/factual tonight

[Wol747]

Yup, exactly.

This is an interesting analysis and summary of it all, I think: Elon Musk Trolls Twitter

Musk has form for this sort of pivoting. I remember him accepting Bitcoin payments for Tesla only to remove it less than 2 months later, citing "the environmental impact of Bitcoin mining". Now, that is probably all true but surely it's not even what you'd consider due diligence to "discover" this after the fact? Everyone and their granny knows about the energy usage and ergo environmental impact of mining crypto, even if they know nothing else about it. It's pretty much the primary criticism of Bitcoin, yet taking Musk at face value as to why he stopped taking BTC payments this is some sort of revelation to him. It rings hollow.

Likewise, Twitter's filings about percentage of accounts believed to be bots that Musk is taking issue with have been publicly available for years for Musk to digest before making a takeover bid. To bring it up now just seems bizarre, unless it is nakedly to try and renegotiate the price downwards. Again, to say these sorts of things publicly - tanking the price of Twitter in the process, is surely securities fraud. For someone who basically lives their live on Twitter to be surprised that many of his followers are probably bots should not be (and I'd argue is not) a revelation to him.

But, as that article says, Musk basically doesn't care and will carry on doing what he wants in defiance of the SEC, contracts he has signed, etc. It's not a good look.

Having once lived in the States for 12 years the difference in the ethical environment is…..well, different.
People with money are treated as aristocracy: they can ride roughshod over the rules the “little people” obey. It’s the same everywhere but very apparent there.
Also, when you have the sort of money that Musk has it’s easy to play the market - losing or being fined $3Bn isn’t life threatening, perhaps just a trifle embarrassing.
I have been a huge fan of Tesla for more than a decade, but Musk is becoming a liability in some ways with his “forward looking” approach to building cars with farts, sleigh rides, no gear selectors etc while ignoring the long standing - and always increasing - bugs and “features” in cars the little people have put their cash into.
As an example, four years after Musk stated that FSD is just about ready for mass release only today my 2020 LR did its usual thing when lane changing on a nearly deserted freeway and abandoned a lane change with a lunge back into the original lane as it crossed the lane markings. One of the reasons I only use “autopilot” when Mrs Wol isn’t with me but not the only one.
It appears that much of the Tesla share valuation is predicated on this idea that it’s going to be selling autonomous cars “soon”. If I had money in them I would be thinking of selling half my stock and taking the profit.

 

[RSpanner]

Deeply disappointing with Musk's latest statements. A brilliant man, but I no longer wish to respect him in anything other than his technical abilities. Sad.