Tesla, TSLA & the Investment World: the Perpetual Investors' Roundtable

[ggies07]

Why can't Elon control his mouth and give lower guidance, so that a win should feel like a win?

I don't see it this way....that's playing by market rules. From the beginning his management style is to be overly aggressive with his teams so that the end result is not nailed, but better than it could have been. It SEEMS it's too hard for him to divide his style from internal to market. This is all based off of "quarters" anyway.....the company is changing the way society works, so what if a quarter here and there is off?....

 

[azaz]

I think this is spot on and I think it is becoming more and more clear as Tesla starts to make real money.

Elon has said the Model 3 was the last bet the company challenge. It now sounds like autonomous driving is the new bet the company challenge.

Definitely the anti Steve Jobs thinking of hoarding piles of cash. Elon views money as a means to and end and nothing else.

if Elon is so deluded on FSD that he's gonna bet the company on it, then I hope he makes it clear ASAP because frankly he is not credible in the least when it comes to autonomy.

But I think he's smarter than that and it's just one part of the plan. Company will not be worse off if they can't set up robotaxis.

Also you have Jobs's views on hoarding cash wrong.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Someone used this as an opportunity to unload - $34M in block trade outflows executed thus far this morning.

That's only 140K shares, or roughly 1/1,000 of TSLA's float. Pissants!

 

[elasalle]

if Elon is so deluded on FSD that he's gonna bet the company on it, then I hope he makes it clear ASAP because frankly he is not credible in the least when it comes to autonomy.

But I think he's smarter than that and it's just one part of the plan. Company will not be worse off if they can't set up robotaxis.

Also you have Jobs's views on hoarding cash wrong.

The good thing about FSD, is that it is not capital intensive. Hardware cheaper than Nvidia, sensors, data collectors already part of the car
...
rest is all/mostly software problem

 

[jerry33]

Really? Riding on a trailer is harder on a vehicle than hitting potholes, curbs, junk on the road, etc? I think not.

Riding on a trailer is a lot like hitting curbs. I've seen a lot of damage in transit over the years. Sure, it's not the same as running into a curb at 50 km/h, but it's still not great for the tires and wheels. Cars are often knocked out of alignment during transit.

 

[Matias]

Here in Germany pretty much any bank will let you buy e.g. TSLA directly through them.

But in that case the bank is the broker? Or what do you actually mean “buy directly trough them”? Banks have their own brokers, but they still are brokers.

 

[Remus]

I think this is spot on and I think it is becoming more and more clear as Tesla starts to make real money.

Elon has said the Model 3 was the last bet the company challenge. It now sounds like autonomous driving is the new bet the company challenge.

Definitely the anti Steve Jobs thinking of hoarding piles of cash. Elon views money as a means to and end and nothing else.

Definitely not self driving. It's a software problem, not that capital intensive.

 

[Artful Dodger]

The dealer HOUSE always wins.

FTFY.

Always bet on black ELON

FTFMe.

Cheers!

 

[wipster]

Really? Riding on a trailer is harder on a vehicle than hitting potholes, curbs, junk on the road, etc? I think not.

I believe he meant that they removed the aerocaps prior to loading just to insure that they didn't pop off and get lost during transport. Wouldn't be prudent not to... at least not at that juncture.

 

[RobStark]

U.S. bill aims to thwart China's EV dominance

 

[lklundin]

I think this is spot on and I think it is becoming more and more clear as Tesla starts to make real money.

Elon has said the Model 3 was the last bet the company challenge. It now sounds like autonomous driving is the new bet the company challenge.

Definitely the anti Steve Jobs thinking of hoarding piles of cash. Elon views money as a means to and end and nothing else.

Well, if Tesla is going to grow to a size larger than the currently largest auto maker, then profits are going to be reinvested for years to come.

But yes, he did promise that Model 3 would be the last "bet the farm" project.

As for the continued growth, this should just imply that Tesla will not be paying out dividends for years, and I guess they will also not buy back stock, until they have accomplished their master plan.

PS. Money literally is a means to an end and nothing else...

 

[azaz]

I don't understand how Tesla fails to comment on this: Exclusive: Tesla expects global shortage of electric vehicle battery minerals - sources - Reuters

Fairly simple "we've already secured key minerals for years"

 

[jerry33]

But yes, he did promise that Model 3 would be the last "bet the farm" project.

FSD is certainly not a "bet the farm" project once you have the hardware, which they do. The rest is just a relatively few employees creating the software and checking the data. It's about the least expensive project I can think of--the way Tesla does it, anyway.

 

[KSilver2000]

From the beginning his management style is to be overly aggressive with his teams so that the end result is not nailed, but better than it could have been. It SEEMS it's too hard for him to divide his style from internal to market. This is all based off of "quarters" anyway.....the company is changing the way society works, so what if a quarter here and there is off?....

The overly aggressive projections, if it is for purpose of getting employees to work more efficiently and productively, should be made just within the company. He doesn’t necessarily need to do that publicly.

He definitely produces what he says eventually, no argument there. But, the thing is, he’s not just a quarter or two off many times. It has been a long while since his projections of 5,000/week and 10,000/week model 3’s.

Elon regarding Model 3 from 2017:
“What people should absolutely have zero concern about, and I mean 0, is that Tesla will achieve a 10,000 unit production week by the end of next year.”

 

[MarcusMaximus]

FSD is certainly not a "bet the farm" project once you have the hardware, which they do. The rest is just a relatively few employees creating the software and checking the data. It's about the least expensive project I can think of--the way Tesla does it, anyway.

Ya, extremely unlikely they’re paying more than $100mm a year(even that would seem pretty extreme) on this effort. It’s only “bet the farm” if you expect them to otherwise always break even and take another 40 years to do it.

 

[Artful Dodger]

Oh, the loans are constantly increasing in size. Not a safe way to live, really. Most super-rich people do it, though.

For people in Elon's peer group, interest on $500M a loan is less than taxes would be to support the same lifestyle. #AMERIKA

 

[KSilver2000]

FSD is certainly not a "bet the farm" project once you have the hardware, which they do. The rest is just a relatively few employees creating the software and checking the data. It's about the least expensive project I can think of--the way Tesla does it, anyway.

To be fair, during the autonomy investor day Q&A, Elon did say that the FSD program is basically Tesla’s entire expense budget. Although, that never showed to be the case in the latest financial report.

 

[Tim S]

The overly aggressive projections, if it is for purpose of getting employees to work more efficiently and productively, should be made just within the company. He doesn’t necessarily need to do that publicly.

He definitely produces what he says eventually, no argument there. But, the thing is, he’s not just a quarter or two off many times. It has been a long while since his projections of 5,000/week and 10,000/week model 3’s.

Elon regarding Model 3 from 2017:
“What people should absolutely have zero concern about, and I mean 0, is that Tesla will achieve a 10,000 unit production week by the end of next year.”

That's off by less than 2 quarters right now. It will probably be 3 or 4 quarters "late" when they get to 10,000 per week. That is because Tesla (smartly) changed their strategy since that statement to use the Shanghai GF to get to 10,000 per week, instead of doing it all in Fremont.

 

[Mike Smith]

Ihor says borrow rates are starting to rise

Ihor Dusaniwsky on Twitter

 

[schonelucht]

The conspiracy theory that Tesla couldn’t do an equity raise because of some SEC restriction was completely crazy, as crazy as some of the bulls here.

Well... Except that they did a shelf registration first when this wasn't necessary if their shelf registration was still valid.