Tesla needs a new board and a new CEO.<p>Offer Tim Cook double what he is making at Apple (an obscene amount of money, but a bargain compared to Musk).<p>Tesla needs someone like Cook. Someone who knows supply chain management and customer service. Someone who is sane and won't alienate potential customers.<p>[Disclaimer: I own a Model 3. Fantastic car]
> <i>29) Not only has Tesla not made any regulatory actions to start robotaxis, but the FSD software continues to pull outright dangerous moves that show it is nowhere near ready and perhaps never will due to hardware limitations.</i><p>Also if Tesla really was ready to unveil a major robotaxi service, wouldn’t there have been a lot of new hiring, e.g. humans for remote monitoring and servicing, like how Waymo has operators ready to take over when their taxis go awry?
I don't blame Elon as much as I blame the responsible adults around him. No one appears to be setting any limits. My armchair psychoanalysts observation is that his son transistioning to a woman and his wife Grimes leaving him to date Chelsea Manning (transwoman) seemed to break him. But never mind that, the details of what breaks people don't matter. People have crisis.<p>I assumed we've made progress since the days of Howard Hughes' madness. I'm surprised corporate boards and wise advisors would be able to get him some help and require it actually, since he has so many responibilities but has been blowing it with drug use and erratic behavior. Is he all alone in the world or is it that he won't listen to anyway while he self-destructs?
I dunno. I've been using Full Self Driving v12.3 and it's gotten sooooo much better than v11. I used to rarely use FSD v11 but now I use v12.3 every day driving around town and on the highway. Looking forward to getting v12.4 in my car next week hopefully too.
Honestly, Musk's recent moves have me thinking less of "eccentric billionaire who I find annoying AF" to "this man is becoming completely unhinged".<p>The firing of all of the Supercharger team, in what essentially sounded like a fit of rage/spite, is so far outside the norm of what a rational person would do, even if they did think Tesla needed to make a lot of cuts. More importantly, basically <i>all</i> of the current scary state of Tesla can easily be laid at Musk's feet. All EV companies are struggling with reduced demand, but these decisions by Musk were obvious own goals:<p>1. Most importantly, Musk's incessant bad-mouthing of <i>his biggest customers</i>. Who does he think buys EVs more than anyone else? It's generally the "left coast chardonnay-sipping elite" that he craps on at every turn.<p>2. It was Musk's decision to handicap self-driving by demanding 100% reliance on cameras only.<p>3. Cybertruck is going to be/continue to be a disaster for Tesla. The ultimate "boy genius" plaything, Tesla could have easily doubled down on making an affordable truck or SUV but instead went for stainless steel-clad Aztec.<p>4. The supercharger network was Tesla's crown jewel. I've owned a couple other EVs and the other networks are (at least as of now) dismal compared to the supercharger network. And Musk just canned everyone.
Huh, it’s almost like having a CEO who doesn’t give two shits about public perception, proper behavior, truth, consideration, or loyalty is starting to catch up to them.
> 35) When you dig deeper there's a range of other peculiarities at Tesla. Unlike every other S&P/OEM company, Tesla uses its own ERP system (vs Microsoft, SAP, Oracle etc) called WARP - which when you consider the accounting / governance issues is worrying erpresearch.com/knowledge/whic…<p>Out of all the things you could pick on, this actually makes Tesla look <i>good</i>.<p>The "standard" ERP systems are <i>steaming dogshit</i>. They are terrible. They make everybody miserable. And they don't do a damn thing to prevent accounting fraud.<p>Every company I have worked for who had their own ERP system thought it was terrible ... and then SAP/Oracle came in and everybody realized that things somehow got so much <i>worse</i>.
To somewhat counter my other comment about Musk, I've seen this statistic a lot but it feels like total bullshit to me:<p>> There's only so far price cuts will go. Tesla has one of the oldest lineup among automakers - with the average age of its models at 9 years (ex-Cybertruck) - Where is the innovation to spur more demand?<p>Tesla famously doesn't release new models by "model years" but just updates them continuously. Putting the Model S release date at June 2011 (despite that vehicle being a <i>very</i> different car from today's Model S), and saying that is somehow comparable to the age of other carmakers' model fleets is totally disingenuous IMO.
I own a Model 3, and I honestly think it is the best car I have ever owned.<p>Despite that, I know people who have ruled out owning a Tesla because they believe the brand mirrors Elon Musk's public persona. They flat-out reject any Tesla product because the brand's visible face is someone they believe doesn't represent their values.<p>I'm unsure he understood the implications of becoming such a polarizing figure. It was totally unnecessary, yet that was his choice.