I have long wondered about the Tesla skeptics, the SHORTs. A large number have a personality conflict with Elon, they just don't like the guy. Then to backfill their emotional response, they often invent or distort what Tesla and Elon has accomplished. For example, 'Montana Skeptic' who claims hyper-technical accounting or Anton Wahlman who makes a mountain out any single EU state sales. Then along comes: https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/05/06/is-elon-musk-right-about-tesla-stock-being-overval.aspx Tesla is an automaker, not a software company But what about self-driving? Automakers, even Tesla, have very high fixed costs Automakers don't generate software-company profit margins Autos are a cyclical business, and Tesla isn't immune The realistic best case for Tesla: It could look like BMW -- in 10 years He ignores how vertically oriented Tesla is compared to traditional automakers, #1, #3, #4, #5, and #6. For example, in #3 he forgets that Tesla does not make 1,000 part engines, multi-gear transmissions, clutches, catalytic converters, or gas tanks. The rear wheel drivetrain has ~6 moving parts and a single stage reduction gear. It has a fraction of the number of moving parts compared a "traditional" autos. This is selective blindness to reality. As for self-driving, you can't buy a Tesla without at least Autopilot. Anything looking like Autopilot is an expensive option limited to just the highest trims of ordinary cars. He ignores that many of us have paid $6,000 or more for Full Self Driving which comes with a computer and software upgrade. Depending on how you count them, the computer hardware is 20 times faster than the previous version and the software the functional equivalent of the top line MicroSoft Office and Adobe software suites. But this is just willful ignorance along with performance. The lowest trim Model 3 I drive beats every gas/diesel car across the intersection and reaches the speed limit ~200 yards ahead of the rest of the cars. A Tesla does not performance like a traditional automaker product, even the least out perform ordinary cars 24x7 on the street. So as long as the SHORTs choose to ignore the superior driving characteristics and driver assists of Tesla, they will continue to massively fail. Their loss but then they didn't study engineering, physics, and math beyond arithmetic. Bob Wilson
I noticed this story the other day and ran through it quickly. It's a bit rich, considering the author employs the TSLAQ block list -- a crowd-sourced list of accounts on Twitter whose crime was not being sufficiently anti-Tesla. As you can imagine, the people using it see the sky in a color other than blue.
