First Zach Shahan had the inside story on GM hooking up with Tesla to supply a power train for up coming GM electric trucks which Tesla denied and GM wouldn't comment on. Then we see Tesla sending a camouflaged F-150 on one of its car trucks out with a bunch of Model 3s strongly implying that Tesla is supplying Ford too. What could have triggered this. Let me tell you its very easy to see now. Amazon ran over Walmart with a Truck- just flattened them. Now Amazon as cloud services force (ala Google) and logistics and front facing retail titan integrated from the ground up will ship people along with its own freight- its just the most natural extension in the world of what it already does. GM and Ford saw Amazon partnering with Toyota on a universal micro bus autonomous electric people/freight hauler- that had to scare the bejeezus out out of them because clearly that translates into a people hauling addition to Prime that goes after Lyft and Maven in an electronic AV format and they of course know that Google contracted for about 100K EVs for AEV. Seeing all of this with Amazon they must have went crazy when Amazon invested in Rivian. This explains why the current moron Republican admin is upset with Amazon. Then we have the bs cover that GM invested in Rivian. GM doesn't do any of its own stuff anymore. You can bet they are using Google for autonomy (Cruz is a joke) and now it seems Ford had its own cover story in its vague partnership with VW on truck plans- all of that matches what GM did with Rivian putting out BS that they were planning on investing in Rivian to cover their having to rely on Tesla. The real partner for these vitamin label pickers is Tesla. They have to be better then Rivian and Tesla is their only chance. Silicon Valley has tweezed them- Tesla, Amazon and Google are corralling these heffers. Also makes sense of Trump complaining about GM going full EV and threatening to pull their hidden subsidies. https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-pickup-truck-test-mule-sighting/ https://cleantechnica.com/2019/02/12/scoop-gm-working-on-electric-pickup-truck-with-tesla-powertrain/ This fits into what Musk wants to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy as fast as humanly possible.
May also explain why Tesla went quicker to the full online model that would match Amazon's. You have to understand that Amazon is just building out its mainline business in the most natural way possible. It already has all the infrastructure TAAS is the most natural thing in the world. It also has the cash. Something else that people may not understand is that Amazon has been building a TAAS for 2 decades. Greening its lowers its cost of goods. It was already guiding logistics vehicles with a cloud AI neural net or what ever else you want to add to it. Want to add quantum, go ahead, using a Dwave type approach to place goods in the perfect order for super fluid retrieval in warehouses is their type of thing.
But it produced the electric RAV 4 Looks like Elizabeth Warren got word of Amazon kicking Ford and GM around and is now calling for the break-up of the big tech firms including Facebook, Google and Amazon. Why not start with the break up of the big banks? Why not start with the break-up of the big six sponsored media firms. Just learned FaceBook under the new idiot censorship-discrimination FCC anti neutrality policy is announcing its intent to purge anti vaccine information from its site (guess they can censor Trump to when he speaks it,) this is very like the SEC wanting to censor material information from being used on Twitter. Guessing the vaccine companies paid FaceBook to engage in this censorship. SEC's idea of freedom of speech is apparently Fossil Fuel bribery and agency capture. Whitney Tilson is back proclaiming Tesla will never produce another profit. Clue for him, Tesla could run $1 above operating and development costs indefinitely. Nothing says non contributor rent seeker welfare cases have to be rewarded or enriched ever- the only requirement is one to prevent tax fraud and that's don't claim to be no profit (non taxable) if its not real. You were ruined over Tesla with your Darwin award claims, you're not going to be vindicated.
Do not understand most of your posting (may be it is just me), but just going by the heading Re badging cars has been done for years, where one company buys a car from another company and puts their nameplate on them and sells it as their own product. Such collaborations do not last for long (unless it is brands within the same manufacturer like CMC and Chevy) as pointed out by@bwilson4web . Geo Prizm (sold by GM) and the Toyota Corolla were manufactured in the NUMMI plant in Fremont, CA, (which is now being used by Tesla) with minor differences. So if Tesla sell more cars or car parts by selling them to GM, good for Tesla. Elon has in fact once offered to allow use of Tesla patents by competitor http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/elon-musk-offers-teslas-patents-to-everyone/ ). So why should Tesla not supply GM and Ford?
I don't know why there was a Ford pickup on the back of the same truck carrying Teslas -- the most obvious explanation is that the carrier is subcontracted by Tesla and just had this miscellaneous truck it had space for, and so loaded it as well for another customer -- but I seriously doubt that it was electric and indicative of a relationship between Ford and Tesla. If Tesla denied working with GM on a truck, I would take that as a no. If they were, Tesla comms would have just refused to comment.
That would be fine but its camouflaged which seems very odd- trucks shipped for transit aren't wrapped like that. Tesla denied but GM didn't deny but refused to comment. And Musk did comment on it. He said we are happy to work with others but they always have conditions which would slow us down so if they want to work on what we are doing they accept what we have which fits with Tesla denies working on the Ford or GM projects- Tesla just supplies what it has and Ford and GM can adapt.
Still curious. I never seem them on the road like that. I still think its Amazon. Think back about the interaction between Musk and the F150 factory exec. Then think about the Model 3 for the 2nd half of 2018 outselling every other vehicle CA (the toughest market in the toughest global market) and as a car it was outselling F-150 by about 40%. Think about what it means for Ford to give VW its F150. Seems much more likely that Ford went to Tesla. Right after this thread went in there was a FUD article on Seeking Alpha claiming Ford would be Tesla within 3 years at Tesla's major core competencies. That seemed like utter BS and reading through the article it only confirmed it. Think the post stuck a nerve. So much so that through petrol unions Elizabeth Warren was calling for the break up of the firms in the tech sector including Amazon- I am fine with breaking up FaceBook-Instagram. That seems to be a clueless politician- break up big banks first and big sponsored media and big petrol don't respond to a self consuming petrol union- focus on a guaranteed annual income instead.
