Yet another Hacker News

Tesla takes on $30B in credit as it approaches unprofitability

59 points ciconia 1 hour ago 57 comments

kasperni 50 minutes ago | parent

It's okay, we're an AI company now.

MiroslavPokorny 46 minutes ago | parent

A taxi company powered by AI auto drivers with ZERO taxis!

collabs 22 minutes ago | parent

I understand not wanting to pay the cost of LiDAR like twelve years ago but the price has come down since then. At this point does it even make sense to stick to cameras? What possible reason is there other than an aging Elmo's ego?

Even if it prevents like ten deaths, the LiDAR will have paid for itself.

zobzu 16 minutes ago | parent

I take them regularly in SF, twice cheaper than lyft, 4x cheaper than waymo and works fine... it's literally the cheapest other than zoox (free if on tester list, which I am), but it's as fast as Lyft/Uber.

kridsdale1 8 minutes ago | parent

Can I buy life insurance on you?

ulfw 46 minutes ago | parent

Time to become SpAIceXTeslAI

Valuation +420%. Easily.

tosti 20 minutes ago | parent

Large shiney rock pile awaits!

nialse 14 minutes ago | parent

SpacetAxI? (Sorry, not sorry)

Ekaros 14 minutes ago | parent

Sadly solar roofs was dumped. So can't include boring company there. Just imagine what could have been. Under ground solar roadways.

ulfw 13 minutes ago | parent

+69,000% in that case. Like with his S3XY cars. Oh well.

bpodgursky 42 minutes ago | parent

I'm not convinced Tesla's schizophrenic strategy is any worse than the strategy of the legacy American automakers, which is to sleepwalk directly into a volcano (when Chinese EV manufactures break into the market with $10k SUVs)

redanddead 28 minutes ago | parent

The tariffs will save us

nialse 15 minutes ago | parent

Tariffs in the US will be just effective as the EU EV tariffs. It will protect the industry for some time, and at the same time make it go stale and irrelevant.

lnsru 25 minutes ago | parent

Elon gambled with cybertruck and didn’t won. The winning strategy was to outcompete Chinese with smaller affordable vehicle. I would call it common sense strategy after all.

riffraff 21 minutes ago | parent

The cybertruck was a disaster but I think the main issue is they didn't do any new model after that for almost a decade.

Also, Musk getting into politics and alienating most of its consumer base, of course.

calgoo 15 minutes ago | parent

That last part is a big thing, especially in Europe where a lot of their sales have almost stopped as no one wants to drive a nazi car.

DaSHacka 7 minutes ago | parent

AfD seems to be doing a little too well across the sea for me to believe that

zobzu 14 minutes ago | parent

the only mistake was politics.

miohtama 19 minutes ago | parent

Cybertruck technology ended up in cybercab and semi, so whether the vehicle itself won might not be relevant in long run.

Hamuko 17 minutes ago | parent

Two other vehicles that barely exist?

nialse 18 minutes ago | parent

The interesting part is that small affordable EVs was Teslas initial goal IIRC. Changing horses in the middle of the stream just did not workout? I’m sure Tesla will be fine in the end though. There is always someone coming to the rescue.

kelseyfrog 15 minutes ago | parent

Buying a Tesla vehicle (or not) became a referendum on Elon himself. It became a small personal action one could take to feel like you could actually do something that had an effect. Whether or not it accomplished the goal is precisely the center of debate, but regardless, the feeling was real.

drnick1 6 minutes ago | parent

No, the winning strategy was to release a conventional-looking truck, say something that very much looks like an F150 or a Silverado.

noncoml 17 minutes ago | parent

The difference is in the valuation of those vs TSLA

sidcool 39 minutes ago | parent

Electrek has gone completely biased with Tesla. They have done so bad, that even if this is true, I'd take it with a fistful of salt.

franciscop 32 minutes ago | parent

I was going to comment exactly the same. They used to be all about Tesla, and now they're basically all against Tesla. It's very shocking to see this turn of the editorial approach for a company that did change the full industry. It is true and well known that hate DOES bring more eyeballs than reporting the good news though, and this seems to be a well known bias against Tesla.

3eb7988a1663 29 minutes ago | parent

The entire post is that Tesla setup $30B in loans that it could potentially use. What salt should I be taking?

lazzlazzlazz 24 minutes ago | parent

Did you read the post? It's all framed as "worrying". It's a very biased, thoughtless piece.

sidcool 15 minutes ago | parent

Read their prior Tesla posts. They are all negative.

3eb7988a1663 14 minutes ago | parent

Ok. Are they lying?

sippingabonedry 14 minutes ago | parent

Every Tesla post on that site is doomerism. What's worse is they're posted here 3x a week. We get it.

zobzu 18 minutes ago | parent

but reddit says tesla bad because Elon bad

DaSHacka 9 minutes ago | parent

The funniest thing is how they used to eschew the complete opposite when elon was "funny memer man who's tony stark IRL"

speedgoose 20 minutes ago | parent

Sorry TSLA holders, it's partly my fault as I got my 5 years old Model Y checked by a third party garage for everything that should be fixed by Tesla before the end of the main warranty period.

sippingabonedry 19 minutes ago | parent

I'm reminded nearly every other day that EVs need no maintenance and should never see the inside of a mechanic's garage.

collabs 13 minutes ago | parent

You still need things like brakes though, right?

sippingabonedry 12 minutes ago | parent

Of course. It's a ridiculous notion yet that hasn't stopped anyone from repeating it constantly.

More than a few times my mechanic has found something pending failure (like a leak) during regularly scheduled ICE maintenance and alerted me to keep an eye on it.

jackdoe 5 minutes ago | parent

when I say EVs need less maintenance I mean things like cylinder honing or clutch slipping.

do people actually think you buy a tesla and just drive?

speedgoose 12 minutes ago | parent

I can't really complain about the maintenance of the EV parts of my cars. I know some EVs fail there too, but my two EVs have been flawless when it comes to the electric drivetrains and the batteries.

But having an electric car doesn't make salt and potholes magically disappear, unfortunately.

drnick1 11 minutes ago | parent

What maintenance do they actually need? Tires, brakes, wiper blades, air filter, washer fluid? All fairly trivial to DIY. One thing that I would do is disable the cellular modem, to prevent unwanted "upgrades."

speedgoose 9 minutes ago | parent

You forgot suspensions.

sippingabonedry 7 minutes ago | parent

> One thing that I would do is disable the cellular modem

Is that even possible in modern EVs? Without breaking critical functions like maps, etc.

onedognight 6 minutes ago | parent

Brakes! They sometimes rust on Teslas due to lack of use.

boyka 17 minutes ago | parent

Invest the $30B into AI build-out with a company called SpaceX, nice. SpaceX invests some more Cybertrucks, nice.

rgmerk 12 minutes ago | parent

Look, I get that Elon wants to chase AI, but why not do relatively simple, low-cost things like build a proper 7-seat SUV that uses the Cybertruck platform - or even a properly stretched Model Y platform (rather than the six-seater L)? Or how about a delivery van on a stretched Y platform?

Tesla's product line is narrow and aging rapidly.

tehlike 7 minutes ago | parent

I would also like a 7 seater, but that might be uniquely american concept.

jmalicki 6 minutes ago | parent

Because tesla has always been selling dollars for $0.50. Investing in their product lines doesn't help them, it's always been a grift and a shell game. Some great products have come out of it, but the valuation has never been one where selling more products helps the business, unless it can lead to the hype train.