Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by Kal-El

I just wish Tesla could succeed without massive taxpayer subsidies. A Tesla costs around $100K obviously leaving it only to the very wealthy to own. Sadly, the middle class are pouring their hard earned money into Tesla when they themselves couldn't dream of ever owning one. For most taxpayers, their whole house is only worth 2 Tesla's.

At this point, Musk has received about $4,900,000,000.00 from us to keep his dreams alive.
I'm all for the new tech, but they really need to succeed on their own.

And yes, it is overdue for mainstream models. We need a Tesla under $30K. And maybe someday under $20k but I doubt it.

From what I understand its all about the batteries now for Musk. He plans to build them and sell them to the other automotive manufacturers. And also to market them for home generated electricity from solar panels which will put the utilities out of business. So they hope!

Toyota says the future is fuel cells NOT electric cars with batteries. If so Musk is a dead duck! We shall see...

Yeah the last thing we need are cars we cant afford! But we have the $20,000 Yaris.

Well if someone gave to a billion dollars you would take it too. Musk doesnt want SpaceX to go public because then it would be out of his control. What he wants to do is put a million people on Mars.

Read the book its great!

PS Model S on Edmunds lists for $71,000.

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

Musk doesnt want SpaceX to go public because then it would be out of his control

Depends on how the company is structured. Zuckerberg owns well under 50% of Facebook, but he still maintains voting control.

Musk...."Where should I locate the battery factory"....I'm not very surprised that he picked a location that is close, but NOT IN California. I had a fascinating conversation with a government attorney at a Starbucks today (widespread power outage, and Starbucks has generators). Fascinating guy. He makes my uncle seem like a liberal, and my uncle used to say " I'm to the right of Atila the Hun". He grew up, a black man in one of the least diverse white majority towns in the Bay Area (same town my mother grew up in). He went to Catholic schools until high school and then went public (same high school my mother attended0. His father was an MD, a surgeon. He's had a microscopic view of the criminal justice system for the last 25+ years. He thinks the elected officials over this period of time have paved such a path that eventually much of California will be like Brazil, with people with money largely living in gated areas and also shopping in gated areas.

[bronsin]

Originally Posted by nookandcrannycar

Depends on how the company is structured. Zuckerberg owns well under 50% of Facebook, but he still maintains voting control.

Musk...."Where should I locate the battery factory"....I'm not very surprised that he picked a location that is close, but NOT IN California. I had a fascinating conversation with a government attorney at a Starbucks today (widespread power outage, and Starbucks has generators). Fascinating guy. He makes my uncle seem like a liberal, and my uncle used to say " I'm to the right of Atila the Hun". He grew up, a black man in one of the least diverse white majority towns in the Bay Area (same town my mother grew up in). He went to Catholic schools until high school and then went public (same high school my mother attended0. His father was an MD, a surgeon. He's had a microscopic view of the criminal justice system for the last 25+ years. He thinks the elected officials over this period of time have paved such a path that eventually much of California will be like Brazil, with people with money largely living in gated areas and also shopping in gated areas.

Nobody has control like Musk has control. He explains in the book that investors would put pressure to make profits...disabling his plans. Which are to put a million people in a self sustaining colony on Mars.

Pretty far out there.

Yeah funny how that "liberal" stuff works...

[nookandcrannycar]

Originally Posted by bronsin

Yeah funny how that "liberal" stuff works...

. I'd pay to see a bleeding heart liberal try to debate him. He'd mop the floor with the liberal. He spoke about the nuns he had as teachers...often new arrivals from Ireland who were as tough as nails. He thinks one of the major problems today is that that level of discipline is gone...pretty much permanently.

P.S. Oops. Just reread post #11. The conversation with the attorney was yesterday, not today.