Liberty

10 years ago they sold hundreds of cars a year of one model based on a Lotus, give them a little time to build a line up. Tesla is usually accused of moving too fast, not too slowly.. But all BMWs look like BMWs, all Porsches look like Porsches. If what you have is desirable, it's not too much of a problem. If you have more commodity products, then it helps to try to make a zillion variations and try to see what sticks or what may fills a niche. Same for iPhones vs Android phones. No offense but you still haven't pointed out this "moat" that exists. If Tesla look like Tesla and BMWs look like BMWs then one can only conclude that NIOs will look like NIOs. I fail to see how that's a moat as it's completely subjective to the buyer. Are you really arguing that Tesla found some secret sauce in looks? I mean I guess it's possible.....Apple defends their position party due to aesthetics. But when looking at a Tesla they really aren't all that special looking inside and out. When it comes to things like the Cyber truck, I will be willing to bet the Electric F150 outsells it because it looks like a traditional truck. I know a lot of blue collar workers who are excited about the eF150 and also think the Cyber Truck looks god awful. I hope Tesla changes that design up a lot. I don't know if they have a moat. But they're better and faster than the competition right now, and are much better at software and fast iteration, so until I see someone catching up, they're in a good position to keep their brand premium and stand out from the crowd. I don't think success for Tesla means outselling everybody else and owning the car market. Musk himself would be quite happy if everybody else sold a ton of EVs. I think they can probably carve out a successful niche and do quite well at it. Apple's moat is software and culture, not aesthetics.

Interview with Daniel Ek: https://www.theobservereffect.org/daniel.html

10 years ago they sold hundreds of cars a year of one model based on a Lotus, give them a little time to build a line up. Tesla is usually accused of moving too fast, not too slowly.. But all BMWs look like BMWs, all Porsches look like Porsches. If what you have is desirable, it's not too much of a problem. If you have more commodity products, then it helps to try to make a zillion variations and try to see what sticks or what may fills a niche. Same for iPhones vs Android phones.

The competition for EVs is all cars, not just other EVs. The EVs that BYD makes aren't very competitive with Teslas. Probably more competitive with other downmarket ICEs. (and please, look at products vs products, not at a few specs on a piece of paper... that's the dumb way of comparing products that leads to people missing all the things that aren't easily quantifiable but that are important to customers)

My bad, I didn't look at the top of this thread, it was already posted... Apologies. I guess it counts as bumping it up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/10/tesla-delivers-140000-vehicles-smashing-previous-records/

Nothing here since July? Stock still in its 10-year-range around $10 CAD? All normal, I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

New presentation/writeup on the NYT by @MineSafety: https://minesafetydisclosures.com/blog/newyorktimes

Amazon announcing a new biometric payment tech for physical stores, just scanning people's palms from a distance: https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/9/29/21492351/amazon-one-hand-scan-payments-palm-checkout-whole-foods https://blog.aboutamazon.com/innovation/introducing-amazon-one-a-new-innovation-to-make-everyday-activities-effortless

It’s almost like garbage people tend not to do just one bad thing, and if you dig, you keep finding more..

New interview of Musk by Kara Swisher: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/elon-musk-a-i-doesnt-need-to-hate-us-to-destroy-us/id1528594034?i=1000492777589

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-09-28/christian-drosten-germany-s-dr-fauci-worries-about-second-wave-of-covid

New acquisition at Volaris: https://www.wifispark.com/blog/wifi-spark-sale-to-volaris-group "Market share: "over half of the NHS Acute Trusts choosing WiFi SPARK" 60 employees Profitable, no debt" h/t @pearnick

https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-43fe5ca3fba1d4ebc05949a11643e03b

Judging Musk on his predictions is pointless. Instead, judge him on what he delivers vs others. People drive cars, not predictions.

It won't be much more structural than it is now. They just removed some of the extra stuff around it, but the battery pack is already most of the mass and stifness of the chassis, and it won't be bigger or in much of a different spot. In fact, it'll be less likely to be damaged because it's a bit more centered than before.

It may not dump at all, though, because everybody's read greenblatt and lots of sophisticated investors will be ready to pounce at any sign of weakness... reflexivity is annoying sometimes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Unfair discount is good. Hopefully some forced selling too. Yeah, prob many indexers and large funds that will be forced sellers because it's too small and/or on the wrong index..

Except do what they actually need to do, apparently.

How did you come to that conclusion? Did they announce something that is patented and couldn't be copied by: Samsung, LG Chem, CATL, VW, etc... ? I understand they showed some progress but it sounded more like incremental improvements which will take a long time to bring to production, not some special sauce that justifies 300bn market cap within a couple years... Additionally it sounds like the battery packs are going to become a structural component of the car rather than a modular design that is interchangeable with fixed energy storage systems. Wasn't a modular design the key to the "gigafactory" proposal in order to leverage the economies of scale? Sounds like that idea is now abandoned... I came to the conclusion by thinking with my head. I sure hope others copy this if it works. That's how progress works.

It won't be taxable, or at least, will be minimally so, as far as I understand it. I know there's a sentence early on in the prospectus that makes it sound like that, but if you read up on the preferreds, you'll get an idea of the mechanism that they're using to shield from taxes.

Watched most of the battery announcements. If they call pull it off over the coming years, this is pretty amazing stuff. Very large cost reductions and increases in throughput for battery manufacturing. Some big breakthroughs claimed.

I bet things were pretty rough then too... Warring empires and tribes, famines, epidemics, etc.

New acquisition at Jonas: https://jonassoftware.com/jonas-software-announces-the-acquisition-of-ineo "Founded in 2003 Linkedin shows 152 employees" h/t @ChrisPe23936320 and @Pearnick Also, I published some thoughts on the Topicus spin out here: https://libertyrpf.substack.com/p/29-constellation-softwares-topicus

Bezos launching a network of free montessori-style preschools: https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcMd_RnQ_I/ Cool