1/ I certainly hope the NHTSA's new investigation is a turning point, my skepticism comes from a long history.
Consider: Joshua Brown was decapitated while using Autopilot in early May of 2016. Tesla raised equity a few weeks later without disclosing this fact. $TSLAQ
2/ Goldman Sachs led that raise - having magically upgraded Tesla that very morning. The SEC opened an investigation into both Tesla and Goldman on the entire affair. The NHTSA dutifully opened an investigation into the Brown crash.
3/ The SEC quietly issued a no-action letter long after the controversy settled down. The NHTSA did one better: they effectively exonerated Tesla and claimed data showed Autopilot was 40% safer than a human driver.
1/ A thread on the SolarCity trial transcripts. Due to the tireless work of @PlainSite, ten volumes worth of testimony are freely available to the public on his website. Having read them, I can confirm the outstanding in-person reporting of @Teslaq_snark. $TSLAQ
2/ I wrote a thread two weeks ago with some preliminary thoughts. Take a few minutes to read it if you missed it. At its core, SolarCity was a financing company wrapped in a stock promotion scheme. I won’t repeat the key aspects of that thread here.
3/ After reading the entire case, I have little doubt SolarCity would have filed for bankruptcy absent the bailout orchestrated by Elon using Tesla’s equity as currency. SolarCity’s bankruptcy would have been the end of Elon’s empire. When cornered, he cheated, and it worked.
1/ Some thoughts on the cost of labor, vaccine status, etc. But before I do, this isn’t a thread about vaccines pro or con, whether people should get them, or whether the government has the power to force it, etc. I and my entire family chose to be fully vaccinated. You do you.
2/ There’s a shortage of labor in the country. There’s pressure on wages. There’s also a large number of adults who won’t ever get a vaccine, for whatever reason. Doesn’t really matter. It’s undeniable that they exist and it’s a sizable number.
3/ There’s also a proportion of the population who don’t yet have access to a vaccine, although one would presume the subset of people who actually want a vaccine and haven’t yet received their jabs shrinks with each passing day.
1/ As I work my way through the SolarCity transcripts, I think it is pretty clear what happened here and why. Some thoughts. $TSLAQ
2/ At its core, SolarCity wasn't really a solar company. It was a financing company wrapped in an aggressive stock promote. The heart of the business was sourcing and installing solar in exchange for power purchase agreements (PPAs) and tax credits which could be securitized.
3/ When I say SolarCity wasn't really a solar company, what I mean is they didn't make solar panels or solar inverters. They sourced these things from the market and acted as a financing intermediary with and installer for (mostly) residential customers.
1/ With EV competition arriving en masse in 2021 and Tesla's FSD scam unraveling for everybody to see, there's only one move left: $TSLA will merge with SpaceX. The man needs a new narrative, and this is the last trick.
H/T @AlderLaneeggs for hammering this idea since forever.
2/ The main stated synergy will be that, somehow, SpaceX's Starlink enables Tesla to finally solve FSD. Data!! Next generation internet!! 5G!! 6G!! He'll achieve Level 6 autonomy!! Yada yada yada. $TSLA
3/ A magician needs his distractions, and the orgy of fees the deal will generate means every analyst on the street will go bananas. Think Ives and Jonas write stupid stuff now? Wait until there's a few hundred million to slosh around. $TSLA