Author Topic: Is Tesla a good investment?  (Read 607172 times)

LightTripper

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Re: Is Tesla a good investment?
« Reply #3050 on: May 13, 2025, 02:43:51 AM »
Speaking at speed I'm not sure one can actually distinguish "a" and "the" in full flow.  Somebody good at lipreading might be able to.  In any case, he then says "Tesla and Waymo are the top two" so this seems to be an argument about whether Tesla is first or "merely" top two.  Seems a funny thing to get excited about if everybody agrees those two are meaningfully ahead of the competition (and the guy does a scales/weighing hand gesture when he mentions the two, suggesting he doesn't see them as very far apart).

I do find the whole market fascinating but have no skin in the game (beyond index funds).  Musk going against his core customer base politically seems a weird decision but I guess he has the money and power to do it, so we don't really need an explanation beyond "he wants to".  In terms of the impact on the firm, if they really are as far ahead as some believe and he becomes an impediment to that then presumably at some point the Board can eject him? 

From a European perspective, with the huge range of different manufacturers selling excellent BEVs here with increasingly impressive/usable range and a constantly improving public charging infrastructure, it seems hard to believe Tesla is really meaningfully far ahead in that field (despite being an early leader) - many others seem caught up or pretty close.   I know nothing about the autonomous driving etc.  I do wonder whether in that field being a follower might be the safer path (see the mistakes the leader makes - and gets sued for - and learn from that to establish a reputation for safety).  But history will eventually tell us the answer.

waltworks

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Re: Is Tesla a good investment?
« Reply #3051 on: May 13, 2025, 06:28:57 AM »
I even sold off a good chunk to lock in some profits.

If that's not a bad sign I don't know what is!

-W

ColoradoTribe

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Re: Is Tesla a good investment?
« Reply #3052 on: May 13, 2025, 07:05:42 PM »
I even sold off a good chunk to lock in some profits.

If that's not a bad sign I don't know what is!

-W

Building a house.  Also bought back about half those shares during latest dip.

ChpBstrd

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Re: Is Tesla a good investment?
« Reply #3053 on: Today at 01:03:05 PM »
… it seems hard to believe Tesla is really meaningfully far ahead in that field (despite being an early leader) - many others seem caught up or pretty close.   I know nothing about the autonomous driving etc.  I do wonder whether in that field being a follower might be the safer path (see the mistakes the leader makes - and gets sued for - and learn from that to establish a reputation for safety).  But history will eventually tell us the answer.
History is full of examples where the first mover in a new market or technology is outpaced by companies who entered the market later. For example:

Nokia>Apple
IBM>Dell
MySpace>Facebook
Five-and-Dime>WalMart
Pets.com>Chewy

Sometimes the incumbent is dethroned due to technological advancements, and other times it is due to management mistakes.

Telecaster

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Re: Is Tesla a good investment?
« Reply #3054 on: Today at 05:02:18 PM »
Sometimes the incumbent is dethroned due to technological advancements, and other times it is due to management mistakes.

Sometimes in the case of dirty pool, which is how IE dethroned Netscape, which in turn was dethroned by Chrome because of complacency.  Microsoft Edge is based on Chromium.     

Tesla is a special case.  It was explained to me they are voluntarily ceding their EV market dominance in order explore other opportunities.    I've never heard of a market leader just giving up like that before.  Gutsy move, if true.