I hated Tesla Auto before it was cool

[orthoclad]

I hated Tesla before it was cool.

Looking back, I think the killer for me was when Musk launched a Tesla "driven" by his ego-mannequin into solar orbit. He wasted enough rocket kerosene to power an entire Northern town for a winter for that one stunt. Meanwhile, NASA had been launching cubesats with high-school science experiments for years and years. But could SpaceX be bothered with launching even a _little_ science for the public good? No, it had to be an exercise in narcissism, using Elmo's Tesla brand.

I was infuriated that they had hijacked the good name of Nikola Tesla.

And what good does Tesla do for "greening"? They accumulated massive amounts of emissions credits which they sold to the makers of coal-rolling pickup trucks, so where is the net environmental benefit? I've read (and posted) articles which argue that Tesla is not a car company, but a federal subsidy-earning company, in the form of emissions credits, plus the consumer tax credits which lowered the effective cost of the car. So much for Elmo Galt.

What about the lethal "self-driving" bullhonkey? Academic researchers have to jump through many hoops of approval before getting permission to use human subjects, but Tesla sent their crap out on the road using the uninformed and unconsenting public as test subjects to "train" their cars. That alone should have had massive consequences, but zillionaires club, ya know.

Need I mention quality-control issues and gigantic fires?

Maybe the company's original engineers did some cutting-edge work in car design, but all of that work happened long ago, before Elmo took over. If the company fails, I hope the engineers, technicians, and factory workers find better jobs, not working for an egomaniac who demanded, against the law, that they risk their lives to make him money during a plague. I suggest a worker-owned co-op following the bankruptcy.

As far as EV's go, there are now tons of growing competition, including Solar Electric Vehicles and hydrogen vehicles. Tesla will fail anyway, because they no longer have a unique product in the form of emissions credits to sell.

Also, millions of massive lithium batteries on the road are a terrible idea. That's worth a whole other thread.

Detroit is at fault for killing electric car designs decades ago when there was still time to head off drastic effects of pollution. It should have been done before Deepwater Horizon, for instance. The federal emissions credit re-started the industry. Now that there are plenty of startup companies and Detroit fossils jumping into the breach, Tesla has lost its edge.

I drive a major-model PHEV deriving over 90% of the power miles from solar panels and 56 mpg in hybrid mode. My next car will be a solar electric vehicle. I'm wishing for a hydrogen vehicle. There is definitely not a Tesla car in my future -- or past.

[Disaffected]

1. Whatever one may think of Musk and Tesla,

your criticism of the first Falcon Heavy (with the Tesla roadster as cargo) a little off-base. As it was the maiden (test) launch, it is not unusual to carry a deadweight payload of low value. The launch would have been necessary whether or not the deadweight was just that or, the roadster prototype that was utilized in that case for publicity purposes.

In any case, the launch was a notable technology accomplishment and demonstrated the practicality of triple booster reusability.

Also, I'm not sure what you are referring to by "solar electric vehicle" unless you mean a conventional vehicle that is recharged by detached solar panels i.e. electric vehicles that are charged by solar panels mounted on the vehicle itself are not now practical as the driving range is very low (not enough space for the panels).

[orthoclad]

2. It's ridiculous to waste

that much fuel for deadweight, when a few cheap transponders and instruments could have returned useful knowledge for the same weight. In fact, a few cubesats would have been far cheaper than the car, weight for weight. Especially since the load went into a fairly unexplored solar orbit. But that would have taken the limelight away from his ego.

I've heard the deadweight argument for missile tests. That tradition mainly applies to relatively low-cost terrestrial rockets with cheap cinderblocks or such in place of an expensive warhead. Some instrumentation would have been a trivial cost relative to the huge cost of launching the rocket.

Plus, I have major misgivings over tiurning the sky over to corporations. Astronomers were furious at Skylink, e.g.

There were some other recent discussions here of solar electric vehicles, including a utube of a news show highlighting three companies. Solar electric vehicles sport built-in solar panels so they can charge while driving or parked, minimizing need for plug charging.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127157825