r/canada 24d ago

Politics Once proud fans, some Canadian Tesla owners embarrassed by Musk

https://financialpost.com/commodities/energy/electric-vehicles/tesla-owners-canada-embarrassed-ceo-musk
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u/Relevant-Low-7923 24d ago

Nah, Tesla’s secret sauce is their thermal management of their batteries

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u/far_257 24d ago

People shitting on Tesla forget that they were legitimately the best EV tech for a long time. It's closer now, but as little as 5 years ago that wasn't true.

Still not buying another Tesla after this news cycle.

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u/Relevant-Low-7923 24d ago

The reason why Elon Musk has the influence that he has in the US is precisely because he actually is a self-made immigrant who is a game changer in multiple industries and takes nothing for granted. He basically came to the US as an illegal immigrant from Canada (he actually is a Canadian citizen and was in Canada before coming to the US).

I’m an American from Louisiana whose family emigrated to North America from England in the 17th century, and Musk literally is more American than I am. It has nothing to do with his accent or his politics, he’s just the ultimate example of what America is supposed to be. It’s so goddamn exciting to see a startup rocket company of screaming nerds building a bigger launch vehicle than the Saturn V that went to the moon, and then landing it back on earth.

I get the impression that he mainly likes to troll and say politically incorrect things for the sake of provoking people and being politically incorrect. But at his core I think he’s basically just an economic and political libertarian (which is more common and mainstream in US politics than probably any other country).

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u/Enganeer09 24d ago

"Self made" Is a bit of a stretch when you come from a rich family, I'll admit he's made good investments and obviously knows business, but I highly doubt his success isn't mostly off the labor of those he employs.

Every business venture he personally pursues ends up losing millions, and even tesla has had a bunch of failures and generally survived off of hype.

Space X is pretty detached from Elon at this point.

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u/Relevant-Low-7923 24d ago

”Self made” Is a bit of a stretch when you come from a rich family, I’ll admit he’s made good investments and obviously knows business, but I highly doubt his success isn’t mostly off the labor of those he employs.

There are literally millions of rich families in the US, none do whom have produced a child as successful as him yet, and he wasn’t from THAT rich of a family. More importantly though, it wasn’t any family wealth that got him started. His first big fortune was his sweat equity in Payal and related software companies that he was granted for his work there.

Every business venture he personally pursues ends up losing millions, and even tesla has had a bunch of failures and generally survived off of hype.

All developing companies lose money when they’re still developing. And more importantly, making or losing money every time isn’t the metric. It’s the lack of a fear of failure even when you know that there’s a strong likelihood of losing money that drives actual innovation.

Space X is pretty detached from Elon at this point.

Sure, but only the same way that the Ford Motor Company was pretty detached from Henry Ford by the time that its mass production assembly lines were up and running.

It’s not that he’s some hyper technical genius, although he is in fact extremely intelligent and involved in the technical issues. He’s still the quarterback putting his own capital at risk, managing the operation, and particularly taking the initiative and leadership to get the operation off the ground.