bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

all my cameras use IR in low light (night vision).

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

meanwhile, musk apparently tweeted this..."I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control," he wrote in a . "Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can't be overturned."
apparently he 'only' has 13% today.

full artlcle:

https://www.autoblog.com/2024/01/28/...reholder-says/

AMIRZA786

That's between Elon and the Tesla board. In a small startup where the founder/CEO needs to retain control and keep the shares as undiluted as possible, having 51 percent is not uncommon, but a company the size of Tesla, don't know if it's such a great idea. If I could get some contractual agreement with Elon to either follow a predefined script he can't go off of, or to just stay out of earnings calls, then maybe I would give him his 25 percent 😂

LeX2K

Some of you are confusing infrared cameras with infrared illumination that helps the camera. Very very different. Thermal camera has very low frame rate, doesn't work in cold weather and is very expensive.

swajames

You don't have to own 25% of a company to control 25% of the voting rights. Mark Zuckerberg, for example, retains effective control over Meta while reportedly owning only 13% of the stock due to supervoting shares that give him 10 votes per share.

With that said we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that Musk owned a lot more of Tesla than he does now before unilaterally choosing to sell a significant part of his Tesla stake in support of his own decision to buy Twitter. Why if it isn't the consequences of his own actions...

The Tesla board should not entertain this. They collectively rather than the CEO individually set Tesla's strategy, and if AI etc features in that strategy, and it must, then the CEO is already accountable to the Tesla board for executing on that strategy.

LeX2K

Which members of the board are unhappy with Elon's strategy? And which ones don't want Elon to have 25% voting rights?

swajames

That remains to be seen. It's also not the issue, at least not yet, because the actual issue is Musk seeking to force the board's hand and seeking to individually set the collective agenda by threatening to pursue AI activities outside of Tesla if he does not have the control threshold he wants - and he can't get that unless the board (and, in time, shareholders) acquiesce.

There's no reading between the lines necessary here. Musk has been very specific and very clear in stating what he wants and there's little room for debate on that. His own words speak for themselves. He is trying to force the board into changes in control by threatening to pursue something currently strategic to Tesla outside of Tesla. And there's also no debating the consequences of his own prior actions in relation how much of Tesla's voting interest he now controls. He had more than he did, but he sold it. It's not up to the board or other stockholders to bail him out of his own folly.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

so swajames, what do you want, him out?

swajames

Yes. He's at best part time anyway, he has multiple CEO positions never mind that all of that vitally important tweeting takes considerable time and effort. So yes, I'd absolutely like to see him replaced as CEO by someone who can focus. The Jobs/Cook analogy is bang on here. Cook could not have done what Jobs and Woz did to get Apple started, but he's an absolutely top drawer leader who has taken Apple to heights we probably wouldn't have seen had Jobs remained as CEO. Roughly 360bn market cap in 2011 to roughly 3 trillion today, all down to execution, but keeping a lot of the essential Apple core that Jobs made possible. Jobs fingerprints and DNA are still all over Apple, but someone else was better placed to take it to the next level. That's the path for Tesla IMO. Musk didn't found Tesla, but he set it on the path to success that the actual founders likely could not. So reinstate him as Chairman, and find the Tim Cook to operationalize better without all the drama while keeping Musk's fingerprints and DNA in the mix.

To be clear, the only things that have made me more money than Musk and TSLA are my professional career and my real estate investments over more than 20 years in California, so it's not like I haven't seen value from what he's done. But what Tesla needs now IMO is someone who can lead without drama and who can operationalize better.

RNM GS3

^
LOL - without Musk, Tesla will be taken over by same bureaucrats that run Ford, GM etc.

The guy pushes people to the absolute limit creatively and physically. Would i want to work for him? No - But it has been proven over time that these are the type of leaders you need to accomplish innovation.

Without Musk - there is no FSD, CyberTruck, crazy falcon doors, crazy 0-60 times and all the other things that made Tesla standout.

BTW Apple would be WAY ahead of its current valuation and overall financial standing if Jobs was alive. Didn’t Microsoft just pass them for most valuable company?! Jobs would have gone crazy.

AMIRZA786

So are you telling us you want to turn all those earning calls into some boring, business as usual events? No grandstanding, talking over the CFO, no more irrelevant points about interests rates or other off the cuff remarks? You are truly a party pooper 🤣

LeX2K

BOD will work out a deal with Musk and the rage bait headlines will be forgotten. Again.

AMIRZA786

I have to agree. The guy pushes the envelope, which is why I love (and occasionally hate) Tesla. Ford and GM type executives would neuter it's innovative edge trying to play it safe.

I wouldn't want to work for him either, I'm way to lazy . My nephew who was just hired by Tesla is gonna find out

spwolf

Tesla without Musk is a car company.

Would it produce better cars? Yes, especially in short term.
Would the stock be valued more? No, because it is not valued at car company levels.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

i can see that at some point, but i don't think yet.

remember steve jobs was FIRED by the company, replaced with a few TERRIBLE CEO's before he came back after the NeXT and Pixar adventures. apple even bought NeXT and sold Pixar to disney.

speaking of apple, in their great show For All Manklind, there's a musk like character doing amazing things in space... and he's quite erratic and out of the box too. fun to watch

i do think musk has way too much on his plate and i think he needs to pick 2 or 3 ventures, not a whole bunch. i also think tesla should not be some general AI company, because that will drag huge amounts of capital away from building cars.