Comment by foxyv

There are a couple different schemes that are used to distribute taxpayer money to cronies. The most common are defense contracts for stuff like the proverbial $1000 hammers and such. There are also infrastructure deals, energy deals, subsidies, and bailouts. I know Musk was pushing for defense contracts earlier but they mostly fell through.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/24/nx-s1-5305269/tesla-state-dep...

> That would mean that there's profit to be had by that buyer and so why the heck wouldn't Tesla just keep that profit for itself and run the entire operation?

I suspect this is because they have less confidence in the ability of the cab to pay for itself and would rather offload that financial risk on the buyer.