Comment by user43928
16 hours ago
Musk already talked about the cold gas thrusters for the Tesla Roadster in 2018.
It would seem that your theory that the idea arose out of a need to distract from current financials doesn't hold merit.
He probably just wanted to design a cool car.
This was a "the cybertruck will be a boat" style claim.
Clearly some time between 2018 and now he decided he'd have to actually have it done and ordered his people to make a stunt car with thrusters.
Wasn’t aware of that detail thanks, it’s such a bizarre idea.
I disagree that it couldn’t come out of thinking of how to justify merging spacex and Tesla which he’s wanted to do for a long time.
This isn’t a cool car, it’s a gimmick. It will never be road-worthy, would lose money, and I doubt they’ll ever even sell it to customers.
As to why he’s going this dog and pony show now, we can only speculate, but I can’t think of any reasons that are good for Tesla (vs Musk personally) can you?
I see little need to speculate here.
The obvious explanation would be that this design for the roadster took 8 years to come to fruition for a demo-able prototype.
I also very much doubt the 2028 timeline for delivery, and what the purpose of the Rocket edition is. Perhaps it's just a prestige project.
The non-flying version at least seems usable on a racing track.
The speculation is because it’s such an absurd thing to demo or even aspire to. Nobody wants or needs this. So why do it?
I guess the answer is because it was Musk’s whim and nobody dared say no, which doesn’t bode well for Tesla.
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I don't know what stoped him just designing and building the roadster by now or any update or upgrade to it.
Musk also said production was starting on the Roadster in 2020. It turns out that things Musk says don't mean much.
And it can still be a distraction. The fact that they went through all this effort for a fantastically unreasonable thing just to wow for a company that is off the rails is...pretty telling. Have you never worked with someone who is late for everything, always overpromising and underdelivering, and as it becomes more apparently their promises get more exaggerated and unreasonable? That's Musk. Like "look you can play games on your screen", which absolutely no one asked for in a car, and for which it does much shittier than a $200 pad.
For that matter it's Trump too, and they're both cut from the same cloth -- don't like the dumb arch? Well now it has snipers and drones! And also it will eliminate the debt, deficit, income taxes, and...
So instead of just starting production of a vehicle 8 years behind schedule, look, new distraction! Amazeballs! Don't worry coming real soon now. Just put in those deposits!
I mean, the one part of this story that is unclear and no one seems to be asking hard questions is the compressor status -- there are vague, handwavy (oh we'll build a compressor claims, but I have huge doubts). A 5000 psi to 10000 psi compressor in the real world today is enormous. It's industrial equipment that generates enormous amounts of heat, is hilariously loud, and takes enormous power. While I am 100% certain this dog and pony show had their tanks filled by external massive compressors out of sight, I am pretty skeptical Tesla has any magic innovation in that field.
It can hardly be a "new distraction" when it was evidently planned and announced in 2018.
I also find it unconvincing that the purpose of the stunt is to receive deposits.
This being a prestige project to show off Tesla's advantage in experimental technology, or a personal pet project, would seem a much more likely explanation. Do we really need to bend everything into a malicious scam?
> Do we really need to bend everything into a malicious scam?
You should be asking Elon that.
When it's by a repeat scammer, yes. Like, good god.
Hey remember when all of the Tesla factories were being retooled to make robots, and the hilarious robot demo where some remote controlled junk was pitched as next gen? Also SpaceX would be to Mars by 2021, and would have landed a crew there in 2023. Totes!
Musk is Elizabeth Holmes who lucked into buying a growing business. Like, he 100% does exactly what Theranos did, and which she is sitting in jail for, trying to boost the stock on bullshit and lies.
"prestige project to show off Tesla's advantage"
Advantage? The entire engineering world is going "why?", for a wide range of reasons.
Not unlike the CyberJunk nonsense where he needed to boast that it can stop bullets and double as a boat (https://nationalpost.com/news/world/cybertruck-texas-wade-mo...) and is made out of impractical materials. That massive, colossal flop didn't show any "advantage", it showed that a toddler was running the show, and when people just want cars he's off desperately trying to regain his Iron man allure, now that he's just a vile, garbage human being.
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> Do we really need to bend everything into a malicious scam?
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me 10 times, shame on me
Wild people are still falling for Musk's fake products. I guess what they say is true, there is a sucker born every minute despite the evidence of the last twenty years. This will never ship.
I bet car engineers really hated working on something cool and fun instead of the 10th boring iteration of this year's model.
This is a particularly hilarious take. Especially after Tesla's actually interesting vehicles were abandoned from cratering sales so they can focus on a ridiculous DumpsterBox that also is an enormous flop. Must have been "cool and fun" making the stupidest looking vehicle in history, but also it's terrible at every single thing you'd use a truck for. So cool. So fun.
Now they needed to make a worthless Theranos display to fool gullible suckers, in a farcical display. It's all quite amazing.
And I mean, if there is one thing that Elon is renowned for, it's how great he is as a boss, and how much he thinks about his future Soylent Green. That he has pathetic fanboys who rush around defending him is utterly perverse, but such is the world we live in today.