alt Hacker NewsTesla Hasn't Had a Successful New Product Launch Since JB Straubel Stepped Down
Comments
There's too many confounders to say that JB Straubel is the cause.
Examples: Covid controversies around musk in 2020, Twitter acquisition in 2022, Musk becoming the world richest person in 2021
This is an opinion piece - there’s no factual basis (nor any facts quoted) to support this narrative at all. Plus, key things missing from the calculus include:
- COVID, that put a strain on manufacturing during lockdowns and the eventual worldwide supply chain disruptions
- the new administration and its anti EV stance
- emergence of AI
- betting the future of Tesla on Optimus (product) and Robotaxi (service)
How much could JB Staubel have influenced Tesla during these times is anybody’s guess.
look at the source. i think they hate elon so i discount their opinion.
FSD that actually works and the massively popular in live markets robotaxi service are the obvious answer to “big-deal things that came after this CTO left”
$2B cybertruck failure barely registers vs how impactful FSD has been on model Y / 3 sales. Tesla is supply constrained again, with multi-month waits for the model Y L edition
The Cybertruck grossly misunderstood the target audience.
Look at the Maverick sales, when it was 20k. Slate Auto seems to have gotten it right.
Tesla is one china EV tariff away from bankruptcy
MKBHD made a good observation about the Cybercab[1]. The way the doors are designed, you will get high incidents of “collision with an open door of a stationary vehicle” also known as a dooring accident. If it was intended to be a robotaxi, why didn’t they just make the doors swing up in a vertical plane rather than chickenwing out like that. Another impractical vanity door feature just like with the Model X doors. Most likely conjured up by none other than the boss himself, designer of the Cybertruck.
If we are to be charitable to Tesla, new car development isn’t like new tech product development. The shortest possible period of time to develop a new car is probably about 4-7 years.
I’d also say that the YL is something of a new product and a very successful one, even though it’s more of a long wheelbase variant.
Still, I agree with the thesis of the article. Where are the smart decisions?
The Cybertruck could have been a home run product for the US market, but Tesla’s own hubris about that market really buried it. They focused on styling and marketed it as a cyberpunk lawless society survival vehicle where angry mobs of cyberpsychos can’t break your window.
Hello, Tesla, you needed to put the truck in NFL advertisements and show how it’s going to be amazing for your blue collar cosplay sessions and how it’s going to get 300 miles of range while towing a boat (which it was supposed to but it didn’t).
The Cybercab being a two-door coupe is insane. How did that pass the first design discussion? Look at how the Waymo Zeekr cab is designed, look at a how a London cab can fit like 5-6 people in a normal-sized car, look at the Nissan NV200 as NYC’s exclusive taxi from 2012-2018.
None of these are two seater low entry coupes.
Where is the full size 3-row family vehicle to convince upper middle class suburban moms to not buy an EX-90? Where is the European city car?
What is Tesla doing with their time?
Is this a paid piece behind the scenes by JB Straubel? It reads exactly as someone who was paid or got exclusive access to write something to over highlight someone.
Exceptional success is both timing and having an exceptional team. But yea, let's keep attributing it to great man theory, because that's more digestible and people like to mythologize a single person.
Elon had an insane talent of finding the right people with wild moonshot ideas to run his companies while he was getting the credit and the limelight.
Then he got older, got into politics and fully bought into the marketing about himself. He thinks he's a genius and that everything he touches turns to gold.
Well... Turns out stuff works as long as he is out of the loop and doesn't make any direct decisions.
Cybercab seems to have had a very promising start, metrics are good. This seems far more of a political hate piece than one based on any data.
Tesla Model Y is the best selling car in the world for like 3 years in a row. They don't need a new product any time soon.
Edit: All you Tesla haters just google "best selling car in the world last 3 years" and you'll see.
Isn't Tesla trying to be SpaceX's vertically integrated robotics division? My gut feeling says they are trying to move out of the EV business as crazy as that may seem to us normals.