9 ms·
> There's no question that there are synergies between Tesla and SpaceX in our futures," she said. "There's a convergence of what we're all trying to accomplish
by V__ 3mo ago
> There's no question that there are synergies between Tesla and SpaceX in our futures," she said. "There's a convergence of what we're all trying to accomplish in the future."
Accomplish a ludicrous valuation above all else?
- lenerdenator 3mo agoOf course. That's the one and only goal. Why? Well, as Cory Doctorow said at the talk I attended earlier this week, they do this for the same reason a dog licks his balls: because they can and no one will stop them.
- outside1234 3mo agoWhat do you want? Him to act in the shareholder's interest or something?
- dgellow 3mo agoHe's a shareholder, he acts in his own interest, therefore he's acting on a shareholder's interest!
- IshKebab 3mo agoYeah I'm definitely questioning what synergies there are between Tesla and SpaceX. What do electric cars and rockets have in common? Are they going to me a rocket powered car? Put a Tesla on the moon? The only thing I can think that makes any sense at all is Teslas coming with Starlink terminals built in. That seems like a stretch though.
- parineum 3mo agoBatteries and solar panels in space/mars/moon.
- roryirvine 3mo agoTesla claims to be pivoting away from cars in favour of producing their Optimus robots. And SpaceX's IPO valuation appears to be predicated on them being an AI datacentre company. So I guess the "Musk plays 4d chess" view would be that there are obvious synergies between humanoid robots and AI. Ugh. Honestly, that makes it seem worse than the purely cynical financial engineering takes.
- UncleMeat 3mo agoBut why are robots and LLMs connected? The only reason why a robot feels more connected to AI than a self driving car is science fiction.
- roryirvine 3mo agoYeah, it's all scifi posturing. Same with the "Optimus will begin colonising Mars in 2026" line that they were still pushing just a few months ago. There's perhaps a chance that some part of it might happen someday, but right now the main thing is to distract attention from Tesla's lack of model development and SpaceX's much-vaunted AI business being based on reselling datacentre space at a loss.
- Voultapher 3mo agoFor what it's worth they aren't reselling at a loss but rather at an eye watering profit [0]. [0] This assumes Anthropic and Google actually keep paying for at least 1 year of the signed 3, since they can cancel their contracts easily.
- lossolo 3mo agoMost SOTA humanoid robots use transformers, which are also at the core of LLMs. They also use NVIDIA GPUs for simulation training.
- UncleMeat 3mo agoIf they are useful for humanoid robots, why aren't they useful for self driving cars, which are just robots of a different shape?
- comfysocks 3mo agoTesla has a problem. Its sky-high valuation is based on the potential upside from “visionary” sci-fi future programs. However, the narratives are losing credibility. Once upon a time, Robotaxi and Optimus sounded like visionary futuristic ideas. However: We now live in a world where Waymo exists, and autonomous taxi hasn’t proven to be as socially transformative as promised. No huge latent market exposed. Aslo, Tesla is lagging behind. We now live in the world where Unitree exists, and is shipping! Again, Tesla is on the back foot. The technology no longer seems quite so futuristic. Disruptors usually disrupt from down-market— that puts BYD cars and Unitree robots in the better position. With a merger, the joint sci-fi future proposition is colonies on Mars. That one is likely to stay in the future for a long time. From a stock valuation point of view, the goal is for the promise to be forever in the future. That way, the investor thinks the upside is still to come. Once the promise is delivered, it’s time to cash out.
- s1artibartfast 3mo agoPer the article, there are already co-invested in building Elons chip megafab. If you are doing vertical integration, there are lots of common technologies and skills.
- tencentshill 3mo agoStop asking those questions and just give him your money already.
- Ekaros 3mo agoI am questioning synergies of Tesla and Tesla and SpaceX and SpaceX. So Tesla and Tesla and SpaceX and SpaceX... Is just all that cubed...
- mrguyorama 3mo agoAs demonstrated by the roadster, Tesla cars make great test masses for rockets!
- sbuttgereit 3mo ago> What do electric cars and rockets have in common? Electric motors? I imagine there are differences but the super heavy grid fins are electrically actuated (I have heard these motors were sourced from Tesla, though I don't have a great reference for that on hand). The thrust vectoring is also electrically actuated... again, I imagine there are differences of what's on the rocket and what's in the cars... but there are cross over areas of research and engineering. Also, in a hand-wavy way, rovers share some traits with electric cars; again electric motors, wheels, steering, etc. So while I don't believe a traditional car company is exactly trying to build space hardened/ready equipment in the normal course of business... it's not as far fetched as some combinations could be.
- phs318u 3mo ago> What do electric cars and rockets have in common? A majority shareholder.
- seydor 3mo agoElon's payout depends on it
- appplication 3mo agoIf anyone thinks there’s any reason other than this, it’s a clear sign they’re incapable of critical thought.
- spikels 3mo agoI think there are other reasons and am capable of critical thought. A variety of synergies have been discussed publicly for at least 9 years. This article lists several of them.
- XorNot 3mo agoIn the sense that you can claim two things are synergies by just saying they are, sure. Whereas in reality automotive companies do not organically have rocketry divisions.
- spikels 3mo agoChrysler (now Stellantis), Honda, Toyota and Geely all had/have rocketry divisions and many more auto companies have/are involved in the Aerospace industry more generally.
- readthenotes1 3mo agoIf anyone thinks there's only one reason, it's a clear sign they're incapable of critical thought.
- comfysocks 3mo agoIf you apply Occam’s razor, this explanation stands out.
- m463 3mo agoI can see: - self-driving ai stuff (above the) cloud - starlink connecting to cars instead of cellular (in addition to?) - robots in space