But Elon Musk is hiding things.

Elon Musk wants people to believe that the SolarCity buyout was good for Tesla, and not a thinly veiled attempt to rescue his cousin's money.

This comes up now, because the SolarCity / Tesla court case is up in court right now.

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> But he’s not a “liar, cheater, and grifter” either.

He's really good at it. Solar City solar-roof seems to be a lie made up to help sell that company to his shareholders.

But its not just that: the battery-day replacement demo (back in 2013 or something) seems to have been for obtaining California EV credits for fast-charging, even though the battery-replacement technology never even was ever mass produced or developed.

And now we have "FSD 9.0" which will solve all problems, but can't tell the difference between the moon and a traffic light (https://twitter.com/JordanTeslaTech/status/14184133078625853...)

Elon Musk said "Coast to Coast Autopilot" will exist in 2016. Its been 5 years, thousands of people have bought $5000 to $10,000 autopilot packages on this promise.

The grifting is so obvious when you step back. FSD doesn't work. Solar roofs don't work. Solar City wasn't a good buy for Tesla shareholders. Etc. etc. And now Elon Musk is pumping BTC again, as if people haven't realized that he's utilizing Tesla assets to create a one-man manipulation engine to pump-and-dump BTC and/or DOGE.

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Lets just focus on the Cryptocoin aspect alone. What do you think of Elon Musk's antics over the BTC / DOGE prices? This alone should be proof of his grifting attitude.

All valid points. It's a Devil's Bargain, the Cerberus of the transportation electrification movement, a necessary evil driven by obsession and existing on the spectrum. Tesla's success is what's driving future bans of fossil fuel vehicles [1], and forcing legacy automakers to accelerate their transition. I ain't mad, I'm just sad.

We've known for decades what fossil fuels were doing, so if this is what it takes, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. As an environmentalist, I don't want to be PC, I want to win (to have a functioning habitat & planet for my kids).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase-out_of_fossil_fuel_vehic...

He can afford advice that tells him whether he can get away with it. Evidently they said he could, at least for now.

There's some highly incompetent government officials handing out money.

In the abstract, I think EV-credits are still a good idea. But some of these side-bonuses... such as the "fast charging EV" credits Tesla got for that silly replacement-battery demo... that was bullshit. They took the government's money and then never actually delivered the product (and seems to never have even intended to go beyond taking the government's money).

I mean, sure. We can maybe clap that Elon Musk managed to grab an easy-to-get tax credit and make himself richer. But people's tax dollars were supposed to go towards finding a way to make EVs charge faster. Not for a grifter who didn't even intend to make battery-replacements a real thing.

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The good news is that I'm learning. I dunno if everyone else is learning, but I'm watching this guy. I know what to watch out for if these things pop up within my sphere of influence.

But that's about it. I don't know what to do about it from a policy / political standpoint. Some people want to get grifted: they cheer at these events that haven't actually made any progress.

Solar Roofs, New York / Buffalo jobs, Solar City making revenue for the TSLA shareholders... etc. etc. Same thing. Lots of promises, lots of lies, and very little effort towards making it true. Over and over and over again.

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Its PT Barnum all over again. Mark Twain's fence-painting parable says it best...

Solar City is a lie in the same way that "autopilot" is also a lie.

its playing fast and loose with language.