Tesla's main problem is that it is controlled by a a guy who behaves like a narcissistic psychopath. As psychopaths go that is far from the worst case, but is carries the tremendous problem of a irrational fear of honestly admitting mistakes.
Look at the ongoing slander suit against Musk over his repeated false allegations about Vernon Unsworth. He has tried to explain it away as having been misled by a "private investigator" he had hired for $52,000... after he made the original accusation! His
statements in the witness stand are worth reading to judge his character:
"he looked sort of like a pedo guy ... It's a sort of a look. I don't know"
Musk the pedophile expert! It gets better:
"Pedo guy is just kind of a common insult ... It just basically means are you a creepy old man"
"and he was like talking about my ass, which is weird, and shoving something up there."
Does Musk have Peter Pan complex, as well as Trump-level narcissism, and feared Unsworth might jump him?
He actually tried to claim he felt threatened by the "sort of pedo-looking guy"?
Before being pushed by the lawyer into recognizing that:
"Shove it up your ass. Wouldn't that be an idiomatic phrase?"
"Well, my ass is not quite that big, so therefore I would think this is not physically possible, so I would say that is an idiom, most likely."
He also seems afraid that someone might suggest he tried to shove a real submarine up his ass:
Q. But you know it's an idiom?
A. Yes. It is physically impossible, of course.
Q. Well, I don't know if it's physically impossible or not, but I understand what you are telling me.
A. You are insulting me?
Q. Mr. Musk, I have lot of things to do in life, but insulting you is just not something I care about doing.
A. Okay.
Q. If I wanted to insult you, sir, I'd probably know how to do. I'm just here to ask questions, representing my client, to get the truth from you.
A. I was just curious.
He does not regret the slander, just keeps insisting against the plain reality that he never made it:
A. I just said he was a 'pedo guy' because he was creepy-looking.
Q. Did you ever try to correct all the mass of information that was describing you as having called this man a pedophile?
A. I didn't call him a pedophile.
Later he goes into a "He seemed suspicious" broken record, seeking to deny the time when he insisted that by not having been sued (yet), Musk's accusation was true.
The second piece of evidence, the questioning of Musk's assistant in his attempt to frame Unsworth as a pedophile, is also interesting, as an example of what people with money do in buying services and planning "leaks to the press" to advance agendas. Rather inaptly in this case, but they did try. Specifically instructing the "investigator" to:
make sure the team in Thailand keeps digging, creatively, extensively, and when possible, aggressively.
But it is besides the point. My point here is about Elon Musk. Musk comes across as a narcissist because in his statements he makes it all all about him, "the haters of the world" are out to get him. As one lawyer put is about Musk's type of behavior "ego so great that they think they're so omnipotent and powerful that people will do whatever they say without question". And a sociopath because when asked about the damage he caused to Unsworth, he counters with his worry about "this whole fiasco"... as if, how dare Unsworth sue Musk and expose his lie, "These have all been very damaging, and has hurt me greatly."
These are examples that support my long-held opinion that he's not capable of being head of a stable company. He's the kind of confidence trickster who pops up when times are good and capital is plentiful. And sometimes get successful. But Tesla is supposed to be for the long haul, an industrial company. Under him it will end up failing. There are lots of niche manufacturers, on the same level as Tesla, that make a profit. Tesla keeps making losses because Musk just cannot control himself. It was the automation fantasy, "I know more about manufacturing than the whole industry". It was the self-driving fantasy. It's the diversion or resources into nepotist (Solar...) and vanity side projects. It's the megalomaniac plans to enter all kinds of markets (trucking?) instead of focusing.
I don't know whether Musk was an asset or liability early on when he bought Tesla. Some company was bound to become famous, the time was right for electric cars to make the news and become a thing. Maybe he made Tesla be that company. But for years now he's been a liability.
