Tesla has just announced its biggest ever quarterly loss, pushing their shares down by 5%. They are failing miserably in ramping up production of the Model 3, and also experiencing problems with their Gigafactory battery production.
This is where the big 'professional' car makers will win out, they have the design, planning, R&D / testing and technical ability - not just pie in the sky ideas, crossed fingers and a hand held out for taxpayer subsidies and shareholder money LOL.
I have worked in first tier suppliers plants and car-plants installing automation, and I can tell you car making is a dog-eat-dog industry, where not only do car brands compete against each other but different plants of the same company compete against each other for quality, efficiency and profitability, and the losers don't get the new models when they are planned.
Of the 11 initial 'wannabee' makers of autonomous vehicles in USA there are only 6 left, mainly the large 'old-tech conventional car companies' that silicon valley was 'gonna blow out of the water with their sheer brainpower' LOL
Making cars is a complicated high volume low margin business, one recall can cost you dearly, as Tesla will find out real soon. Sell your shares now if you have any. Once the 'wheels start to fall off' (literally - see link at bottom of post) Tesla business model, hard headed investors will make rats leaving a sinking ship seem slow, and his boast of having more cash than GM and Ford will evaporate, then he better hope that his space rockets, pods sucked through tube mass transport etc will keep his company afloat.
Here are some fun photos of Tesla cars where the suspension has failed and / or the wheel has simply decided to go in a different direction to the others (they really need to sort the auto-pilot software out).
https://www.flickr.com/photos/136377865@N05/albums/72157658490111523One of the comments was 'if Tesla made aircraft, all their models would be grounded by now'.
Tesla may be better offering free vehicle recovery than free charging, as it seems a Tesla is at its most dangerous when there is some power in the battery to propel the vehicle.