Tesla

[cyclone]

Musk Labels U.K. Diver as Pedophile After Spat Over Thai Rescue

By Phil Serafino
July 16, 2018, 4:58 PM GMT+8

Elon Musk belittled a British cave explorer as a pedophile after the man criticized Musk’s effort to help in the rescue of a Thai soccer team as a publicity stunt.

Musk’s now-deleted post on Twitter adds to a long list of controversial tweets by the Tesla Inc. chairman and founder. He’s used the social network to promote his companies, spar with short sellers who are betting against Tesla shares and needle journalists who question the businesses’ prospects. Musk has 22.3 million followers on Twitter.

The billionaire offered a “kid-size submarine” to help rescue the boys and their coach after they became trapped in a cave in northern Thailand. A Thai official said the equipment, built by Musk’s rocket company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., wasn’t practical. Musk traveled to the site in Chiang Rai province, but the team was rescued by Thai divers with aid from an international group of volunteers.

British diver Vern Unsworth, a volunteer who played a key role in organizing the rescue, said in an interview Friday with CNN that the submarine was “a PR stunt.” He said Musk could “stick his submarine where it hurts,” and that it had “absolutely no chance of working.”

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...hai-rescue

[Wildreamz]

Elon has since taken down his tweet. This kind of slur is simply unacceptable. 

That said, I understand his frustrations, if just a little. In the middle of everything Tesla is facing, British diver Richard Stanton (who first discovered the kids) reached out to him for assistance. They immediately worked on this on hours end, just to be scoffed and berated by critics publicly. It is rather insulting both on the personal level and to the team.

https://www.businessinsider.sg/elon-musk...?r=US&IR=T

[mobo]

Elon has since taken down his tweet. This kind of slur is simply unacceptable. 

That said, I understand his frustrations, if just a little. In the middle of everything Tesla is facing, British diver Richard Stanton (who first discovered the kids) reached out to him for assistance. They immediately worked on this on hours end, just to be scoffed and berated by critics publicly. It is rather insulting both on the personal level and to the team.

https://www.businessinsider.sg/elon-musk...?r=US&IR=T

Based on the businessinsider link, I do not see any indication that Stanton reached out to Elon. In fact what seems more likely is that Elon gatecrashed the rescue operation and was subsequently told to just continue doing what he wanted to do. Some speculated the rescuers just wanted to concentrate on doing their thing and requested he just work on whatever he had in mind. It was more a case of since you want to build this, why not since no harm even if the thing doesn’t work as long as you don’t disturb us.
 
The motives aside, what we know for sure is Elon apparently wasn’t shy about milking this opportunity for all its worth with his constant “updates” on twitter. This sort of salesmanship is very consistent with his past behavior when it comes to promoting his products and stocks. I don’t express any moral views on this, but one has to acknowledge that there is a very strong profit and publicity motive for his helping, so I don’t quite buy the altruistic “I was just trying to help and feel so aggrieved by someone bad mothing me”.
 
We cannot know for sure unless someone of authority in the operations speaks up, but I doubt we are going to get it. Personally I find the narrative about a British diver personally reaching out to Elon for assistance highly unlikely. Elon Musk’s connection to this whole operation is really remote and in the midst of all that time pressure somehow a cave diver decided that a billionaire, venture capitalist and technoprenuer halfway across the globe is the best person to help? Possible but highly improbable.

[Wildreamz]

I will let the picture (taken from the link) speak for itself:

[Wildreamz]

https://money.cnn.com/2018/07/18/technol...index.html
Elon Musk apologizes to cave rescuer for 'pedo' tweet
by Sherisse Pham   @Sherisse
July 18, 2018: 7:35 AM ET

Link to original Twitter post: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1019471467304513537
Link to original Quora article referenced in Tweet: https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-full-sto...cue-effort

---

Disappointed with his outlandish personal attack, respect him for owning up to it.

[weijian]

It takes a few years to build a reputation but just a few minutes to ruin it.

Mr Musk probably shown that he is not above anyone else in terms of his temperament, but with his apology, he also shown that he has the character to become much better than who he is.

My personal opinion of a true leader and someone that i want leading the company i have a piece of: It's better to work quietly and then let the results show for itself to convince your critics.

Tesla Model 3 is most profitable electric car - consultant: "The Model 3 is profitable, so I have to eat crow. I didn't think it would happen this way," he said on Monday. "No electric car is getting 30 per cent net, nobody."
https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/transpo...consultant

[mobo]

I will let the picture (taken from the link) speak for itself:

This picture shows nothing other than the fact that Stanton told Elon to continue with the submarine which is widely known anyway. The emails do not in anyway show that it was Stanton who approached Elon for help to rescue the cave boys.

[Wildreamz]

This picture shows nothing other than the fact that Stanton told Elon to continue with the submarine which is widely known anyway. The emails do not in anyway show that it was Stanton who approached Elon for help to rescue the cave boys.

I believe you are questioning exactly who approach who first (Stanton or Elon)? Now I get it.

To that I will only say:

1. Does it really matter, as long as his help is appreciated by Stanton (he said it was "absolutely worth continuing" and repeated "please keep working on it", and not, "we got this under control")?

2. Why would Elon make such an obvious lie that would easily be debunked if Stanton spoke up, is beyond me.

3. Again (now I'm speaking in general terms), while he and his team make actual (likely grueling) effort to help (he is also taking a huge risk here, because if his submarine fails and jeopardizes a human life, that would be the end of his reputation and possibly severely impact the companies that he represent); he gets widely and publicly criticized by those who mostly didn't lift a finger (just look at the replies to his Twitter posts). I can see where his frustration stems from.

[Wildreamz]

Well, I did a little digging last night after I made the previous post. I stand corrected, it was actually a Twitter user that first reached out to Elon for help (remembered I read about someone reaching out to Elon first):

I have confused that with Richard Stanton. A good history of events is documented here: https://www.vox.com/2018/7/10/17553820/e...-submarine
Elon himself have never claimed he was first reached out by Richard Stanton. Sorry for the misinformation 

[Wildreamz]

Model 3 production continue to accelerate in August, hitting all time highs:

---

Other news:

Tesla Marks the Latest High-Profile Bet for Saudi Wealth Fund
August 9, 2018
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...ealth-fund

Tesla might go private. Here's what that would mean if you own its stock
8 Aug 2018
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/08/investor...dited.html

Tesla looks set to overtake BYD in becoming the largest EV producer by market share in July; Tesla likely to pull ahead other automakers from here on out:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4192478...-july-2018