
Tesla’s Engineering Chief Takes Leave of Absence at Pivotal Moment - dcgudeman
https://www.wsj.com/articles/teslas-engineering-chief-takes-leave-of-absence-at-pivotal-moment-1526082594
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sunstone
This timing seems about right to me. Most of the wrinkles appear to be out of
the Model 3 production now. Designing the Model Y is about to start. Right now
would be the right time to take some well deserved R&R.

~~~
ClassyJacket
Yeah, with what information the general public has, this could just as easily
be spun as 'Engineering chief takes well deserved break after months of crunch
successfully implementing Model 3 mass production.' Even if output production
isn't as high as was initially planned, doesn't mean it's a failure.

~~~
Florin_Andrei
I'm getting the impression that there's some kind of axe-grinding going on in
the general region of WSJ when it comes to Elon. Not sure why.

But this article definitely feels like someone just trying hard to find an
angle to cast a deprecating light on Tesla. Like a "vested interests" type of
feeling.

~~~
dforrestwilson
Head of Sales Chief Financial Officer Chief Accounting Officer Treasurer
Director of Battery Tech

All gone in the past year. That's a notable amount of turnover. Some of them
left a lot of options on the table when they chose to depart.

It's odd, and probably what triggered an entire article about something as
normally mundane as a leave of absence.

~~~
sunstone
The electric car market is booming right now. All of these people would be in
strong demand. And with the Model 3 now in production they might well be
looking for a new challenge with, probably, much better pay.

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ggregoire
Is it normal in America to be in the news when you take some vacations?

~~~
rajacombinator
If people have multi-billion bets against your employer and they want to pay
for an ominous sounding article, then yes.

~~~
ajross
No one has multi-billion bets against TSLA. It's only like 25% off its all
time high and has a market cap bigger than GM.

~~~
throwaway5752
[https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/key-
statistics?p=TSLA](https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/TSLA/key-statistics?p=TSLA)

A bit down the page on the right, you'll see "Shares Short", "Short Ratio",
"Short % of Float", and "Shares Short (prior month)".

What that is telling you is that almost $10B of Tesla stock has been borrowed
and sold (with the profit coming from buying in the future at lower prices,
ie, betting against TSLA). That is increased about 7% from the prior month,
and would take almost 5 entire days of average trading volume to close out all
the short positions.

This is a high level of betting against a stock by any standard.

~~~
beambot
Is this short ratio atypical? I presume it involves some major institutional
investors being against TSLA, but is there a good way to determine who?

~~~
tofu8
>Is this short ratio atypical?

I wouldn't say so. There are other heavily shorted stocks that have a much
higher short ratio because of their small float (e.g. MTCH).

>but is there a good way to determine who?

Short sellers don't have to disclose their positions, unlike investors who're
long the stock. You can try to get a better sense of who's thinking what
through headlines and analyst notes/reports.

Side note: Elon tweeted out that we'd see the 'burn of the century' (a short
squeeze) and that it would be bigger than the VW/Porsche squeeze in 08.

~~~
throwaway5752
Thanks, for replying when I couldn't! Generally I agree with you. I would
disagree that this level of short interest is typical, I think 20%+ short
interest is high 90s percentile territory. The relatively low short ratio is
more indicative of how highly traded TSLA is (short ratio = short interest /
avg daily volume).

If there's a way to report who is short a stock, I don't know it. There are
also other trades to profit from decreases in an underlying security (buying
puts, selling calls) and I don't know about reporting obligations there,
either.

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nodesocket
How many times are we going to see outrage news that would lead us to believe
a company is on the brick of disaster, yet the opposite occurs. Instead of
using emotions, let me present facts with stock prices:

United Airlines passenger pulled off PR disaster stock was up 13% 3 months
later.

Facebook cambridge analytica at lows at $160. Today $FB closed at $186.99.

Tesla report of death while car was in autopilot and public outrage over
Elon's handling of investor quarterly call. May 3rd $TSLA trades down to $285.
Today $TSLA closed at $301.

Apple, all analysts go bullish saying X is not selling, suppliers reporting
down, consumers complaining about minor details, the end is near for Apple.
Trades down to $160 April 27th. Instead Apple crushes quarter, huge $100B
stock buyback, divy increase... up 15%. Cook praises Tax reform.

In nearly every circumstance where public outrage and news blasts a solid US
company for some minor incident, it has been profitable to buy the dip. I can
provide many more examples if so desired.

~~~
vasco
It's almost as if journalists aren't actual stock market analysts. Media in
general suffers from believing their own lies. News rooms hype up stories with
outrage based on "it is said that..." kind of stories, which then generate
clicks, and somehow think this has anything to do with companies bottom lines.

~~~
moomin
Yeah, I remember when Enron used to shrug off negative news by showing their
stock price graphs. The market doesn’t always price in bad news, until it
does.

~~~
nodesocket
Do you honestly believe Tesla and Elon are flat out lying and committing fraud
like Enron/Skilling though? If you do, that is fine, but I'd be curious to
hear your argument.

~~~
personjerry
I believe you’re too focused on the example (“Enron”) and missing the point
(“The market doesn’t always price in bad news, until it does.”) of the parent
comment.

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kerng
6 weeks is not that long. To me a leave of absence that would be significant
is more like 6-12+ months.

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sheeshkebab
Next up - Musk took a nap.

~~~
theyinwhy
We already had those: [https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/elon-musk-says-he-is-
sleepin...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/11/elon-musk-says-he-is-sleeping-on-
tesla-factory-floor-to-save-time.html)

------
olivermarks
It may be the looming post accident battery safety realities that has caused
this...it's possible a massive recall or worse is in the works for Tesla given
the volatility of damaged batteries catching fire repeatedly after accidents.
[https://electrek.co/2018/05/10/tesla-battery-reignited-
days-...](https://electrek.co/2018/05/10/tesla-battery-reignited-days-after-
catching-fire-crash-ntsb-investigate-fire-response/)

~~~
modeless
Why on Earth would that require a recall? Hundreds of gas powered cars catch
fire every day. The only difference is first responders expect and know how to
handle gas fires. They will learn to handle batteries too.

~~~
carlivar
It is the door handles I wonder about. They seem overcomplicated since they
are electric servos I believe instead of typical mechanical handles.

In a complete loss of power can the doors be opened? This is unclear to me. I
don't own a Tesla and am genuinely wondering.

The difference to a gas car could be that you can't get out of a Tesla if
there is a fire.

I think I read in a teardown of the Model 3 that the rear door handles didn't
have mechanical options as a backup for safety.

Overall I don't particularly like flashy overcomplicated things which is what
these door handles seem to me. I'm curious for any rebuttal though.

~~~
perl4ever
There are many cars that don't have rear doors, but do have rear seats. The
worst case scenario in a Tesla, if the rear doors don't open, doesn't seem any
worse than the inevitable situation in a 2 door 2+2.

Something else people worry about (or used to) was power windows not opening
in a crash in case the door is jammed. But we don't mandate crank windows for
that reason.

~~~
carlivar
That's a great point, though since I have kids I can only dream of a 2 door
car for a while. It is technically possible but hard to schlep with them back
there when they are little. So I think of it more as a safety scenario in my
present life situation.

~~~
perl4ever
Expectations and norms are clearly different than they used to be a few
decades ago. When I was a pre-teen in the late 80s, and my family got an SUV,
it had seating for five passengers like modern vehicles, bucket seats in the
front and ones that folded down in the rear...but four doors were not an
option. In fact of the several competitors only one offered rear doors.

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southern_cross
I read an article quite a while back (might be a couple of years ago now) that
did the math and concluded that, unless some serious "magic" happened, Tesla
was going to lose major coin on every Model 3 sold. Then I read an article
just a couple of days ago that said that, in fact, Tesla IS losing major coin
on every Model 3 sold. Who knew?

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yani
The whole notion of the article is that taking time off is wrong. No, it is
not. For what we know, the person taking time off could be sick, mentaly or
phisically.

The author of the article needs to be more humane.

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nenuko
Damn, does the corporate welfare lord have an army of cronies spinning here?

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gt565k
Just like anything Trump seems to become a news article, so does anything
Tesla.

I can't even read the news without rolling my eyes and thinking WTF?

An article about Trump or Elon Musk/Tesla even if it's completely uncalled for
or factually incorrect seems to become "news".

Journalistic quality has definitely gone downhill in the last decade or two.

~~~
CydeWeys
Trump is the President of the United States. He's one of if not the most
powerful person on the planet. If he doesn't deserve coverage, who does?

The news media covered the "furor" over Obama's tan _suit_. They're damn well
going to cover any real scandal involving Trump. It's their job.

If this news doesn't interest you then don't read it.

~~~
ams6110
They cover the fake scandals too.

