[bonestamp2]

Tesla and Uber aren't going anywhere. There's way too much invested for them not to secure another tiny drop in the bucket to keep going. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea ("throwing good money after bad"), but that's the reality of what will happen, especially since it will probably be someone else's money as they dilute.

[jncraton]

Tesla's financials are terrifying. I hope that Tesla succeeds, and I believe that they can. However, there is nothing about the company that makes an investment in TSLA feel like a sure thing to me.

[lalos]

Look at Ford http://www.businessinsider.com/ford-f-150-truck-production-m...

A fire accident of a supplier of Ford caused this, it wasn't even on their hands. Any freak/unlucky accident plus Tesla being tight with cash and time you do the math.

[bonestamp2]

Oh ya, I hear you. I worked at GM in the early 2000s and I remember personally dealing with an issue where we needed over 100,000 of a particular part for a recall and the vendor could only supply about 2000/month (not including what we needed for current production). Most of the other major automakers also used that part and they needed them for recalls too! It was insane.

I've been in automotive ever since and worked for a number of the major automakers and I currently do a lot of consulting for one automaker (not Tesla). So, I understand very well how one tiny thing can really throw a wrench in production (or sales, or service).

But, Tesla has an illogical amount of goodwill right now and they can't seem to burn through it. So, until that goodwill really starts to dwindle, there are going to be investors willing to take preferred stock.

[pwinnski]

There's a chance Tesla will not exist as an operating company this time next year. Given their published financials, it wouldn't take much at all.

There's a chance Tesla will last a century, and people will point and say see! I told you they weren't going anywhere!

[ironjunkie]

You got it exactly right.

What is beautiful with this is that whatever happens next year, the "winning" camps will say that they knew this would happen.

It is a game of Statistics and chance at this point. Both outcomes are possible, but once the outcome is clear, the ones that got it right will dismiss it is based on luck and chance at this point.

[allenu]

This reminds me of the quote that the four most expensive words in investing are "this time it's different".

[toomuchtodo]

Hooboy, it only takes a bit of loss of confidence for a corporation to liquidate. Never underestimate the difficulty level of refinancing corporate debt in a shaky macro environment.

[bobthepanda]

Isn't this what we said about the housing market a decade ago?