[IshKebab]

Yeah I'm definitely questioning what synergies there are between Tesla and SpaceX. What do electric cars and rockets have in common? Are they going to me a rocket powered car? Put a Tesla on the moon?

The only thing I can think that makes any sense at all is Teslas coming with Starlink terminals built in. That seems like a stretch though.

[roryirvine]

Tesla claims to be pivoting away from cars in favour of producing their Optimus robots. And SpaceX's IPO valuation appears to be predicated on them being an AI datacentre company.

So I guess the "Musk plays 4d chess" view would be that there are obvious synergies between humanoid robots and AI.

Ugh. Honestly, that makes it seem worse than the purely cynical financial engineering takes.

[comfysocks]

Tesla has a problem. Its sky-high valuation is based on the potential upside from “visionary” sci-fi future programs. However, the narratives are losing credibility.

Once upon a time, Robotaxi and Optimus sounded like visionary futuristic ideas. However:

We now live in a world where Waymo exists, and autonomous taxi hasn’t proven to be as socially transformative as promised. No huge latent market exposed. Aslo, Tesla is lagging behind.

We now live in the world where Unitree exists, and is shipping! Again, Tesla is on the back foot. The technology no longer seems quite so futuristic. Disruptors usually disrupt from down-market— that puts BYD cars and Unitree robots in the better position.

With a merger, the joint sci-fi future proposition is colonies on Mars. That one is likely to stay in the future for a long time. From a stock valuation point of view, the goal is for the promise to be forever in the future. That way, the investor thinks the upside is still to come. Once the promise is delivered, it’s time to cash out.

[IshKebab]

> autonomous taxi hasn’t proven to be as socially transformative as promise

That's because they are still super expensive - more expensive than Uber!

That's probably partly because the technology is very expensive, but also because they have no competition. Both of those will eventually change.

[secstate]

Fantastic write up. To what degree is all of capitalism actually built on this premise? Why can't I buy the same damn running shoes I bought in 2015? Why can't I buy a dumb TV?

[UncleMeat]

But why are robots and LLMs connected? The only reason why a robot feels more connected to AI than a self driving car is science fiction.

[roryirvine]

Yeah, it's all scifi posturing. Same with the "Optimus will begin colonising Mars in 2026" line that they were still pushing just a few months ago.

There's perhaps a chance that some part of it might happen someday, but right now the main thing is to distract attention from Tesla's lack of model development and SpaceX's much-vaunted AI business being based on reselling datacentre space at a loss.

[Voultapher]

For what it's worth they aren't reselling at a loss but rather at an eye watering profit [0].

[0] This assumes Anthropic and Google actually keep paying for at least 1 year of the signed 3, since they can cancel their contracts easily.

[lossolo]

Most SOTA humanoid robots use transformers, which are also at the core of LLMs. They also use NVIDIA GPUs for simulation training.

[UncleMeat]

If they are useful for humanoid robots, why aren't they useful for self driving cars, which are just robots of a different shape?

[sbuttgereit]

> What do electric cars and rockets have in common?

Electric motors? I imagine there are differences but the super heavy grid fins are electrically actuated (I have heard these motors were sourced from Tesla, though I don't have a great reference for that on hand). The thrust vectoring is also electrically actuated... again, I imagine there are differences of what's on the rocket and what's in the cars... but there are cross over areas of research and engineering.

Also, in a hand-wavy way, rovers share some traits with electric cars; again electric motors, wheels, steering, etc.

So while I don't believe a traditional car company is exactly trying to build space hardened/ready equipment in the normal course of business... it's not as far fetched as some combinations could be.

[tencentshill]

Stop asking those questions and just give him your money already.

[s1artibartfast]

Per the article, there are already co-invested in building Elons chip megafab.

If you are doing vertical integration, there are lots of common technologies and skills.

[Ekaros]

I am questioning synergies of Tesla and Tesla and SpaceX and SpaceX. So Tesla and Tesla and SpaceX and SpaceX... Is just all that cubed...

[mrguyorama]

As demonstrated by the roadster, Tesla cars make great test masses for rockets!

[phs318u]

> What do electric cars and rockets have in common?

A majority shareholder.

[parineum]

Batteries and solar panels in space/mars/moon.