Are you aware of how many government grants and tax benefits Tesla/SpaceX have collected[1]? They're as much "government money sifting leeches" as the rest.
That article is from 2015, firstly, and second if you actually look into what the subsidies are for, they're almost all for things that any manufacturer can access and are not Tesla specific. Are you against any subsidizing of green technologies?
> Everything Tesla/SpaceX has done has been: 1)Light years above the competition 2)Done with less employees and less money 3)Completed in a timespan that makes companies like
We're discussing Tesla's self driving system. It's certainly not light years above the competition, as it doesn't even use state of the art sensors for safety like LiDAR, which has predictably resulted in multiple Teslas killing their drivers. Maybe they've built what they have with fewer employees and less money, but I don't think that's a win given the deaths. They probably should have used more money and employees to prevent that kind of thing. As for completing it in a timespan, I mean... they're nowhere near done and have been saying for years it'll be ready any day now, yet are still happily accepting money for their promises. That's pretty much the point of all this.
Tesla is a lightning rod. Everyone wants a piece of it. They are held to a much higher standard and are in the media microscope. Tesla and Elon generates clicks and discussion - there's nothing like it.
