Elon Musk Claims "Significant Mistakes" with Solar Roof Disaster
They can’t all be winners. And some losers are a bit more catastrophic than others…
Case in point – Elon Musk’s solar roof tile project. If a broken clock is right twice a day, what do you call a business mogul with a better track record than King Midas? What happens when he goes down in flames?
On Monday, Musk admitted “significant mistakes” in the rollout of SolarCity’s photovoltaic roof tiles. Given that the tiles can easily cost two or three times higher than Tesla’s initial estimates, it’s hard to put a positive spin on this (and some have certainly tried).
Back in October 2016, Elon Musk unveiled Tesla’s solar roof – which swapped roof shingles for photovoltaic tiles – on the set of Desperate Housewives and received his typical fawning press coverage. When paired with Tesla’s Powerwall home battery, the photovoltaic roof would be exceedingly more efficient than traditional residential solar projects.
One problem – the solar tiles on display were fake. Of course, tech giants (and auto manufacturers) have a long history of showing off nonfunctional concepts, but when Tesla shareholders voted to acquire SolarCity just one month after the project’s unveiling, they had no idea the tiles were phony. Nor did they know about SolarCity’s fiscal troubles … or the fact that Elon Musk thought actual prototypes of the tiles were a “piece of ****.”
“Fishy” doesn’t even begin to describe it, and this whole sorry incident is part of an ongoing lawsuit.
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