This isn't a highly technical question, but I think it is critical all the same. Why do people think Tesla will survive Musk?
Tesla is already grossly, wildly inflated beyond any other car company--and yes, it's still a car company--and has spent years failing to deliver FSD. That's starting to become a very, very large problem.
And Musk has now deeply and irrevocably alienated some 10-50% of potential investors and customers, some of whom were previously diehard Tesla fans. Those people are never buying a Tesla product. Ever. And you might think they are overreacting, or the salutes where just "Roman," etc., but none of it changes the fact that they are forever boycotting Tesla.
The only two bullish arguments I can think of are, first, that Musk will create such uniquely amazing technology that everyone will forgive his indiscretions. But even if Musk has some unique, amazing magically technology--which he doesn't--who is going to use it? If Hitler has a monopoly on magic carpets, you don't reluctantly buy one. You just walk. Because if you buy the carpet, everyone else is going to think you're a Nazi. Even if you fire Hitler, no one is going to buy magic carpets from former Nazi carpet merchants, not for a very long time at least. And Tesla doesn't even have a monopoly. It's pretty far behind in some key areas.
The second argument would be that his affiliation with Trump will forever protect Tesla stock price. But Trump doesn't have a trillion dollars to give Musk, not that he would, and government largess isn't going to get you very far with extremely limited customers and investors.
So what's the case I'm missing here? Why wouldn't you short the hell out of this stock?