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FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL: "Shows are still an expensive place to be, too. The bigger the show, the bigger the costs. At Frankfurt, the huge halls devoted to showcase the home-town brands of Volkswagen and Daimler were estimated to cost those exhibitors upwards of $40-million each; at New York, a...

Makers have to pay big bucks to rent floor space at these shows. So it's a form of advertising, and Tesla doesn't advertise. Which is one reason why my next vehicle will be a Tesla. If I bought anything else, I'd be paying back to the maker what it spent to get me to buy it.

I read in some place authoritative that Tesla makes nothing from selling cars but from offsets or permits or something of that ilk. Can somebody explain?

No -- no. Tesla stock is ready to tank bigtime! Sell sell sell! Please. Because, as the father said when he entered the ice-cream store with his kiddies, "I'm buyin'!"

Is Texas a "Right to Work" state, or is it a pro-union one? Does Texas still require new vehicles to be sold only at dealerships? Are any dealerships unionized?

Agree. Value of unions can depend on the culture and union's orientation. For instance, German and especially Japanese unions are collaborative whereas North American ones can and sometimes do impede employer success.

Totally agree. It's not a matter of the amount. (I expect Tesla is about to rake in such huge profits that advertising would be an expense write-off that would cost them near nothing anyway.) It will be a source of pride that my driving a Tesla was not due to some Mad-Men types researching how...

"My initial thoughts on the article were that China was trying to renegotiate the deal they have with Tesla and needed something to bargain with." Hold onto your initial thoughts. To put it simply, in Phase 1, Musk puts money into China. Phase 2: Musk starts recouping his huge investment by...

"... get out there ... front line ...." That's common practice in Japanese factories, where the execs take turns donning the company uniform and spending time at a lowly station on the line, sometimes getting their hands dirty. Not sure Musk appreciates the symbolism. The other workers...

Re your last sentence, T.C., I know of a case where an employee was unionized against his wish, later had a problem with management, and was saved by the union! What is "KZ"?

"I think all of Toyota plants in the U.S. are non-union." Yes, and the repeated attempts to unionize Toyota plants in Canada have been rebuffed by the employees.

Surely German car unions aren't all that harmful to the industry since the most important vehicle makers in Europe (if not the world) are in Germany. Similar for Japan. But England and North America might be a different story and I fear that unionizing the Austin plant would be disastrous.

Will likely depend on two unknowns: the price of liquid fuel and the success of vaccines.

Good thing I never tried to work as a cost estimator!

Can anybody guess how much the Texas plant will cost Tesla to open? And how much profit Tesla would make on each CT sold? I would guess (with no training or credentials to do so) that the costs -- spending over a year on the massive fleet of construction equipment and operators; the stamping...

The more the control rotates, the rounder it should be. Aircraft bank-controls, often termed yokes (though they're just part of the yoke), can generally rotate only some 40--80 degrees cw or ccw, a fraction of a car-wheel's rotational excursions (though lock-to-lock is decreasing due to power...

Absolutely yes -- if your policy (which you presumably have a copy of) clearly stipulates it's void if, in the insurer's opinion based on the "black box," you were driving recklessly.

If you drive a Tesla, it collects driving info anyway, so if your pattern is what they consider low risk, you might as well benefit from that. (If you're bothered by "personal" information being collected by your car, don't drive any recent one, especially a Tesla.)

"You are REQUIRED to have Insurance to drive." Gotta say yes and no to that. (And add generally, because I don't know every jurisdiction's requirements.) Some minimum amount for liability, yes. But you can decline all other coverage they try to sell you, such as collision and comprehensive.

Right, Steven, but when it comes to privacy "intrusions," don't underestimate the prevalence of paranoia.