The Tesla launch event’s afterparty heavily featured Optimus as a bartender and dancer, but it turns out the bot wasn’t doing anything itself. Tesla employees were remote controlling it the whole time.
Disappointed, for me that was the most exciting part of the launch
I think I preferred it when robots were the largely figments of wonderfully intelligent humans such as Asimov, Heinlein, Arthur C Clarke etc etc . Now we have thoroughly dislikeable people such as Elon Musk realising some of their ideas. And the results seem to me to be pretty disappointing up to now. Watching my robo-vacuum cleaner in action, I would hesitate to call it intelligent.
In January I get to hire a Tesla for a trip, looking forward to a possible change of mind.
“Remember, back in 2016, when Donald Trump said: ‘I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?’” Krafcik wrote. “The event last night was the automotive industry version of that, with the CEO of Tesla playing Donald Trump.”
He added: “If a company were serious about building a safe and accessible Robotaxi business, it would look nothing like what was shown, or said, last night.”
should have been dead back in 1918. unfortunately lasted so long.
Baidu reported approximately 899,000 completed rides for Apollo Go robotaxi service in the three months through June this year. In 50 Chinese cities, presumably also remapped as they do not claim otherwise.
Waymo has published an analysis/timeline of robotaxis which has Tesla at the bottom, obviously not unbiased but the milestones look solid
Oops again. 
Tesla’s third-quarter results today were better than expected today @ 62 cents per share. Net income rose to about $2.17 billion, down in the small print it said “Profit margins were bolstered by $739 million in US Governmet automotive regulatory credit revenue during the quarter.” This is the sort of thing Elon’s candidate Trump wants to cancel.
So over a third of Tesla’s profits came from this credit.
The Tagi are currently running an article about Musk asking “Is it still morally acceptable to drive a Tesla?”. The attached poll shows 85% answering “no”.
But it’s okay for @Castro who didn’t know how bad Musk was.
Plenty of bumper stickers for sale though:
I ought to add that this is the same Musk who slandered a cave diver in the rescue of the Thai children stuck in a cave complex which had flooded.
The (expert) cave diver ridiculed Musk’s idea of using a mini submarine to get the children out. This obviously hurt Musk’s fragile ego.
Musk then called him a pedo on Twitter and hired a private investigator to try and find some dirt on him.
Was this Musk when he was being nice?
Musk’s got some great companies and is a visionary but are any of the innovations actually his?
A lot of Edison‘s patents weren’t his, either.
Nor are a number of pictures from renowned artists over the centuries. They sometimes just made the outlines and put their signature on the finished piece.
In the past, the people who thought he was an idiot or „his“ ideas were never going to work are now mostly less rich (wouldn’t say poor…).
If you want to get into the morality game of which CEO is „better“ than the other, that is of course each person’s own choice.
But I‘d consider that on the same level as boycotting one gas station chain over another. They are all selling petroleum products at the end of the day.
I’m no Musk fan and surprised he got away with he pedo comment. Yes, he has a fragile ego, yes he has some issues. But you can’t deny that he built up some transformative businesses.
Maybe part of his success is directly attributable to him being a bit messed up and trying to over-compensate.
In any case, even bad people can achieve good things and I think there’s room to separate the man from the achievements.
Of course not, he was a good businessman though. But he let down many of his most loyal employees so you wouldn’t wish to work for him unless it’s acceptable to behave as if you were a servant. He used to be “cool”, I think.
The only poll that matters is prices in the used car market.
I see a several model 3 long range dual motor AWD between 10 and 20k km around 45k CHF https://www.autoscout24.ch/de/s/mo-model-3/mk-tesla?sort[0][type]=PRICE&sort[0][order]=DESC
Same model 3 long range dual motor AWD from 2019 are between 15-20k CHF. https://www.autoscout24.ch/de/s/mo-model-3/mk-tesla?sort[0][type]=PRICE&sort[0][order]=ASC
That’s 55 to 66% depreciation over 5 years. If the poll in TA is any relevant, prices will show it sooner than later.
Best selling cars in Europe are hybrids, I don’t understand why as there must be cost and weight penalties by having everything twice
https://uk.motor1.com/news/738936/hybrid-car-sales-europe-september-2024/
I’m sure the numbers are skewed by mild hybrids which are nothing more than marketing hype e.g. the Fiat 500 mild hybrid comprises a combined starter-generator linked to the drivetrain via a belt and an additional 12V (11Ah) lithium-ion battery that is incapable of any electric drive, just ‘mildly’ adding 1 BHP to the overall engine output for a minute or two.
Smaller fuel tank, maybe smaller batteries, uncertainty about the whole electric car situation given the lack of recharging stations and/or ability to charge car at home, EV going to be charged same as other cars for ULEZ, pollution, etc.
I think it can make sense, you can use the electric part for short trips and use petrol for long distances. You get the best of both worlds and eliminate the range/charging downside of EVs without having to put in a massive expensive battery.
