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Elon Musk: Officially a fraud and piece of shit. Official or unofficial war criminal?


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1 hour ago, Hank Kingsley said:

The fact that a cockroach like Ian Miles Cheong can become popular or influential in any way is a clear sign that online society is completely fucked. 

 

Truly.  We have elevated the most worthless, contemptible people -- and Elon and Twitter in particular have done so.  We're talking genuine cockroaches of human beings.  If there was no internet, they're the kind of people who would be ostracized from real-world society.  Can you imagine showing up at a party where Ian Miles Cheong was in attendance?  No.  Everyone would immediately leave a shitty loser-fest that would have him in attendance.  Yet Elon boosts him, and he's a "thought leader" on Twitter.  Fucking insane.

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25 minutes ago, Chooky said:

Ian miles cheong is fascinating in a hideous kind of way. It's hard to tell if he's 15 or 70. And you could park a cybertruck in the space between his eyes. 

If you strapped IMC into a CT with FSD enabled and then stuffed Andy Ngo in the frunk, please calculate the number of minutes until both get the Apollo 1 treatment and the world flexes in triumph. Then Buzz Aldrin punches another moon landing conspiracist in the face and climbs a tree because climbing trees is a joyful act and we are joyful now that IMC and Ngo have resolved to full Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru state.

I’m timing you.

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37 minutes ago, SizzleChest said:

If you strapped IMC into a CT with FSD enabled and then stuffed Andy Ngo in the frunk, please calculate the number of minutes until both get the Apollo 1 treatment and the world flexes in triumph. Then Buzz Aldrin punches another moon landing conspiracist in the face and climbs a tree because climbing trees is a joyful act and we are joyful now that IMC and Ngo have resolved to full Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru state.

I’m timing you.

Outer Space Yes GIF by NASA

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9 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

3bdd075b-9220-4eeb-92ec-fefe5bcc8964.png

My son texted me the other night that he called an Uber and a driver showed up in a Cybertruck. The driver said he doesn't really need the money but is using the CT to generate extra income. Plus, the driver emphasized that he was mainly interested in talking to passengers about his Cybertruck.

These weirdos remind me Amway cultists.

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I would take an Amway cultist over CT owner.

 

So I looked that guy's profile up - I am shocked SHOCKED to learn that he is a real estate flipper.

Also most people noted that for him to get that 70K tax break he likely has to claim it as a work vehicle. BUT in saying he's going to rent it on Turo is breaking those rules.

In the end, his math isn't mathing, but if he wants to go with that, good for him.

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5 hours ago, Captain Ron said:

If you're going to make cheezy Dad jokes, can't they be somewhat good?

You also have to be a somewhat good dad to make them.

57 minutes ago, Clintonaldo said:

I didn't think it was legal to not have an intrusion beam in the door. 

The beams are made out of bootstraps, so they can be hard to see.

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2 hours ago, F250 said:

My son texted me the other night that he called an Uber and a driver showed up in a Cybertruck. The driver said he doesn't really need the money but is using the CT to generate extra income. Plus, the driver emphasized that he was mainly interested in talking to passengers about his Cybertruck.

image.thumb.png.015aa694f4854d971e5bae13b7367ad9.png

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1 hour ago, Parliament said:

So it's a $70k tax deduction, not tax credit?  Bit of a difference there.


Yeah.....for it to be a full 70k tax BREAK, it has to be a tax credit.  And I am not aware of any such credit.  If it's an EV credit, they aren't that big.  If it's a deduction because it's a work truck, it's a deduction, not a credit.  Bottom line, the guy is almost certainly a liar, an idiot, or both.  

But then, he bought a CT, so it's surely both.

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1 hour ago, Clintonaldo said:

I didn't think it was legal to not have an intrusion beam in the door. 

I dunno. I also thought it was required but you can read the regulation and there's exceptions. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/571.214

I searched for and wasted way too much time reading this thread discussing the accident. https://www.cybertruckownersclub.com/forum/threads/cybertruck-t-bone-accident-at-high-speed-damage-photos.17218/ My conclusion is the tesla came out of it pretty well, there was no interior intrusion into the rear of the vehicle. The other vehicle was a ford edge. No major injuries from either occupant. Someone in the thread pointed out it doesn't appear to be a 90 degree hit.

 

image.thumb.png.45110cfb49990c7d652c3dd35e174af0.png

the side appears to be protected by the door frame and a wide gap/crumple zone. Obv this is not the vehicle from the wreck.

image.png.9b63fd0c5ab5c0228b863c072c7b4064.png

But just to balance things out, here's a pic someone took of the bullet proof glass. Whether it was a genuine accident or was a self-own is unknown at this time.

image.thumb.png.ea7c35b56395d3e369e463d3bf5a38c1.png

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46 minutes ago, Parliament said:

^^^That, my friends, is the way you humble brag.

Meh, I rarely go on trips where I have to rent a car and I always wanted to drive a Porsche (albeit this is different obviously).  A damn Camry was $95 and it's only two days so I figured why not splurge a little.

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is it bad to be down 24% over prior year when the market is up 28% and your competitor is up 35%? seems bad to me.

Quote

TESLA CHINA DELIVERS 71,007 VEHICLES IN JUNE, DOWN 24.2%

China Passenger Car Association (CPCA) unveiled on Tuesday that Tesla delivered 71,007 vehicles in June, down 24.2% on a yearly basis. In the first half of the year, Tesla China sold 426,623 vehicles, down 10.47% year-on-year.

However, the association also revealed that BYD Co. led substantially in the same month, up 35.2% year-on-year with a staggering 340,211 vehicles delivered.

The agency also noted a 28% increase in sales for new energy vehicles compared to the same month a year earlier.

 

and if you thought he couldn't possibly be less funny, wrong. this is a 50+ year old man.

https://i.redd.it/o88rftrp4x9d1.png

 

Edited by NoName
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5 minutes ago, NoName said:

 

IMO elmo doesn't know wtf his company is actually doing with FSD. His spat a couple weeks ago with the creator of computer vision, the sole tech his cars use to """self drive""", made that very clear. He knows how to sell it and hype it to useful idiot investors and customers, and that's all that really matters ultimately. 

It sounds like he's saying he doesn't have enough onboard compute to process the data fast enough, but based on his description it really sounds like they just have a crap driving model. I've built/trained vision-only self driving ML models and there's just no getting around how finicky they are with solely visual data 

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48 minutes ago, Captainant said:

IMO elmo doesn't know wtf his company is actually doing with FSD. His spat a couple weeks ago with the creator of computer vision, the sole tech his cars use to """self drive""", made that very clear. He knows how to sell it and hype it to useful idiot investors and customers, and that's all that really matters ultimately. 

It sounds like he's saying he doesn't have enough onboard compute to process the data fast enough, but based on his description it really sounds like they just have a crap driving model. I've built/trained vision-only self driving ML models and there's just no getting around how finicky they are with solely visual data 

it's incredible that they kneecapped themselves by limiting to just visual data based on "eyes work without Lidar, so we will make our cars self drive with just cameras"

Drew Barrymore Oops GIF by NETFLIX

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Elon Musk’s Politics May Be Pushing Some Buyers Away From Tesla

kristen-wiig-no-way-wow-kays2mhz2ziikd2d

https://dnyuz.com/2024/07/02/elon-musks-politics-may-be-pushing-some-buyers-away-from-tesla/

Here's the money quote: "You’re basically driving around a giant red MAGA hat,” said Aaron Shepherd, a product designer at Microsoft in Seattle who said he was planning to buy an electric Volkswagen ID.4 instead of a Tesla.

Quote

Few auto executives are as closely identified with the companies they manage as Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, is. And probably none are more prolific in broadcasting their political views on social media.

But as Mr. Musk’s public persona has become increasingly right wing, Tesla appears to be paying a price in sales, especially to liberal and left-leaning customers who are much more likely to buy battery-powered cars than conservatives are, according to analysts and many car owners who responded to a questionnaire on The New York Times’s website about whether his behavior affected their views of Tesla.

His image as an erratic, impulsive manager appear to have rubbed off on the cars, raising doubts in some people’s minds about their quality and helping to explain why Tesla sales have been falling. On Tuesday, the company reported that its global sales in the second quarter fell 4.8 percent from the same period a year earlier, after an 8.5 percent drop in the first three months of the year.

“Musk is a true lightning rod,” said Ben Rose, the president of Battle Road Research, which has a generally positive view on Tesla’s stock. “There are people who swear by him and people who swear at him. No question, some of his comments are a real turnoff for some people. For a subset, enough to buy another brand.”

Tesla and a representative for the company’s board did not respond to requests for comment.

Some of the more than 7,500 people who responded to The Times’s questionnaire said they were offended by what they perceived as antisemitism from Mr. Musk, which he denies. Some were upset by the way Mr. Musk has managed Twitter, now called X, since he bought the company in 2022. He fired thousands of employees and removed guardrails on content shared on the social media platform. His increasingly friendly relations with former President Donald J. Trump and other conservative personalities were also cited as concerns. A vast majority of the readers who responded to the questionnaire were critical of Mr. Musk.

“You’re basically driving around a giant red MAGA hat,” said Aaron Shepherd, a product designer at Microsoft in Seattle who said he was planning to buy an electric Volkswagen ID.4 instead of a Tesla.

It is not possible to know what price Tesla has paid for Mr. Musk’s political statements and activities. What is clear is that Tesla, once the dominant seller of electric vehicles worldwide, has lost market share in many countries for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is the company’s reliance on the Model Y sport utility vehicle and the Model 3 sedan, which haven’t been substantially updated in years, for almost all of its sales. Other companies are luring buyers by introducing new or updated cars more frequently.

In China, domestic carmakers like BYD have gained ground on Tesla by offering more affordable cars with technology features that appeal to Chinese consumers, like rotating screens. In Europe, BMW, Volkswagen and other local brands are doing well by offering more luxurious or cheaper cars than Tesla. And in the United States, Hyundai-Kia, Ford Motor and General Motors have increased sales by offering a growing selection of models.

Times readers who responded to the online questionnaire said they had been turned off by Mr. Musk’s statements and by their experience with Tesla’s cars and service operations — the company sells and services cars directly, rather than through dealers.

“There’s a time when I’d have given Musk an organ if he needed one,” said Tim Yocum, an engineering director at a software company. But Mr. Yocum, who lives in Chicago, said that he had experienced problems with his Tesla Model S and that he had been unsatisfied with the company’s repair and maintenance services. Mr. Musk’s veer to the right has also upset him.

“Tesla is the only manufacturer in contemporary times that has unapologetically let its C.E.O. take a tiki torch to its good name,” Mr. Yocum said. “This car will be the last Tesla I own.”

Such comments help illuminate surveys that say Tesla’s reputation has suffered recently. The company slipped to 63rd place in the 2024 Axios Harris Poll 100, which asked respondents about their views on corporate brands. In 2021, the company was in eighth place.

Mr. Musk has maintained that his public statements and persona don’t affect Tesla’s sales. “We make the best cars,” he said at The Times’s DealBook Summit in November. “Whether you hate me, like me or are indifferent, do you want the best car or not the best car?”

Mr. Musk still has plenty of passionate admirers. And some said the executive’s public statements would not influence their decision to buy a Tesla. Many people gave him credit for pushing the auto industry to produce electric vehicles, a powerful tool to combat climate change.

“He has led a company that has successfully disrupted a corrupt, lazy car industry,” said Julian Mehnle, a software engineer who lives in San Francisco. While no fan of Mr. Musk, Mr. Mehnle said, “I’m adult enough to separate these concerns from my choice of consumer products.”

Robert Dean, an architect who lives in Redding, Conn., echoed those sentiments: “Musk is a gigantic, disruptive talent with a transformative and positive effect on the world we live in. He also is an oddball personality, but I’m not marrying him; I’m buying cars from a company he brilliantly leads.”

Most of Tesla’s shareholders remain largely supportive of Mr. Musk. Last month, investors endorsed a $45 billion compensation plan for him by a wide margin.

Yet car buyers whom The Times heard from and analysts said Mr. Musk’s political activity had clearly hurt the company’s reputation with left-leaning consumers. And there is little evidence that Mr. Musk’s turn to the right has attracted more conservatives to buy Teslas. In fact, 77 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters said this year that they were not interested in battery-powered cars, up from 70 percent who said the same last year, according to the Pew Research Center.

“He might be winning some people who like his positions,” said Greg Silverman, the global director of brand economics at Interbrand, a consulting firm that advises clients on marketing strategies. But, he added, the odds that Mr. Musk is attracting more customers rather than pushing them away “are very low.”

Interbrand research indicates that a chief executive or other company representative who offends customers can reduce sales as much as 10 percent, Mr. Silverman said.

Some car owners’ concerns went beyond Mr. Musk’s political statements. They cited accusations of racial discrimination at Tesla factories, or the perception that he has allowed racist content to flourish on X. Tesla has denied that it tolerates discrimination at its factories.

“My mother was seriously debating buying a Tesla,” said Achidi Ndifang, who works in information technology in Baltimore. “As a Black person, I felt like it would be an insult for my mother to drive a Tesla.”

Derek Morf, a high school math teacher in Verona, N.J., who owns a Tesla, reported feeling alarmed when Tesla removed the Disney Plus app from some dashboard screens late last year, apparently because Mr. Musk was angry at Robert A. Iger, the chief executive of Disney.

Mr. Morf didn’t care that much about the Disney app, which he hardly used. But, he said, he found it unsettling “that the vehicle I purchased could have features changed in an instant simply because one man had that much control.”

Such concerns could be a liability for Tesla as it pours resources into autonomous driving technology. Mr. Musk has promised to unveil a self-driving taxi on Aug. 8. The technology cannot succeed without trust from consumers.

Many Times readers pointed out that other car companies also had baggage. Volkswagen had an emissions scandal a few years ago. Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor, held and spread antisemitic views. A decade ago, G.M. sold cars with faulty ignition switches that were blamed for more than 100 deaths.

Established car companies still sell gasoline cars that emit greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Tesla sells only electric cars.

But probably no other current auto executive has as loud a megaphone as Mr. Musk has, or is more willing to use it.

“If people think that the C.E.O.s of other companies are saints, they are a bit naïve in my opinion,” said Jan Leys, a Tesla owner in Zurich. “They just don’t have as big a mouth and/or platform as Elon Musk.”

The post Elon Musk’s Politics May Be Pushing Some Buyers Away From Tesla appeared first on New York Times.

 

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Elon Musk’s Politics May Be Pushing Some Buyers Away From Tesla
kristen-wiig-no-way-wow-kays2mhz2ziikd2d.gif
https://dnyuz.com/2024/07/02/elon-musks-politics-may-be-pushing-some-buyers-away-from-tesla/
Here's the money quote: "You’re basically driving around a giant red MAGA hat,” said Aaron Shepherd, a product designer at Microsoft in Seattle who said he was planning to buy an electric Volkswagen ID.4 instead of a Tesla.
Few auto executives are as closely identified with the companies they manage as Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, is. And probably none are more prolific in broadcasting their political views on social media.
But as Mr. Musk’s public persona has become increasingly right wing, Tesla appears to be paying a price in sales, especially to liberal and left-leaning customers who are much more likely to buy battery-powered cars than conservatives are, according to analysts and many car owners who responded to a questionnaire on The New York Times’s website about whether his behavior affected their views of Tesla.
His image as an erratic, impulsive manager appear to have rubbed off on the cars, raising doubts in some people’s minds about their quality and helping to explain why Tesla sales have been falling. On Tuesday, the company reported that its global sales in the second quarter fell 4.8 percent from the same period a year earlier, after an 8.5 percent drop in the first three months of the year.
“Musk is a true lightning rod,” said Ben Rose, the president of Battle Road Research, which has a generally positive view on Tesla’s stock. “There are people who swear by him and people who swear at him. No question, some of his comments are a real turnoff for some people. For a subset, enough to buy another brand.”
Tesla and a representative for the company’s board did not respond to requests for comment.
Some of the more than 7,500 people who responded to The Times’s questionnaire said they were offended by what they perceived as antisemitism from Mr. Musk, which he denies. Some were upset by the way Mr. Musk has managed Twitter, now called X, since he bought the company in 2022. He fired thousands of employees and removed guardrails on content shared on the social media platform. His increasingly friendly relations with former President Donald J. Trump and other conservative personalities were also cited as concerns. A vast majority of the readers who responded to the questionnaire were critical of Mr. Musk.
“You’re basically driving around a giant red MAGA hat,” said Aaron Shepherd, a product designer at Microsoft in Seattle who said he was planning to buy an electric Volkswagen ID.4 instead of a Tesla.
It is not possible to know what price Tesla has paid for Mr. Musk’s political statements and activities. What is clear is that Tesla, once the dominant seller of electric vehicles worldwide, has lost market share in many countries for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is the company’s reliance on the Model Y sport utility vehicle and the Model 3 sedan, which haven’t been substantially updated in years, for almost all of its sales. Other companies are luring buyers by introducing new or updated cars more frequently.
In China, domestic carmakers like BYD have gained ground on Tesla by offering more affordable cars with technology features that appeal to Chinese consumers, like rotating screens. In Europe, BMW, Volkswagen and other local brands are doing well by offering more luxurious or cheaper cars than Tesla. And in the United States, Hyundai-Kia, Ford Motor and General Motors have increased sales by offering a growing selection of models.
Times readers who responded to the online questionnaire said they had been turned off by Mr. Musk’s statements and by their experience with Tesla’s cars and service operations — the company sells and services cars directly, rather than through dealers.
“There’s a time when I’d have given Musk an organ if he needed one,” said Tim Yocum, an engineering director at a software company. But Mr. Yocum, who lives in Chicago, said that he had experienced problems with his Tesla Model S and that he had been unsatisfied with the company’s repair and maintenance services. Mr. Musk’s veer to the right has also upset him.
“Tesla is the only manufacturer in contemporary times that has unapologetically let its C.E.O. take a tiki torch to its good name,” Mr. Yocum said. “This car will be the last Tesla I own.”
Such comments help illuminate surveys that say Tesla’s reputation has suffered recently. The company slipped to 63rd place in the 2024 Axios Harris Poll 100, which asked respondents about their views on corporate brands. In 2021, the company was in eighth place.
Mr. Musk has maintained that his public statements and persona don’t affect Tesla’s sales. “We make the best cars,” he said at The Times’s DealBook Summit in November. “Whether you hate me, like me or are indifferent, do you want the best car or not the best car?”
Mr. Musk still has plenty of passionate admirers. And some said the executive’s public statements would not influence their decision to buy a Tesla. Many people gave him credit for pushing the auto industry to produce electric vehicles, a powerful tool to combat climate change.
“He has led a company that has successfully disrupted a corrupt, lazy car industry,” said Julian Mehnle, a software engineer who lives in San Francisco. While no fan of Mr. Musk, Mr. Mehnle said, “I’m adult enough to separate these concerns from my choice of consumer products.”
Robert Dean, an architect who lives in Redding, Conn., echoed those sentiments: “Musk is a gigantic, disruptive talent with a transformative and positive effect on the world we live in. He also is an oddball personality, but I’m not marrying him; I’m buying cars from a company he brilliantly leads.”
Most of Tesla’s shareholders remain largely supportive of Mr. Musk. Last month, investors endorsed a $45 billion compensation plan for him by a wide margin.
Yet car buyers whom The Times heard from and analysts said Mr. Musk’s political activity had clearly hurt the company’s reputation with left-leaning consumers. And there is little evidence that Mr. Musk’s turn to the right has attracted more conservatives to buy Teslas. In fact, 77 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters said this year that they were not interested in battery-powered cars, up from 70 percent who said the same last year, according to the Pew Research Center.
“He might be winning some people who like his positions,” said Greg Silverman, the global director of brand economics at Interbrand, a consulting firm that advises clients on marketing strategies. But, he added, the odds that Mr. Musk is attracting more customers rather than pushing them away “are very low.”
Interbrand research indicates that a chief executive or other company representative who offends customers can reduce sales as much as 10 percent, Mr. Silverman said.
Some car owners’ concerns went beyond Mr. Musk’s political statements. They cited accusations of racial discrimination at Tesla factories, or the perception that he has allowed racist content to flourish on X. Tesla has denied that it tolerates discrimination at its factories.
“My mother was seriously debating buying a Tesla,” said Achidi Ndifang, who works in information technology in Baltimore. “As a Black person, I felt like it would be an insult for my mother to drive a Tesla.”
Derek Morf, a high school math teacher in Verona, N.J., who owns a Tesla, reported feeling alarmed when Tesla removed the Disney Plus app from some dashboard screens late last year, apparently because Mr. Musk was angry at Robert A. Iger, the chief executive of Disney.
Mr. Morf didn’t care that much about the Disney app, which he hardly used. But, he said, he found it unsettling “that the vehicle I purchased could have features changed in an instant simply because one man had that much control.”
Such concerns could be a liability for Tesla as it pours resources into autonomous driving technology. Mr. Musk has promised to unveil a self-driving taxi on Aug. 8. The technology cannot succeed without trust from consumers.
Many Times readers pointed out that other car companies also had baggage. Volkswagen had an emissions scandal a few years ago. Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor, held and spread antisemitic views. A decade ago, G.M. sold cars with faulty ignition switches that were blamed for more than 100 deaths.
Established car companies still sell gasoline cars that emit greenhouse gases and other pollutants. Tesla sells only electric cars.
But probably no other current auto executive has as loud a megaphone as Mr. Musk has, or is more willing to use it.
“If people think that the C.E.O.s of other companies are saints, they are a bit naïve in my opinion,” said Jan Leys, a Tesla owner in Zurich. “They just don’t have as big a mouth and/or platform as Elon Musk.”
The post Elon Musk’s Politics May Be Pushing Some Buyers Away From Tesla appeared first on New York Times.
 

I do find it funny the instead of a Tesla, he is looking at a VW. You know, the original and literal Nazi car.
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Truly.  We have elevated the most worthless, contemptible people -- and Elon and Twitter in particular have done so.  We're talking genuine cockroaches of human beings.  If there was no internet, they're the kind of people who would be ostracized from real-world society.  Can you imagine showing up at a party where Ian Miles Cheong was in attendance?  No.  Everyone would immediately leave a shitty loser-fest that would have him in attendance.  Yet Elon boosts him, and he's a "thought leader" on Twitter.  Fucking insane.

To be fair, the Klan always had leaders.
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