• mech@feddit.org
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    22 hours ago

    As we reported last week, the “unsupervised” Robotaxis spotted on January 22 were all being followed by trailing Tesla vehicles with safety monitors inside.

    Genius. Musk invented a taxi service that needs 2 cars and 2 drivers per ride.

  • skozzii@lemmy.ca
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    20 hours ago

    I can’t wait for Musks dominoes to fall. Once Tesla investors realize their investment is worthless all his other companies he has cross leveraged everything with will all list start collapsing and the whole thing comes down.

    That would be devastating to the markets, and it hasn’t even address the AI bubble which is going to pop and the biggest economic downfall and depression in American history begins.

    Tough times ahead no matter what, but the sooner Trump is gone they can start rebuilding.

    • Zron@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      The problem is that Tesla has become a self fulfilling prophecy. Not in any ability to actually make the products they advertise, but in making investors money. So many people have invested so much that the stock price now effectively describes investor’s aspirations for money, not their faith in Tesla. This has been true for some time. The value of the stock has been largely divorced from the reality of production targets, new products, or even the endless controversies.

    • sexy_peach@feddit.org
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      5 hours ago

      Once Tesla investors realize their investment is worthless

      that’s going to take a long time

  • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    This is the same CEO who has promised “full self-driving next year” every year since 2018.

    This is just plain lying by electrek…he started promising “self-driving next year” long before that.

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Tesla has achieved remote control driving. It’s the only taxi service that has 2 cars per fare.

      • ThePantser@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        So instead of just paying a human driver for a taxi they have instead decided to use 2 whole cars AND a human driver. That’s peek efficiency there.

        • frunch@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          Oh, there’s efficiency–just in the wrong place. He efficiently made a 4% bump in Tesla stock value by telling a few lies. That’s all this is, and has been: profiting on hype/fomo.

      • Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        21 hours ago

        Waymo and others used a chase car, but they were transparent about that.

        They still have some, but the ratio is now many self driving vehicles to one safety car

    • nyan@lemmy.cafe
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      24 hours ago

      Double your traffic congestion, or your money back!

      . . . or not, since I’ve never heard of Tesla voluntarily refunding anything.

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      On the earnings call yesterday, they claim (I haven’t seen proof yet) that the chase car has been removed now.

      Edit: Just updating with a quote someone transcribed. I thought it was paid rides with no chase car, but reading the actual quote, it sounds like they are claiming it is with nobody in the car and no chase car.

      “We were able to do our first rides with no safety monitor in the car in Austin — these are paid rides, so these were just randomly paid rides with no safety monitor, and [umm] maybe as of maybe yesterday or so we actually don’t even have a chase car or anything like that so these are just cars with no people in them and no one’s following the car in Austin.”

        • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          Saying there’s no chase car anymore isn’t fraud if there’s no chase car anymore. I just haven’t seen any video proof yet of new rides in the past couple days.

          Edit: Looks like it’s actually real with no chase cars. It’s been 2 rides so far. They arrived in 1 (which has no one in it) and then take a ride in another one that has no one in it and no chase car.

          https://x.com/DavidMoss/status/2016939137031381487

          • mech@feddit.org
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            21 hours ago

            They’ve said they’ve removed drivers from inside the taxis, then put them in cars trailing the taxis.
            Now they said there’s no chase car anymore, and there isn’t, because they put the drivers back in the taxi again.
            Both statements were technically correct, but purposefully misleading to bump the stock by a few billion right before earnings call.
            And at no point during all this did Tesla taxis drive autonomously.

            • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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              21 hours ago

              I think we gotta give them more than 24h after he says something is now happening to see if it is happening or not?

              It’s going to come out soon enough either way.

              edit: The call was explicit, no chase cars, no driver in the passenger seat, fully autonomous. And it’s not every car, but a small amount, which really could mean just 1.

              • mech@feddit.org
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                21 hours ago

                So far it seems to be zero, or one of the many Youtubers who’ve been hailing Tesla taxis all day long in order to be the first would have uploaded by now.

                • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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                  21 hours ago

                  Ya, I would expect a video any day now to confirm this one way or the other. This isn’t a lets wait a month and find out situation.

                • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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                  20 hours ago

                  You know what, I saw someone transcribe the quote, and I don’t think they were claiming there are passengers in the cars with no chase vehicles

                  “We were able to do our first rides with no safety monitor in the car in Austin — these are paid rides, so these were just randomly paid rides with no safety monitor, and [umm] maybe as of maybe yesterday or so we actually don’t even have a chase car or anything like that so these are just cars with no people in them and no one’s following the car in Austin.”

                  these are just cars with no people in them and no one’s following the car in Austin.

                  So ya we might not get any videos or proof of this statement which makes it useless.

          • SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca
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            22 hours ago

            Remember the Tesla Semi? They had videos transporting either empty boxes or potato chips, literally the least dense cargo possible.

            • AA5B@lemmy.world
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              20 hours ago

              If you have a concern different from the thread, please start another post.

              Yes the biggest pilot customer used it to haul lightweight snack items but als yes the claimed fully loaded to the legal limit tests

            • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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              22 hours ago

              I really don’t care about any of that, what you’re doing is called moving the goal post.

              You baselessly claimed they committed fraud on the earnings call by saying something, which we truly don’t know if they did or didn’t yet. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t, we’ll find out soon enough.

              Edit: Sorry it’s not moving the goal post, it’s a whataboutism. What about that other time.

      • aramis87@fedia.io
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        20 hours ago

        The chase car has been removed - but no one’s seen the self-driving cars either, not since the chase car was removed. It’s another intentional misdirection.

        • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          I updated my post above with the actual quote after someone transcribed it. He’s saying there’s a car driving around with nobody in it, and no chase car, so not a paid passenger ride.

          So I imagine it’s going to be really difficult to get video proof of this if its true, because someone will have to spot a random Tesla driving around without a driver and bother to record it. It’s not like an influencer is going to hail it and be able to video it.

          Not gonna lie, when I heard it, it wasn’t as clear that this was the case as when i see it written out.

    • mech@feddit.org
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      21 hours ago

      Tesla isn’t a car company, it’s a techbro company. They don’t sell cars, they sell the idea that any day now they’ll achieve a technological breakthrough.
      But it’s becoming obvious that won’t happen, so they now pivot to robots. Selling the idea that they’ll achieve a breakthrough in that space soon.
      Those buying the products aren’t the target audience, the investors are. The customers are just useful cattle.

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      Ah but now they’re going to be a robot company selling fewer and fewer robots instead.

    • 4am@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      I’m not so sure that everyone holding Tesla is going to get what they deserve anymore.

      I agree they should get it, though.

  • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Anyone else feel like Tesla is actually how Elon is being paid for being the one to make twitter fascist and the DOGE bs? Like the majority of shareholders don’t actually gaf how the company does and the billion dollar compensation package had nothing to do with Tesla other than it being the vehicle through which the payment was made?

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      My pet theory is that Musk was installed at Tesla by the Saudis (who apparently have a bit of money) to destroy the very idea of electric cars by putting out as bad and overpriced a product as possible. Despite his best efforts, people still want the goddamn things.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      I don’t see how. This is just a continuation of what he was already doing, facilitated by a board of his friends and relatives.

      Even worse I have to say I’m not totally against it. All too often ceos get excessive pay regardless of their results. While I haven’t looked in detail not at the history, the claim is these are only for Tesla meeting some extremely ambitious milestones and the payment is stock. Certainly his previous ridiculous allay was in stock and Tesla had some extraordinary growth. If the stock doesn’t go up, then he should never receive that wealth

      If it’s truly contingent on the company growth and the board doesn’t throw him a life preserver, that’s not entirely bad. Excessive yes. Extremely excessive. Excessively excessive. But more execs need to have their wealth gated on actual results

      • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        The thing that makes it more suspect IMO is that shareholders voted for it, not just the board. Courts specifically said they didn’t need to but shareholders (dominated by large account holders) still voted for it.