i was just at the fete des lumieres in lyon and instead of information booths they had people stand totally still on segways with big signs that said INFORMATION attached to their heads.
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 18:45 (five years ago) link
Lyon? You mean The Future!
I remember the build up to the Segway (aka, It, iirc). Then it's revealed as something that will revolutionize travel from the guy who made a wheelchair that can climb stairs, which is super awesome. And then the Segway comes out, and it's about as awesome as those monkey shoes that show the shape of your toes.
Elon Musk, 99% of what I heard about him is that he wants to build all these hypothetical super-fast hyperloop tunnels or some bullshit. Tunnels to baseball stadiums, to space, to Chicago, to stranded Thai boy scouts. But all he's done is made luxury electric cars, which are like so fucking what? As soon as other car companies start mass-producing much more affordable and equally reliable and efficient electric cars, even more than they are now, in a couple of years, Teslas will be about as radical as Bentleys or some other luxury brand.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 18:46 (five years ago) link
As soon as other car companies start mass-producing much more affordable and equally reliable and efficient electric cars, even more than they are now, in a couple of years, Teslas will be about as radical as Bentleys or some other luxury brand.
this is otm, they are gonna be outpaced by conventional auto companies *very* quickly
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 18:47 (five years ago) link
its already happened tbh, tesla still has a glow for some ppl which is funny since theyre pretty shitty cars, making cars is very hard
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 18:51 (five years ago) link
Yeah and the incumbent automakers also know how to acquire startups just the same as any other enterprise
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 18:52 (five years ago) link
prob tesla will just end up acquired by one of the big boys after losing 90% of its value and then disappear totally after some corporate restructuring down the line
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 18:54 (five years ago) link
Yup
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 19:03 (five years ago) link
I can see a few of Tesla's ideas being legit gamechangers but trying to buck 100 years of auto manufacturing practices in the name of "disruption" is so incredibly stupid that only a galaxy brain like Elon Musk could've come up with it
plus they definitely seem to be committing some sort of obvious accounting fraud. their "profitable" Q3 made no sense whatsoever.
― frogbs, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 19:17 (five years ago) link
yeah theres no way they havent done a ton of illegal shit in a number of areas
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 19:18 (five years ago) link
Elon Musk, 99% of what I heard about him is that he wants to build all these hypothetical super-fast hyperloop tunnels or some bullshit. Tunnels to baseball stadiums, to space, to Chicago, to stranded Thai boy scouts. But all he's done is made luxury electric cars, which are like so fucking what? As soon as other car companies start mass-producing much more affordable and equally reliable and efficient electric cars, even more than they are now, in a couple of years, Teslas will be about as radical as Bentleys or some other luxury brand.― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, December 11, 2018 10:46 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, December 11, 2018 10:46 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this sometimes good thread will forever be sunk by self-owning posts such as this one
― Sufjan Grafton, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 19:48 (five years ago) link
afaict all the EV nerds who are not musk fans by the jaguar now?
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 20:11 (five years ago) link
like he doesn't even have the luxury market
also looking forward to alleged public "rides" on the hawthorne test boring co thing next week.
Trying to figure out how I self owned. Is it because what I reduced his accomplishments to (spurring others to make electric cars?) can be construed a big deal? Like he's some electric car martyr who paved (har) the way for others?
Anyway, let me know when I can take a Tesla train cross country in an hour or whatever and, if any of us are alive then, I'll concede his genius.
I did hear someone talking on NPR this morning about how limited discussion of self-driving vehicles has been (to sort of change the subject). The most novel idea he offered was a self-driving ambulance with a host of automated diagnostic tools that you could call to your house in an emergency. Stuff like that. But nothing about tunnels, so I assume it was not Musk talking.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 21:36 (five years ago) link
you have taken a very "skeptical asshole" posture toward something and then you offered "99% of what (you) heard about" it in a paragraph that was part joking sure but also, I have to assume, a good summary of what you actually know about it.
― Sufjan Grafton, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 22:14 (five years ago) link
all he's done is made luxury electric cars, which are like so fucking what?
SpaceX seems like an interesting company with several very impressive engineering feats to its credit. tbh, I doubt that Elon Musk has had much, if any, direct input on how these were achieved. At most he sets lofty objectives and his employees do the real work.
― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 22:25 (five years ago) link
they mostly buy scrapped Russian rockets iirc
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 22:25 (five years ago) link
I'll take Virgin Galactic over SpaceX tbh if only because Branson seems like slightly less of an asshole
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 22:32 (five years ago) link
lol no
― Pierrot with a thousand farces (wins), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 22:34 (five years ago) link
um
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 22:54 (five years ago) link
guys they can both just be assholes ok its not an unpopularity contest
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 22:58 (five years ago) link
so true
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 22:59 (five years ago) link
I bring up Branson in part to demonstrate that Musk didn't have any uniquely genius ideas, he had p much the same ideas other billionaires had
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:00 (five years ago) link
also VIRGIN GALACTIC just sounds cooler than SpaceX come on
(cues up XTC's "Another Satellite")
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:01 (five years ago) link
maybe if your a galactic virgin lol faced
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:01 (five years ago) link
heh
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:02 (five years ago) link
damn
― macropuente (map), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:03 (five years ago) link
coincidentally ive been antagonized by horrible nerds on twitter for the last couple days cause i said going to space is dumb and childish
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:04 (five years ago) link
Hah
― Pierrot with a thousand farces (wins), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:04 (five years ago) link
It is thoMusk yet to do anything as evil as suing the nhs iirc
― Pierrot with a thousand farces (wins), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:05 (five years ago) link
attempting to undermine public transpo projects in the pursuit of selling lousy cars is pretty bad
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:06 (five years ago) link
That it is
― Pierrot with a thousand farces (wins), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:08 (five years ago) link
full disclosure: I didn't know about the NHS thing
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:11 (five years ago) link
wait is Musk Sir Miles Axlerod or The Underminer. pick a movie.
― Sufjan Grafton, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:12 (five years ago) link
wtf r u talking about
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:14 (five years ago) link
attempting to undermine public transpo projects in the pursuit of selling lousy cars is pretty bad― lag∞n, Wednesday, 12 December 2018 10:06 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― lag∞n, Wednesday, 12 December 2018 10:06 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
But in the best traditions of the auto Indy which is about the only thing he hasn’t learnt from carmakers.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:19 (five years ago) link
I guess my point, as such, was that the only thing he's really *achieved* has been his line of fancy cars. Everything else has been sort of a pipe dream work in progress that seems more talk than payoff, as of yet. That is to say, I understand that Space x is a thing, but I don't understand what that thing is. To privatize space travel?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:26 (five years ago) link
mostly
(I'm in favor of space travel+research fwiw)
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:27 (five years ago) link
lol you guys are such haters.
― DJI, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:27 (five years ago) link
Space x’s number one thing is to earn money by putting things into orbit.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:28 (five years ago) link
If he wants to build rockets, that's cool, but it really does seem most directly a guy with money does things for other people with money project, unless one factors in the abstract potential benefits of future space travel. I agree that space travel and research is mostly a good thing, but I'm not sure how good it is in the hands of a select few with the money to do it. For example, who owns the fruit of research financed by Space X?
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:30 (five years ago) link
Which is to say, at the rate we're going Elon Musk will mostly be known as the guy that owns the moon.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:32 (five years ago) link
afaik they aren't financing any research, so not to worry!
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:32 (five years ago) link
space travel and research is childish and dumb actually
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:32 (five years ago) link
no more so than sports
― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:33 (five years ago) link
you use the garbage we throw into orbit every day. spacex puts more garbage that you use into orbit more cheaply than everyone else by reusing the rockets, which they manage to land back on earth after launch.
― Sufjan Grafton, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:34 (five years ago) link
sports is way better than space travel
― lag∞n, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:34 (five years ago) link
spacex might still be a shit business model. new forbes article about that today. nba is a good business model. not paying college players probably the best business model.
― Sufjan Grafton, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:35 (five years ago) link
them's fightin words
also stupid words
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 11 December 2018 23:36 (five years ago) link