free_bip
8 hours ago
When the CEO of the company starts ranting and raving about "sentient cars", it's time to look somewhere else for your purchase.
libertine
3 hours ago
When the CEO is actively engaged in:
- far right politics;
- helping Russia killing Ukrainian civilians;
- and threatening the livelihood of Europeans;
These might also help people decide to look somewhere else.
chii
2 hours ago
None of these would be consideration if the car itself was competitive. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on which side you're on), tesla is now no longer competitive with the advent of the chinese EV manufacturers.
The last holdout being the USA, where the gov't is preferentially giving tesla their marketshare instead of letting open competition work in favour of consumers.
But like japanese cars, this will eventually also take root.
locknitpicker
7 hours ago
> When the CEO of the company starts ranting and raving about "sentient cars", it's time to look somewhere else for your purchase.
Rigging a car to do a flip is a clear way to tell the world they officially ran out of ideas and are desperate to get a sale.
esperent
6 hours ago
It's only desperation if it doesn't work, and from the amount of media coverage I've seen over the past week I'd say it's working pretty well.
It's like everyone has completely forgotten Musk was up on stage with the US president doing nazi salutes just a couple of years as ago.
crote
3 hours ago
Just because he's getting coverage doesn't mean he is getting good coverage. Like you already mention: standing on stage next to the US president would normally be amazing - except when it is a president reviled by your primary customer base and you do a nazi salute.
The same applies with the "sex sells" epidemic of the early 2000s: sure, the numbers showed that it was a great way to make people remember your ad, but they forgot to take into account that people remember the boobs and completely miss the brand.
I remember seeing snippets of the "flying car" going around on social media, so it clearly made an impression on me. I think it was supposed to be a Roadster relaunch? Release date? No idea. Price? No idea. Range? No idea. Number of seats? No idea. Cargo capacity? No idea. I bet it won't actually ship with those "rockets", though. Sooo, "clown makes car mockup fly"?
If you're going to do a stunt, at least do it properly. Like Volvo suspending an entire dump truck from a crane[0].
impendia
41 minutes ago
Musk has given something like $300M in political donations to support Republicans in the upcoming midterms -- and I've seen quite a lot of media coverage of this.
Much of this money is going to Texas, and James Talarico (the Democratic candidate there) has not been shy about accusing Musk of trying to buy the election.
Sure, flying cars are cool. But I don't get the impression that Musk's politics have been forgotten at all.
ZeroGravitas
3 hours ago
Yeah but at least he distanced himself from him by tweeting out that he knew he was a pedo all along.
A real burn-your-boats moment so there's no chance of them working together again after that.
agos
4 hours ago
The only way to be more explicit and literal about it would have been to make the car jump a shark instead of trucks
pvaldes
3 hours ago
Cars are sentient since long time ago.
The problem is that people keep lying to themselves about the definition of the word sentient.
1) Cars use all kind of sensors to collect info about the real world.
They measure how much air is entering the motor in real time. They know if the rear left tire is deflated. They detect when they need to be feed with gas, they know the oil pressure and the ECU, the car's brain, is collecting all this info in real time via its "neurons", the BUS cable.
2) Cars react to this information constantly taking the measures appropriated to assure that the preservation of the car functions.
The ECU sends orders in real time to inject X gas into the motor to match Y liters of air in a perfect mix. The motor enters in panic mode and stops the power temporarily.
3) Cars communicate with their drivers
They send a warning to put more gas, or beep because they detected an obstacle behind them or that the seat belt is not being used.
Cars have lots of sophisticated electric sensors to sense the world so, like amoebas or plum trees, they fit perfectly into the definition of the word sentient
Using sentient as a cheaper synonym of self-conscious is moving the goalposts and a self-scam.
roryirvine
2 hours ago
In discussing the boundaries of animal sentience, the most important question is whether they can feel pain or distress.
So whilst a car's ability to sense and react to its environment may be at least as sophisticated as that of a plum tree, it's hard to see how it would meet the legal threshold for sentience in the same way that, say, a lobster does.
More to the point - if Musk genuinely believes that his cars are capable of suffering, why isn't he doing anything to prevent them from being harmed?
pvaldes
9 minutes ago
> the most important question is whether they can feel pain or distress.
Most important question for a small group of people in a philosophical and quasi-religious movement that unilaterally redefined the term to fit their agenda.
Millions of scientists don't feel that pain is so special as to receive special treatment. Is just one of our type of sensors. Not more important than to be able to see, to taste or to hear. Definitely not more important than be able to reproduce. And there is a lot of pain involved in how mammals enter in the world.
The idea that to chop a tree is more moral than to kill a mosquito is totally random and alienated from biological reality.