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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 23rd, 2023

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  • Given the recent announcements that countries like Germany have given Ukraine the ok to use their long range weapons against targets inside Russia I think it’s just a matter of time before we see this happen.

    Frankly I was wondering why the bridge wasn’t attacked very quickly after that announcement was made. But with this report of the underwater sabotage I think it now makes sense. This underwater explosion likely took a long time to plan and carry out, and Ukraine probably wanted to see the results of it before launching any long range strikes on the bridge.

    If there are other underwater explosives that have already been planted then I’d expect to see them detonated as well. After that then Ukraine might very well launch long range missiles to target the section(s) of the bridge that have now been weakened.





  • Even in a very optimistic timeline it would take years for Tesla cars to suck less. I don’t think Tesla has that kind of time any more, now that there’s growing competition from big automakers like Honda & Toyota as well as Hyundai, Volkswagen, etc. and all the other EV companies like Rivian.

    Those established automakers have a long history of innovating & listening to customers. As their expansion into the EV market grows, they’re going to put a lot of pressure on Tesla to innovate as well, and that doesn’t mean bowing to whatever whims the CEO has.




  • Tesla would be smart to split up their product line into into different corporations and block Musk from involvement.

    Their supercharger network is big enough that it could be its own company, especially now that other non-Tesla vehicles can charge at them. It’s basically the EV version of an international gas station chain at this point.

    Their Powerwall & Megapack solutions are also a separate product line that could be spun off (along with whatever solar products they have).

    When most people think of Tesla these days they mostly think of the cars, and Musks association with it has clearly caused significant harm to that product line. By rebranding the supercharger network and storage business and removing any association with Musk they at least have a chance to see those products succeed without the negative stigma he brings.

    I do think it’s too late for the Tesla EV’s though, unless the Tesla board of directors makes major leadership changes. And I don’t see that happening any time soon.









  • I’m one-and-done with my Model Y. I got it shortly after the Y was released in part because I felt it was a decent EV for the price at the time, and in part because their Supercharger network is a nice option to have (and I’ve used it a fair amount).

    Even if Musk wasn’t such a public buffoon and acted more like other auto industry CEO’s I wouldn’t buy another Tesla either. The vision-only system sucks not only in inclement weather, but bright sunny conditions as well. It’s also terrible at detecting rain for auto-wipers, oncoming cars for auto high beams, etc. The build quality of the cyber trucks is sketchy. They haven’t made any significant design changes in years, other than maybe replacing the steering wheel with a yoke (and I refuse to even ride in a car with one). They seem too proud of creating things like “fart mode” and holiday light/music shows instead of something actually useful like improved speech recognition & more robust voice commands (“tune radio to wxyz”???) and on and on…

    The way I see it, when it’s time to replace my Model Y there will be plenty of other competitive EV choices from big automakers like Honda, Toyota, etc. as well as newer ones like Rivian. And now that the Tesla charger has become an SAE standard and non-Teslas can charge at Superchargers there’s even less incentive to stick with a Tesla EV.