Comment by danans

Comment by danans 2 days ago

6 replies

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> But Elon has killed his brand with his politics, and the robotaxi initiative is a desperate attempt to gain ground. But it's going to kill someone and it will be 100% on him because he's the one pushing this when there's no way it will ever be ready for real world situations the way Waymo is.

What if his political allies allow and enable him to push this upon the populace despite it killing people.

After all, other industries have been allowed to kill plenty of people if it makes money and lines the pockets of friendly politicians of all stripes.

Maybe nobody is forcing you to get in a robotaxi, but behavior normalization based on availability is a powerful force.

blindriver 2 days ago

You mean his political allies that he accused of pedophilia?

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  • danans 2 days ago

    I don't think that he's accused Texas' governor of that, and that might be the more important relationship in that state. After all, consider how much California helped Tesla early on.

    Also, if you think that accusation you mentioned is going matter in the long run, it is possible you are holding them to a higher standard than they hold themselves to.

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rsynnott a day ago

> What if his political allies

Does he have any of those left? Like, he just had a very public spat with Trump, and despite his attempts to crawl back, Donald doesn't really seem to be taking the bait. Who is his political constituency at this point, far right never-Trumpers? That seems fairly marginal.

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sundaeofshock 2 days ago

It’s not the people in Robotaxis that are the issue; it’s everyone around the damn things that are the big liability.

Regulatory protection will not help Tesla the first time it runs over a random pedestrian. It will be a PR nightmare.

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