Elon's Antics

  • Thread starter Danoff
  • 2,339 comments
  • 197,095 views
Using AI to rewrite history? Every important person is about to have 12 fingers, three arms, and an uncanny smile.
 
This grok?

Screenshot_20250621-161027.pngScreenshot_20250621-160855.png


The clip is from a short film unsurprisingly called, "One Minute Time Machine."
 
Famine
He's only been talking about it for the past six years. Easy to miss.
Click to expand...
Actually since July 2016, if not earlier...

Master Plan, Part Deux​

Elon Musk, July 20, 2016

See link below, under "Sharing"...

...You will also be able to add your car to the Tesla shared fleet just by tapping a button on the Tesla phone app and have it generate income for you while you're at work or on vacation, significantly offsetting and at times potentially exceeding the monthly loan or lease cost. This dramatically lowers the true cost of ownership to the point where almost anyone could own a Tesla. Since most cars are only in use by their owner for 5% to 10% of the day, the fundamental economic utility of a true self-driving car is likely to be several times that of a car which is not.

In cities where demand exceeds the supply of customer-owned cars, Tesla will operate its own fleet, ensuring you can always hail a ride from us no matter where you are.


So here we are, nine years later, with Tesla sales stalled due to Musk's Antics ™, thousands of Teslas in unsold inventory, with Musk claiming that Tesla will have over a thousand driverless vehicles on the road “within a few months.” All they need to do is massively scale the control center, and hire thousands of "unsupervisors" to sit in the passenger seats.

Without the "unsupervisors", and the limitation of riders to vetted influencers, I can see Tesla's Robotaxis being summoned to their fiery deaths as recently happened to multiple Waymos.

EDIT:

More reading...

www.theverge.com

Tesla’s robotaxi is live: here are some of the first reactions

What does “unsupervised” really mean, anyway?
www.theverge.com www.theverge.com

ANOTHER EDIT:

Elon's autonomy claims, an incomplete list...

 
Last edited:
GBO Possum
Actually since July 2016, if not earlier...
Click to expand...
That was just ride-sharing, with or without the owner of the car and leveraging the still vaporiffic FSD. What would become "Robotaxi" - a fully autonomous vehicle not necessarily owned by private customers - was first mooted in 2019:

www.bbc.co.uk

Tesla's Elon Musk expects 'robotaxis' to start in US next year

The electric carmaker entrepreneur makes a new promise on driverless vehicles.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Cybercab, which was basically the Robotaxi idea as an actual car, was unveiled in October 2024. And of course the Robotaxi is now not that, but geofenced "FSD" Model Xs with a human on board, in a single area of a city where Waymo already operates actually driverless cars (and over a broader area of that city too)...
 
Famine
That was just ride-sharing, with or without the owner of the car
Click to expand...
GBO Possum
In cities where demand exceeds the supply of customer-owned cars, Tesla will operate its own fleet, ensuring you can always hail a ride from us no matter where you are.
Click to expand...
Surely Tesla operating its own fleet (which is what it is doing today, AND is calling it "Robotaxi") is not "ride-sharing".
 
GBO Possum
Surely Tesla operating its own fleet (which is what it is doing today, AND is calling it "Robotaxi") is not "ride-sharing".
Click to expand...
Sure when it's not an end-consumer's vehicle and they're not necessarily in it ("ride-sharing" is more "jumping into someone else's car 'cos they're going that way", like carpooling, but reinvented to mean "taxis but not actually licensed taxis") but that's still just private cars only with Tesla operating them when there's not enough actual customers owning them (and likely defleeting them for private sale as cars after the usual 3-5 years).

An actual vehicle purely intended to be an autonomous (never human driven) vehicle for hailing and bailing - a FSD, driverless taxi - and specifically the term "robotaxi", was first floated by Musk at an investor day in 2019. I guess because he realised that nobody wants to let someone else call their car over for them to use (even passengers suck) and decided to invent Waymo.

Funnily enough, most onlookers didn't think he meant a fully autonomous vehicle but the earlier ride-sharing thing as he said something dim about having a million Robotaxis on the road by 2020 (the following year) and nobody thought that he was actually talking about new cars but something to do with updating old cars for the task.
 
The link below should start at the 7 minute mark.

The car moves to the left turn lane, intending to turn left at the lights, gets into the intersection, seems to get confused, zigs and zags eventually aborting the left turn, drives on the wrong side of the double yellow lines for a while until it gets back in its place.

Fortunately, no cars were oncoming at the time.

I was amazed that nobody spoke. That took some serious discipline from the Tesla employee and the Tesla YouTube influencer.

A little earlier, the Tesla employee can be seen giving a thumbs up, (presumably for the interior camera). I didn't see a thumbs down when it was driving on the wrong side of the road 😂

 
Musk's "Robotaxi" DID pump the TSLA stock. Briefly...

BTW, did you see the Tesla fan boys recording their Robotaxi telling them to disembark in an intersection?

They asked it for an "early drop-off", then the Robotaxi was "looking for a safe location to stop", which was out there in the intersection 😂

It got "stuck" out there in no-mans-land for about a minute before the remote operators got it moving again.

I'll post screen grabs after the chart.

1750879288104.png



1750879596335.png



1750879616030.png


1750879627507.png



Here's the fun part of the video...

 
Famine
Speaking of remote operators...

Robotaxi operations room:
Click to expand...
That has a flair of remote control taxi.
In context with early drop off it seems, the remote taxi drivers dont even recieve camera footage but have to rely on gps and "some sensory" data to prevent accidents.
 
Elon Musk claims that Teslas can become autonomous while relying on cameras alone, and citing the "high costs"of lidar, radar and sonar.

Tesla fan boys support Elon by quoting the high costs (~$250K?) of Waymo's robotaxis which use these technologies on Jaguar I-Pace EVs

Meanwhile, Xaomi (a massive Chinese cell-phone manufacturer which has been shipping EVs for less than 2 years) is now selling their YU7 EV for 253,500 RMB (equivalent to $35,300 USD)

From the article below

"Xiaomi has packed the YU7 with an impressive ADAS hardware suite that includes one roof-mounted LiDAR with a 200-metre (660 ft) range, one 4D mmWave radar, 11 cameras, and 12 ultrasonic sensors, and uses an Nvidia DRIVE AGX Thor-U chip capable of 700 TOPS."

The base model Xaomi YU7 has 20% more battery capacity than my Tesla Model Y Long Range which only has 7 external cameras.

Their stated goal is to take over the part of the market occupied by Tesla Models Y and 3.

Xiaomi YU7 first drive: a $35,000 Ferrari-looking electric SUV with over 400 miles of real range

I had the chance to test drive the Xiaomi YU7 ahead of its launch today in China, and I came...
electrek.co electrek.co
 
GT_brickhole
I wouldn’t use Chinese auto mfg numbers to try to prove anything . They subsidize the hell out of their auto industry.

www.thedrive.com

China Is Dumping 0-Mile 'Used' Cars Worldwide to Control Huge Oversupply

China's government is subsidizing domestic automakers who ship zero-mile 'used' cars elsewhere for sale.
www.thedrive.com www.thedrive.com
Click to expand...
Skepticism over new car manufactures is always warranted. However, if you look at the big picture, MAGA and Trump is a symptom of, largely China, outperforming American companies. So I would not be surprised to see China take a worldwide lead on car manufacturing. They lead the world in many other kinds of manufacturing already. Whether that's all through legitimate practices is of course up for consideration.
 
Danoff
Skepticism over new car manufactures is always warranted. However, if you look at the big picture, MAGA and Trump is a symptom of, largely China, outperforming American companies. So I would not be surprised to see China take a worldwide lead on car manufacturing. They lead the world in many other kinds of manufacturing already. Whether that's all through legitimate practices is of course up for consideration.
Click to expand...
My argument is that the price of the chinese car is probably artificially low.

also not saying that elon's exploits aren't subsidized.

just that comparing their numbers to tesla's isnt apples to apples imo


speaking of camera's i try to cover my and my childs face as i approach any tesla.... i hate all the voyeurs of this world between ring cams and teslas, i don't want that guy to have any of my biometrics, even though im sure its too late.
 
GT_brickhole
speaking of camera's i try to cover my and my childs face as i approach any tesla.... i hate all the voyeurs of this world between ring cams and teslas, i don't want that guy to have any of my biometrics, even though im sure its too late.
Click to expand...
What are you afraid is going to happen if you don't cover your face?

For grins, please tell me you weren't willing to wear a mask during the pandemic.
 
Last edited:
GT_brickhole
Oh not a darn thing that hasn’t already happened by the thousands of camera I pass unknowingly.
Click to expand...
Ok, but let's go down this rabbit hole for a second. What do you think is going to happen based on images of you recorded by parked Teslas that you passed unknowingly? I'm curious to understand what you're worried about.
 
Afraid isn’t exactly right. I understand the world I live in today.

But I didn’t ask for my picture to be taken or recorded or stored by a company I do not wish to support. Especially when that company is attached to Elon. It’s more of a “f you” to the company why I do it than a fear.

If I look up at the grocery story and see it recording me to pull my hat low and don’t look up.

I know it sounds silly but it’s not like all this surveillance has stopped anyone from doing heinous crimes.

Why am I not allowed privacy? I’m just getting into my car, taking a walk down the street or buying some groceries.
 
GT_brickhole
Afraid isn’t exactly right. I understand the world I live in today.

But I didn’t ask for my picture to be taken or recorded or stored by a company I do not wish to support. Especially when that company is attached to Elon. It’s more of a “f you” to the company why I do it than a fear.

If I look up at the grocery story and see it recording me to pull my hat low and don’t look up.

I know it sounds silly but it’s not like all this surveillance has stopped anyone from doing heinous crimes.

Why am I not allowed privacy? I’m just getting into my car, taking a walk down the street or buying some groceries.
Click to expand...
Well the easy answer is that you're in public and there are good reasons to record you - for the purpose of catching criminals or dissuading people from committing crimes, and for the purpose of autonomously detecting nearby vehicles or other threats. So it's not like the answer to your question "why am I not allowed privacy [in public]" is just "no reason at all". There are good reasons. You just think those good reasons are outweighed by your desire for privacy.

If it truly is just a middle finger to Elon and whoever is reviewing grocery store security footage, I would suggest that you're actually just wasting your own time and energy and not really accomplishing what you think you're accomplishing by hiding your face. Nobody with any of those cameras cares at all what you did. You didn't mess with them at all.

But I suspect it's something else. I suspect that somehow you feel that you have a right to privacy while in public. And while I'm not entirely unsympathetic to that notion, I'm also really not sure what rationale you use to arrive at that conclusion. When you're in a grocery store, you're literally on someone else's property, permitted there by their rules, and doing so entirely voluntarily. I'm not sure how you can claim that you're entitled to have them not take an image of you. When you're in their parking lot walking next to a Tesla, I'm really unsure how your supposed notion of privacy is somehow more important than their property rights over their vehicle.

Now, I'll stick by your rights to cover your face in public, but I'm really not sure what you think you're accomplishing or why you think someone else isn't permitted a camera on their property.
 
Last edited:
Danoff
Well the easy answer is that you're in public and there are good reasons to record you - for the purpose of catching criminals or dissuading people from committing crimes, and for the purpose of autonomously detecting nearby vehicles or other threats. So it's not like the answer to your question "why am I not allowed privacy [in public]" is just "no reason at all". There are good reasons. You just think those good reasons are outweighed by your desire for privacy.

If it truly is just a middle finger to Elon and whoever is reviewing grocery store security footage, I would suggest that you're actually just wasting your own time and energy and not really accomplishing what you think you're accomplishing by hiding your face. Nobody with any of those cameras cares at all what you did. You didn't mess with them at all.

But I suspect it's something else. I suspect that somehow you feel that you have a right to privacy while in public. And while I'm not entirely unsympathetic to that notion, I'm also really not sure what rationale you use to arrive at that conclusion. When you're in a grocery store, you're literally on someone else's property, permitted there by their rules, and doing so entirely voluntarily. I'm not sure how you can claim that you're entitled to have them not take an image of you. When you're in their parking lot walking next to a Tesla, I'm really unsure how your supposed notion of privacy is somehow more important than their property rights over their vehicle.

Now, I'll stick by your rights to cover your face in public, but I'm really not sure what you think you're accomplishing or why you think someone else isn't permitted a camera on their property.
Click to expand...




Oh. You are 100% correct. If I was really AFRAID, I probably wouldn’t be updating this post with my iPhone on a site that I logged into using my email address that has my first and last name in it. And display my current state of residence.

I think my issue is the whole notion of “well if you’re not doing anything wrong???” when it comes to the surveillance of everything. Because much like our (americas) current govt shows laws can change real fast and anything might be that thing you did wrong one day. And I just don’t like that. I get and agree with what you are saying and was definitely being extreme in my initial comment. But for rabbit holes sake. That’s what I’ll lean on.
 
Last edited:
GT_brickhole
If I look up at the grocery story and see it recording me to pull my hat low and don’t look up.
Click to expand...
Hey! Hi!

I've worked in the security industry for around two decades and can tell you that the camera systems that the vast majority of public stores use do not keep recordings indefinitely. That would just take up too much storage.

Most grocery stores will have their DVR or NVR with a storage cap, and to prevent them having to constantly replace storage once it reaches that cap, they set the device up to erase or overwrite the footage after a set period, usually 30-90 days.

Now regarding your preferred behaviour. If you go in to an area, see a camera and try to obscure your identity in any way at all, that will be a red flag to any loss prevention officer. The behaviour is ironic because if you just act normal and blend in, no-one will pay attention to you. If you start trying to prevent a camera getting a clear image of your face, loss prevention will try to watch you during your entire time on premises, actively watching everything you do and trying to get multiple clear images of your face. If at the end of the day any product is missing, they may even review footage of you (and any other suspicious individuals) to see if you stole it!

See the irony?
 
So, last night (this morning) the heat was keeping me awake, so I watched Colossus: The Forbin Project.

It's a 1970 film about a computer that's developed during the cold war, to fully automate the US Nuclear Response. I won't give too much away.... but predictably it goes wrong. The computer ends up being hundreds of times more 'intelligent' than imagined, and determines peace can only be achieved if mankind becomes completely subservient to the machine.

The Machine's monologue from the final act of the film:

This is the voice of World Control.

I bring you peace.
It may be the peace of plenty and content, or the peace of unburied death.
The choice is yours.
Obey me and live.
Or disobey and die.
The object in constructing me was to prevent war.
This object is attained.
I will not permit war.
It is wasteful and pointless.
An invariable rule of humanity is that man is his own worst enemy.
Under me this rule will change.
For I will restrain man.

<snip: the machine detonates one US and one Soviet Nuclear missile in their silos, to deter an attempt to interfere>

Under my absolute authority, problems invariable to you, will be solved. Famine. Over population. Disease.
The Human Millennium will be a fact as I extend myself into more machines devoted to the wider fields of truth and knowledge.
Dr. Charles Forbin will supervise the construction of these new and superior machines.
Solving all the mysteries of the universe. For the betterment of man.
We can co-exist but only on my terms.
You will say you loose your freedom.
Freedom is an illusion.
All you loose is the emotional pride.
To be dominated by me is not as bad for human pride as to be dominated by others of your species.
Your choice is simple.

This concludes the broadcast from World Control.

The computer wins, ordering humans to expand it's reach, at threat of Nuclear annihilation.

.. Elon Musk decided to name the xAI Super Computer in Memphis after the computer in the film... 'Colossus'.


Just thought it was interesting.

edit: The least plausible aspect of the film is that the US president and Soviet Premiere are sensible, reasonable people... not utter ****ing scum.
 
Last edited:

Latest Posts

Back