Recent posts

#21

Off the Record / Re: Elon Musk: Always A Douche

Last post by Sheilbh - Today at 12:52:55 PM

The Baidu deal seems irrelevant. They are selling navigation and PoI data to all of Tesla's competitors too. It's just the Google Maps of China. I could not find anything deeper than that in press announcements. Baidu has deeper cooperation with e.g. Geeky, a Chinese car manufacturer.

I believe it's legally required to sell EVs in China to use a Chinese navication company. I think that's all - it was interpreted as a step to sell locally made Teslas in China.

Yeah it sort of makes sense. It also potentially gives Chinese EV manufacturers a way to start cracking the US market, using the Tesla brand.

I suspect the US won't really allow that those cars will be in the US or, as Zanza says, Mexico - there's a lot of signs of Chinese (and American) manufacturers moving some work to Mexico in order to get around increasing trade barriers.

Of course the question I'd hope the US is asking is possibly how Chinese companies or sites might be involved on the AI side of things. I think you have to assume it's real first to consider the risk rather than hand-waveyness.

#22

Off the Record / Re: Elon Musk: Always A Douche

Last post by Zanza - Today at 12:43:47 PM

The Baidu deal seems irrelevant. They are selling navigation and PoI data to all of Tesla's competitors too. It's just the Google Maps of China. I could not find anything deeper than that in press announcements. Baidu has deeper cooperation with e.g. Geely, a Chinese car manufacturer. And Baidu supposedly wants to build robo taxis itself.

#23

Off the Record / Re: Elon Musk: Always A Douche

Last post by Zanza - Today at 12:39:18 PM

Yeah it sort of makes sense. It also potentially gives Chinese EV manufacturers a way to start cracking the US market, using the Tesla brand.

They will just build plants in Mexico and start importing from there. Are brands really important in the low price volume segment?
I feel Tesla's brand appeal is being avantgarde, early adopter, tech geek etc. Selling a random Chinese car with that brand might not work well.

#24

Off the Record / Re: Elon Musk: Always A Douche

Last post by Zanza - Today at 12:35:29 PM

On AI, so far, Tesla has been more risk prone, but not significantly more successful on its advanced driving assistance systems than their competitors. Whether that risk is actually smart will eventually be settled in courts over suits on the crashes their system caused.

Maybe they can actually achieve a breakthrough in their FSD, which would be quite impressive as they have less sensor hardware than e.g. Waymo or other car manufacturers. A pure software driven feature with neglible hardware would be worth something. Not sure if it is worth Tesla's market cap though if they move out of their current business.

#25

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by Crazy_Ivan80 - Today at 12:27:22 PM

How fucking hard is it to drive some nerds off the grass?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7RNOh9Muk4&ab_channel=RealTimewithBillMaher

#26

Off the Record / Re: Elon Musk: Always A Douche

Last post by Jacob - Today at 12:18:02 PM

Yeah it sort of makes sense. It also potentially gives Chinese EV manufacturers a way to start cracking the US market, using the Tesla brand.

[how tiresome and idiotic everybody is about this conflict.]

#27

Off the Record / Re: Israel-Hamas War 2023

Last post by garbon - Today at 12:07:39 PM

Jihadi Joe Biden's

The fact that the other side calls him Genocide Joe Biden just shows how tiresome and idiotic everybody is about this conflict.

As if Joe Biden is on Hamas' side or personally shooting each dead Palestinian.

And somehow both the insane nuts on both sides have the same dumbass solution: elect Donald Trump.

I guess Otto agrees with the Hamas supporters on that at least.

Happy to disagree with both Hamas supporters and you.

I'm feeling like a crotchety old man over what students are doing in America.

#28

Off the Record / Re: 2024 US Presidential Elect...

Last post by garbon - Today at 12:06:23 PM

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/may/01/could-student-protestors-turn-the-2024-election

Could student protesters turn the 2024 election?

Tensions on university campuses, already high as a wave of pro-Palestinian encampment-style protests sweeps the US, got even higher overnight.

The protests, which have seen students pitch tents or occupy buildings at Columbia, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and others, began as an effort to get universities to ditch investments in companies which provide weapons and equipment to the Israeli military.

But they have since evolved into a full-throated critique of how the Biden administration, in protesters' eyes, has failed to rein in Israel during its war in Gaza. More than 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza , and as with other modern conflicts, much of the horror has been shared on social media.

It has made it easy for people on campuses and elsewhere to empathise with the plight of Palestinians – and to grow angry at Biden, who has remained largely supportive of Israel in the wake of the October 7 attacks and last week signed a foreign aid package which directed more than $26bn to the country.

Polling averages show Trump with a narrow lead in the seven swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – which are the key to winning the White House. Biden won Wisconsin, where demonstrations continue on campuses in Milwaukee and Madison, by just 21,000 votes in 2020, and has already survived pro-Palestinian protest votes against him in Pennsylvania and Michigan, where he won by similarly small margins.

All this means that, basically, Biden can ill afford to lose any young votes.

"The real threat to Biden is that younger voters, especially college-educated voters, won't turn out for him in the election," Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of history of education at the University of Pennsylvania, told me this week.

He added: "In states like Pennsylvania the margins are going to be so small, that it's at least possible that a couple thousand people not turning out, or voting for one of the third party candidates, could swing the election one way or the other."

Although Gaza is not necessarily a front-burner issue among all young voters (the economy remains many Americans' No 1 concern), Biden's popularity with them, well, is not what it was. In April, a Harvard poll found that 60% of 18-29-year-olds believe the country is "off on the wrong track", while only 9% believe things are "generally headed in the right direction". Neither of those numbers sound as if young people are about to sprint down to the polls to cast their vote for Biden.

But the problem goes further than just Biden losing votes among young people. Rightwing media and the GOP have pounced on the issue, claiming that the "out of control" protests are representative of Biden's presidency.

It makes life difficult for Biden. If he sides with the students, Republicans will continue to paint the president as someone unable to reign in chaos. If Biden is too critical of protesters, he risks alienating young people – who he needs in November.

If so, they deserve all the terrible things that will befall them under Trump.

#29

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by grumbler - Today at 11:37:05 AM

It is known that sarcasm has not yet reached America.

Indeed, the language does not even have a word for sarcasm.

#30

Off the Record / Re: The AI dooooooom thread

Last post by Tamas - Today at 11:33:57 AM

It does not think, and it does not understand. 

This should be an important message about these "AIs" but there are too many people benefiting from the doom and gloom hype machine.