• Lembot_0002@lemm.ee
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    3 days ago

    Musk. He looked like an eccentric rich guy who had a cool dream for a change when he started funding SpaceX. That was a rather long time ago, though…

    • flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz
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      3 days ago

      Wasn’t really a fan as such, but I also though as far as billionaires go he’s at least useful to humanity.
      He should have kept to what he was good at - marketing big ideas. Unfortunately narcissists don’t work that way.

      • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        as far as billionaires go he’s at least useful to humanity.

        There’s a good argument that this is still true (PS: in historical terms) despite everything. Without China the green-tech revolution would be decades behind schedule, and it took Tesla to make China move.

        • PonyOfWar@pawb.social
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          3 days ago

          it took Tesla to make China move.

          Maybe so, but I’m not sure whether Tesla really needed Elon Musk.

          • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Really? So where are all its peer competitors? This person has obviously gone off the rails but was once extremely good at making seemingly impossible things happen.

            • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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              2 days ago

              Yeah, all those losers born in Soweto in 1971 who haven’t used their enormous wealth to fund a bunch of different business ventures. What are they even doing?

            • PonyOfWar@pawb.social
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              3 days ago

              The charismatic guy at the top may always get all the credit, but hundreds of other people played a role in Tesla’s success. He wasn’t even a founder of the company. All we can really say is that he bought in at the right time, but we don’t know how much of Tesla’s success was down to his personal decisions. If anything, it seems like Tesla’s decline really started when Musk started using the company more and more for his personal pet projects (Cybertruck, Teslabots etc) rather than the cars that people actually want.

            • Opinionhaver@feddit.uk
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              3 days ago

              was once extremely good at making seemingly impossible things happen.

              Seeing them land the Starship booster on the chopsticks - I’d say that he still is.

        • remon@ani.social
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          3 days ago

          and it took Tesla to make China move.

          Tesla maybe helped boosting Chinas EV industry … but very little for green-tech in general. And EVs are not a particular revolutionary technology in the first place.

          So no, I don’t think he did much for humanity here.

          • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            And EVs are not a particular green or revolutionary technology in the first place.

            I think most agree that, at least, EVs are needed to evolve away from the CO2 generated from petroleum consumption used in cars and trucks. Yes yes, “public transportation better for moving people” but that doesn’t work for all countries especially those with lower density population areas. Further “public transporation” does nothing for the “last mile” delivery of goods with regard to logistics.

            In almost every situation an EV is better than an ICE vehicle in respect to being “green” and vehicles are what our current systems are designed around.

            • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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              2 days ago

              No, I really don’t agree. Like, at all. The problem is largely that geometry of vehicles creates those highly-destructive, resource-intensive, low-density population areas, and that’s the problem that we need to address. In that respect, EVs are just like any other vehicle. Same streets, same highways, same parking lots, same garages, same bi-weekly grocery runs to the store 5 miles away. We can start to address those problems (zoning, building codes, environmental regulations, land-use, tax structures, and such) now, and it won’t be any easier after 20 years of further automobile-oriented development while we transition the fleet to EVs. It’ll just be 20 years more entrenched. Yeah, EVs help somewhat, but the way we’re approaching them now, they’re like treating 10% of your cancer.

              (I take that back if the EVs we’re talking about here are e-bikes and micromobility devices.)

              • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                You’re talking about trying to fix a multi-generational problem. In many places the things you’re asking to change have been in place for hundreds years. The politics and land ownership laws and implications are immense! That is NOT a fast problem to fix. If you’re taking EVs off the table, then that means you’re committing to 30-50 years of ICE vehicles pumping out CO2 all of that time.

                How can you consider non-EVs a greener solution in your scenario?

                (I take that back if the EVs we’re talking about here are e-bikes and micromobility devices.)

                Its simply not possible to deliver 2000kg or 2000lbs of cargo to a business for last mile delivery in a timely fashion without a much larger vehicle than an e-bike. Why on Earth would you want a belching diesel vehicle doing that for decades on end when an EV could it with zero CO2 emissions?

                • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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                  2 days ago

                  It’s a multi-generational problem, so we should start fixing it now. Why is it going to be easier to solve 30-50 years from now? Why should we wait until we’ve transitioned to EVs to start the process? What is it about EVs is going to make that easier?

                  • partial_accumen@lemmy.world
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                    2 days ago

                    It’s a multi-generational problem, so we should start fixing it now.

                    First, sure we can try, but we don’t live in a monolithic place. We have to convince others and come up with plans on how to do it. That’s going to take time. We can start, but ending is a long long way from now.

                    What is it about EVs is going to make that easier?

                    I’ve already said it many times, EVs don’t put out CO2 while we’re working on transitioning.

                    Further, we still have no answer for last mile non-EV green delivery . I notice you ignored that last point.

          • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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            3 days ago

            in fact EVS uses rare earth metals which are not mined in a ecofriendly way. the best way is to ride buses and fund mass transportation.

        • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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          3 days ago

          I agree that Ellen was significant in the race to EVs, but that is definitely in the past. As far as present tense goes, nah.

          The tenses are a bit murky “I used to think ‘he’s useful…’” “this still true…” could kinda go either way, but it sounds like you’re saying it applies today, and nah.

          • JubilantJaguar@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Just read what I write, rather than what you think I might be trying to say.

            I can’t find it now but there was an analysis a few days ago by a reputable source, maybe in The Atlantic, which said basically what I just said. It’s not scandalous. The guy has an impressive record as a business leader. Perhaps not as a product specialist, or even an engineer, but as force for making things happen at the company level.

            Anyway, apparently there’s not much willingness to engage in nuanced debate here so that’s all I have to say.

      • slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org
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        3 days ago

        I’ll never forget the chill that ran down my spine when that thing with these cave kids happend in Thailand, and some random guy tweeted him: pleas mr. Musk, you are the closest thing we have to tony stark, help them. I felt genuinely disgusted.

        • JGrffn@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          Musk losing it and calling that other dude a pedo during this event is what got me to start hopping off the musk train, so I kinda feel thankful for it?

          • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Watching the SpaceX engineers transform those pods overnight really highlighted the fact that all he does is talk until other, more capable people actually make it happen. They probably could have been quite helpful had he not got in the way with his tantrums.

              • KneeTitts@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                they are not designed to be in caves

                are they design for cardboard box in the middle of a lake?

              • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                You’d think so right? I’m a certified diver and love swimming around the bottom of the ocean but caves and climbing inside shipwrecks is a hard pass. Just going through a lava tube and scraping my tank on the rock gives me the heebie jeebies

                  • FordBeeblebrox@lemmy.world
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                    2 days ago

                    There’s a million specialties you can be certified in SCUBA, as part of cave diving they literally teach you how to take off your BCD/tank and push it ahead of you if the space is too tight for you and your gear. NOPE

            • slaneesh_is_right@lemmy.org
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              2 days ago

              At teh end it really wasn’t helpful at all and the diver who saved them explained why. That led to his tantrum. I appreciate they tried, but at the end they werre just victims of a marketing stunt.

      • Ledericas@lemm.ee
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        3 days ago

        he always seem wierd to me wasnt a good first impression, he made news, i assume many people found out who he was when announcing the sub/calling the thai seals pedos.

        • BarneyPiccolo@lemmings.world
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          2 days ago

          Yeah, that thing with the Thai soccer team really opened my eyes. Later, I saw a documentary on the situation, and there was no way that his submarine idea could have worked, it simply would not have fit.

          But rather than accept that those on the scene were more knowledgeable about the situation, he immediately jumped to calling the rescuers pedos, as if the only reason they wanted to rescue them was because they were young boys, and wanted to molest them. What an unhinged take, proving that he was more interested in playing the hero and feeding his ego, than actually rescuing anyone. He saw an opportunity for global promotion, and was pissed when it was denied to him.

          It showed me a side that we hadn’t seen before, but turned out to be his real personality.

          • JacksonLamb@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            What an unhinged take, proving that he was more interested in playing the hero and feeding his ego, than actually rescuing anyone.

            Worse, it showed he couldn’t get his head around anyone else genuinely wanting to save children from dying. That was mask-off for his sociopathy.