99% of the time buses in Seoul are pretty tame. Line 1 of the subway gets a bit weird and has its charms but still doesn’t compare to most western countries. Unfortunately this bus leaves an area I’m in late at night but doesn’t cut through my neighborhood but maybe I’ll check it out anyways.
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Take a camera…and a taser.
So this actually happened.
Dude bumped the CyberTruck with his forearm and it tore through his clothing enough to break skin. The EU has already raised concerns about this vehicle’s legality due to it being a knife on wheels.
The anti-CyberTruck. If they built an electric Morgan…
ETA: the presenter’s overarching point at the end - that EVs should be getting smaller and lighter, not bigger and heavier - is spot on. While all these crossover EVs are fine, they are missing this point entirely. Heavy EVs need more battery to move them, which makes them heavier, which means more battery is required to move them; ad infinitum.
Less weight, means less battery, which means lower prices and faster charging. 
Hopefully this is the beginning of the unraveling of Musk’s empire with strategically important government projects.
WASHINGTON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday reaffirmed its 2022 decision to deny SpaceX satellite internet unit Starlink $885.5 million in rural broadband subsidies.
The FCC said the decision impacting Elon Musk’s space company was based on Starlink’s failure to meet basic program requirements and that Starlink could not demonstrate it could deliver promised service after SpaceX had challeged the 2022 decision.
Over-promising and under-delivering. Totally on brand.
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You left off “and all EBITDA directly from the taxpayers.”
Didn’t know where to put this (and didn’t feel it merited its own thread), so I’ll put this here:
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg breathlessly announces $8.2 billion for passenger rail projects around the country.
Anything is better than nothing, but this amount is the equivalent of pissing in the wind. Passenger rail is expensive to build, and the cost goes up as the speed goes up. The convenience and efficiency (and climate benefits) it delivers are incredible, but we are so far behind the curve that we need an “Apollo” project to connect US cities by fast, clean and reliable high-speed rail.
And because I’m feeling nice, I’ll save some of you some time by pre-butting one of the classic knocks on this type of infrastructure investment: high-speed rail shouldn’t be expected to have a positive ROI in and of itself, the same way that freeways aren’t expected to. That’s why it’s called “infrastructure”.
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Listen to Simon Whistler on the subject. He’s British…
The NHTSA is finally doing something about Musk using American streets as a proving ground for his self-driving experiments.
This “recall” though, appears to be a software update that will make the warnings about not paying attention while the autopilot is engaged a little more intrusive. That’s it.
Here’s the part of John Oliver’s excellent exposé of Musk from last Sunday that talks about FSD:
Musk is not having a good week.
https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-musk-steering-suspension/
Wheels falling off cars at speed. Suspensions collapsing on brand-new vehicles. Axles breaking under acceleration. Tens of thousands of customers told Tesla about a host of part failures on low-mileage cars. The automaker sought to blame drivers for vehicle ‘abuse,’ but Tesla documents show it had tracked the chronic ‘flaws’ and ‘failures’ for years.
Part Deux
They can make batteries at a pace to support only a tenth of the target production for the CyberTruck.
Part Trois
Because they are now making the cheapest versions of the Model 3 and Model Y entirely in China, those models no longer qualify for any part of the $7500 tax credit. Tesla’s pricing structure has been a rolling disaster for over a year now - fucking up the resale values in the process - and now the mid-range models could be priced the same or cheaper than the base models after tax.
Part Quatre
EV sales in California - by far the biggest state for EV adoption - have exploded in 2023. But they’re not buying Teslas. They’re buying everything but Teslas, which have seen a 20% drop in sales.
I don’t think they need to worry about meeting their production goals. I can’t imagine there are that many more than 25,000, if that many, people wanting that monstrosity. Cleanly Musk doesn’t understand what pickup truck drivers want.
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Agreed. At $40k, the truck would be one of the cheapest vehicles on its roster. But it’s not $40k, the base model is $75k (allegedly) but won’t be starting production until 2025. Right now, it’s the $100k craziness or nothing.
Pre-orders required a de minimis downpayment, so I’m sure that many will cancel their orders once they come due.
Cybertruck is not for pickup truck drivers. It is for influencers and fanboys.
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*weirdos
Sounds like an Apple Watch.
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The Apple Watch has broad appeal. It’s the most popular watch on the planet. Not the most popular smart watch, the most popular watch.
But it’s not for “watch people”. Budweiser may be the most popular beer on the planet, but that doesn’t mean it’s for beer connoisseurs.
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