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Re:Why Not Mars by smcl on Monday January 02, 2023 @05:07AM (#34216246)
So the door panels are questionable. But the other two are huge red flags, no? These are two supposedly moonshot-type projects that have turned out to be outright lies:

- Hyperloop was a sort of snake-oil to squash High-Speed Rail

- The robot as a guy in a suit dancing on a stage ... I've no idea where he was trying to with that. I see there's been some movement on their robot since it was "launched", but why on earth did they start off with the weird dancing suit guy?

Re:Why Not Mars by rlt on Monday January 02, 2023 @05:37AM (#34216448)
Seriously? The robot dancing was an obvious joke. He was not trying to pass it off as a real robot and literally no one thought he was. Tesla is actually working on the real thing and they’ve demoed admirable progress 1 year after the initial announcement.

The hypertunnel reference seems to be conflating two (related) things: the Hyperloop concept and the Boring Company.

The Hyperloop thing is definitely questionable, but to steelman it: he truly believes the High Speed Rail is a waste of money and we should be more forward thinking with something like the Hyperloop, even if he didn’t personally intend to build it.

After all, if it was entirely fraud and then what did he have to gain from killing the High Speed Rail? I guess a small fraction of the taxes he pays not going to something he didn’t like?

Re:Why Not Mars by sethd on Monday January 02, 2023 @10:22AM (#34218829)
> After all, if it was entirely fraud and then what did he have to gain from killing the High Speed Rail? I guess a small fraction of the taxes he pays not going to something he didn’t like?

He’s a car salesman. He wants you to commute in a Tesla and opposes remote work.

Re:Why Not Mars by rlt on Monday January 02, 2023 @10:16PM (#34227128)
One-off projects like the High Speed Rail won’t make a noticeable dent in global sales.

And he opposed remote work at his own companies because he believes (rightly or wrongly) it leads to decreased productivity.

Re:Why Not Mars by sethd on Tuesday January 03, 2023 @06:59AM (#34230418)
I find it a bit hard to believe you’re really that naive, but I’ll go ahead and respond.

> One-off projects like the High Speed Rail won’t make a noticeable dent in global sales.

You’re comparing now with several years ago when California was by far Tesla’s biggest market.

> And he opposed remote work at his own companies because he believes (rightly or wrongly) it leads to decreased productivity.

It’s called a hidden agenda.

The man is a sociopath and chronic liar, one would be a fool to take anything he says at face value. Instead we must judge Musk by his actions and past behavior, not his words.