Re:Tesla Wants Out of the Car Business
by Supermancho on Monday September 08, 2025 @10:49AM
(#45169038)
I'm not saying your gut feeling is incorrect, but these arguments aren't compelling.
> Have you ever considered many people actually enjoy driving a car?
This has nothing to do with industry. Calculators were actually a PAID position and they went away, regardless of the number of people that enjoy mathalons.
> Regulation cannot simply be imposed on people against their will.
This is incorrect, historically and practically.
Roads and highways, in an economic metaphor, are rivers of money. They provide capital velocity as well as smoothing labor and consumer availability.
Due to the economy of scale, mass transportation and self locomotion is the only practical transport for people, at a large enough scale. GOODS, on the other hand, require a powered engine to move in and out. Those stacks of soda can't be transported by subway. The sodas produce trash, that also can't travel by subway. Roads themselves and trucking, in general, have kept personal vehicles in service. Cars still exist in London and New York, over a century later for this very reason.
Motorized bikes dominate many cities in Asia. I can see that becoming a preferred mode in western cities, over time, then personal driving becoming regulated out of existence (ie huge fees to run a personal vehicle a hyper-urban area). Maybe, just maybe, grassroots political will could have pushed cars off the road (so to speak) when the climate crisis was a meager priority, but I have lost faith in that avenue.
> Have you ever considered many people actually enjoy driving a car?
This has nothing to do with industry. Calculators were actually a PAID position and they went away, regardless of the number of people that enjoy mathalons.
> Regulation cannot simply be imposed on people against their will.
This is incorrect, historically and practically.
Roads and highways, in an economic metaphor, are rivers of money. They provide capital velocity as well as smoothing labor and consumer availability.
Due to the economy of scale, mass transportation and self locomotion is the only practical transport for people, at a large enough scale. GOODS, on the other hand, require a powered engine to move in and out. Those stacks of soda can't be transported by subway. The sodas produce trash, that also can't travel by subway. Roads themselves and trucking, in general, have kept personal vehicles in service. Cars still exist in London and New York, over a century later for this very reason.
Motorized bikes dominate many cities in Asia. I can see that becoming a preferred mode in western cities, over time, then personal driving becoming regulated out of existence (ie huge fees to run a personal vehicle a hyper-urban area). Maybe, just maybe, grassroots political will could have pushed cars off the road (so to speak) when the climate crisis was a meager priority, but I have lost faith in that avenue.