• bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    I would absolutely call Tesla a battery company. Would you not? They’ve invested a huge amount in battery R&D and sell them direct to consumers as well as use them in their cars. The rest of that stuff isn’t something they invested heavily in developing, ie. they didn’t invest R&D in developing new logistics technology for shipping cars.

    • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Any company that invests money into something is suddenly also part of that entire industry and they can label themselves whatever they please. Gotcha.

      The supermarket I used to work for is now a software company, as they build software in house

      The insurance company I used to work for is now an AI company, as we internally developed and used machine learning models.

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        The supermarket I used to work for is now a software company, as they build software in house

        What % of that supermarket’s operating expenses is software development? How big is their technology division compared to the full scale of the company? Do they invest R&D in developing novel technologies?

        There are articles every day on Lemmy about how cars are becoming as high tech as smartphones. Is it so wrong to suggest that car companies are becoming a subset of tech companies?

        • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Car companies becoming a subset of tech companies

          A subset of

          There we go! A huge comment chain later and it seems you are starting to get it. A subset of an automotive company is becoming more like a technology company.

          Its still an automotive company.

          • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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            4 months ago

            Again, I personally don’t view these things as mutually exclusive. It’s a tech company and a car company. What’s so crazy about that? Apple is a phone manufacturing company and a software company. Amazon is a cloud provider, a video streaming company, a shipping and logistics company, and an online storefront. Companies can be more than one thing.

            Also “subset” means a member of. If X is a subset of Y, then X is a member of Y. It would not be incorrect to say, “the list of Y includes X”

            • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              I just give up. Believe what you want, and continue to be confused when no one else understands or agrees.