• fox2263@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Thankfully nothing is ever really removed from the internet.

    Such as this picture

  • PotatoesFall@discuss.tchncs.de
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    4 months ago

    He only wrote that to improve image and sales. He still knows it’s the right thing, but he never cared about that.

    Remember when Elon started leaning into being an internet sensation and memelord? I think that’s when his campaign for more power started. Economic power is no longer enough.

    His interview with Trump shows nothing less than Elon trying to get himself in good standing with the MAGA crowd. I guess he decided that conservative and reactionary politics are best for amassing power.

    Wouldn’t surprise me if Elon runs for president or some other influential position once Trump is gone. He clearly wants to be perceived as a younger, smarter, more moderate Trump.

    • CitizenKong@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Thankfully, he can’t run for president. And he’s doing the exact same thing as Trump who even said publicly that he would become a Republican because they are easier to grift.

      • ryrybang@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        The U.S. Constitution uses but does not define the phrase “natural born Citizen” and various opinions have been offered over time regarding its exact meaning.

        Don’t be too sure. This particular SC might allow Elon to run because…reasons. And by reasons, I mean free chartered flights anywhere in the world, brand new RVs, and paying rent for justices’ mamas.

      • prole
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        4 months ago

        Thankfully, he can’t run for president

        Oh my God, thank Christ.

    • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      Almost all “altruism” and “philanthropy” is just whitewashing/ego stroking some Capitalist’s ill-begotten gains.

    • KyuubiNoKitsune
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      4 months ago

      Yep. He has an interview in a movie called Racing Extinction, and it was watching that that made me realise he only cares about money, he didn’t do it to improve anything.

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      4 months ago

      He only wrote that to improve image and sales.

      Along this line of thought, what are the chances he’s being (more of) a right-wing chud in order to sell more of his stupid pickup truck?

      • Cosmicomical@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Low. He’s a right wing chicken because of the tax cuts and all the other benefits the rich get from that party

    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      I’d love that, but the way our stupid society works I think it’s literally impossible to lose that much wealth

    • quant@leminal.space
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      4 months ago

      He’ll become the Edison from our era, and I’m just want to stop hearing his name.

  • madjo@feddit.nl
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    4 months ago

    It’s probably too “woke” for Musk’s new fanbase and he doesn’t wanna look like he got hit by the “Woke Mind Virus”.

    Btw, I love the guys over at Edison Motors, who got fed up waiting for an all electric hauling truck, so they’re retrofitting their own, under the slogan “Stealing Tesla’s Ideas”.

      • Wogi@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Here’s a fun fact

        Thomas Edison was one of the first people to speak out against putting radium in fucking everything. When everyone was going absolutely nuts for radiation, Edison refused to join the craze and wouldn’t work with radium or polonium after watching an assistant develop a skin condition after working with X-rays.

  • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I noticed something stupid while on the interstate yesterday and passing or passed by multiple Teslas: they don’t tell you which model they are on the back. If you see a Tesla you like and want to know which Tesla it is, I guess you’ll have to figure that out for yourself.

    • ramble81@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      They only have 4 models (not counting the cyber dump truck) that are pretty easy to tell apart. Small sedan or big sedan, small SUV or big SUV. Then basically do they have a dual motor badge and is that badge underlined (or does it have a plaid logo on the back). There you go. Almost literally all the permutations of Teslas.

        • ramble81@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Do they need to market anymore than their name though? Marketing is getting you interested in the product. You say “oh that’s a nice Tesla” you go to the site and look from there most likely based on your budget.

          (I am by no means a Tesla fan, frankly their build quality sucks) but I really don’t think that you need badges of every type plastered on a car.

          • catloaf@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            Nope. Tesla is distinct enough that they don’t need model badges. You know it’s a Tesla, and they have very few models and model variations. Compare that to something like Toyota, who has 12 different models of sedan just in current production. There are quite a few more not in current production, but you’ll still see them on the road.

        • ggtdbz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          My understanding is that this is a deliberate choice, at least for Mercedes and BMW having their models be letters and numbers instead of memorable names. The idea is that all models seem closer together, kind of elevating them all.

          Compared to when you look at an Accord and think this is the nice Honda, unlike the other not nice Honda. The implication is that all of the Mercedes ones should be nice.

          But what do I fucking know. I like quirky weird cars, I like shitboxes, I’m one of those simultaneous fuckcars car guys (I hope I don’t need to explain how I can be in both camps at once?). I’m not the person any of these companies are marketing for.

          • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Right, but they at least have those letters and numbers of the back of their car.

            Unless you know which Tesla is the model 3, you won’t know which model it is when you pass it or is passes you. You’ll just know it was a Tesla. The back of a BMW i3 has a big “i3” on it.

    • Localhorst86@feddit.org
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      4 months ago

      My car doesn’t have the model or engine size written on the back either, this is not exclusive to Tesla (although, depending on the make it might be an option to remove it when buying a car).

      The manufacturer badge is usually enough, in my opinion. If you can’t identify the model on the spot, as long as you can identify the brand and want to learn about the specific model you saw, you’ll hit their website or dealership and identify it there. And with a brand like Tesla, that only has 5 fairly distinct models, it should be fairly easy to retroactively point out the model you saw - compared to a brand like BMW for example.

        • Localhorst86@feddit.org
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          4 months ago

          Mine is a Mercedes, but I have observed this on most cars around here that are younger than ~5 years. Just today when biking to work, almost any newer Mercedes, BMW, VW or Skoda didn’t have a model badge on the back. KIA and Hyundai were like 50/50.
          The exception for BMW seems to be their electric vehicles, which were all badged with their model.

          Also something I have noticed is that “performance badges” (AMG, STI, M, GTI etc.) don’t seem to be affected by this - they often remain on the car.

          • boonhet@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            The model badges have been opt-out on the Germans for ages. My W211 didn’t have them and I’m pretty sure you could opt out of it on older models too.

        • ben_dover@lemmy.ml
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          4 months ago

          i have a bmw that came without any, it’s an “extra” you can order for most cars

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      I don’t think I’ve had any cars tell you which model they are on the back. It’s usually opt-out for most brands and for every car I’ve owned, the first owner has opted out. Maybe my first car, an Audi 80, had a model designation. If not, it had an engine designation at least. But the rest haven’t had either.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I have no idea what you’re talking about. Other than Teslas, I almost never see a model of car that doesn’t tell me its model:

        This is a BMW i8. I can tell, because it says BMW and i8 on the back:

        This is a Honda Accord. I can tell, because it says Honda and Accord on the back:

        This is a Tesla. I can tell because it says Tesla on the back.

        What model Tesla? Well, guess I’ll have to go look that up when I’m not driving.

        • Tja@programming.dev
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          4 months ago

          Badge delete is always an option on higher end cars. I didn’t have a badge on my M135i. Who the fuck cares what car I’m driving anyway, if they want me to advertise they product my fee is 100€ a month. Same with logos on t-shirts.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          Most of my cars have been old German cars. They have badge delete as a factory option and most people take it, it seems. Particularly on low spec models with 2 liter engines where if you opt for the badge delete, it looks the same as the big V8 models lol

      • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        Have you never seen any cars before. 99% of them have the car company and the model on them.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          4 months ago

          It costs nothing to remove the model for most premium makes so most people do. Granted, the most downmarket car I’ve ever owned was a Volkswagen.

          Not because I’m rich - because I torture myself with ridiculously depreciated German cars so I can get more luxury out of €3000 than a brand new €50000 car lol

          • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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            4 months ago

            Most people do not remove the model/badge on their car. You might. But I guarantee if you walked out side right now, and look at cars at an intersection or parked on the side, they’ll have the model name on them.

            • boonhet@lemm.ee
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              4 months ago

              Like half of all cars I see have their model badges. Maybe fewer. Which is why it’s weird to me that people take this for granted.

              You’ll see them on cheap cars or really high end cars (if it’s an AMG, you’re probably the kinda person who wants others to know), but otherwise most people seem to remove them when ordering the car.

              Personally I haven’t removed any badges because I’ve never ordered a new vehicle myself. But it’s usually taken IMO. When I was looking at newer (not brand new) MBs, I’d usually go look up the build sheet and nearly all had the debadge option selected.

              The debadge will still leave the manufacturer logo on so the car is still an advertisement lol

    • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      But the only thing they have going for them is the electric side of things. If you put a combustion engine in a cybertruck it has nothing left.

    • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Yeah… I doubt that.

      There’s just no reason to.

      Why move backwards? Why give up the area where you have first mover advantage, making cars of the future, to instead try to compete with auto manufacturers who have been making that kind of car for the last eighty years. It’s a losing proposition. It’s not economical, it’s not smart.

      • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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        4 months ago

        Well, for one thing, they’ve lost first mover advantage by squandering their lead. Every other company that makes an EV now makes one that works better, lasts longer and looks better than Tesla does. Besides which he’s pandering to crowd that largely believes that their cock and balls will shrivel up and fall off if they purchase an electric vehicle.

        Why move backwards? Why give up […]

        Why would you rebrand Twitter? You’ve got the largest and most recognizable website and logo on the internet, why would you want to scrap all that and start almost from scratch with a new name and nondescript logo that no one recognizes? First year marketing 101 tells you this is nearly the worst possible thing you can do with a recognized brand name.

        Musk is most well known for bad business decisions. More than anything else he’s done, he’s famous for his ability to rampage through a previously functional company and burn it completely to the ground. Pivoting Tesla into creating an ICE vehicle is completely on brand for him.

        • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Every other company that makes an EV now makes one that works better, lasts longer and looks better than Tesla does.

          Well be that as it may, somehow they still have more market share in the EV market than any of their competitors. They likely have almost as much market share as all of their competitors combined, (though I don’t have those numbers to confirm). So regardless of what you think of the quality of their cars, I wouldn’t say they’ve squandered their lead, not with the kind of sales they’re doing.

          Also, I mean, their brand is all about electricity, the company is named after Nicola Tesla.

          • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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            4 months ago

            At the start of the year in 2022 when Tesla was the only major EV player in town, they held a 75% market share. As of Q2 2024 they hold 49.7%. Your statement is technically correct but you don’t blow a lead like that unless something is severely wrong with your product or unless everyone else has caught up and outstripped you. In this particular case both are true.

            • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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              4 months ago

              One company still has 49.7% market share and you think that’s blowing it in any way? Do you have any idea how many manufacturers are now making EVs? Holding on to that much market share is crazy! Besides, with so many more new EVs on the road, that’s probably still an increase in vehicles. You can’t expect them to keep that kind of lead when they’re one of a dozen car companies competing for that market.

              unless everyone else has caught up and outstripped you.

              And yeah, with 49%, nobody is outstripping them, nobody is even close.

              • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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                4 months ago

                When they’ve blown more than a third of their market lead with poor build quality, poor customer service, and a CEO that is actively pushing away both consumers and advertisers? Yeah I do think that’s blowing it. They had a golden goose and then they kicked it enough times that it’s stopped laying eggs.

                And yes, other EV makers are outstripping them, that’s how they lost nearly 30% of the market share. That’s a third of the entire market for EV cars, that they previously had in their pockets. Not outstripping in sales, yet, maybe - but the build quality and reliability (or rather, the notoriously poor quality and unreliability of Tesla in particular) are pushing customers that direction in record numbers. Name me any other company that lost 30% of their market share in two years and called this fine. I’ll wait.

                • Cocodapuf@lemmy.world
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                  4 months ago

                  Hah, you’re nuts man.

                  Apple invented the smartphone, so in 2007 they had 100% of the market share. But when Android phones began arriving, they started getting some of that market. Years later many different manufacturers started selling Android phones and Apple’s market share dropped below 50%. Is that Apple squandering their lead, or is that just inevitability once the public had more options? I mean if you represent 5% of the brands competing, why would you expect to hold 75% of the market? That’s crazy…

                  I’d argue that there is no company that could maintain 75% market share in any category of car sales, and failing to do the impossible is not the same as mismanagement. But hey prove me wrong if you can.

    • LeFantome@programming.dev
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      4 months ago

      Why would anybody buy a Tesla ICE?

      My wife has a Model 3. The fact that it is electric is amazing and of course the performance is excellent. Other than that, it is a terrible car.

      An ICE Model 3 would be an expensive, poorly built, uncomfortable, hunk of garbage.

      Not happening.

    • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Do they suck? Tesla is king when it comes to efficiency. I hate it, I’m in the market for EV and while I’m buying a car on paper of the same spec and at half price… It is a worse car and I wish someone else did model 3 but not tesla.

      Hopefully Lucid or Xiaomi (yes I’d sooner give money to them than Musk) come soon enough.

      • seang96@spgrn.com
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        4 months ago

        I prefer my cars with quality testing, hardware that is not consumer grade that lasts more than a year, and mechanical doors so if the battery dies after buckling a kid in the car seat they aren’t trapped in the vehicle with the only option to smash the window. I’d love to live in fear with no guarantee the steering wheel won’t fall off while I’m driving on the highway.

        • Paddzr@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          Not to be that guy… But that’s not a thing? Teslas last practically forever by the current standards. 3 hasn’t been around that long to say the same thing.

          But also, there is door release for the very thing you’re describing. If owners of the car don’t know it, the fuck are they doing owning a car? To me it’s unthinkable for someone to not know how to open their boot from inside or disengage the dead bolt from inside. That’s just next level stupid. If we were to never touch a car with no defects, we’d be still relying on horses.

          Dislike Tesla all you want, he’ll, I’m with you. But not when you use examples like this. Use actual negatives.

      • Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 months ago

        The truck is shit, but I’m with ya on the Model 3. I have a friend with one and it feels nice to ride in. I like the air in front, you can have the air streams come out however you want. Whatever the “go from being stopped to INSANELY FAST SUDDENLY AAAAAAAA” mode is, blew me away. Both my partner and I shrieked—we had never felt that kind of acceleration before.

      • samokosik@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Well yes, especially when talking about reliability, they do not have very good scores.

        They are just over complicated

    • CaptPretentious@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I’ve never heard that word before so I had to look it up. Because obviously my first thought was Ned Flanders from The Simpsons.

      For anyone like me here you go…

      Flanderization is the process through which a complex fictional character’s essential traits are oversimplified to the point where they constitute their entire personality, or at least exaggerated while other traits remain, over the course of a serial work.

  • thecodeboss@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I hate Tesla as much as the next guy, but this article lacks any context and makes some assumptions about malicious intent. Are these the only articles removed, or did they purge a bunch of articles from two decades ago? Maybe these articles were stored in a legacy database and someone finally decided to clean it up, then the media is twisting it into “they’re changing history!”

    (Disclaimer: I’m speculating heavily here given my lack of context, so these may very well have been removed on purpose due to their content)

  • suction@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Manifesto LMAO, yeah he’s exactly the type of toxic dude who thinks in Manifestos, like all the shooters and amok guys.