The Cybertruck Appears to Be More Deadly Than the Infamous Ford Pinto, According to a New Analysis
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Have you seen how fast other companies roll over to this admin? Why care about a 100M contract when you can get a 1B tax break?
And you are thinking about red tape in a sane government. Here you comply or get fired and replaced with a yes man.
Those companies so far aren't in conflict with Tesla. Bear that in mind because it's important to the conversation and the topic at hand. I doubt Facebook gives a damn if Tesla can skirt recalls. Ford or GMC or Dodge would absolutely care, especially if it's preferential treatment which it invariably would be because of Musk's "position" in the government. He's got a conflict of interest that stacks things against other automakers and they would be stupid not to counter that any way they can.
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Those companies so far aren't in conflict with Tesla. Bear that in mind because it's important to the conversation and the topic at hand. I doubt Facebook gives a damn if Tesla can skirt recalls. Ford or GMC or Dodge would absolutely care, especially if it's preferential treatment which it invariably would be because of Musk's "position" in the government. He's got a conflict of interest that stacks things against other automakers and they would be stupid not to counter that any way they can.
I hope you are right, but I'm afraid they will just go with it, because it's easier and more profitable to side with the dictator.
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I love Elon Bad posts, but I think it's worthwhile to examine why Elon bad in this case.
Like many reactionaries, Elon's business philosophy is pure tech-bro-libertarianism. And like all libertarians, he's stuck in the neoliberal mindset of less regulation (don't scrutinize) and more efficiency (let me be cheap), in order to create the safe space that industrialists need to
extract, er create.He's literally said things like (paraphrasing)
When I see a specification for three bolts I ask: why can't we do it with two?
His transparent reasoning is that if he's allowed to cut corners, he'll save money today and consequences can be dealt with when they arise.
He's following the software model of release a minimally viable product and patch it later. Only instead of user frustration at being beta testers, you fucking die maybe.
I wonder if Elon is a follower of Ayn Rand?
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I think we can count on the corruption and legal rights of other companies more than you think apparently. Tesla's not the only car company. They certainly don't have the same pull in the government as Ford and GMC and Dodge. Tesla is a brand new player who cannot be trusted to follow the rules and deactivate or unequip any sensors and components for tracking that the government would require (on trucks they have already manufactured for the civilian market. The government don't have the qualified personnel to upkeep these vehicles, and that's assuming they even have a place to store a fleet of them that's covered parking.
A government software load out is not going to be enough. When the government buys vehicles they specifically have them manufactured to a spec and that spec would have to involve the removal and or lack of installation of most of the sensors and capabilities the vehicle comes with stock. So they either have to buy them as is and modify them (which requires personnel with a specific set of training and qualifications, or they have to be manufactured to that spec at the Tesla factory (or retrofitted to remove the unwanted components).
DHS's armored and unarmored fleets can be washed, can be parked in an uncovered lot, can be maintenanced by the personnel they already have. There's way more to buying a fleet of vehicles than just the price tag for individual units.
I work on planes for a living including government planes when we get the contract for those and let me tell you, they differ quite a lot from conventional civilian planes even when the base plane is the same. Tesla doesn't already have a contract and even if they get one that money isn't allocated to them in the budget. There's plenty of other reasons why I think this is a BS take, but man even corruption has a shelf life. Trump may be out of office in a couple of years but the entire government won't just up and retire with him.
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Did you read this article?
"Trump administration says it has no plans to fulfill $400 million 'armored Tesla' contract" - thats the headline.
And it doesn't specify which kinda of vehicles, nor does it give anything other than a general timeline of interest.
Basically sounds like the government put out feelers to see which automakers were interested in potentially making armored vehicles for the government that were electric and only Tesla responded. And further, it doesn't say why that plan was scrapped, but it literally also started in the Biden administration, not the Trump administration. There's a lot of supposition in that article. I wouldn't call this conclusive.
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Did you read this article?
"Trump administration says it has no plans to fulfill $400 million 'armored Tesla' contract" - thats the headline.
And it doesn't specify which kinda of vehicles, nor does it give anything other than a general timeline of interest.
Basically sounds like the government put out feelers to see which automakers were interested in potentially making armored vehicles for the government that were electric and only Tesla responded. And further, it doesn't say why that plan was scrapped, but it literally also started in the Biden administration, not the Trump administration. There's a lot of supposition in that article. I wouldn't call this conclusive.
Note that it says article (and headline) were updated. At the time the article just had the State department document about 400m in armored Tesla. Then after initial backlash the document was amended to say armored electric vehicles. Then eventually the Trump administration declared this was not a thing and to the extent it was a thing, it was Biden.
Now it could be as they say, but it is also the Trump administration, that isn't too big on the truth. So hard to say if this was a mishap about a misleading document, or something that was fired off without the broader approval of the PJ2025 folk and it getting killed after coming to light and needing a cover story as to why things didn't get close to as blatantly corrupt as it sounded.
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Note that it says article (and headline) were updated. At the time the article just had the State department document about 400m in armored Tesla. Then after initial backlash the document was amended to say armored electric vehicles. Then eventually the Trump administration declared this was not a thing and to the extent it was a thing, it was Biden.
Now it could be as they say, but it is also the Trump administration, that isn't too big on the truth. So hard to say if this was a mishap about a misleading document, or something that was fired off without the broader approval of the PJ2025 folk and it getting killed after coming to light and needing a cover story as to why things didn't get close to as blatantly corrupt as it sounded.
I am positive that the government does want armored vehicles. But like I said before and like it says in the article, this was a call out out to all automakers by the federal government during the Biden administration. This isn't something Trump started when he got into office. Further, it's important to note that the article claimed that Tesla was the only car manufacturer that showed an interest.
I'd like to see the document because it's not clear from the article if this was a proposal or an order. And all of my reasoning for it not being a thing from before this article was posted still apply.
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Those companies so far aren't in conflict with Tesla. Bear that in mind because it's important to the conversation and the topic at hand. I doubt Facebook gives a damn if Tesla can skirt recalls. Ford or GMC or Dodge would absolutely care, especially if it's preferential treatment which it invariably would be because of Musk's "position" in the government. He's got a conflict of interest that stacks things against other automakers and they would be stupid not to counter that any way they can.
It took one day apparently...
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It took one day apparently...
I'm still curious to see the actual proposal and other documentation, but I can't really refute this so, I concede the point for now.
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It took one day apparently...
This week the big news is that the government is selling off all EV's bought by the previous administration and shutting down all the federal owned charging stations used to charge these vehicles. So this right here is Trump taking something Biden tried to do and using it to line Elon Musk's grubby pockets and that tracks.
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