TESLA and Elon Musk - anything not elsewhere

[raison de arizona]

On the one hand, taking an electric vehicle through the water, it shorts out. Whoddathunkit?

On the other hand, a $100k truck should be able to ford a little water successfully, one would think? What will happen to it at the car wash or in the rain?

Didn't Elmo originally say this truck was going to be able to function as a boat??

[Suranis]

It's marketed as an all all terrain Truck. That's not an unreasonable flood in that context, and something that should have been tested for.

Unless Elmo thinks "all terrain" means "just in the Mohave Desert." And even then, Deserts do flood when it rains.

[raison de arizona]

Found it.
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1736943517115482218?s=20

We are going to offer a mod package that enables Cybertruck to traverse at least 100m of water as a boat.

Mostly just need to upgrade cabin door seals.

It's possible it will need more than cabin door seals

Also, I found a video over the weekend where a guy took his CT to an offroad park. It didn't fare very well, mostly because when he hit the button to engage the diff lockers, rather than actually engaging the diff lockers, it just generated a message saying, "This feature coming soon!"



Is it too much to ask that the software be completed on a $100k truck BEFORE it is released.

I mean. I know the answer.

Just sayin'.

[Suranis]

Serves him right for buying a car on early access.

[northland10]

Yugos were essentially cardboard boxes with wheels where various things like windshield wipers would fly off to escape the vehicle during a rain storm, and releasing the seat to get in the back seat would allow the seat to seize the opportunity to escape through the windshield. Yugos seem safe in comparison.

A driver presses the brakes on his cyberturnip and it responds ""This feature coming soon!"

[Volkonski]

Shipping CEO Angela Chao, Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law, was intoxicated when she drove into lake, sheriff’s office says

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/20/business ... index.html

A 62-page incident report offers a harrowing account of the night of February 10, when, after partying with friends, Chao mistakenly reversed into a lake and became trapped in her car.

She called her friend for help and, as the water level in the car grew higher and higher, “said her good byes,” the report states. The friends frantically tried but failed to get her out of the car in time, and emergency responders ultimately pulled her lifeless body from the car.

Toxicology found that Chao’s blood alcohol concentration was 0.233, or about three times more than the legal limit. The Cleveland Clinic says a level of between 0.15 to 0.3 could cause someone to “experience confusion, vomiting and drowsiness.”

The report determined her death was an “unfortunate accident.”

Chao’s death has taken on particular significance given her proximity to power. She was the CEO of shipping company Foremost Group and the sister of Elaine Chao, the former Trump administration secretary of transportation who is married to McConnell. The Republican senator, 82, noted his sister-in-law’s death last month when he announced his plan to step down as GOP leader.

[RTH10260]

AOC Gives Elon Musk Blunt Reminder After He Accuses Democrats Of 'Importing Voters'
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez reminded Elon Musk of his own history here in the U.S. after he claimed that Democrats are trying to 'import voters.'

Alan Herrera
Mar. 29, 2024

New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave billionaire Elon Musk a blunt reminder of his own background after he accused Democrats of "importing voters" to influence elections.

Musk's claim that this is the Democratic Party's "goal" was a response to a right-wing account on his platform X, formerly Twitter, that cited the far-right Daily Caller's report that President Joe Biden is considering "granting amnesty" and "handing out green cards to illegal immigrants.



https://secondnexus.com/aoc-musk-democr ... ing-voters

[RTH10260]

Elon Musk faces Brazil inquiry after defying X court order
Multibillionaire called for resignation of judge who ordered platform to block far-right users

Alex Hern
Mon 8 Apr 2024 12.41 CEST Last modified on Mon 8 Apr 2024 13.34 CEST

Elon Musk faces a legal investigation in Brazil after becoming embroiled in a public row with a supreme court judge over an order requiring the social network X to take down some far-right accounts.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes had issued a court order forcing the site formerly known as Twitter to block several users as part of his investigation into the former president Jair Bolsonaro’s attempts to stay in power after his 2022 election defeat.

The order also barred the social network from publishing details of which accounts were blocked, and came with fines of about £16,000 a day for failure to comply. Now, Musk says, the company will reverse those blocks. The multibillionaire also called on Moraes to resign or be impeached.

In response, the judge announced late on Sunday that he had opened an inquiry into what he called Musk’s obstruction of justice.

News of the court order broke in an apparently coordinated disclosure as part of Musk’s “Twitter Files”, a collaboration with a number of journalists that has resulted in them being given access to the social network’s internal records.

On Wednesday, the US writer Michael Shellenberger published more than two years of communications between Twitter’s legal team and Brazilian courts, calling it evidence of “a sweeping crackdown on free speech”.

On Saturday, Musk responded, calling the action “aggressive censorship” and committing to lift all restrictions. “This judge has applied massive fines, threatened to arrest our employees and cut off access to X in Brazil,” he added.

As a result of refusing to comply, Musk predicted: “We will probably lose all revenue in Brazil and have to shut down our office there. But principles matter more than profit.”

Within a few hours, Musk escalated his dispute with Moraes, promising to publish “everything” demanded of Twitter by the supreme court justice. “This judge has brazenly and repeatedly betrayed the constitution and people of Brazil. He should resign or be impeached,” Musk said.

Moraes responded by launching his inquiry, which was backed by the current government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, which criticised Musk and called for regulation of social media.



https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... -bolsonaro

[noblepa]

I saw a Cybertruck in the wild yesterday, for the first time.

Its official. The Cybertruck has taken over the title of the Ugliest Production Vehicle in the History of the Universe, from the late, unlamented Pontiac Aztec.

It really does look like something some DIY'er, with extermely limited metalworking skills, put together in his garage.

Words fail me.

[Estiveo]

I saw a Cybertruck in the wild yesterday, for the first time.

Its official. The Cybertruck has taken over the title of the Ugliest Production Vehicle in the History of the Universe, from the late, unlamented Pontiac Aztec.

It really does look like something some DIY'er, with extermely limited metalworking skills, put together in his garage.

Words fail me.

I reported my first sighting on Xitter last week:

Estiveo_20240408_150857.jpg (63.41 KiB) Viewed 480 times

[Dave from down under]

[zekeb]

I've heard they look like Scheiße after they've been rained on. The grade of stainless steel isn't the type you'd find in your kitchen.

[chancery]

Here's a curiosity. Alex Spiro, a high profile lawyer for Musk from a prominent biglaw firm, Quinn Emanuel, can't be arsed to file pro hac vice applications in a number of litigations.

A pro se litigant has moved to strike a brief he signed, and for sanctions.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/sta ... 9948961030

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@ReichlinMelnick
Have you seen that he also filed a brief to the 9th Circuit in another case without following pro hac rules? Just yesterday in another case the opposing attorneys filed a motion to strike a brief he filed.

The brief in support of the motion to strike is here: https://www.plainsite.org/dockets/downl ... z=0ecd47af

What puzzles me is that docket clerks are usually on top of this.

[chancery]

https://twitter.com/nycsouthpaw/status/ ... 4299430116

southpaw
@nycsouthpaw
There’s something very odd here, imo. A firm like quinn should be able to file PHV motions for its litigators more or less automatically and certainly without any significant delay or friction; is there something in the applications that Spiro refuses to disclose or can’t sign his name to?

[p0rtia]

Here's the Mush depo:



Spiro for Mush comes out of his corner swinging. His approach was "if I act like a rabid badger every time I think he (Bankston, of A Jones trial fame) asks a difficult question, I can not only get under his skin/make him lose his cool, but I can obfuscate and sent hints to Mush."

I've read a lot of depos where the defense was an asshole, so this is familiar territory, but man, Spiro was good at it. I know he got under my skin. Lots of "Don't interrupt me!" right after he was the one interrupting (read a lot of that; hate it).

Mush was his usual self. As in the Don Lemon interview, his favorite ploy was to refuse to accept the facts, but rather to interpret them however he liked. Bankston had the patience to get around that, usually.

I don't know enough about the case to know if any of the depo favors the plaintiff. I didn't see anything that would set the pond on fire. My big takeaway was that Spiro was was not licensed to practice in Tx; hadn't bothered to file for pro hac vice; and refused to accept it when Bankston pointed out that he was not following Tx law. Probably always good for the defendant when plaintiff's attorney is mostly focused on opposing counsel, rather than on the testimony.

[Suranis]

Here's the Mush depo:

It does not show for me, so here is the raw link

https://www.scribd.com/document/7211936 ... rce=impact

[raison de arizona]

In this episode, Musk explains his big move to Texas.

[northland10]

Looked out the window today and saw a Cybertruck in the wild today. Meh. Doesn't do anything for me. If it is a neighbor down the street (he likes big toys), I may have to keep an eye out when it rains and see how it looks.

[northland10]

Here's a curiosity. Alex Spiro, a high profile lawyer for Musk from a prominent biglaw firm, Quinn Emanuel, can't be arsed to file pro hac vice applications in a number of litigations.

A pro se litigant has moved to strike a brief he signed, and for sanctions.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/sta ... 9948961030

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick
@ReichlinMelnick
Have you seen that he also filed a brief to the 9th Circuit in another case without following pro hac rules? Just yesterday in another case the opposing attorneys filed a motion to strike a brief he filed.

The brief in support of the motion to strike is here: https://www.plainsite.org/dockets/downl ... z=0ecd47af

What puzzles me is that docket clerks are usually on top of this.

I think the pro se plaintiff may have been making more of an issue than there was (the panel eventually denied his motion). The brief had:

/s/ William B. Adams
Alex Spiro (application forthcoming)
William B. Adams
QUINN EMANUEL URQUHART
& SULLIVAN, LLP

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap ... 2.23.0.pdf

While Spiro's name was on it, everything was signed by Adams (and the local counsel) and as far as I can tell, Adams is on the bar of the 9th.

Spiro never made an appearance and while his name was on the filing, it was Adams who made an appearance and signed the filing. I am not sure there is really any there there.

Was he ghostwriting, very possibly but I could see why the clerk did not identify anything. Spiro himself was not filing the stuff.

The docket:
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/66 ... omar-qazi/

To be honest, looking very briefly at the docket from the local case (and I am having trouble finding that Spiro was involved), I am not impressed by the plaintiff's work. I lost count of how many amended complaints were filed. There is a reason why you should have an attorney.

[chancery]

Hmm, interesting. I didn't verify the assertion in the motion to strike stating that Spiro had signed Musk's brief. Guess I should have looked more carefully.

However, in many courts it's generally OK to put other involved lawyers in a separate column to the left of the signature block as "of counsel" without their being admitted to practice before the court. But in this instance, even though Spiro didn't sign the brief, his name was included in the main signature block, which is customarily reserved for counsel of record, who must be admitted, either in the regular way or pro hac vice.

Also, I note that this signature block was on a merits appeal brief. The only context in which it's sort-of permissible* to use the "pro hac vice motion forthcoming" legend under an attorney's name is at the opening days of a proceeding, particularly when, as sometimes happens at the beginning, there's lots of urgent stuff going on. Plus _maybe_ also at the commencement of an appeal, although a well-organized law office, particularly a big prosperous firm like Quinn Emanuel, really has no excuse for not getting its pro hac vice ducks in a row and ready to be filed at the same time as the notice of appeal, let alone many months later at the merits brief stage.

So I pulled down the opposition to the motion to strike, and lo and behold, Musk's counsel represented that Spiro had been admitted to the bar of the Ninth Circuit after Musk's merits brief was filed. It doesn't show up on the docket because he was admitted for all purposes, not just pro hac vice.

So it's not surprising that the motion to strike was denied. But still, sloppy.
_________
* Some judges and courts don't allow it; you're either admitted in some fashion, or your name had better not appear.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/4 ... t-himself/

Wall Street analysts expected Tesla to report weak numbers, but the company’s reported numbers Tuesday, after the close of the bell, were far worse than anyone envisioned.

Don’t expect Tesla CEO Elon Musk to take the obvious blame.

Analysts were expecting deliveries of 457,000 vehicles in the first three months of 2024. Tesla came in significantly lower, at 386,810—a 15% miss. In the year-ago quarter, Tesla delivered 412,376 cars, and in the last three months of 2023, Tesla delivered 484,507 cars. No matter how you slice it, it was a disaster for Tesla and Musk, and the stock has been hammered accordingly. Having shed around one-third of its price, Tesla is the second-worst-performing stock in the S&P 500 Index this year.

Tesla had plenty of reasons for the underperformance. “Decline in volumes was partially due to the early phase of the production ramp of the updated Model 3 at our Fremont factory and factory shutdowns resulting from shipping diversions caused by the Red Sea conflict and an arson attack at Gigafactory Berlin,” the company said in a statement. At its earnings call, Tesla further added to the gloom by announcing that sales growth would be “notably lower” the rest of this year despite aggressive price cuts.

Launched to much mockery, Tesla’s “Mad Max”-looking Cyber Truck is off to a slow start, despite the massive popularity of the pickup truck form factor among consumers. In fact, the top two most popular vehicles in the U.S. are the Ford F-Series and the Chevy Silverado, and another three pickup trucks round out the top 10. Tesla has two entries in the top 10: the Model Y at No. 4, and the Model 3 at No. 10. These new sales figures will likely change that. Given that the form factor owns half the top 10, Tesla’s ridiculous Cybertruck looks like a catastrophic dud.

Other news outlets blamed the expanding electric vehicle market for some of Tesla’s woes, and that undoubtedly plays a part. But Tesla’s first-mover advantage hasn’t been dulled as its technology and far-superior charging network makes it the best electric car on the market. In a neutral world, with an invisible CEO, Tesla would still be growing.

But it’s not a neutral world, and Musk is anything but invisible. Indeed, he has saddled Tesla with baggage that goes from the political to the practical.

Did you know that Tesla got rid of driving stalks? You know, the stalks that make it easy to turn on lights, control windshield wipers, activate turn signals, and select which direction the car will drive. Those controls now live either on the steering wheel itself, or on the touch screen. Take a look:

https://images.dailykos.com/images/1287 ... 1712157510

Imagine trying to use turn signals when you can’t mindlessly flick a stalk up or down, depending on the direction you’re turning. You literally have to look down at the steering controls to find the button. Same with all of those controls. Heck, even the horn wasn’t in the center, where every single automaker—including Tesla—has placed it for the past century.

And note that it’s not a steering wheel, because for about a year, Musk refused to give buyers of its higher-end, higher-margin vehicles a simple freakin’ steering wheel. He was enamored by this yoke, which resembles what car racers use. But professional car racers are a surprisingly small demographic, and it wasn’t until much wailing from Tesla’s biggest fans that the company begrudgingly brought back the steering wheel as an option.

The biggest sin, however, is requiring the touchscreen to put the car in drive, reverse, park, and neutral. I’m a Tesla owner, and I frequent Tesla forums online, and the company’s rabid fans hate these changes! Musk thinks he’s so smart and brilliant and edgy, and as a result has made the car difficult to drive, breaking norms and conventions used by drivers their entire lives. None of this has made Tesla a more desirable purchase. Quite the opposite!

So even before we get to Musk’s politics, his cars are already an increasingly difficult sell. I have an original Model X from 2016, and it is, in every way, still a better car than these modern atrocities. Even if Musk was a philanthropic benevolent humanitarian, and if I had the disposable income, I would still not upgrade my car. And that is a common sentiment on Tesla forums—the company’s customers aren’t feeling the desire to upgrade their older vehicles, even the ones who can afford to, or are happy to consider market alternatives—you know, cars with basic features like turn stalks.

But then there is, of course, politics.

We at Daily Kos are well-apprised of Musk’s mad descent into MAGA Q-adjacent land, as well as his seemingly inevitable embrace of Donald Trump and his toxic brand of destructive politics. But Wall Street analysts are also paying attention.

“Anyway you put it, it was ugly,” said influential analyst Gene Munster. “Is Elon’s brand damaging Tesla sales in the U.S.? It’s directionally a negative.”

It’s difficult to see Musk as CEO of Tesla when he spends the day cavorting with Nazis on the platform formerly known as Twitter. A Reuters headline declared: “Would-be Tesla buyers snub company as Musk's reputation dips.”

"It's very likely that Musk himself is contributing to the reputational downfall," Caliber CEO Shahar Silbershatz told Reuters, saying his company's survey shows 83% of Americans connect Musk with Tesla.
Reuters spoke to five marketing, polling and car experts who said controversies surrounding Musk's increasingly right-wing politics and public statements are weighing on Tesla's brand and demand.
"It is hard enough to win sales without getting into politics," said Tim Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
Tesla registrations in California fell for the first time in years, as Musk’s repeated attacks on the state and its liberal car buyers have taken a toll. Clearly, Musk’s love affair with Texas—a state that doesn’t even allow Tesla to sell directly to buyers because of dealer protectionism—doesn’t seem to be paying off in commensurate sales growth. “Teslas made in Texas have to be shipped out of the state and then reimported across state lines to any buyers in Texas who purchase them online, one of many ridiculous workarounds born of dealer-protection laws,” wrote Alexander Sammon in Slate.

Yet you don’t see Musk tweeting endlessly about the lack of a free market in Texas, or his Republican buddies who enable that racket. He’d rather attack the people actually buying his cars. Now, those are the people who used to buy his cars. For whatever reason, his new edgelord incel buddies aren't keen to pick up the sales slack.

It’s inevitable: To continue growing and thriving, Tesla will have to ditch Musk. He is toxic, destructive, and distracted. His decisions—like the steering yoke, lack of stalks, and even the Cybertruck—have proven disastrous to the company. And his reputation and bizarre focus on Twitter/X compounds his damage to Tesla.

Musk thinks he is unaccountable to anyone, but Wall Street and car buyers are all clearly telling him otherwise. He won’t care. The only question is whether Tesla’s board and its shareholders do.

[pipistrelle]

We at Daily Kos are well-apprised of Musk’s mad descent into MAGA Q-adjacent land, as well as his seemingly inevitable embrace of Donald Trump and his toxic brand of destructive politics.

It’s not “adjacent.” It’s resident.

[raison de arizona]

Mr. Tesla!

[chancery]

Imagine trying to use turn signals when you can’t mindlessly flick a stalk up or down, depending on the direction you’re turning. You literally have to look down at the steering controls to find the button. Same with all of those controls. Heck, even the horn wasn’t in the center, where every single automaker—including Tesla—has placed it for the past century.



The biggest sin, however, is requiring the touchscreen to put the car in drive, reverse, park, and neutral. I’m a Tesla owner, and I frequent Tesla forums online, and the company’s rabid fans hate these changes! Musk thinks he’s so smart and brilliant and edgy, and as a result has made the car difficult to drive, breaking norms and conventions used by drivers their entire lives.

This is insane. I wouldn't want to defend a products liability suit that alleged those touchscreen controls were unreasonably dangerous.

[Suranis]

The guy is right. Those have been ubiquitous in Cars worldwide for a reason. Even if you had no idea who was the CEO of Tesla, that would make the Tesla a hard sell.

One of the things that happened before was that Tesla was able to market Musk as a Genius and his designs as revolutionary. I remember reading a "Tesla Engineer" saying that it took forever to make his idea of Har handles that retracted into the door till they were flush with it work, but "He was right as the customers love them." They were able to keep the ACTUAL musk away from a public Microphone as he was playing a genius on Crypto podcasts and stuff that no-one gave a shit about.

But then he Pretended to want to buy Twitter, and then was forced into actually doing it. Then everyone started looking at him saying "Who is this guy?" And Musk was all too happy to perform for the Cameras and shit talk in public. And people suddenly found they didn't like this clown.