TESLA and Elon Musk - anything not elsewhere

[Estiveo]

Seizing the vehicle (or threatening to) facilitates cooperation of the owner.

[RTH10260]

FWIW
pm. T like testosterone
from the section The Week in Patriarchy

Elon Musk is intrigued by the idea women can’t think freely because of ‘low T’
Every time it seems he can’t possibly sink any lower, the billionaire CEO grabs a shovel and starts digging

Arwa Mahdawi
Sat 7 Sep 2024 15.00 CEST

Maybe he’s born with it, maybe it’s ketamine

Every time I think Elon Musk can’t possibly sink any lower, he grabs a shovel and starts digging. In recent months, Apartheid Clyde (as he is nicknamed) has been doing his best to get Donald Trump elected by any means possible. As well as throwing money and an endorsement Trump’s way, Musk has posted multiple false election claims and reposted a fake version of Kamala Harris’s first campaign video that has been doctored to make her say she is the “ultimate diversity hire”.

When Musk isn’t meddling in politics, he’s busy posting misogynistic memes on X, the social media platform he has slowly been turning into an advertiser-haemorrhaging cesspool of hate. He’s posted an extraordinary amount of unhinged content in the past, but last Sunday he really outdid himself: the billionaire reposted a tweet from “Autism Capital” that suggested that “women and low T men” are not able to think freely because they “can’t defend themselves physically”. The only people who can think freely are “high T alpha males and aneurotypical people ... this is why a Republic of high status males is best for decision making. Democratic, but a democracy only for those who are free to think.”

So what did Musk write in response to this wildly sexist post that originally appeared on 4chan, the far-right messaging board that has been described as the “blueprint for white supremacist groups”? He wrote: “Interesting observation.”

It’s possible, I suppose, that Musk meant “interesting” in the sense that British people often use it – which is as a polite way of saying: “That’s total nonsense, you ridiculous loon.” But judging by Musk’s past behaviour, one imagines there’s a very good chance he found the post genuinely interesting.

Of course, Musk wouldn’t be the first billionaire to dabble with casual thought experiments such as: what if we stripped women of all their rights? Peter Thiel, who runs Palantir, the dystopian technology company, and who has bankrolled JD Vance’s political career, once mused that women getting the right to vote had been bad for democracy. And we all know what Vance’s boss, Trump, thinks of women.

But this isn’t just about women: Musk platforming terms like “low T men” shows how toxic masculinity hurts men, too, and how testosterone has been politicized. Ever since 2016, “it has become a strange kind of orthodoxy among American conservatives that being a liberally minded man who supports feminism is simply a result of having abnormally low levels of testosterone”, the Guardian’s Sam Wolfson wrote back in 2019. This is partly thanks to a dubious study linking leftwing politics to lower testosterone.

Being “low T” has become the ultimate insult in certain circles and the likes of Trump have paraded their testosterone levels on national TV. Businesses have popped up to monetize male insecurity and promote dubious ways to boost testosterone. Last year, a startup called T Party invited tech bros in Silicon Valley to gatherings where they all tested their testosterone together, for example. And who can forget when Tucker Carlson had a personal trainer on his show to extol the virtues of “testicle tanning” to boost testosterone?


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... stosterone

[RTH10260]

Now Elon can play being his own train engineer ...

Tesla launches world's first all-electric 'Giga Train' with mind-blowing passenger capacity — and it's free to ride

Audrey Brewer
Fri, September 6, 2024 at 1:15 PM GMT+2·2 min read

Tesla's highly anticipated "Giga Train," its first all-electric battery-powered train, has debuted in Germany.

The Giga Train takes passengers from Erkner Station to Tesla Sud, the station located at the company's manufacturing facility, about 20 miles southeast of Berlin. Currently, 500 people can be transported on the train, with 120 seats, space for bicycles, and an information system for passengers, per Teslarati. It's also free to not just Tesla employees, but regular passengers as well.

It's eventually expected to transport 4,500 employees to and from the factory, based on three eight-hour shifts. An additional stop will be added once construction in the area is completed.

"We are particularly pleased that the Tesla train shuttle is now battery-electric because it is simply in line with our company mission: to accelerate the transition to renewable energies," Theresa Eggler, a project manager at Tesla, told German media outlet rbb24.

Niederbarnimer Eisenbahngesellschaft, or NEB, said there are additional plans to switch the fleet from diesel to e-trains at the end of this year.

The introduction of the electric train is a great option for employees and the general public to utilize greener transportation options to save on gas and maintenance for cars and pollution from personal vehicles. The train is expected to save 50 tons of carbon dioxide pollution compared to other trains, Eggler told rbb24, a major environmental win.

Tesla has led the way in green innovations and backing up its policies. When the company faced backlash over cutting down trees near Berlin to build the Gigafactory, it invested in a program planting over 1 million trees in 2024 alone to help replace the loss.

It also continues to focus on saving commuters money through projects like the recently launched ride-share program in Tampa, which shuttles passengers around several different hubs for only $2.


https://www.yahoo.com/tech/tesla-launch ... 35136.html
(original: The Cool Down)

[p0rtia]

Leon.

[zekeb]

Leon says that he has Asperger syndrome. That's his excuse. What's DonOld's excuse?

[Estiveo]

[RTH10260]

James May finally drives the Tesla Cybertruck

James May’s Planet Gin
11 Sept 2024

The Tesla Cybertruck. I answer the important questions, such as: How many bottles of my gin will it carry? Is it clever or ridiculous? Is it oblate?

[Dave from down under]

Hahaha! Elon is sandwich short of a picnic

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/cra ... /6m6nmsvos

Controversial billionaire Elon Musk has called the Australian government "fascists" over its attempts to tackle deliberate lies spread on social media.

Social media companies could be fined up to 5 per cent of their annual turnover under the Commonwealth's proposed laws.

Musk, who owns social media platform X, responded to a post about Australia's measures with one word.

[poplove]

Temu truck.jpg (192.71 KiB) Viewed 1857 times

[pipistrelle]

He deleted it. How does this man still have gov’t contracts?

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[RTH10260]

[Estiveo]

Oh, Elmo...

GYGfvN3a8AABBVW.jpeg (95.34 KiB) Viewed 1422 times

[zekeb]

The cybertruck hitch can only support vertical loads of 160 pounds. (I had better not stand on the rear bumper)

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/cy ... fcc1&ei=21

[RVInit]

This guy visited some of Elon Musks failures.

[RTH10260]

Opinion Piece

Elon Musk has gained a concerning level of power over US national security
With SpaceX, Starlink and X, Musk has more foreign policy sway than probably any unelected person in US history

Robert Reich
Thu 26 Sep 2024 12.00 CEST

Shortly after the apparent second assassination attempt against Donald Trump, Elon Musk wrote in a now deleted post on X, formerly known as Twitter: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala,” with an emoji of a person thinking.

Musk later said his post was intended as a joke. But it could be interpreted as a call to murder Joe Biden and Kamala Harris – at least by one of Musk’s almost 200 million followers – which is presumably why the Secret Service is investigating it.

Under 18 US Code Section 871, threatening a president or vice-president or inciting someone to harm them is a felony that can result in a large fine and up to five years in prison.

Yet even as Musk posted a potential death threat against the sitting commander-in-chief, his multiple defense contracts with the US government have given him access to highly sensitive national security information.

Musk has reportedly gained national security clearance notwithstanding his admitted use of drugs, not necessarily illegally: the tech billionaire, who says he has submitted to random drug testing at the request of the government, has smoked weed in public and also uses ketamine (for which he claims to have a prescription).

Apart from the drugs, when was the last time the US government gave access to sensitive national security information to someone who posted a potential death threat against the president and vice-president?

Underlying this is a broader question: when in history has one unelected individual held such sway over US national security?

Musk’s SpaceX has nearly total control of the world’s satellite internet through its Starlink unit. With little regulation or oversight, Musk has already put more than 4,500 Starlink satellites into orbit around the globe, accounting for more than half of all active satellites. He plans to have as many as 42,000 satellites in orbit in the coming years.

SpaceX and its Starlink system have become strategically critical to the American military. Starlink is providing connectivity to the US navy. The US space force signed a $70m contract with SpaceX late last year for military-grade low-Earth-orbit satellite capabilities. According to Reuters, the National Reconnaissance Office, which oversees US spy satellites, has a $1.8bn contract with SpaceX.

This gives Musk, the richest person in the world, remarkable power. Single-handedly, he can decide to shut down a country’s access to Starlink and the internet. He also can also gain access to sensitive information gathered by Starlink. “Between, Tesla, Starlink & Twitter, I may have more real-time global economic data in one head than anyone ever,” Musk tweeted in April 2023.



https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... l-security

[johnpcapitalist]

Unfortunately, we're increasingly moving into "outrage fatigue" regarding Elmo and this is likely to garner only another eye-roll.

Although Tesla execs claim they were only targeting employees who may have been abusing the privilege, it sure seems like intimidation to just show up at employees' doors rather than calling or texting and then investigating when people get back to work. The optics sure seem awful...

I don't think the turnover rate from Tesla in the US has dropped much over the last couple of years. I steer clear of wasting time reading up on Tesla because I I'll never put money in anything to do with Elmo, but anecdotal reading suggests everyone that works there is miserable.

Tesla Visiting German Employees’ Homes To Check If They're Abusing Their Sick Days

Tesla decided to take a very hands-on approach to tackling employees who call out sick at its gigafactory in Germany. Factory management is going to employees’ homes when they call out sick to check if they are actually ill. Plant workers are understandably pissed off, slamming the door in their faces and even calling the police. Despite the public backlash, Tesla hasn’t ruled out future home visits.

The call-out rate at the 12,000-employee factory outside of Berlin is ridiculous, according to Handelsblatt. The company states its sick leave rate was 17 percent in August. For comparison, the figure is well above the national average of 6.1 percent in 2023. In July, Tesla offered a €1,000 ($1,120) bonus to every employee who missed less than five percent of their time at work. The August callout rate shows that it didn’t work.

The factory’s managing director André Thierig and HR director Erik Demmler decided to take a hardline stance against absenteeism by conducting employee home visits like they were running Henry Ford’s River Rouge, a comparison that Elon Musk would welcome. The duo were also the ones going door-to-door themselves. In a taped recording published by Handelsblatt, Demmler said:

“This has nothing to do with general suspicion. We simply picked out 30 employees who had the relevant abnormalities, who had been on sick leave for quite a long time, but also many first notifications. And what we found was very, very mixed.”

If they chose employees based on sick day abnormalities, it’s clear that they suspected something. Thierig attempted to defend the policy by claiming that other companies do home visits as well and some employees approve of the practice. It doesn’t help factory morale if workers know management doesn’t care enough about their well-being to just let them use their sick days in peace.

[RTH10260]

Tesla Visiting German Employees’ Homes To Check If They're Abusing Their Sick Days

This could possibly scratch German law and the Workers Union contract. IMHO employers cannot investigate themselves, only ask for a doctors certificate of illness. If the employer has the suspicion of missuse the company has their own doctor of trust who may ask the issuing collegue under medical privilege about the background and then just report a summary "good" or "missuse" to the employer without any further medical details.

[RTH10260]

An informative article in German on this situation and discusses what an employer may do.

https://www.focus.de/finanzen/karriere/ ... 45590.html
(please use your preferred translator)

To note that from all workers at the facility 200 with long absence from the work place were chosen as potential candidates to look at and about two dozen were then visited.

[Rolodex]

Do we know what the tesla spies learned? Were the employees calling in sick really sick? Were they shirking? Had they used more than their allotted sick time?

[RTH10260]

Do we know what the tesla spies learned? Were the employees calling in sick really sick? Were they shirking? Had they used more than their allotted sick time?

According to the article the "spies" were management level, likely from HR, the chosen subjects were long time absentees that have repeated (every six weeks) renewals of their doctors certificates. It seems that in extreme cases they hadn't worked since the beginning of the year. It seems that none of the subjects was absent cause of cheating and working elsewhere.

To note that all these employees are receiving their salary during illness.

[Estiveo]

[sugar magnolia]

Good friends of ours live about 3 houses down from that. They lost both of their cars (neither were Teslas) when the water ultimately rose about 4 feet and flooded their house, but at least it didn't burn it down.

[RVInit]

[much ado]

Just saw this...

GEICO is Terminating Insurance Coverage of Tesla Cybertrucks, Says “This Type of Vehicle Doesn't Meet Our Underwriting Guidelines”

Article lists several rather amazing problems with cybertrucks.

[MN-Skeptic]

Just saw this...

GEICO is Terminating Insurance Coverage of Tesla Cybertrucks, Says “This Type of Vehicle Doesn't Meet Our Underwriting Guidelines”

Article lists several rather amazing problems with cybertrucks.

I Googled the issue when I saw a tweet about it, but this was the only news source I could find. I'd like to see if another news source reports it and if it really is an issue.