TESLA and Elon Musk - anything not elsewhere

[pipistrelle]

The flatbed trailer gets lots of money.

The primate who operates it receives greenbacks, which it converts into fuel for the flatbed. This transactional relationship is unlike anything else known in the wild, involving as it does, four creatures whose existences are intertwined, but only at certain times.

[p0rtia]

[MN-Skeptic]

https://x.com/kylegriffin1/status/1830633073299624092

Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil's Supreme Court panel upholds judge's decision to block billionaire Musk's social media platform X nationwide.

[bill_g]

The flatbed trailer gets lots of money.

The primate who operates it receives greenbacks, which it converts into fuel for the flatbed. This transactional relationship is unlike anything else known in the wild, involving as it does, four creatures whose existences are intertwined, but only at certain times.

It takes a village.

[bill_g]

Brilliant!

[MN-Skeptic]

Gift link to the Washington Post article -

Musk’s Twitter investors have lost billions in value

When Elon Musk bought Twitter and renamed it X, he didn’t do it alone. Though the billionaire tapped his vast wealth to cover the lion’s share of the $44 billion purchase price in 2022, he also relied on bank loans and a long list of investors, the full extent of which was only recently revealed.

At the time, analysts marveled at Musk’s ability to attract dozens of enthusiastic partners. Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who rolled nearly $2 billion in Twitter stock held by himself and a Saudi holding company into the private deal, tweeted at Musk: “I believe you will be an excellent leader for @Twitter to propel & maximise its great potential.”

Two years later, Alwaleed says he is still happy with his investment. But to others, the deal looks significantly less appealing. Under Musk, X’s valuation has cratered — as Musk has acknowledged — leaving it worth as little as half of what he paid.

Since late last year, Fidelity has consistently valued the X stake in one of its funds 70 percent below the purchase price, a drop in valuation first reported by Axios. Figures released Friday show that Fidelity now values that stake about 72 percent lower than when Musk took over X, taking its overall portion of the company from a valuation of around $316 million to $88 million.

Based on a Washington Post analysis using Fidelity’s estimates, the eight largest initial investments that were reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or otherwise publicly disclosed are worth about $5 billion less than when Musk bought X. His and his partners’ overall stake has shed $24 billion in value — a vaporization of wealth that has little parallel outside the realm of economic or industry-specific crashes, or devastating corporate scandals.

[zekeb]

Where would Twitter be today if Trump hadn't brought it into the limelight?

[Estiveo]

Someone found a way to make it uglier.

GWXXL4MakAArXyX.jpeg (139.18 KiB) Viewed 395 times

[bill_g]

The basic shape woulda been kewl when Tron was fresh, but not now, and not with the mechanical horror stories I've read about it. No Thank you. Maybe there's some engineering in there worth salvaging, but this concept vehicle turned consumer product ain't meeting expectations.

[johnpcapitalist]

Someone found a way to make it uglier.
GWXXL4MakAArXyX.jpeg

IMHO, this could very well be an attempt at ironic humor, trying to go retro and evoke the 1970s Ford LTD station wagons in avocado green with the vinyl paneling. Not even sure this is real -- could just be a Photoshop.

If it's ironic, I rather like it.

[Slim Cognito]

I also was wondering if it was a challenge.

[much ado]

Someone found a way to make it uglier.

Not photoshopped. It says on the rear fender that it is a "Cyber Squire". Details...

Cybertruck wraps have taken many forms. Perhaps the strangest one yet is the “Cyber Squire,” a tribute to Ford’s classic woody wagons that I just didn’t see coming.

Surprise: Tesla Cybertruck Looks Alright With a Retro Woodgrain Wagon Wrap

[zekeb]

New take on National Lampoon's Vacation family truckster.

[RTH10260]

Next level: take the metal grinder to the cyber and make real wood inserts

[keith]

Someone found a way to make it uglier.
GWXXL4MakAArXyX.jpeg

A cartoon woody!

[neonzx]

Someone spent upwards of $100k on a toy truck and then does that to it?

[MN-Skeptic]

Lula says Elon Musk’s wealth does not mean world must accept his ‘far-right free-for-all’

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said he hopes the crisis surrounding the social network X in Brazil might teach the world that “it isn’t obliged to put up with [Elon] Musk’s far-right free-for-all just because he is rich”.

Lula’s comments to the network CNN Brasil came after the supreme court voted unanimously on Monday to uphold the ban on X, which is now largely inaccessible in one of its biggest global markets.

The suspension was first ordered on Friday as a result of the company’s refusal to obey court orders requiring the removal of profiles accused of spreading disinformation and for the social network to name a local legal representative.

Debate is raging in Brazil over the rights and wrongs of preventing more than 20 million X users from accessing the service – not to mention the political wisdom of doing so, amid fears the move could strengthen the country’s far-right movement by allowing it to pose as a champion of free speech.

Thousands of supporters of the former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro are expected to take to the streets on Saturday for an independence day rally some believe will be turbocharged by anger over the supreme court’s stance.

Musk has unabashedly aligned himself with Bolsonaro’s radical political movement, just as he has championed the former president’s most important international friend, Donald Trump, ahead of November’s US election.

[Foggy]

The world is so interesting.

[pipistrelle]

I can remember a time when no one used twitter.

[RTH10260]

I can remember a time when one used to write letters.

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

The original:

[bill_g]

I can remember a time when no one used twitter.

I remember a time when twit meant someone was an idiot.

[northland10]

I can remember a time when one used to write letters.

I can remember a time when my mother would translate my grandmother's letters because nobody else could read her writing (I inherited that handwriting skill).

[RTH10260]

Cops Are Starting To Tow Away Teslas To ‘Secure’ Recordings Captured By The Cars’ Cameras

Tue, Sep 3rd 2024 10:57am -
Tim Cushing

Well, here’s a not-so-fun new twist in the search-and-seizure narrative. Car owners are being deprived of their vehicles just because cops think footage of a crime may have been captured by the car’s on-board cameras.

Tesla’s vehicles carry more cameras than most. Added to the cars as a way to protect owners — either by documenting their theft as it occurs or providing recordings of accidents — they’ve become just another way for investigators to collect evidence in criminal cases. The car doesn’t actually have to be involved in the criminal act. It just has to be within eyeshot (so to speak) of the criminal act.

But being in the wrong place at the wrong time might mean drivers going without cars because cops have decided the best way to secure this potential evidence is to take cars away from their drivers. Here’s Rachel Swan, reporting for the San Francisco Chronicle. (h/t Bluesky user Hypervisible)

A Canadian tourist was visiting Oakland recently when he had to talk someone out of taking his Tesla from a hotel parking lot.

This was no thief. It was the Oakland Police Department. Turns out, the Tesla may have witnessed a homicide.

In Oakland and beyond, police called to crime scenes are increasingly looking for more than shell casings and fingerprints. They’re scanning for Teslas parked nearby, hoping their unique outward-facing cameras captured key evidence. And, the Chronicle has found, they’re even resorting to obtaining warrants to tow the cars to ensure they don’t lose the video.

That’s not… ideal. And it’s something that has happened at least three times in the last two months in Oakland, California alone. The chances of a Tesla being near the scene of the crime is obviously lower than other vehicles, but at this point in time, it’s pretty much only Teslas carrying this many cameras on-board.

That’s going to change in the future, though. Consumer surveillance tech is a growth market. Other manufacturers are going to start doing the same thing, which will lead to similarly explosive growth in the “towing cars because they were near a crime” market.

At least warrants appear to be involved at this point, which means there’s a paper trail documenting law enforcement’s seizure of the inanimate “witness.” Unfortunately, that’s not going to mean much to car owners who may walk out of their houses, businesses, or places of worship to discover their vehicle missing.

Even though this is handled about as well as it can be at this point in time, this kind of thing is only going to become more common. And, inevitably, some cops are going to decide they don’t have time to get a warrant, much less make a good faith effort to secure the recordings from the vehicle’s owner before initiating a seizure.

It’s not that I don’t think investigators should have this option. It’s that I think it will become the default option, rather than the last resort the quoted law enforcement officials claim it is at this moment, especially as more automakers add this tech to their vehicles. This will escalate much in the way geofence warrant usage has over the past half-decade, allowing investigators to farm out their investigative duties to third party service providers. Once it’s common enough and easy enough, the path of least resistance will become the road most traveled. And that’s going to cause serious problems for innocent people who’ve had the misfortune of having their car “witness” a crime.



https://www.techdirt.com/2024/09/03/cop ... s-cameras/