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You mean like opening Superchargers up for all EV competitors to use? He already did that.

Build a 68 mile loop in Vegas for ZERO tax dollars and earns both counties in Vegas 5% of revenue? Already inked into an agreement.

Provide a certain country free satellite internet on SpaceX's dollar? Currently doing that.

Offer free satellite hardware for people in Maui? Just did that.

You need checks and balances for prevention of corruption. There's really nothing here where Elon is being corrupt about.

People only focus on the negatives and completely ignore the positives of Elon.
Doesn't matter how many positives there are. What if he's hacked or kidnapped or extorted? If his X account started making outrageous and dangerous statements, we wouldn't even know if it was really him since he's such a loose cannon. Pick your favorite CEO billionaire our tech leader, none of them should have their fingers in that many industries critical to infrastructure and national security. I'm talking about antitrust but for national security. Others in our military and government are already worried about this so don't mistake me for some kind of Elon hater.
 
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SpaceX isn't providing the satellites or the service, they're providing the launch. They do make the launches a lot cheaper, but they didn't make anything about the globalstar network.

It would be kinda ridiculous to boycott an iphone because the SOS network uses satellites that were launched by spacex. That's like... boycotting taco bell because it turns out someone noticed UPS delivers paper supplies to the local taco bell or something. lol.


I don't think this is the appropriate subforum for that topic.
Equating rockets to UPS trucks is a sure way to be completely disingenuous in your argument. If UPS didn't exist, you'd use FedEx for similar pricing. Or DHL. Etc...

Deploying satellites is extremely capital intensive and risky. Globalstar went bankrupt at one point. Bringing down the cost makes the service feasible long term. If it weren't for SpaceX, they'll move on to the next available provider but at a *much higher* cost.
 
Doesn't matter how many positives there are. What if he's hacked or kidnapped or extorted?
What if the president is kidnapped?

There's a line of succession chosen by the board members should anything happen to the head of the company. In a recent deposition, Tesla stated there is a next in line member selected (though they would not state who that was).

Also at SpaceX, immigrants require special permission from the Secretary of Defense/Secretary of State to work there due to the gov categorizing SpaceX's rockets as advanced weapons technology. So it's not like gov has no clue what they're doing with SpaceX should anyone be compromised internationally.
 
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Good stuff, I hope it doesn't translate to major price increases for the iPhone down the line. I think people should have specialized gear to rely on for emergency situations e.g. garmin inReach.
What's so unpopular about this take? I am under the impression that, sometimes, Apple heavily invests in features that all Apple users collectively pay for, but which will never leave the anglosphere (or a group of bigger countries). Even if the features end up being subscriber-only, we've probably already contributed in research and development, maybe some physical phone parts etc. One could argue: let's all pay something extra, so that some people have an extra safety measure. I'd be in favor of that. I'd just like it to be perfectly clear on Apple's side: here's a feature that you are paying for (like for Musk's satellites), that you'll never be able to make use of. Or just make everything available everywhere, which I know is very hard to do. I am still bitter about not being able to use Apple News.

edit: Please delete, I edited the original post.
 
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This is really a stupid feature if you ask me. If you're putting yourself into a situation where you need emergency communications buying an Iridium phone or beacon is a far far better idea. I suspect this might put people off a safety conscious decision because there is some assumption they can fall back on the iPhone, which is extremely difficult to use in this mode I understand, you know when you're injured or incapacitated.

Casual stuff, you might be lucky...

You can find yourself needing this just driving around in California or hundreds of other places. A few early success stories are of people driving off the road and ending up in deep gullies and crevices unreachable by cell services. Unless you are advocating everyone that drives outside of urban areas buy an Iridium, this is a very practical solution.
 
So you're saying instead of Tesla locking down the competition with their industry-leading margins on cars by creating a moat via Superchargers, they're going to open it up and let go of their car sales in favor of some small subsidy for building superchargers? That's freaking hilarious.

You do know that Tesla would get *MORE* subsidies from selling *MORE* cars instead by not opening up the Superchargers to the competition, right?

FYI - Tesla began opening up Superchargers well before any subsidy was on the table. You could have Googled up these facts.


For starters: why was it named the "North American Charging Standard" if it wasn't meant to be standardized? Did he name it that to be deliberately misleading, or did he intend for it to be adopted all along? (Hint: it can't be both.)

Also, will he profit from this in any way at all? If so, it's not charity (or any other act of goodwill), it's a business move to maximize profits realizing you just alienated a large portion of your potential customers.

Additionally, those "industry-leading margins on cars" are easy to see. He upsells electrified base-model budget-mobiles, aka Hyundais. He isn't some sort of genius, he's just able to spot gullible customers. That's not notable. There were plenty of people who peddled Snake Oil in the Wild West, yet none of us remember their names.

What is truly remarkable about Elon, however, is his ability to develop a cult-like following with evangelical fans who defend him as some purveyor of success. I have personally seen him establish a football-like fandom in a person who hates football. That's outstanding cultivation of allegiance and devotion. To a complete stranger no less.
 
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Easily disproved.

If you include design patents, and remove the ones that were never granted, he gets to 8. You've proved it's not zero, but I have to say that is a laughably small number of patents for someone everyone wants to believe is a tech wizard:

1693637786362.png


Jobs, 147:

1693637900266.png
 
Equating rockets to UPS trucks is a sure way to be completely disingenuous in your argument. If UPS didn't exist, you'd use FedEx for similar pricing. Or DHL. Etc...

Deploying satellites is extremely capital intensive and risky. Globalstar went bankrupt at one point. Bringing down the cost makes the service feasible long term. If it weren't for SpaceX, they'll move on to the next available provider but at a *much higher* cost.
Disingenuous is not understanding the underlying value/service being provided: transportation. It is the equivalent of UPS trucks, albeit trucks obviously don't travel to orbit.

And yes, they'd move to the next provider. Because they're not in the business of shipping/transporting stuff to space (at least not yet). They'd go with the cheapest cost/service, which is exactly what SpaceX is providing. Nothing luxury, nothing over the top. Literally just the cheapest option available.
 
So you're saying instead of Tesla locking down the competition with their industry-leading margins on cars by creating a moat via Superchargers, they're going to open it up and let go of their car sales in favor of some small subsidy for building superchargers? That's freaking hilarious.

You do know that Tesla would get *MORE* subsidies from selling *MORE* cars instead by not opening up the Superchargers to the competition, right?

FYI - Tesla began opening up Superchargers well before any subsidy was on the table. You could have Googled up these facts.

None of this is for the greater good. Opening the charging network was a survival move. There is going to be one standard-- either Tesla opens theirs to everyone, or they will have to take on the expense to make their cars compatible with the other standard.

Other consortia are investing heavily in charging networks, leaving Tesla the minority player:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/...ectric-vehicles-fast-chargers-automakers.html

"BMW Group, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz Group and Stellantis — will initially invest at least $1 billion in a joint venture that will build 30,000 charging ports on major highways and other locations in the United States and Canada.​
The United States and Canada have about 36,000 fast chargers"​

Even of the existing network, only half are Tesla, and their share is about to get cut to a quarter. Meanwhile, Musk is talking big and playing his stupid games behind the scenes. He's opened less than 100 ports so far:

"Tesla accounts for more than half the fast chargers in the United States and has said it will open its networks to other car brands, though, so far, it has made fewer than 100 ports available."​


Telsa also stands to earn a fair amount of revenue from the deal:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/8/23754470/gm-tesla-ev-supercharger-nacs-elon-musk

"Tesla’s move to open chargers in the US using “Magic Dock” adapters allows the automaker to dip into the Biden administration’s pool of incentives out of a $7.5 billion plan to expand EVs and charging networks nationwide."​


https://fortune.com/2023/06/09/tesla-charging-deals-gm-ford-standard/

"Tesla’s charging deals with GM and Ford will set the U.S. standard and bring in an estimated $3 billion annually by 2030, analyst says"​
"The deals, which now make Tesla’s charging model the standard in the US among the largest American automakers, will pressure competitors to ditch the primary competing standard, known as CCS."​
 
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This is really a stupid feature if you ask me. If you're putting yourself into a situation where you need emergency communications buying an Iridium phone or beacon is a far far better idea. I suspect this might put people off a safety conscious decision because there is some assumption they can fall back on the iPhone, which is extremely difficult to use in this mode I understand, you know when you're injured or incapacitated.

Casual stuff, you might be lucky...
The people who got stuck in that Hawaiian wildfire would like to disagree with this statement. Just because YOU don't find it useful, don't outright bash it as a stupid gimmick.
 
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Elon did invite Apple to talk things over when they announced the SOS satellite feature. Maybe Apple was better off just using Starlink as V2 satellites talk to each other via lasers and thus no need for many ground stations.
 
Elon is the most impactful innovator since SJ.
Really curious to know what he came our with, if you weren’t just trying to piss people off.
I'd say the only thing he invented is a strategy to defraud people: come out with a few cool but mostly pre-existent businesses (electric cars, satellites), promise a bunch of unbelievable features and side projects to collect money, only deliver stuff anybody else could have delivered, if they had enough money.
The whole "real life iron man" thing... that's marketing, 100%.
 
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This is really a stupid feature if you ask me. If you're putting yourself into a situation where you need emergency communications buying an Iridium phone or beacon is a far far better idea. I suspect this might put people off a safety conscious decision because there is some assumption they can fall back on the iPhone, which is extremely difficult to use in this mode I understand, you know when you're injured or incapacitated.

Casual stuff, you might be lucky...

So there is no way in the future the feature will be as easy to use as texting?
 
Disingenuous is not understanding the underlying value/service being provided: transportation.
By your logic, the analogy of a waiter moving food from chef's kitchen to your table is like putting satellites on a rocket and launching it to space

It's an extremely dumb, disingenuous comparison.
 
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While I doubt this will happen, I honestly don’t know why anyone would talk about that possibility positively.

Because his products are actually doing a good thing. Superchargers for all EVs? High speed satellite internet for everyone? Low cost tunnels to help traffic congestion? Brain chips to restore function of the human body?

People are not “Elon haters” - you act as if it’s personal or something.
Plenty of comments on MR forums stating long the lines of "as long as Elon is having a bad day, I'm happy".
 
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elon haters going to boycott iphones now? lol imagine being this angry at elon

going to be a sad future for those people when elon products are everywhere
Really, you're imagining "Elon Haters" being angry at Apple hitching a ride with Elon's rockets? As a first comment? Sure, dude, you're absolutely not part of the problem.
 
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Really, you're imagining "Elon Haters" being angry at Apple hitching a ride with Elon's rockets?
If you're ignoring what literally exists after this article was posted, I surely am not the problem.
 
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