5 ms·

Tesla released a promotional video in 2016 saying that with FSD a human driver is not necessary and that "The person in the driver's seat is only there for lega

Tesla released a promotional video in 2016 saying that with FSD a human driver is not necessary and that "The person in the driver's seat is only there for legal reasons". The video was staged as we've learned in 2022. 2016 folks... Even with today's FSD which is several orders of magnitude better than the one in the video, you would still probably have a serious accident within a week (and I'm being generous here) if you didn't seat in the driver's seat. How Trevor Milton got sentenced for fraud and the people responsible for this were not is a mystery to me.

sschueller 2y ago
[flagged]
- nemo44x 2y ago
  He’s not doing anything activists haven’t done for years to get out the vote. In college famous rock and hip hop groups would come on campus to play shows that had voter registration tables upon entry and lots of messaging about who to vote for and then being endlessly recruited to volunteer/phone bank/canvas for some group that was supporting the event. Activism cuts both ways.
  - sschueller 2y ago
    That may be but were they required to sign a PAC's pledge to enter such concert? I think this might be over the line but a court has the decide this.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - matwood 2y ago
    Direct payments do seem to be illegal in a way that having a rally or concert or canvassing are not. https://electionlawblog.org/?p=146397 https://electionlawblog.org/?p=146397
    - nemo44x 2y ago
      You’re not obligated to do anything like vote or vote a certain way. Money is speech and it’s an advertisement. That’s just some random blog. I’m sure Musks’s lawyers understand what they’re doing. Frankly I find it inspiring he cares enough about our democracy to encourage people to participate in it at great expense of his own. You love to see innovation in turning out voters who may not otherwise have their voices heard.
      - shadowfacts 2y ago
        It's not a random blog making some conjectures, Rick Hasen is a law professor who is an expert in this area and, moreover, he cites specifics statutes and DOJ information that's not all that ambiguous.
        rvnx 2y ago
        Yes but he didn't take into consideration that laws don't apply when you are a billionaire and that you hold both state secrets (via DoD/Starlink) and connections to foreign countries. So Musk will be fine, especially if Trump wins.
        nemo44x 2y ago
        He gets basic facts wrong in his blog though. For instance the rewards are for referring people to sign a petition that says you support 1a and 2a. You need to be registered for your voice to count. He’s not paying them to register but rather to refer registered people to sign it. So it’s up to an individual to find registered voters to sign it so they can collect their $47 bounty per referred signee.
        matwood 2y ago
        > He gets basic facts wrong in his blog though. No, he doesn't. He references the $47 as 'murky legality'. What he's stating is clearly illegal is the $1M lottery also announced by Musk. And Musk does what he wants regardless of lawyers. Remember when he tried to back out of buying Twitter...
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - lawn 2y ago
    Paying someone to vote a certain way is in fact illegal though.
    - nemo44x 2y ago
      You can vote for whomever you’d like. His PAC isn’t asking you to prove you voted or voted for a particular person to get the money. They’re just generating buzz and interest in the candidate they feel is better.
throw627004 2y ago
[flagged]
- mglz 2y ago
  > Why is he trying to buy a president in the first place? Because he can make more money under one than the other.
  - throw627004 2y ago
    Obviously yeah, but I do think his odd fervor in this allows us to speculate that there are some threats to his businesses that are not well understood publicly, and that would be solved by becoming a sort of American oligarch.
    - throw627004 2y ago
      It's really not much of a stretch. In addition to the risks to Tesla raised upthread, SpaceX needs an ambitious space program, and Mars program specifically along the lines of Musk's ideas. Capturing the US government is a great way to get there.
1f60c 2y ago
AFAIK the owner's manual says you have to keep your hands on the wheel and be ready to take over at all times, but Elon Musk and co. love to pretend otherwise.
- Flameancer 2y ago
  This part doesn’t seem to be common knowledge. I don’t own a Tesla but I have been a few. From my understanding the feature as always said it was in beta and that it still required that you have your hands on the wheel. I like the idea of FSD, but I think we should have a serious talk about how the safety implications of making this more broadly available and also compatibility with making a mesh network so FSD vehicles can communicate. I’m not well versed in the tech but I feel like it would be safer if you have like say have more cars on the road that can communicate and making decisions together than separate cars existing in a vacuum having to make a decision.
  - y-c-o-m-b 2y ago
    I've wondered about the networked vehicle communication for a while. It doesn't even need to be FSD. I might be slightly wrong on this, but I would guess most cars going back at least a decade can have their software/firmware modified to do this if the manufacturers so choose. I imagine it would improve the reliability and reaction-times of FSD considerably.

sschueller 2y ago

[flagged]

nemo44x 2y ago
He’s not doing anything activists haven’t done for years to get out the vote. In college famous rock and hip hop groups would come on campus to play shows that had voter registration tables upon entry and lots of messaging about who to vote for and then being endlessly recruited to volunteer/phone bank/canvas for some group that was supporting the event. Activism cuts both ways.
- sschueller 2y ago
  That may be but were they required to sign a PAC's pledge to enter such concert? I think this might be over the line but a court has the decide this.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- matwood 2y ago
  Direct payments do seem to be illegal in a way that having a rally or concert or canvassing are not. https://electionlawblog.org/?p=146397 https://electionlawblog.org/?p=146397
  - nemo44x 2y ago
    You’re not obligated to do anything like vote or vote a certain way. Money is speech and it’s an advertisement. That’s just some random blog. I’m sure Musks’s lawyers understand what they’re doing. Frankly I find it inspiring he cares enough about our democracy to encourage people to participate in it at great expense of his own. You love to see innovation in turning out voters who may not otherwise have their voices heard.
    - shadowfacts 2y ago
      It's not a random blog making some conjectures, Rick Hasen is a law professor who is an expert in this area and, moreover, he cites specifics statutes and DOJ information that's not all that ambiguous.
      - rvnx 2y ago
        Yes but he didn't take into consideration that laws don't apply when you are a billionaire and that you hold both state secrets (via DoD/Starlink) and connections to foreign countries. So Musk will be fine, especially if Trump wins.
      - nemo44x 2y ago
        He gets basic facts wrong in his blog though. For instance the rewards are for referring people to sign a petition that says you support 1a and 2a. You need to be registered for your voice to count. He’s not paying them to register but rather to refer registered people to sign it. So it’s up to an individual to find registered voters to sign it so they can collect their $47 bounty per referred signee.
        matwood 2y ago
        > He gets basic facts wrong in his blog though. No, he doesn't. He references the $47 as 'murky legality'. What he's stating is clearly illegal is the $1M lottery also announced by Musk. And Musk does what he wants regardless of lawyers. Remember when he tried to back out of buying Twitter...
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- lawn 2y ago
  Paying someone to vote a certain way is in fact illegal though.
  - nemo44x 2y ago
    You can vote for whomever you’d like. His PAC isn’t asking you to prove you voted or voted for a particular person to get the money. They’re just generating buzz and interest in the candidate they feel is better.

throw627004 2y ago

[flagged]

mglz 2y ago
> Why is he trying to buy a president in the first place? Because he can make more money under one than the other.
- throw627004 2y ago
  Obviously yeah, but I do think his odd fervor in this allows us to speculate that there are some threats to his businesses that are not well understood publicly, and that would be solved by becoming a sort of American oligarch.
  - throw627004 2y ago
    It's really not much of a stretch. In addition to the risks to Tesla raised upthread, SpaceX needs an ambitious space program, and Mars program specifically along the lines of Musk's ideas. Capturing the US government is a great way to get there.

1f60c 2y ago

AFAIK the owner's manual says you have to keep your hands on the wheel and be ready to take over at all times, but Elon Musk and co. love to pretend otherwise.

Flameancer 2y ago
This part doesn’t seem to be common knowledge. I don’t own a Tesla but I have been a few. From my understanding the feature as always said it was in beta and that it still required that you have your hands on the wheel. I like the idea of FSD, but I think we should have a serious talk about how the safety implications of making this more broadly available and also compatibility with making a mesh network so FSD vehicles can communicate. I’m not well versed in the tech but I feel like it would be safer if you have like say have more cars on the road that can communicate and making decisions together than separate cars existing in a vacuum having to make a decision.
- y-c-o-m-b 2y ago
  I've wondered about the networked vehicle communication for a while. It doesn't even need to be FSD. I might be slightly wrong on this, but I would guess most cars going back at least a decade can have their software/firmware modified to do this if the manufacturers so choose. I imagine it would improve the reliability and reaction-times of FSD considerably.