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I'm frankly amazed they lasted this long given the shadiness and scandals. I've seen a lot of "fake it til you make it" in tech startup land, including lots of

I'm frankly amazed they lasted this long given the shadiness and scandals. I've seen a lot of "fake it til you make it" in tech startup land, including lots of tall claims, but I don't think I've seen any case as bad as Nikola's founder (Trevor Milton). Dude straight up lied about the product, it's capabilities and it's current state, to include faking test results and using camera tricks to make videos of a truck driving as "proof" that it worked. One example, they were "driving" (actually rolling) down a hill but angled the camera so that the ground would look flat making it appear the truck was driving under its own power[1]. Pretty wild story. [1] From TFA: "In 2018, Milton posted a video on X that showed the truck seemingly cruise down a flat road. But it was all smoke and mirrors, prosecutors say. “In fact, to film these clips, the Nikola One was towed to the top of a hill, at which point the ‘driver’ released the brakes, and the truck rolled down the hill until being brought to a stop in front of the stop sign,” the Department of Justice wrote in the release Monday."

kjrfghslkdjfl 2y ago
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sorokod 2y ago
Theranos wasn't that long ago.
LaundroMat 2y ago
I'm amazed too because I had a genuine Mandela-effect moment here. I really thought they'd had gone bankrupt years ago.
cynicalsecurity 2y ago
This kind if behaviour is criminal.
Veserv 2y ago
I mean, it worked and is working for the other company named after Nikola Tesla, Tesla. Straight up lied about FSD, its capabilities and it's current state, to include faking test results as "proof" that it worked. One example, the "car is driving itself" in 2016, but they actually staged the video [1], the vehicle crashed at least once while gathering footage, and edited the footage [2], and were still unable to complete the claimed route to the standard advertised 7 years later [3]. Including objectively false claims [4] that it skipped a disabled spot because it "reads the signs" even though it still can not read signs and could not autonomously park as part of a route until around 2024. If a much bigger and higher profile company can make even more outrageous lies to pump their valuation to non-accredited investors and make their investor and CEO one of the richest people in the world, it should be no surprise that others follow suit. Outrageous lies are the path to riches. [1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-video-promoting-self-driving-was-staged-engineer-testifies-2023-01-17/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-video-promoting-sel... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPgbDEVYOUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPgbDEVYOUQ [3] https://vimeo.com/863217478/9e527571f6 https://vimeo.com/863217478/9e527571f6 [4] https://x.com/elonmusk/status/789020841489018880 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/789020841489018880

kjrfghslkdjfl 2y ago

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sorokod 2y ago

Theranos wasn't that long ago.

LaundroMat 2y ago

I'm amazed too because I had a genuine Mandela-effect moment here. I really thought they'd had gone bankrupt years ago.

cynicalsecurity 2y ago

This kind if behaviour is criminal.

Veserv 2y ago

I mean, it worked and is working for the other company named after Nikola Tesla, Tesla. Straight up lied about FSD, its capabilities and it's current state, to include faking test results as "proof" that it worked. One example, the "car is driving itself" in 2016, but they actually staged the video [1], the vehicle crashed at least once while gathering footage, and edited the footage [2], and were still unable to complete the claimed route to the standard advertised 7 years later [3]. Including objectively false claims [4] that it skipped a disabled spot because it "reads the signs" even though it still can not read signs and could not autonomously park as part of a route until around 2024. If a much bigger and higher profile company can make even more outrageous lies to pump their valuation to non-accredited investors and make their investor and CEO one of the richest people in the world, it should be no surprise that others follow suit. Outrageous lies are the path to riches. [1] https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-video-promoting-self-driving-was-staged-engineer-testifies-2023-01-17/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-video-promoting-sel... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPgbDEVYOUQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPgbDEVYOUQ [3] https://vimeo.com/863217478/9e527571f6 https://vimeo.com/863217478/9e527571f6 [4] https://x.com/elonmusk/status/789020841489018880 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/789020841489018880