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Every time I see a CyberTruck out in the wild, I feel like reality is broken. The level of disaster of that rollout, combined with D.O.G.E. and "Mechahitler" G

Every time I see a CyberTruck out in the wild, I feel like reality is broken. The level of disaster of that rollout, combined with D.O.G.E. and "Mechahitler" Grok, has forever tarnished the Tesla brand. I suspect there is a sizable group of people who will never buy a product by that brand ever again (or at least as long as Musk is at the helm).

ekjhgkejhgk 10mo ago
I notice you skipped mentioning the CEO doing nazi salutes.
- narcotraffico1 10mo ago
  I love how they claim it wasn't a nazi salute... that was absolutely a nazi salute. Nobody can watch that and say that it wasn't.
  - homieg33 10mo ago
    I saw it live (before all the commentary) and didn’t think it was a nazi salute :/
    - brazukadev 10mo ago
      What do you think now?
    - heavyset_go 10mo ago
      Here's a video[1] of it to jog anyone's memory who saw and might not remember it. [1] https://reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/1i7w4nz https://reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/1i7w4nz
      - tim333 10mo ago
        I gave him some benefit of the doubt at first that he might just have a weird 'my heart goes out to you' gesture. But footage was found of him doing an actual one of those https://www.reddit.com/r/centrist/comments/1i8ajx0/video_of_musk_making_an_actual_my_heart_goes_out/ https://www.reddit.com/r/centrist/comments/1i8ajx0/video_of_... Completely different.
    - spiderfarmer 10mo ago
      But now you know it was one. His platform pushes nazi propaganda as well, often amplified by Musk himself.
    - gamblor956 10mo ago
      [flagged]
    - CamperBob2 10mo ago
      You didn't think this [1] was a Nazi salute? 1: https://i.imgur.com/MF2aEM3.gif https://i.imgur.com/MF2aEM3.gif
    - muwtyhg 10mo ago
      What about after, when he explained it away by making "I did not 'Nazi' that coming" jokes on Twitter?
  - hazbot 10mo ago
    When I watched a very short clip juxtaposed next to a clip of a nazi salute, then it looked like one to me. But when I watched it in context, it looked like a man putting a hand on his heart and then proffering his thanks to the audience. My belief is that it was most likely not a nazi salute and is not relevant evidence in the important task of assessing Musk's political stances.
    - ZeroGravitas 10mo ago
      Yes, when he said the Jews were intentionally importing substandard humans into western nations to undermine the US, I didn't need hand gestures to think he's a Nazi either.
      - pxc 10mo ago
        I don't follow Musk's utterances. Is this a joke or something Musk has actually said?
        UncleMeat 10mo ago
        Musk responded "you have said the actual truth" to a tweet saying this.
        tim333 10mo ago
        Though he apologised: >"I'm sorry for that tweet or post," Musk said Wednesday. "It was foolish of me."
        ModernMech 10mo ago
        That apology is for posting it, not for believing it.
        defrost 10mo ago
        When Musk purchased and rebranded Twitter as X he also unbanned a large number of accounts famed for Nazi and similar race based content. He has famously thumbs-ed up significant chunks of such content and in the event mentioned here replied to an explicit statement (as outlined about) as being "the actual truth". See, eg: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67446800 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67446800 He is an unquestionable fan of Nazi like content, many will shrug it off as his grandfather was an actual Nazi fan (having to move from Canada(?) to South Africa because of such beliefs), and his uncle (IIRC, certainly a close family relative) was a senior member of the South African apartheid government.
- EnPissant 10mo ago
  Incredible this comment is 4 hours old and not flagged. Hacker news is dead.
antaviana 10mo ago
Eventually, they’ll be fine. Wolkswagen was established by the German nazi regime and it has been fine for a long time in spite of its past.
- toss1 10mo ago
  Great example, but I'm no so sure. The board and shareholders had their chance to dump Musk a few weeks ago; they could have just turned down his ridiculous pay package and he would have left. They didn't so he'll be dragging them down for at least another decade.
- tw04 10mo ago
  Volkswagen was handed over to be run by a British military officer immediately following the war. Tesla’s board decided after the war was lost to not only let the nazi sympathizer continue running the company, but to give him an egregiously disproportionate compensation package. The guy who single handedly pushed the biggest failure in the history of the company (cybertruck) is apparently the only one who can save the company. I expect at some point they’ll be acquired for pennies on the dollar by a Chinese company or if Trump gets his way he’ll insist on a government takeover.
  - spiderfarmer 10mo ago
    He’ll probably let Jared Kushner have a go.
toss1 10mo ago
Yup Every time I see a CyberTruck out in the wild, I am still just stunned by the crappy design — like a dumpster designed for anti-performance — the wheel positioning and size is all wrong, and the metalwork always looks cheap because the 'flat' surfaces are always wavy or rippled, and the seams don't match up properly. I am definitely one of those people who used to look forward to buying a Tesla next time I change vehicles, but will never consider it now (and I'm big on electric vehicles).
- ben_w 10mo ago
  Mm. So, I've not seen one in the wild (I'm in Europe they're not road legal here), so the only things I see are either distance shots or close-ups; the distance shots are mostly beauty shots, the close-ups are mostly showing one of the many production problems the design has. From a distance, the design looks cool to me… as a child of the 80s who grew up with low-poly graphics. But "looks cool" doesn't mean "I approve"; given the sharp edges, the traditional American car design with worse visibility for children crossing too close in front of you than an Abrams tank, even just given the physical size, I'm glad the EU already had rules preventing it from being road legal here. And that's even if they fix all the issues that led to the unglamorous close-ups.
scrubs 10mo ago
Shareholders must be the weakest most by-passable interest group in corporate america. Would I stand by and allow my shares and future profits flounder while the head guy goes rogue? No blankin' way. Regardless of personal preference for politics, no serious organization should ever want to come within one light year of DC politics. It can only use, besmirch, tarnish, degrade the organization's credibility and from there hit into money. Trump makes it exponentially worse.
impulser_ 10mo ago
Yeah I think it will probably go down as the biggest mistake Tesla has made. They could have spent all the effort building EV delivery trucks with built in self driving which would help them collect even more data for FSD to tell them rollout robotaxis.
- ModernMech 10mo ago
  Camera only is still a bigger mistake because without LiDAR, the EV delivery trucks with built in self driving will not work.
  - ben_w 10mo ago
    Even if camera-only does work*, it's still a mistake, because it was a bet that LiDAR wouldn't get cheap. * I think it will, eventually, but "eventually" can be a long time, and the point is that this no longer even matters because of how cheap LiDAR is now.
kjellsbells 10mo ago
The weird thing I find with the Cybertruck is that I never see anyone using it for obviously truck-y things. For example, I've never seen a CT in the wild with the bed open. You'd expect to see it hauling ladders or tools or towing horse boxes and so on, but nope. It makes me curious why. Is the truck overpriced for anyone who needs a truck to work? That seems unlikely, trucks are already north of 70,000 bucks. Are there no accessories like towing hitches? Seems unlikely. Is it just not a usefully sized bed? That would be a bizarre miss for a truck designer. I just dont understand it. As a truck, is the CT any good, or no?
- subdude 10mo ago
  Honestly, you could say the same things about most trucks. They’re used more for posturing than as tools at this point. Though the CT does seem to be particularly unreliable based on its frequent recalls.
  - Zigurd 10mo ago
    Irony is that, at least moving forward, you can see a child in front of a cyber truck before you crush them. But if you hit any anyone with those sharp edges... US truck customers are getting smarter. The fleet trucks, for HVAC, plumbers, and appliance installation and repair, I see in my area are almost all vans now. Butch pickup trucks still have the gender affirming care market.
- adrianN 10mo ago
  Trucks are virtually nonexistent where I live. People who want to transport stuff mostly use VW Crafters or pull a trailer with their regular car.
baranul 10mo ago
That might be true in the US, but it doesn't appear to be so for Tesla in the rest of the world. For example, Tesla is the number 1 selling EV in Norway. They have also opened Tesla dealerships in India. Potentially, whatever damage they have done to themselves in the US, they might be able to offset that with good sales in other friendlier countries. While they've hurt their image in the US, for now, that might change over time. 5 or 10 years from now, possibly aided by more success from SpaceX, Tesla's or Musk's image could recover.

ekjhgkejhgk 10mo ago

I notice you skipped mentioning the CEO doing nazi salutes.

narcotraffico1 10mo ago
I love how they claim it wasn't a nazi salute... that was absolutely a nazi salute. Nobody can watch that and say that it wasn't.
- homieg33 10mo ago
  I saw it live (before all the commentary) and didn’t think it was a nazi salute :/
  - brazukadev 10mo ago
    What do you think now?
  - heavyset_go 10mo ago
    Here's a video[1] of it to jog anyone's memory who saw and might not remember it. [1] https://reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/1i7w4nz https://reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/1i7w4nz
    - tim333 10mo ago
      I gave him some benefit of the doubt at first that he might just have a weird 'my heart goes out to you' gesture. But footage was found of him doing an actual one of those https://www.reddit.com/r/centrist/comments/1i8ajx0/video_of_musk_making_an_actual_my_heart_goes_out/ https://www.reddit.com/r/centrist/comments/1i8ajx0/video_of_... Completely different.
  - spiderfarmer 10mo ago
    But now you know it was one. His platform pushes nazi propaganda as well, often amplified by Musk himself.
  - gamblor956 10mo ago
    [flagged]
  - CamperBob2 10mo ago
    You didn't think this [1] was a Nazi salute? 1: https://i.imgur.com/MF2aEM3.gif https://i.imgur.com/MF2aEM3.gif
  - muwtyhg 10mo ago
    What about after, when he explained it away by making "I did not 'Nazi' that coming" jokes on Twitter?
- hazbot 10mo ago
  When I watched a very short clip juxtaposed next to a clip of a nazi salute, then it looked like one to me. But when I watched it in context, it looked like a man putting a hand on his heart and then proffering his thanks to the audience. My belief is that it was most likely not a nazi salute and is not relevant evidence in the important task of assessing Musk's political stances.
  - ZeroGravitas 10mo ago
    Yes, when he said the Jews were intentionally importing substandard humans into western nations to undermine the US, I didn't need hand gestures to think he's a Nazi either.
    - pxc 10mo ago
      I don't follow Musk's utterances. Is this a joke or something Musk has actually said?
      - UncleMeat 10mo ago
        Musk responded "you have said the actual truth" to a tweet saying this.
        tim333 10mo ago
        Though he apologised: >"I'm sorry for that tweet or post," Musk said Wednesday. "It was foolish of me."
        ModernMech 10mo ago
        That apology is for posting it, not for believing it.
      - defrost 10mo ago
        When Musk purchased and rebranded Twitter as X he also unbanned a large number of accounts famed for Nazi and similar race based content. He has famously thumbs-ed up significant chunks of such content and in the event mentioned here replied to an explicit statement (as outlined about) as being "the actual truth". See, eg: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67446800 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67446800 He is an unquestionable fan of Nazi like content, many will shrug it off as his grandfather was an actual Nazi fan (having to move from Canada(?) to South Africa because of such beliefs), and his uncle (IIRC, certainly a close family relative) was a senior member of the South African apartheid government.
EnPissant 10mo ago
Incredible this comment is 4 hours old and not flagged. Hacker news is dead.

antaviana 10mo ago

Eventually, they’ll be fine. Wolkswagen was established by the German nazi regime and it has been fine for a long time in spite of its past.

toss1 10mo ago
Great example, but I'm no so sure. The board and shareholders had their chance to dump Musk a few weeks ago; they could have just turned down his ridiculous pay package and he would have left. They didn't so he'll be dragging them down for at least another decade.
tw04 10mo ago
Volkswagen was handed over to be run by a British military officer immediately following the war. Tesla’s board decided after the war was lost to not only let the nazi sympathizer continue running the company, but to give him an egregiously disproportionate compensation package. The guy who single handedly pushed the biggest failure in the history of the company (cybertruck) is apparently the only one who can save the company. I expect at some point they’ll be acquired for pennies on the dollar by a Chinese company or if Trump gets his way he’ll insist on a government takeover.
- spiderfarmer 10mo ago
  He’ll probably let Jared Kushner have a go.

toss1 10mo ago

Yup Every time I see a CyberTruck out in the wild, I am still just stunned by the crappy design — like a dumpster designed for anti-performance — the wheel positioning and size is all wrong, and the metalwork always looks cheap because the 'flat' surfaces are always wavy or rippled, and the seams don't match up properly. I am definitely one of those people who used to look forward to buying a Tesla next time I change vehicles, but will never consider it now (and I'm big on electric vehicles).

ben_w 10mo ago
Mm. So, I've not seen one in the wild (I'm in Europe they're not road legal here), so the only things I see are either distance shots or close-ups; the distance shots are mostly beauty shots, the close-ups are mostly showing one of the many production problems the design has. From a distance, the design looks cool to me… as a child of the 80s who grew up with low-poly graphics. But "looks cool" doesn't mean "I approve"; given the sharp edges, the traditional American car design with worse visibility for children crossing too close in front of you than an Abrams tank, even just given the physical size, I'm glad the EU already had rules preventing it from being road legal here. And that's even if they fix all the issues that led to the unglamorous close-ups.

scrubs 10mo ago

Shareholders must be the weakest most by-passable interest group in corporate america. Would I stand by and allow my shares and future profits flounder while the head guy goes rogue? No blankin' way. Regardless of personal preference for politics, no serious organization should ever want to come within one light year of DC politics. It can only use, besmirch, tarnish, degrade the organization's credibility and from there hit into money. Trump makes it exponentially worse.

impulser_ 10mo ago

Yeah I think it will probably go down as the biggest mistake Tesla has made. They could have spent all the effort building EV delivery trucks with built in self driving which would help them collect even more data for FSD to tell them rollout robotaxis.

ModernMech 10mo ago
Camera only is still a bigger mistake because without LiDAR, the EV delivery trucks with built in self driving will not work.
- ben_w 10mo ago
  Even if camera-only does work*, it's still a mistake, because it was a bet that LiDAR wouldn't get cheap. * I think it will, eventually, but "eventually" can be a long time, and the point is that this no longer even matters because of how cheap LiDAR is now.

kjellsbells 10mo ago

The weird thing I find with the Cybertruck is that I never see anyone using it for obviously truck-y things. For example, I've never seen a CT in the wild with the bed open. You'd expect to see it hauling ladders or tools or towing horse boxes and so on, but nope. It makes me curious why. Is the truck overpriced for anyone who needs a truck to work? That seems unlikely, trucks are already north of 70,000 bucks. Are there no accessories like towing hitches? Seems unlikely. Is it just not a usefully sized bed? That would be a bizarre miss for a truck designer. I just dont understand it. As a truck, is the CT any good, or no?

subdude 10mo ago
Honestly, you could say the same things about most trucks. They’re used more for posturing than as tools at this point. Though the CT does seem to be particularly unreliable based on its frequent recalls.
- Zigurd 10mo ago
  Irony is that, at least moving forward, you can see a child in front of a cyber truck before you crush them. But if you hit any anyone with those sharp edges... US truck customers are getting smarter. The fleet trucks, for HVAC, plumbers, and appliance installation and repair, I see in my area are almost all vans now. Butch pickup trucks still have the gender affirming care market.
adrianN 10mo ago
Trucks are virtually nonexistent where I live. People who want to transport stuff mostly use VW Crafters or pull a trailer with their regular car.

baranul 10mo ago

That might be true in the US, but it doesn't appear to be so for Tesla in the rest of the world. For example, Tesla is the number 1 selling EV in Norway. They have also opened Tesla dealerships in India. Potentially, whatever damage they have done to themselves in the US, they might be able to offset that with good sales in other friendlier countries. While they've hurt their image in the US, for now, that might change over time. 5 or 10 years from now, possibly aided by more success from SpaceX, Tesla's or Musk's image could recover.