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I take the opposite viewpoint. 99.9% of startups, tech companies, and subjects on Hacker News can go hang themselves. People comparing Steve Jobs to Elon Musk
by natural219 13y ago
I take the opposite viewpoint. 99.9% of startups, tech companies, and subjects on Hacker News can go hang themselves. People comparing Steve Jobs to Elon Musk are, frankly, completely missing the point.
Seriously, this is what baffles me most about Tesla hate. Did everyone forget that our world has had a massive, unsustainable energy crisis for 50 years? Forget climate change for a second, our entire foreign policy since 1973 has been based around securing cheap oil. Every person in our country should be unified in heaping as much praise as humanly possible on Musk because Tesla is literally saving the goddamn world.
- sz4kerto 13y agoTesla cars do not sure solve the energy problem at all. They don't use significantly less energy than a modern diesel BMW, they just use batteries not oil. The energy crisis we have is more related to how can we produce the energy for the batteries.
- pwnna 13y agoInternal combustion engines are incredibly inefficient, compared even to coal plants.
- sz4kerto 13y agoThey're around 20%. Increasing that to 50-60% (as you need t consider the inefficiencies of batteries, transportation of electricity, not just the efficiency of the motor itself) won't save the planet. It helps, but what we need is fusion or something like that.
- ericd 13y agoReducing automotive energy use by a half or two thirds would have an extremely large impact, especially if you consider all of the new autos that will be coming online in India+China. Sure, we still need to switch power generation to cleaner tech as well, but this simplifies the solutions greatly, as power generation will then be concentrated. If we can stop focusing our national attention on trying to secure our oil supplies, we have a better chance at solving the problem as well.
- PeterisP 13y agoUmm, we're not really fighting wars to secure a supply for coal, uranium ore or wind capacity. Oil is exclusive in that regard.
- natural219 13y ago70% of oil use is directed for use in transportation. If we can cut down oil use by 70% by switching to fully electric cars, we have no "oil" crisis. I agree that the "energy crisis" is broader in that it also involves climate change, but specifically I find our numerous wars in the middle east more of an immediate concern for US welfare and much more easily addressable (all you have to do is buy a Tesla).
- lelandbatey 13y agoIt's only saving the world in that it's a step in the right direction. However, it's not the destination; it's not even the thing that'll get us halfway to the destination. It's good, but it's not that good.
- natural219 13y agoWhat else would you recommend we do?
- ams6110 13y ago"crisis for 50 years" is a bit of an oxymoron.
- bronson 13y agoHa, yes. Like a 3 week development sprint.
- natural219 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis I don't think it's a misuse of the word.
- lttlrck 13y agoLiterally!! :-/
- natural219 13y agoLiterally.