Tesla has taken down 2016 release noting full self driving hardware capability (opens in new tab)

Freedom of speech ? Tesla pretty much survived thanks to Elon's deal with China to build the Shanghai factory. He never ever said anything about freedom of speech there.

He also actively tried and succeed to shut down people pointing out online that Tesla finances were in a very dire state at the time (2018). Lookup 'Montana Sceptic' case - he found out the guy, personally called the office he worked in, and threatened with lawsuits, which would include his employer.

EDIT: I shared your point of view until quite recently.

I recommend this book to understand how we got here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludicrous:_The_Unvarnished_Sto...

Drugs. He was first seen publicly smoking pot in 2018, and it's been downhill since then.

Not if the inferior product is good enough for your purposes.

And not if you value your principles highly enough.

Plus the image/perception of someone buying a Tesla today is getting close to red hat territory for some.

Plenty of reasons why this isn’t a “self own.”

In the end, diplomacy (and the power to back it up) is truly the best way to go.

Then China had an anti satellite test in 2007.

Basically what I am saying is that your idea is not new, and it is not getting anywhere either. Trying to weaponize space is just more war-mongering.

I am not American.

yes. Missile shields threaten the ability of an enemy to retaliate, they're first strike enablers (so despite the name, effectively offensive weapons). The only rational choice for an opponent would then be to strike immediately before they're rendered defenseless. You would have effectively bought yourself an immediate nuclear war once Russia perceived that threat to be imminent.

Your existence hinging on a dictators mood isn't nice, but what's worse is making it game theoretically necessary for them to glass you immediately.

https://breakingdefense.com/2022/02/no-us-missile-defense-sy...

The US has wasted over 350 billion dollars on this with nothing to show for it. And that's an attempt to stop one ICBM with one reentry vehicle.

Russian missiles are far more sophisticated and their launchers are all over the place. You can't stop them on the ascent phase where this would be feasible.

After that stopping a modern ICBM is impossible. A single missile contains up to a dozen warheads (MIRV) plus decoys all moving at several miles per second! There's no hope.

No amount of wishful thinking is going to overcome basic physics.

If we don't like the dictator we should depose them and support democracy everywhere. Instead we worked with Putin, we helped install him, Europe helped legitimize him. It's on us that we're in mortal danger again.

https://thebulletin.org/2023/06/one-nuclear-armed-poseidon-t...

Tesla recently settled a lawsuit (where the Tesla driver died) recently from an old 2018 incident, so maybe the family saw an opportunity to try their own suit 2yrs after the incident https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tesla-autopilot-death-settl...

That's because it would be a safety downgrade, and the public never accepts new technology which does the same as a previous one, yet drops a safety feature.

For example, requiring a handbrake separate from the main brakes in cars. There hasn't been an engineering reason to keep these separate for 50 years, the main brakes already are doubly redundant. But people won't adjust laws to reduce safety, even if the safety reduction is so vanishingly small so as to not matter.