undefined | Better HN

0 pointscosmicgadget1y ago0 comments

Tesla's success/threat pushed traditional automakers to actually build EVs at scale. It convinced consumers that EVs are viable and kickstarted charging infrastructure. The left accomplished its goal even if it probably would have preferred Elon not go all Kanye on us.

0 comments

6 comments · 2 top-level

esalman1y ago· 3 in thread

> The left accomplished its goal

Yeah we allowed a deranged billionaire to transform auto industry, even if it cost us democracy and threats of fascism and authoritarianism for the foreseeable future.

Completely delusional.

cosmicgadgetOP1y ago

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

esalman1y ago

A lot of people, including me, realized even as early as circa 2018 that he was a nutcase. Imo the point of post hoc ergo should've been when he said zero Covid case by April (2020).

cosmicgadgetOP1y ago

Sure but the authoritarianism outcome was not predestined by simply funding the technologies he invested in. Plenty of eccentric and/or drug-addled billionaires went on to live relatively harmless lives. He could have been a jar-pissing recluse or spent his days pinning the weasel in a Caribbean polycule dormitory or gone on wild John McAfee adventures.

The place we went wrong wasn't incentivizing Tesla, it was allowing the other guy to escape conviction.

AngryData1y ago· 1 in thread

I don't know if I can actually believe that. EVs were already coming. Yeah the rollout was a bit slower than the demand for them in established companies, but not by much. People had already been driving hybrid vehicles for quite awhile, and some electric cars already existed even if most were lower mileage/smaller battery models.

To me it is like claiming without iphones we wouldn't have gotten smartphones or touchscreens until a decade later. Except PDAs and touch screens already existed, apple just got a few years jump start on a big brand model before many other companies did the math on how cheap mobile computing and touch screens were becoming.

cosmicgadgetOP1y ago

I'm not convinced it's a good comparison. Even in the dumbphone days we had the Blackberry and NGage and JavaME and other attempts to be the next big thing. It just took a few years and certainly wasn't because of Apple.

With automakers it seemed like in the 20-teens they all shrugged and said, "looks like hybrids are the best we can do". Then Tesla started selling sedans and SUVs and exactly one legacy auto design cycle later we got the electric Mustang, Golf, 3-series, etc. I think they would have milked ICE as long as they could had no one come along with a successful ev.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

6 comments · 2 top-level

esalman1y ago· 3 in thread

> The left accomplished its goal

Yeah we allowed a deranged billionaire to transform auto industry, even if it cost us democracy and threats of fascism and authoritarianism for the foreseeable future.

Completely delusional.

cosmicgadgetOP1y ago

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

esalman1y ago

A lot of people, including me, realized even as early as circa 2018 that he was a nutcase. Imo the point of post hoc ergo should've been when he said zero Covid case by April (2020).

cosmicgadgetOP1y ago

The place we went wrong wasn't incentivizing Tesla, it was allowing the other guy to escape conviction.

AngryData1y ago· 1 in thread

cosmicgadgetOP1y ago

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse