How do you think building and maintaining car-centric infrastructure gets paid for?
Elon Musk | Doer of things on X and sad little man
- Thread starter Pogue Mahone
- Start date
He loves arguing something just for the sake of it. Overall point is usually fine, but a lot of his arguments turn out to be filler quite often and video would be better if they were just cut altogether.
Do you know what you can do if someone tries to mug you when you're driving a car? Drive away.
At least you only had to watch half of a 13 minute video to make that point
Yours is a valid critique but it oversimplifies Musk's strategy and motivations. While it's true that patents can reveal trade secrets or be bypassed, calling them "largely irrelevant" overlooks their role in standard-setting and industry influence. Musk's patent giveaway wasn’t just publicity—it strategically encouraged competitors to adopt Tesla’s technology, making it the industry standard while Tesla built a cost and scale advantage.
I don’t think either of us can get too granular on trade secrets (as, by definition, we don’t know what they are), but the patent giveaway undeniably accelerated EV adoption. It created an ecosystem that benefited Tesla by expanding infrastructure, validating the market, and ensuring Tesla’s technology remained central to the industry’s growth. Suggesting Musk should give away trade secrets misunderstands the competitive dynamics of emerging industries, where retaining core operational advantages is essential for survival and leadership.
If everyone drove a Tesla (or an EV), the planet wouldn’t be “fixed”—but it’s a step in the right direction. Unless your blind hatred cannot see that.
Never seen his content before but yeah, that seems about right. Makes some good/interesting points but a lot of fluff that doesn’t convince at all.
The UK spent £12 billion on roads last year. Fuel duty and road tax raised £35 billion. That's how.
Know how much we spent on railways last year? £27 billion.
If everyone in the UK and US switched to an EV tomorrow, the only thing that would happen is the electrical grids in both countries would collapse and no one would be able to go anywhere.
I think in that case the streets will just be clogged up with taxis driving in circles so as to be ready at any time. The amount of unnecessary traffic will be insane. Cars driving faster worries me especially any place where they meet pedestrians, a computer can make a quick decision but it can't slow down from high speed faster than a human can.
Even without getting into specifics of UK situation, you are comparing the cost of the entire industry that includes everything from staff, fuel, vehicles and a ton of other things (which has massively risen in the last 5 years, but finding a detailed breakdown on how much was on new investments is a pain in the ass) to just the cost of building and maintaining part of the car-centric infrastructure that has been largely stable for over 20 years. This is not even remotely close to a like for like comparison.
Then stop pretending it is. Every discussion about Musk would be much simpler, if every single attempt at it didn't have to start with a "no, Teslas are not going to fix the planet" chapter and those bizarre attempts to redefine every single term used in it in a way that is used only in this particular discussion and conveniently only highlights stuff positive for him.
Obviously replacing engine is a step in the right direction, but it's only one of the hundreds of steps that he is trying to make and engine is only a part of a part of an equation. You'd think that, for example, making cars bigger despite serving no practical purpose and advertising them to people that have no need for a massive car would be held against him in such discussion, but apparently it only matters if it's positive for Musk.
Plus the UK is terrible at trains. It's like how United have outspent most teams and can't even qualify for the champions league. How much you spend is no good if you're spending poorly.
Your argument feels like it’s wrapped in unnecessary indignation. We’re all aware Teslas won’t "fix" the planet singlehandedly—no one suggested they would—but apparently acknowledging a step forward triggers your compulsion to reframe every EV-related comment as Musk apologism. Oversized cars are a broader industry problem, not an exclusive indictment of Musk, and conflating that with the environmental benefit of EVs is as reductive as the blind hero worship you're railing against.
That’s actually quite a good analogy.
Who cares how its split? It still has to be paid for and running the existing railway costs almost 3 times what maintaining the roads does.
But to your point the UK spends in the region of £15 billion on keeping the track in order before you worry about putting any trains on it. Still more than the roads.
Not him. Unless that was the point?
Dammit
He would absolutely do this though.
That would work in Europe. Not so much in N America. Europe has a huge advantage in deploying EVs or using alternative modes of transportation bc of the shorter distances and density.We could still walk and cycle which would be good for the environment
Why would a computer operated car drive faster? I’d assume it’d be a stickler for speed limits.
How do you know a computer can’t stop a car faster? Then which human are you comparing it to? 85 year old or formula 1 racing driver? If you think a computer isn’t faster than a human in processing information you’re well behind the times.
Once the robot cars come into effect taxis and Ubers will reduce and they can’t compete on cost. So it’s not going to bring insane levels of traffic.
I think if all cars were self driving they’d be able to increase speed limits significantly overall (near schools or whatever exceptions permitting)
This is epic:
That could quite simply be the worst and least thought out example to use to argue against humanity failing and show it is flourishing.
The population may be flourishing (it is in some places but dwindling in others) but humanity is most definitely not, and nor is the planet. To suggest otherwise is sheer ignorance or just a feeble attempt at trolling.
I’ve had female friends and family in San Francisco get in Waymo (self driving car) and guys have stood around the car, essentially paralysing it, refusing to move until they get a phone number or a social media connect. There’s a help line you can call but it’s extremely distressing.
Just Musk retweeting a British right wing account which has magically gained so many followers about a petition full of ramblings.
Is that the one where they actually prove that the earth isn't flat? Hilariously.
He’s quite clearly desperate for the UK to go a certain way and scraping up any crumbs he can find to support that opinion. He’s an absolute rat.
No, that's Beyond the Curve. This one is a bit different. Dan Olson has made some incredible youtube documentaries, well worth checking out (if you like long form video essays).
I then to get impatient but I think I'll make an exception for this one
Tbf I'm not defending Musk but making cars bigger for no reason is very much an America thing and would happen regardless of whether Musk existed.
It is more to do with the country being full of greedy/insecure people who have been brainwashed into thinking having a bigger car makes them a superior person. Something we've annoyingly adopted over here as well.
Musk is just an inevitable byproduct of American capitalism to me. If it wasn't him itd be someone else equally as selfish and dangerous (stupid).
Jesus fecking wept…
That would get you tagged as Not For Promotion by @Invictus
Would make a better Twatman.
He is so pathetic it’s physically causing me pain.
Sign up to the fan club, if you can't beat them join them
Elon even got me a tagline after 15 years of effort, what's not to love
The population overall is going up and so is average life expectancy.
It's disgusting how he retweets and promotes these sort of accounts. They're so transparent in what they do.