Tesla CEO Elon Musk vows to 'fix' tainted water in Flint, Michigan | Hacker News Reader

Tesla CEO Elon Musk vows to 'fix' tainted water in Flint, Michigan

usatoday.com

25 pointslxm45 comments

While I appreciate the IronMan'esque eagerness to solve every problem the world is facing, I think he should be focusing on getting us the $35K Model 3 promised a while ago.

What? No.

I disagree that he shouldn’t do all of it (which is what I think you’re implying). I think more people should push the boundaries of what’s possible to show the rest of us what humanity is capable of. It’s inspiring to watch someone who is sometimes flawed, sometimes brilliant, human-like-us, build teams and inspire them to greatness. His ambition shows the rest of us what we are capable of. It doesn’t matter if he fails in one or more of these endeavors. I think it’s more important that he sets a higher bar for the rest of us.

Edit: s/hat/that/

I'm actually a fan of Musk and applaud his efforts with SpaceX and Boring. It's just that I'm holding on to my 10 yr old Prius waiting for the $35K Model 3 for 2 years and the delivery date just keeps sliding 6-9 months every time I check. And then to see him trying to help (personally flying out- not just tweet-wondering) in the Thai cave case and now the Flint case makes me wonder what other world problem he's going to go after (and there are many he can) before he delivers on what he promised with the Model 3.

Everything but the small-battery Model 3 is now shipping, and everyone on the list is now able to configure and buy cars. If you want a car now, you can buy the Bolt, they have a ton of them on the lot.

I'm buying the Model 3- base $35K version- even if I have to handcrank start it.

Do you really think him tweeting something and having an assistant hire some private contractors with his personal money is affecting model 3 production rates?

It's about focus vs. distraction. I guess he's free to do what he wants but he already operates Tesla, Boringco, SpaceX. It's just not realistic that you can do all of this and build a rescue submarine in a week and what not. Again, obviously he's free to do (and tweet) what he wants but people (and media) should really start taking his claims with more than a grain of salt. It's becoming more and more a sign of delusions of grandeur. His first priority should be to stop Tesla cars from crashing, in my opinion.

Just look at the bold claims Boringco made that got reported ad nauseam and look at what they are realistically doing now. In my opinion he should try to achieve some of those goals or (xor) keep a low profile for a while.

Do Teslas crash at a higher rate than other cars?

And what claims has Boring co made that they aren't doing?

Do you have sources to back this up?

It's not about other cars or Teslas with human drivers but about the autopilot (that Musk also keeps making grandiose claims about).

Boring co started with the bold claims claim of a 760mph Hyperloop. Now a team from Munich arrived at 223mph while Boring co has sized down from a Hyperloop with cars to a high-speed subway called the "Chicago Express Loop, [that] would use a concrete track within the tunnel, and passenger-carrying skates [that] will be able to travel at speed up to 150 miles per hour". https://eu.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/06/14/chicago-elon-m...

Actually I wonder how they won the bid in Chicago with a track record of nothing. Well: 'We're taking a bet on a guy who doesn't like to fail," said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Boring Company never promised the hyper loop at its inception. When Elon initially proposed the hyper loop, he said the idea needed work and he wasn't going to attempt it himself.

But don't let that get in the way of your personal vendetta with Elon.

No offense, and I admittedly don't know you,

But I'm not sure you're in the best position to give Elon Musk advice on how to be successful...

Focus!

Where's the crewed Dragon?[1] How come Model 3 production is down again?[2]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17509988 [2] https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2018-tesla-tracker/

Yes Elon should stop tweeting and start welding. /s

As Musk has said on several occasions in the past, his role as CEO is to direct his attention to what's most critical, and for both Spacex and Tesla it's his savior complex that needs work.

UNICEF claims there's a child dying of starvation every 10 minutes right now in Yemen. Maybe he can apply his engineering genius and get 12 of them some breakfast to make up for his minisub misadventure in Thailand.

Don't you ever do things outside of your regular job for 'fun'? Do you have any side projects perhaps?

For Musk, this is the equivalent of a side project---something within his field of interest, but not directly a money maker. It's both an interesting problem, and so happens to do good.

I think it would be good for society to encourage the rich to have this sort of interst, instead of just falling into the hobby of golfing or driving supercars.

So his side project is hogging the spotlight. I guess that's fair, he hasn't been in the news much lately.

Why can't we just tax people and let the government fix stuff like this? Isn't that how its supposed to work? What was wrong with that idea?

That works really well in most of the US. It failed in Flint for many reasons, including corruption and the fact that poor people are not given as much consideration in a money-soaked political system.

The money gets taxed, but money goes elsewhere and the problem never fixed or it’s almost always over budget.

But yes. It’s suppose to work the way you described. Abuse and incompetence gets in the way.

Can't pay for trivial things like water when we have 5+ generations of pensions to fund

maybe they need some time to analyze the problem and find solution within the budget. and also think about the future cost of maintenance. Exactly where is the superhero necessary?

Flint, that's where. And they don't need a superhero, they need someone honest.

but it appears problem has been fixed a year ago https://www.apnews.com/7ab0a877ea444c308b286d8c14b171ef or is it some government conspiracy? I believe there's some under-employed superhero on the lookout for damsels in distress

That idea didn't work. Practice trumps theory.

Rich people did not like it.

It works everywhere else in the Developed world, but for some reason the USA doesn't function like other functioning countries.

It used to...then Reaganomics hit and we dropped taxes on the rich by half,and raised them on the poor instead, thinking more middle class taxes can offset the 40 people at the top who now pay half as much as they used to.

I think this was what started him thinking about Flint:

http://www.wnem.com/story/38593466/more-than-500-bikes-given...

Then folks saw that he was thinking about flint and asked him to help with the water stuff.

My understanding was that the water isn't actually contaminated, but that they aren't treating it with something that prevents lead from being released in all of the piping. Can someone comment on this?

If that's the case, then really the only thing you can do is put some kind of filter directly on the line to the house.

You could lay all the pipes again, or treat the water to keep lead from being released.

Yeah, it was the PH of the source water that Flint switched to that triggered the issues, it dissolved the coating that develops on the inside of pipes (scale).

The city switched back to Detroit water in 2015 (and has since signed a 30 year contract with the succeeding entity that now runs that system) and the state is moving towards requiring eventual replacement of all lead service lines¹.

1. https://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/deq-tou-dwmad-LeadCop...

Hmmm, why now?

Shouldn't he be fixing Model 3 production problems?

If it takes a private corporation to fix the contaminated water problem in Flint, it's an utter disgrace and a pathetic failing of federal, state and municipal government. It's hard to understand how such abject failure can be allowed to continue.

A lot of people would consider this a positive and obvious outcome. (For the record, I do not.)

You don't consider it positive or you don't consider it obvious (or both)? ...and why not?

Seems like a private individual rather than a corporation. But your point still stands.

In the article, Musk says most houses in Flint have safe water. He doesn't propose a corporation fixing the water as an alternative to government, but rather using his own money to buy whole-home filters for the (according to him) small minority of families whose water still isn't considered safe.

He's only offered to fix the lines for houses that test above the Federal limit.

There's 14,000 houses with lead service lines, there's very few that are testing above the Federal limit.

A quiet grant to accelerate the plans to replace all the lead service lines would accomplish more than offering to fix a small number of the worst ones. Those houses will likely be first in line for replacement by government programs.

The endless debate about this man undertaking various projects that will improve society if they pan out is absolutely vapid. This doesn't belong here.

Who are you to decide what belongs here? For profit or not, it epitomizes the fact that he is channeling his wealth towards decent course. What have you done for humanity lately?

https://www.sciencealert.com/elon-musk-s-south-australian-ba...

https://www.electrive.com/2018/04/20/tesla-to-power-puerto-r...

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/07/10/elon-musk-spacex-subma...

You are a fool. I am pro musk in this case. The rules of the website decide what is appropriate to post and this does not meet the criteria by any stretch of the imagination. It is a misleading article that touches on an unsubstantive topic that is known to be controversial. It serves no other purpose than to stoke argument.

Personal attacks will get you banned here regardless of how right you are. Please don't post like that again.

I agree with you that HN has reached peak Musk Mania.

> What have you done for humanity lately?

Please don't take HN threads in personally abusive directions. Few of us have done much for humanity lately.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Vapid: offering nothing that is stimulating or challenging

I disagree. If anything, closed minded defeatist attitudes don't belong here.

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