"The entire infotainment system is a HTML 5 super computer," Milton said. "That's the standard language for computer programmers around the world, so using it let's us build our own chips. And HTML 5 is very secure. Every component is linked on the data network, all speaking the same language. It's not a bunch of separate systems that somehow still manage to communicate." [1]
[1] https://www.truckinginfo.com/330475/whats-behind-the-grille-...
"It's called Rebo and it's the first bottle that cleans the planet as you drink. One Rebo drunk is one plastic bottle collected as simple as that. Rebo is a smart bottle equipped with a laser time-of-flight sensor and a Bluetooth transmitter that measures and senses the water you drink. The Rebo the app captures the information and records it into the blockchain transforming it into green credits that sponsor the collection of plastic bottles every minute."
I admit they chocked it full of too many buzzwords to make it sound cooler than it is, but at least the concept sort of makes sense compared to the hot air the Nikola CEO blew.
> Hi Palps, thank you for your interest and time. We generate a green credit that is fully anonymized every time a REBO bottle is drunk and they are certified by the Gold Standard, the most reputable agency in carbon emission reduction certification. Credits are monetized through private sponsors and the funds go to Plastic Bank, an organization that pays people in underprivileged communities in developing countries to pick up plastic dispersed in the environment. We hope this helped you understand better what happens "behind the scenes" to make it possible to clean the planet as you drink with REBO
Its a pretty garbage idea of trying to take peoples sympathies for plastic waste to sell a product. Just donate to recycling non profits or research if you want to support green efforts.
"I see your [bet] and raise you [x]" - would that be accepted?
Saying call and then adding a raise is similar to string betting, where you first put some chips to gauge your opponents reaction, and then put in some more. That's not allowed but so many beginners do it.
Some places may let you do it once, but by rule its not allowed in Casinos.
Dealers tend to just shut down anyone that plays silly games around delaying or feinting what they're going to maybe do to. I was at Acapulco Joe's one time playing the cheap limit tables with a dealer that was out of patience with this one guy that was acting like he was on national tv for the world series finals. Finally at one point when he was dickering around she just looked at him, said "he calls" took his chips and moved on lol.
Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAToxJ9CGb8
Nokola’s admission: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/09/nikola-admits-prototype...
I wonder if Nikola had their brakes working or not.
Am i taking crazy pills here?
Brakes are also hydraulically operated. Ever pump the brakes in your car when the engine isn't running? That gets very difficult as well without the assist of the running engine.
Doubly true in a mid/rear engined supercar with only about 35% of the weight on the front wheels to begin with.
And if you'll allow me just a teensy bit more pedantry, you are also turning against the power steering pump when the engine is off. Our '81 VW camper doesn't have power steering, and it isn't as hard to turn as a car with power steering but a non-running engine.
How is this any different the nonsense Musk pumps out:
1. Machines in the factory moving so fast you need a strobelight
2. Solar tiles that will print money
3. Full self-driving on all cars since 2016
4. A brain chip that will cure autism
Tesla is a tougher one, because they do produce a good product, while exaggerating far more than they produce.
In 2015 Musk said they want to produce 2020 they want to produce 500k vehicles, and even with covid they will come close to this or even hit it.
To compare the two is beyond ridiculous. Nikola literally never deliver a single vehicle or achieved a single significant engineering goal.
If you actually think they are remotely comparable there is something seriously wrong with your perspective on the world.
Musk can explain how he could build a very fast factory. Maybe he is wrong and there is some sort of thermal limit that he is going to hit before getting it to that speed. But it is a real plan. He isn't just throwing out buzzwords to attract investors.
1. Elon Musk has admitted many times since that point that he was wrong (something Trevor never does) about factory automation.
2. The solar tiles exist.
3. Turns out making super good AI takes more time and Elon is always too optimistic, that is still their goal however that they are working towards.
4. That's still their goal and they're working towards it.
You can't call someone a fraud just because they haven't reached a goal yet and it's taking longer than expected.
I could potentially see such a thing working for, say, epilepsy, where we might be able to "mute" or counter a stimuli that causes seizure, but, at least for the forseeable future, I don't see "brain chips" working in contexts other than concrete causal links, stimuli, reaction/response mechanisms - I think one hint is that there's nothing we can do to "medicate" autism. Medications currently used are for "byproducts" of ASD, such as ADHD, anxiety, not the disorder itself. Indeed, the closest (and we're not particularly close) we have come to thinking of how to manage ASD is gene therapy, which wouldn't be manageable by a "brain chip".
Milton made fraudulent claims about the existing technology that they had built, which is I think categorically different than most of Musk's futurology. There's no sense in which Milton's claims might be true; they were objectively false statements at the time they were made.
If the founder doesn't have the self-awareness not to say non-sensical quotes like that knowing he will be fact-checked, it's a bit concerning.
I don't understand how GE invested and didn't find anything in Due Diligence. They really couldn't see the Robinhood effect? Is FOMO that fervent in the space thanks to Tesla? Reminds me a lot of the crazy multiples RX Bar, Dollar Shave, and Native Deodorant got as all the incumbents got freaked out about losing fractional market share to "digitally native" brands.
You are nip picking a few things and vastly distorting the actual claims to make your point, while totally ignoring everything that actually was accomplished. Elon gets asked about 50 things every day and he gives his median prediction.
If you actually go back 10 years and look at his prediction for Tesla and SpaceX he is remarkably accurate, far, far, far more then literally anybody else.
Tesla underestimated the difficulty of mass production. That happens to basically every company that has extreme growth and the handle the problem and are now in very profitable production and own a huge market share in that cars market. They are massively improving manufacturing as was confirmed by independent experts.
They have 28% of global full EV market thanks that production system that you dismiss. The are outselling BMW, Mercedes and Lexus combined in the US. But of course instead of saying that, lets point out that they had 1 year of production issues.
> Solar tiles that will print money
Can you actually provide a source for that statement? Solar roof was to expensive and didn't sell well, so they made them cheaper and they are mass producing them now. They are not printing money, but they are increasing the numbers they sell and it should turn into a nice buissness.
> A brain chip that will cure autism
Again, nobody ever claimed they would have this right now. Its technology with lots of potential and that's how it was communicated. Elon is literally spending his private money on long term development project that has the potential to help many people and wouldn't get funding otherwise. And people like you shit on him, its baffling to me how somebody can have this reaction. Yeah fuck him for trying to work on some of the hardest problem in the world.
He is to optimistic on self driving, that is literally the only valid argument people have.
Truly baffling to me.
> Can you actually provide a source for that statement? Solar roof was to expensive and didn't sell well, so they made them cheaper and they are mass producing them now. They are not printing money, but they are increasing the numbers they sell and it should turn into a nice buissness.
"They" who? Not Solar City.
Edit: https://www.thedrive.com/news/5273/alex-roy-shatters-electri...
Tesla does have a real team working on self driving hardware and software and they're shipping it inside cars.
It's not clear that Nikola has much more than powerpoint. They got a lot of impressive-sounding partnerships going but so did Theranos.
Then you can literally say anything and claim "just not yet!".
Amazing people say things like this with a straight face.
>It's not clear that Nikola has much more than powerpoint.
Nikola has real teams working on real things, too. They are just nowhere near where they claim to be.
To play a little devil's advocate, then...
Wouldn't that put most startups and Silicon Valley into the "fraud" camp?
Net positive revenue is always coming and funds are continuously raised on that promise...
> Nikola has real teams working on real things, too.
Their technology claims are all over the place and includes a large lineup of electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles that would be impressive even for GM and Ford.
I don't think their leadership plans to deliver all of any of those vehicles. Insiders (including Trevor Milton) have cashed out already and it looks more like a pump-and-dump scheme than a real business.
> Amazing people say things like this with a straight face.
Then literally everyone who claims breakthrough in fusion, new energy, medicine, AI, robotics, supersonic travel, would qualify as fraud. Fusion has always been X years away after all.
You've just also described many space projects, notably JWST and SLS. Granted, I'll give you SLS.
[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Webb_Space_Telescope
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Launch_System
> Nikola has real teams working on real things, too. They are just nowhere near where they claim to be.
The trouble is Trevor didn't just say "just not yet!". He insisted that the Nikola One on stage at their Dec 2016 presentation is real, with this vivid description: "I don’t want someone to end up doing something and driving this truck off the stage…so we’re going to try to keep people from driving off. But this thing fully functions and works, which is really incredible."
And yes, there is an implicit problem there where you can't definitively know this is all of the equipment you need until the capability is released, but I suspect Tesla would have provided any additional upgrades for free if and when they release "auto-drive."
I thought of it kind of like "cable ready" TVs (not that most people reading this would have heard of those :-)) that were TVs that could, in theory, use cable. However, the cable standard wasn't finalized and there was a chance that what came out in the standard would not be compatible with these TVs.
Right, and he's also made explicit statements that you could FSD "by the end of 2016", "by the end of 2018", "by the end of 2020", coast to coast.
The problem with that is that Tesla has declared to the SEC that @elonmusk on Twitter is an "official company communication channel". That's why he's gotten in trouble for past tweets.
That isn't out or character for Musk. He's always set and communicate unrealistic timeline. That doesn't make him a fraud. Take Falcon Heavy:
> By 2008, SpaceX had been aiming for the first launch of Falcon 9 in 2009, while "Falcon 9 Heavy would be in a couple of years". Speaking at the 2008 Mars Society Conference, Musk also indicated that he expected a hydrogen-fueled upper stage would follow 2–3 years later (which would have been around 2013) - [0]
Of course Falcon Heavy didn't fly until Feb 2018, and hydrogen-fueled upper stage never materialized. Still, nobody care about that today. FH is a resounding success and are qualified to be used for NASA's Lunar Gateway and Space Force's National Security Space Launch program, which are as good as stamps of approval can get.
But you can't hand wave away his statements on Twitter as "Oh, that's just Elon, all Tesla's corporate statements have very explicitly (in at times very fine print) said it's contingent on 'capability' and 'regulation'" when Tesla have literally said "Elon's Twitter _is_ a Tesla corporate statement".
Yes and no. His settlement with SEC only requires vetting for tweets that have material impact to investors. Anything else is just his opinion, although I agree that's a very fine line - [0]
Take his tweet sent out today about Battery Day event tomorrow:
> Important note about Tesla Battery Day unveil tomorrow. This affects long-term production, especially Semi, Cybertruck & Roadster, but what we announce will not reach serious high-volume production until 2022 - [1]
Clearly a vetted communication. A less serious one in contrast:
> Bitte arbeiten Sie bei Tesla Giga Berlin! Es wird super Spaß machen!! - [2]
[0] - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/26/tesla-elo...
[1] - https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1308148212876812289
[2] - https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1304175179606695937
Why not?
What is the point of deadlines then?
Being a fraud doesn't mean you fail to deliver.
fraud: 'wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.'
He promises deadlines to soothe shareholders. I don't see the difference in his behavior and fraudulent behavior, other than that he has a large fan-base to validate the behavior.
He profits from promises that aren't delivered.
I don't pretend to know his motivation, perhaps his misplaced optimism? or to motivate and set the guideline for his troop? or to indicate Tesla's priority and direction?
Do you think JFK knew for sure that American would reach the moon before the end of 1960s? Or for that matter, I suppose you'd consider NASA to be fraudulent if Artemis program fails to send a crewed mission to the Moon in 2024.
> Being a fraud doesn't mean you fail to deliver.
Fraud usually means all talk and no substance. Can you give a counter example?
> He profits from promises that aren't delivered.
You need to show the evidence of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDD03yeLnU
Edit: The correct URL!
IRL that is exactly the type of thing VB is used for. It's easy for non programmers to design interfaces, relatively intuitive to program, and it doesn't require compilation or other fancy or complicated processes to use the completed program.
It's literally WYSIWYG programming.
The GUI isn't "written", it's drag and drop. You add functionality as needed to the GUI events, like the code you would have put into a console program goes into a button's OnClick event instead.
It's probably faster than writing a console program for anyone who isn't a developer.
And I’d feel more comfortable if a block chain was involved, somehow.
And of course block chain is involved. Everyone knows that if you want a crowd funded campaign or get VC funding you need to only need to include the phrase "AI", "ML", or "block chain". Or add all three for a triple score combo.
https://www.quora.com/Could-you-make-a-CPU-that-processes-on...
Tech people, and smart people in general, need to learn how to step out of their own understanding of the world and see their own fields as others do.
Very few people actually know what HTML really is or how it works, and would be hard pressed to describe it.
This quote is an executive mangling the description of some tech that otherwise might make sense. After all, Javascript is part of HTML5 and that could very well be used on various parts of the system, 'linked on the data network, all the same language'. And it is 'a language' that many programmers know how to speak around the world.
The bit I can't figure out is 'lets us build our own chips' which is a stretch.
This is a guy not really knowing what he is talking about, but with a few word changes, it's mostly rational.
The other stuff is far more scary.
- Has limited understanding of technology
- Is prone to overstatement, if not outright lying
- Is willing to use technobabble to describe his product
Those conclusions, if coming from a normal layman, might just make me roll my eyes, but coming from the CEO of supposedly technology centric company that hasn't yet released a product, it raises massive alarm bells and has me running to sell shares or short the company.
Most car execs would struggle with this were they to have to read an unprepared statement.
Most of us armchair CEOs would burn our chances just as easily, but it's still important to not be clueless.
If you go searching for 'dumb things tech CEO's say about tech' you will find quite a few. My own CEO at one large company I know was actually quite brilliant, and generally knew the tech, but would sometimes mangle some things.
Of all the things this fraudster is going on about, this is not on the list of things I would say points to fraud - possibly just another example of how he doesn't really understand his own tech very well.
The blatant lying about the completeness of the vehicles, lies about solar capacity, lies about customers, lies about actual technical capability, lies about customer orders and deal flow ... all of that is point blank unforgivable.