Also, I find your sentiment to be lacking nuance. We CAN’T do everything at once. There are obviously priorities and budgets and technological barriers that make some problems practically easier to solve than others. Why not go for the low hanging fruit first? Why not spend valuable resources improving our overall quality of life instead of mass producing some oversized electric hotwheels truck?
Pot, kettle?
> There are obviously priorities and budgets and technological barriers that make some problems practically easier to solve than others.
A great counterpoint that comes up occasionally are weather satellites. They have done more to improve crop yield than anything since the invention of artificial fertilizer. Technological development is like fundamental scientific research in this regard, as new developments which simplify problems in other domains to the point of tractability can be hard to spot until they happen, and can come from any direction.
> Why not spend valuable resources improving our overall quality of life instead of mass producing some oversized electric hotwheels truck?
This seems like a false dichotomy and pejorative opinion rolled into one.
I'm not sure what you consider a quality of life improvement - Musk paid a half million dollars out of pocket to fix the water systems in the schools of my home town of Flint Michigan ( https://www.cnet.com/tech/tech-industry/elon-musk-keeps-his-... ) which directly affected the quality of life of my nephews.
As for the truck, it seems to be the industry's first 48v production vehicle, which means 48v chips, motors, heaters, sensors, and other parts are likely to increase adoption, gain production volume and availability, reduce cost, etc. All of which helps my projects. I don't have to drive one to benefit from it. And I'm always pleased to see more options in EVs. That means cleaner air, more sustainable power, increased grid-independence, all kinds of knock-on effects. Every one purchased - from any manufacturer - increases volume, reduces costs, and gets us a step closer to less expensive EVs for all.
If I look through your comment history, will I find as much effort spent lamenting the spending decisions of oil barons? Weapons manufacturers? Advertising executives?
Why not share what you're doing to make the world a better place for us all? Maybe your efforts could be re-prioritized to better benefit us? Maybe you choose to make a difference in the ways you can, and choose your battles, like the rest of us. Maybe 10 billion of us, working together, instead of acting like crabs in a bucket, really can advance everything all at once.