Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 91 posts

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#71

Post by api »

adwhit wrote: post #53
ridicter wrote: post #27

Sorry, we live in a world where News Corp has been at the epicenter of cultivating "Merchants of Doubt"[1] when it comes to anthropogenic climate change. Anyone tied up in that universe deserves skepticism if not outright rejection for the unbelievable damage they have wielded on society's ability to address climate change. The cost to society is enormous, and their grandchildren and grandchildren's children will pay…

Are electric cars genuinely seen as part of the solution to climate change? Surely there is no place for cars in our utopian green future, they are terribly inefficient means of transportation and completely anti-social and anti-urban. The future is in advanced metro systems, high speed rail, cycling etc. In this future, cars would become decided niche. I had never thought of Tesla being one of the 'good guys', espec…

Yes, they are. Even if they get their energy from fossil fuels for now, it's a whole lot easier to replace a few hundred power plants than it is to replace millions of ICEs and all the associated sunk cost that they represent.

It's also just generally easier to make electricity from renewable sources than to directly power cars with them.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#72

Post by api »

ridicter wrote: post #27

Sorry, we live in a world where News Corp has been at the epicenter of cultivating "Merchants of Doubt"[1] when it comes to anthropogenic climate change. Anyone tied up in that universe deserves skepticism if not outright rejection for the unbelievable damage they have wielded on society's ability to address climate change. The cost to society is enormous, and their grandchildren and grandchildren's children will pay…

Fox could be pushing an anti-AGW agenda for numerous reasons, not the least of which is in response to the affinities of their viewer base. They're a media company, so their job is to pander to some group of viewers to get ratings. The tail could be wagging the dog. Media is entertainment to sell ads and nothing more.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#73

Post by hardwaresofton »

Whoever does handles PR/brand image for Tesla must have stomach ulcers at this point. The amount of ire (whether potential or real) drawn in the last ~1 year is insane:

- Elon makes false accusations

- Elon says dumb thing about going private

- Elon smokes weed on a podcast (this is a +/don't care for me but I imagine not for Tesla's entire audience)

- Elon lets slip that the Saudis are where the money might have come from

- James Murdoch (that Murdoch, which generally people don't know or hate) might replace Musk on the board of Tesla

- Near constant questioning of company finances and viability

Before this year, Tesla was basically an awesome, expensive, trendy, and progressive car company that by and large people (those who can afford one, those who build them, those who love the planet, those who like high performance cars) loved --

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#74

Post by amag »

corndoge wrote: post #54
adwhit wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are electric cars genuinely seen as part of the solution to climate change? Surely there is no place for cars in our utopian green future, they are terribly inefficient means of transportation and completely anti-social and anti-urban. The future is in advanced metro systems, high speed rail, cycling etc. In this future, cars would become decided niche. I had never thought of Tesla being one of the 'good guys', espec…

There is no getting rid of cars for the foreseeable future, making them electric is the obvious next step for reducing their environmental impact

Unfortunately at the cost of a lot of human suffering in countries where coltan[1] is mined.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coltan

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#75

Post by giobox »

craftyguy wrote: post #59
thoughtexplorer wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The United States, Canada and others are too sprawling and sparse for that. Cars are going to be a fact of life for a very long time yet. As far as helping to solve climate change, cars are part of it, but I wish people paid much more attention to the larger contributor: Agriculture. I often get the feeling that people think changing cars to electric will solve the problem. It's important and helps, but it's just one…

Europe is also large, and there is much better public transportation. If the US really wanted to replace cars, the US could replace cars. The problem is we equate cars with 'freedom', so we are doomed to live forever in the past until that changes (or we destroy ourselves)

Europe also has ~3x the population density of the US, higher still if you don’t include some of the sparsely populated Eastern European States.

While I can’t profess any expertise on this topic, it strikes me as a possibly reasonable hypothesis that the sheer emptiness of much of the central US could have some kind of bearing on trying to make sustainable continent-wide public transport more difficult than in Europe.

Colorado for example, roughly the same size as the entire U.K., has around 50 people per square km. The U.K. has over 300. Even France, regarded in Europe as a largely rural State beyond a few large cities, is over 100.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#76

Post by cmroanirgo »

elektor wrote: post #7

From the article: The son of Fox mogul Rupert Murdoch, he joined Tesla’s board in July 2017 after years of work with media companies. He has no experience in manufacturing and has never led a company that makes cars or electric vehicles. What exactly does this guy bring to the table for Tesla? Money? Connections?

Wow. Elon to be replaced by this guy?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Murdoch#Phone_hacking_sc...

If I were a shareholder, I'd be screaming out to keep hold of Elon rather than Mr Murdoch.

In short:

> On 7 July 2011, James Murdoch announced the closure of the British tabloid newspaper the News of the World in the wake of a phone hacking scandal.[23]

Although everyone has the right to make mistakes, this was the man who closed a 168yr old newspaper based on illegal activities that seemed rife in the company.

[23] https://www.theguardian.com/media/blog/2011/jul/07/news-of-t...

Based on what Mr Musk has already gone through, I don't think Mr Murdoch is what Tesla needs.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#77

Post by craftyguy »

awad wrote: post #61
craftyguy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is also large, and there is much better public transportation. If the US really wanted to replace cars, the US could replace cars. The problem is we equate cars with 'freedom', so we are doomed to live forever in the past until that changes (or we destroy ourselves)

It's not just 'freedom'. It's a practical matter given the vast distances between even individual houses in certain parts of the US. Europe, as a whole, is large, but European nations individually are not very big in relation to a lot of US states. People should absolutely be able to travel within their countries however best suits them.

> but European nations individually are not very big in relation to a lot of US states

Um, those countries are interconnected, so yes, it's way easier to travel vast distances in Europe through multiple countries in the US than it is to travel around without a car in nearly all of the states in the US. For example, want to get across Texas without wasting away in a series of greyhound bus stations? Good luck.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#78

Post by awad »

craftyguy wrote: post #77
awad wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not just 'freedom'. It's a practical matter given the vast distances between even individual houses in certain parts of the US. Europe, as a whole, is large, but European nations individually are not very big in relation to a lot of US states. People should absolutely be able to travel within their countries however best suits them.

> but European nations individually are not very big in relation to a lot of US states Um, those countries are interconnected, so yes, it's way easier to travel vast distances in Europe through multiple countries in the US than it is to travel around without a car in nearly all of the states in the US. For example, want to get across Texas without wasting away in a series of greyhound bus stations? Good luck.

You're proving my point that it's not practical to get around a lot of the US without cars because it's just so much bigger. Most travel is within your own country and blanketing the sparsely populated US with non-car alternatives is just not practical.

For what it is worth, according to Eurostat, cars are pretty important over there, too.

"Three quarters of trips by EU residents in 2016 were within their own country."

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...

"Passenger car was by far the most important mode for passenger transport in all Member States."

"Passenger cars accounted for 83.1 % of inland passenger transport in the EU-28 in 2015, with motor coaches, buses and trolley buses (9.2 %) and passenger trains (7.7 %) both accounting for less than a tenth of all traffic (measured by the number of inland passenger-kilometres (pkm) travelled by each mode)"

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...

I guess they like freedom over there, too.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#79

Post by craftyguy »

awad wrote: post #78
craftyguy wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but European nations individually are not very big in relation to a lot of US states Um, those countries are interconnected, so yes, it's way easier to travel vast distances in Europe through multiple countries in the US than it is to travel around without a car in nearly all of the states in the US. For example, want to get across Texas without wasting away in a series of greyhound bus stations? Good luck.

You're proving my point that it's not practical to get around a lot of the US without cars because it's just so much bigger. Most travel is within your own country and blanketing the sparsely populated US with non-car alternatives is just not practical. For what it is worth, according to Eurostat, cars are pretty important over there, too. "Three quarters of trips by EU residents in 2016 were within their own country…

> You're proving my point that it's not practical to get around a lot of the US without cars because it's just so much bigger.

No, my point is that if a group of countries can figure out how to improve transportation across themselves for similar distances, then why can't even individual states figure it out? They could, if they wanted to, but "freedom to drive" and other excuses.

You don't even need to "blanket" the country in tracks, for example. Connecting all major US cities would be a HUGE improvement over what exists today.

I'm not at all arguing that cars are unimportant, it's just that here in the US it is the only one of two choices for transportation (for almost all of the US) that we have given ourselves for moving between cities. The other option is air travel, which is expensive in terms of money and rights/privacy.

Re: James Murdoch in line to replace Musk as Tesla chairman

#80

Post by awad »

craftyguy wrote: post #79
awad wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're proving my point that it's not practical to get around a lot of the US without cars because it's just so much bigger. Most travel is within your own country and blanketing the sparsely populated US with non-car alternatives is just not practical. For what it is worth, according to Eurostat, cars are pretty important over there, too. "Three quarters of trips by EU residents in 2016 were within their own country…

> You're proving my point that it's not practical to get around a lot of the US without cars because it's just so much bigger. No, my point is that if a group of countries can figure out how to improve transportation across themselves for similar distances, then why can't even individual states figure it out? They could, if they wanted to, but "freedom to drive" and other excuses. You don't even need to "blanket" the…

All that for 7.7% of passenger traffic seems a bit wasteful given the cost of construction in the modern US. The boondoggle that is the California "High Speed" Rail multiplied by the lower 48 states a few times over does not at all seem worth it versus other infrastructure improvements that need to be made.
Post reply on HN