$50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse • Hacker News Board

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#21

Post by tomatotomato37 » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 4:18 PM UTC

ErikAugust wrote: post #9

Wait until they hear about the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of all sorts of stuff sitting idle that has been purchased by the DoD and USG paid for by tax money.

Reminds me how the US continually produces tanks despite the armies recommendations, to the point where we have enough tanks to essentially fight WW3 with purely tanks and still have some left over, just so some congressmen can keep jobs in their constituency.

At least that was the situation in the 2000s, no idea if that wackiness is still continuing

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#22

Post by beamatronic » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 4:18 PM UTC

3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #12

> State government documents put the final price tag at $958,600,000 for the property, building construction and equipment. The cost for the equipment alone is close to $300 million. What a staggering number. How does our government get away with wasting so much money without any accountability?

Somebody got rich, so it wasn’t really “wasted” /s

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#23

Post by simias » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 4:19 PM UTC

bluedino wrote: post #11

ErikAugust wrote: post #9

Wait until they hear about the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of all sorts of stuff sitting idle that has been purchased by the DoD and USG paid for by tax money.

We've bought "surplus" Dell and HP servers from different government entities that were two generations old, basically brand new in the box. I wonder what % of purchases go unused for whatever reasons.

I'm sure that they need spares for some of their critical infrastructures, that could be it. Not to say that I don't believe that it could just be unused stuff lying around for years, that could definitely be it too.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#24

Post by supermatt » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 4:21 PM UTC

close04 wrote: post #3

I'm being greeted by an Access Denied You don't have permission to access "[URL]" on this server. Edit. Maybe a GDPR type issue.

Seems that way - I just tried a few connections via VPN, and EU countries blocked, non-EU countries not blocked.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#25

Post by minikites » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 4:21 PM UTC

blackearl wrote: post #17

bluedino wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've bought "surplus" Dell and HP servers from different government entities that were two generations old, basically brand new in the box. I wonder what % of purchases go unused for whatever reasons.

I've heard you need to use it or lose when it comes to gov budgets. Anecdotes of jets dumping fuel into the ocean just to come back and refill to keep a budget.

Corporate department budgeting works the same way.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#26

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 4:21 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#27

Post by SEJeff » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 4:22 PM UTC

tomatotomato37 wrote: post #21

ErikAugust wrote: post #9

Wait until they hear about the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of all sorts of stuff sitting idle that has been purchased by the DoD and USG paid for by tax money.

Reminds me how the US continually produces tanks despite the armies recommendations, to the point where we have enough tanks to essentially fight WW3 with purely tanks and still have some left over, just so some congressmen can keep jobs in their constituency. At least that was the situation in the 2000s, no idea if that wackiness is still continuing

To be fair, they've just massively upgraded the M1s to where they're nothing like the original tanks at all:

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/armys-new-tank-here-c...

It isn't as though they've been building the same old thing since the 2000s, they've been incrementally and steadily improving them as technology and materials science improves.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#28

Post by hef19898 » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 4:25 PM UTC

ErikAugust wrote: post #9

Wait until they hear about the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of all sorts of stuff sitting idle that has been purchased by the DoD and USG paid for by tax money.

There was a link to googlemaps where you see endles rows of Abrams tanks sitting in the desert. Quite impressive. But say what you want, at least this keeps the industrial capacities and capabilites alive!

Still pretty pointless, so.

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#29

Post by 2000YearOldMan » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 4:25 PM UTC

bochoh wrote: post #16

bluedino wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've bought "surplus" Dell and HP servers from different government entities that were two generations old, basically brand new in the box. I wonder what % of purchases go unused for whatever reasons.

Via auction site?

https://www.govliquidation.com/

Looks like the site moved to https://www.go-dove.com/

Re: $50M worth of Tesla equipment sits unused in a Wheatfield warehouse

#30

Post by mr_overalls » Wed, Mar 04, 2020, 4:25 PM UTC

ErikAugust wrote: post #9

Wait until they hear about the hundreds of billions of dollars worth of all sorts of stuff sitting idle that has been purchased by the DoD and USG paid for by tax money.

Prime example: the NRO donated two unused spy satellites to NASA, each more powerful than the Hubble Telescope.

https://www.space.com/16000-spy-satellites-space-telescopes-...