VW invests $2.6B in self-driving startup Argo AI as part of Ford alliance

Sure, Tesla has pretty good acceleration (other than the roadster, nothing you couldn't get with an ICE). When I was 20 years younger, I might have even cared. Now I am somehow more interested in meaningful comforts and conveniences, and outside of the SV gaggle of kids who thing that being a computer on wheels, with a big screen means that Tesla is a "luxury" car, presenting even Model S as somehow competing with any of the big name luxury brands is just laughable. Hell, even my wife's Hyundai plug-in has things that you can't get in any Tesla. For half the price. Well, but Tesla has fart jokes. I'll take colled seats, thank you very much.

I wouldn't even start with the AP, it's not any better than anybody else's driver assist systems. Except when it drives you into a fire truck or median barrier, of course. Then it could be considered a natural selection tool, I guess /s

FWIW, in the same period I did 2 2000+ mile drives, and a few in 300-500 range, and in all of them I needed to actually get where I was going in some reasonable time. Maybe with stops at some vista points, but those generally do not have superchargers anywhere near. Could I make it in a Tesla? Sure. I could make it in a Leaf probably, too. It would just take significantly more time, and I would need to spend much more time at places that have chargers, and those (just like places with gas stations on the Interstate) usually aren't all that exiting.

For Tesla's target market, people with more money than actual need for a car as a tool, it actually all makes sense and works quite well. But I somehow doubt that this market is large enough to "drive German automakers out of business in 2 years" as some claim here, or even to make a significant dent in ICE car sales, absent some drastic legal or tax pressure.

I've never heard anyone say that you can't drive long distance in an electric car. The difference is how long will it take you.

Isn't 2.6 sec 0-60 something you only get with the "ludicrous" upgrade, where it counts how often you actually use it? There are faster ICE cars.

Good God, no, I don't think you can even do 2000 miles in a day (if you ever sleep) while staying even remotely legal. But I did quite a few San Jose to Las Vegas drives in 8 hours. 2000+ were when I first drove my wife's car from San Jose to Austin, which took me 2 days. Bloody thing goes 600+ miles on a tank, which is more than I can take. Could that be done in a Tesla? Sure, but it would take longer and involve planning the trip around chargers even if they were everywhere. Second time I was moving my car, which is technically faster, but has more reasonable mileage, and made two long stops, but only because instead of morning, as planned, left in the evening (apparently if an SV apartment complex says that the rental office is open on a Saturday, it does not mean that anyone will actually be there to give the keys to). It was still much faster than would be possible in anything you need to charge. And somehow all the interesting little spots where I felt like stopping and taking pictures didn't have any Superchargers anywhere near. Nor, often, any gas stations.

Automakers were regularly having losses long before there were any Tesla to blame.

It's pretty clear that ICE will be replaced by something, quite possibly electric, at some point in the future, and they need to prepare for it, but pretending that in 2 years electric cars will be anything but a statistical error in the number of cars sold, let alone that anyone is going out of business over it, is just a load of wishful thinking SV BS.

Then, of course, I just don't understand how anyone can, in a good consciousness, give Elon even a red cent.