Please drop your inevitable BER jokes below so we can recylce them properly later.
This provides a decent and entertaining overview of why the Berlin airport has still not been completed.
Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin
281–290 of 449 posts
Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand your post at all. "so that no one would stifle the company's path towards autonomous EV's." Who is "stifling"? And many companies work on autonomous cars. "This will produce pressure on Europe to ease for instance the AI regulations" What AI regulations in Europe? And what is Europe? The EU? "and basically removed Customs tax" This is not how custom taxes work. The EU is one of the biggest free tra…
EU regulations prohibit the turning angle of the wheel unlike the U.S. You simply can’t navigate on autopilot in the same way. Also the EU makes money from the auto companies in their jurisdiction and they don’t want a U.S auto company competing with them. Now that Tesla opens a factory in Germany “massages” things. The customs tax is in regards to countries/jurisdictions other than the ones with the Tesla factories.…
>"EU regulations prohibit the turning angle of the wheel unlike the U.S. You simply can’t navigate on autopilot in the same way."
I've never heard anyone complaining that their car is too safe.
How many people have been killed in autopilot-related accidents in Europe vs the US?
>"Also the EU makes money from the auto companies in their jurisdiction and they don’t want a U.S auto company competing with them."
Carmakers can make cars in the EU and pay taxes. Or they can import them from the US and pay tariffs.
Exactly as EU carmakers are treated in the US...
Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
According to lore, it all started with the architect deciding against the tried and tested usage of little chimney-like structure on top of the terminal roofs for fire protection de-fuming, insisting instead on some novel, less visible solutions for aesthetic reasons. Those then caused all kinds of follow-up issues, eventually leading into the construction equivalent of the perpetual bugfix cycle, where every fix bri…
Emergency smoke ventilation is a solved problem, ‘little chimneys on the roof’ are one of many different solutions; there are lots of different strategies. So that sounds like nonsense. Source, I’ve worked on mega projects like this. If it’s true that someone decided to swap departures with arrivals once the building was already on site, I would say that’s your problem right there. Whoever is responsible for that cau…
The smoke ventilation system was originally designed to rely on fans to blow the smoke downwards in the ventilation shafts. As far as I know, nobody had tried to build a system like this before. Rumor has it that ventilation pipes even imploded during a test.
That's not all. Signs of poor planning and poor execution seem to be everywhere. Pipes for a central water cooling system for IT and other electronics were supposedly embedded directly into concrete walls instead of into shafts and the system was known to have too little capacity before the building was supposed to open. One escalator turned out to be too short when delivered. Instead of fixing the escalator, they extended it by adding regular stairs to the end. The contents of cable shafts in the building is completely unknown. Nobody knows anymore. New cables are thrown in randomly to suit current needs. Some shafts seem to have already filled up completely because of that.
The management of the construction site has also been a complete disaster. I don't recall how many tech leads had to go because of allegations of corruption, for example.
These are just the worst issues that I remeber. The smoke ventilation was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand your post at all. "so that no one would stifle the company's path towards autonomous EV's." Who is "stifling"? And many companies work on autonomous cars. "This will produce pressure on Europe to ease for instance the AI regulations" What AI regulations in Europe? And what is Europe? The EU? "and basically removed Customs tax" This is not how custom taxes work. The EU is one of the biggest free tra…
> Who is "stifling" No one yet, but it means the company is less beholden to a single regulatory environment. This is generally a good thing. > What AI regulations in Europe? https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-european-strategy-of-r... https://www.ft.com/content/4fd088a4-021b-11e9-bf0f-53b8511af... https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/8/18300149/eu-artificial-int... https://www.loc.gov/law/help/artificial-intelligence/…
>" Mercosul is South American. Why would it join the EU..."
Nobody's talking about joining the EU, but rather a free trade area. Regarding cars, the free trade area makes sense as many EU carmakers (Fiat, Renault, etc) are active in South America.
Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not true. There can be huge import taxes on cars depending on country, even inside EU.
There are no* import taxes on any goods moved within the EU. That's a fundamental principle of the thing. The fee to register a car for use on public road varies. It's very high in Denmark (120% of the value or something) but the place of manufacture doesn't affect that. Second hand imported cars still need to pay it. * Exception is the duty paid on alcohol and cigarettes, depending how you define it.
Paying a tax on something you import from the EU which you don't pay if you buy in country is difficult to see as anything other than an import tax, no matter how it is named. See VRT in Ireland for example.
Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, this is bad news; it's a smaller version of the economic bomb/distortion of creating a google campus somewhere. This will be bad for everything from housing up to the general health of startup culture in Berlin. Desperate move by the economically starved Brandenburg. (and of course they won't suffer the consequences)
The startup culture in Berlin is mediocre at best. I think bringing in proper high tech will be very valuable
And manufacturing is hightech? They are stuck in the 80s software wisse (PLC and robotics).
The real development (embeded system software & hardware) happens in calfiornia anyway.
Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin
#287Watching a SV company suddenly have to deal with German workers' rights (think: unions, significant protection from being fired without cause, rights to paid holiday and enforced maternity leave, even workers' councils which have representation at a management level) is going to be hilarious.
Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a finite and already fully utilized number of domiciles. Adding 400 well off families would undoubtedly displace 400 not so well off families over time. All while jacking up prices of apartments/food/services for everyone. Where is the positive net effect for people here? The city&state will earn more tax revenue, but for the neighborhood there's nothing positive that's going to happen.
You should look at actual gentrification studies - displacement is almost never as bad as predicted and usually ultimately everyone benefits.
Show me the data.
Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin
#289Good strategy from Treelon overall. You'll have Tesla producing cars and employing thousands of workers in the U.S, China & Germany so that no one would stifle the company's path towards autonomous EV's. This will produce pressure on Europe to ease for instance the AI regulations and basically removed Customs tax from many other countries because Tesla can send the cars from three different locations. I just don't un…
> Here in Israel we don't have Teslas You might have missed this very recent news: > International car company Tesla published an ad seeking an operations manager in Israel, thus confirming that it plans to launch significant operations here. [1] [1] https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/tesla-to-launch...
I didn't miss it. It doesn't really mean they will be selling here any time soon as they only published one position for now.
Re: Tesla’s European gigafactory will be built in Berlin
#290Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, so if I have this correct, the airport took ~6 years to construct and 9 years and counting to correct problems with its construction? Meaning that it would have been faster to tear the entire building down and rebuild it from scratch than it is taking to remedy the issues? How does that happen‽
> How does that happen‽ Berlin is a massive clusterfuck of corruption.
Lived here 10 years, can verify. You feel it even if you're not in the know. It's like NYC in the early 80s, but now mixed with a startup scene.