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

Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 376 posts

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#361

Post by greglindahl »

JBReefer wrote: post #327
greglindahl wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, what fraction of body shops do aluminum? Model 3 is not like Model S/X. And problems at body shops has nothing to do with problems at first party repair centers. I'm happy to agree that the future is uncertain, but you aren't adding much in the way of fact into the discussion.

I'm sure a growing number do, now that the most popular vehicle in America is made out of the stuff (F150)

Only a small fraction of the F150 is aluminum, but yes, I'm sure it's a growing number of body shops.

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#362

Post by samstave »

robbiep wrote: post #236
Arizhel wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny, but silly. Why would people want to live in other places in the solar system? Earth, the Moon, and Mars are the only places that really make any sense at all. Even Mars is iffy because the gravity is rather low, it's far from Earth, the atmosphere is barely there, it's cold, and there's no radiation protection without going underground. The Moon is even worse, but at least it's close to Earth so it'd be really…

Why leave town? why jump on a ship and sail to unknown horizons? why get out of bed in the morning? Some people like the idea of adventure and the unknown. Practical realities be damned

TBH, I really really admire those ancestors of our past who jump a ship and sail into the unknown. That takes serious balls.

If you meditate on this you will see that the amount of gumption doing this, especially when info was not so easily begot and Safeway didnt exist... jesus - humanity was REALLY tenacious in the past. So, if given the opportunity to go on a craft to mars with even a single digit % survival probability - I would do it, if anything just to honor those who have done the same in the past...

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#363

Post by Arizhel »

Arizhel wrote: post #350
robbiep wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, good thing it looks like it's going to be largely private hands doing the work, and there'll be no shortage of volunteers. You and your lack of adventure can stay exactly where you are :)

It's not a matter of willing workers, it's a matter of funding. The problem is if you start demanding money in the form of taxes. I find it highly dubious that one rich person could fund such an endeavor all by himself; this kind of thing is a project of enormous magnitude, and just as with the Apollo missions, normally require the funding only possible with a very large nation-state, which gets that funding from tax…

>We have zero experience in building and living in actual offworld habitats.

It's too late to edit this, but I just want to qualify it: we have zero experience building and living in habitats on other celestial bodies. A small space station in low-Earth orbit within the Van Allen radiation-protection belts doesn't really count.

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#364

Post by robbiep »

Arizhel wrote: post #363
Arizhel wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a matter of willing workers, it's a matter of funding. The problem is if you start demanding money in the form of taxes. I find it highly dubious that one rich person could fund such an endeavor all by himself; this kind of thing is a project of enormous magnitude, and just as with the Apollo missions, normally require the funding only possible with a very large nation-state, which gets that funding from tax…

>We have zero experience in building and living in actual offworld habitats. It's too late to edit this, but I just want to qualify it: we have zero experience building and living in habitats on other celestial bodies. A small space station in low-Earth orbit within the Van Allen radiation-protection belts doesn't really count.

sure. we don't have experience doing anything until we try. Ultimately it doesn't matter what you or I think about this: in the scheme of things (and not to channel musk, but it remains a fact) our species will blip out of existence unless we get off the planet.

Funding be damned. No one is asking you to work your arse off Interstellar style to fund a secret program to fund humanity and get us out of here. And no-one is asking the US government to pump a trillion into setting up colonies out there. But it will happen - and there will be commercial starts to it - asteroid mining, with initial small numbers of support personnel up there, then maybe a few habs. Maybe it will take generations; or maybe we'll be wiped out before then. But it is either part of the inevitable march of the story of our civilisation; or there won't be a civilisation to talk about

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#365

Post by radiorental »

koreyb wrote: post #359
radiorental wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When did it become cool to write poorly like Trump? That's just low. First, I'm dyslexic. Second, I was on my new mobile with a new keyboard. Please refrain from turning HN into redit.

It would be low if I knew you were dyslexic. Your other writing is spot on. Was looking for discussion on the topic instead of someone acting like a victim.

A discussion on the topic... Of whether I write like Trump? I'm sorry,am I missing something?

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#366

Post by koreyb »

radiorental wrote: post #365
koreyb wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be low if I knew you were dyslexic. Your other writing is spot on. Was looking for discussion on the topic instead of someone acting like a victim.

A discussion on the topic... Of whether I write like Trump? I'm sorry,am I missing something?

Only the other 2 sentences in my post.

Off subject, you may find this cool https://youtu.be/cfRqNAhAe6c

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#367

Post by anchpop »

elihu wrote: post #203
mikeash wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EVs are unpopular because cheap ones aren't very good yet. You have to choose between almost unusably short range, or a very high price. Something like the LEAF is affordable, but only useful as a city car. A Model S is a great car, but extremely expensive. The cost is coming down. Chevy is now selling the Bolt, which has pretty good range, for under $40,000. Tesla's Model 3 is coming soon. More will follow. The high…

> GM is investing in what sells today. Tesla is investing in what might sell in a decade or two. It seems to me that the Bolt and Model 3 should be pretty similar in terms of cost, range, and price. The main difference is the Tesla brand / visual design and probably more self-driving tech in the Model 3. Am I missing something?

> probably more self-driving tech

I probably shouldn't be sharing this but I know someone who is working on the Bolt and he told me they've been having a lot of trouble integrating self-driving tech that's close to Tesla's

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#368

Post by kriro »

bkanber wrote: post #330
kriro wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire clean energy argument depends on your classification of nuclear energy. Long term storage issues put it squarely in the unclean category for me so I'd argue that US energy is by and large pretty unclean. I'm also pricing in the expected value of meltdowns in my unclean rating. It's hard to quantify exactly but the black swan events have pretty catastrophic consequences for the environment. Since I've witne…

Nuclear power is only 20% of US energy production. Nuclear waste is a political problem, not a scientific or engineering one. We're not allowed to recycle it the way we want. Blame President Carter. Coal power puts more radiation into the atmosphere than nuclear does. You have no idea how to "price" the cost of meltdowns into your "unclean" rating. TMI's incident did not have any effect on public safety. I don't thin…

Just to clarify. the two incidents I was referring to were Chernobyl and Fukushima (as they are INES 7). The Three Mile you mention was "only" INES 5. I'd argue it's still pretty bad but INES 7 is what I'd consider the black swan events.

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#369

Post by radiorental »

koreyb wrote: post #366
radiorental wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A discussion on the topic... Of whether I write like Trump? I'm sorry,am I missing something?

Only the other 2 sentences in my post. Off subject, you may find this cool https://youtu.be/cfRqNAhAe6c

Thanks! Some very cool stuff in the pipeline from Nissan. I'd be wary of these controlled demos though, it's a tougher problem in the real world. I think the path forward are 3rd party units like the PX2 from Nvidia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-96BEoXJMs0

Apple, Tesla, Google & Baidu have sucked up all the talent. That's pushed out development timelines for automotive manufacturers like Nissan beyond someone like Nvidia shipping an off-the-shelf solution.

Re: Tencent buys 5% of Tesla

#370

Post by koreyb »

radiorental wrote: post #369
koreyb wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only the other 2 sentences in my post. Off subject, you may find this cool https://youtu.be/cfRqNAhAe6c

Thanks! Some very cool stuff in the pipeline from Nissan. I'd be wary of these controlled demos though, it's a tougher problem in the real world. I think the path forward are 3rd party units like the PX2 from Nvidia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-96BEoXJMs0 Apple, Tesla, Google & Baidu have sucked up all the talent. That's pushed out development timelines for automotive manufacturers like Nissan beyond someone like…

Had not seen that before, amazing! Thank you.

The equipment/setup cost Nissan something like $750k. Nvidia PX2 is good enough for Tesla!

Post reply on HN