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

A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

861–870 of 1001 posts

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#861

Post by grues-dinner »

almosthere wrote: post #848
IceHegel wrote: post #808

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think one of the biggest problems in the United States is the misallocation of ambitious people. The highly educated and ambitious people see finance, government, tech, and corporate executive tracks, as the way to convert their energies into social status. Even startups these days seem to be a case of too many chiefs, not enough Indians.

Well the problem is US wants to be the world's managers. And all we cared about is writing messenger apps. Totally missed the boat on building things, like houses, boats, and most of all new weird things we don't even have a concept for.

Watching nearly the entire software-financial complex burn to the ground when the vaunted "moats" dry up is going to be a hell of a sight. All this AI hype is just going to end up commodifying the very thing that the entire industry is built on: management of processes.

Places that understand that physical production cannot be abstracted forever will prevail.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#862

Post by voidspark »

motorest wrote: post #839
theshrike79 wrote: post #828

And the worst thing is that Elon could've been a living legend by building/funding colleges and schools focused on the tech his companies need, software development, robotics etc. Or even given out million dollar scholarships for the very top students. And he still would've been worth over 250 billion easily. Instead he chose to buy the president and start "optimising" the government with AI.

> And the worst thing is that Elon could've been a living legend by building/funding colleges and schools focused on the tech his companies need, software development, robotics etc. Could he, though? I mean, he might have the cash, but if you look at his history you don't see that much interest or respect for basic academic principles, or even any basic academic achievement whatsoever. He conveys an image of someone…

He has two degrees. BA in Physics and BSc in Economics

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#863

Post by perihelions »

Animats wrote: post #771

The US is falling way behind in electric vehicles. If BYD could sell in the US, the US auto industry would be crushed.[1] What went wrong is that 1) Tesla never made a low-end vehicle, despite announcements, and 2) all the other US manufacturers treated electric as a premium product, resulting in the overpowered electric Hummer 2 and F-150 pickups with high price tags. The only US electric vehicle with comparable pri…

- "BYD did it by"

Also the many systemic, industry-wide factors discussed last week in

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43692677 ("America underestimates the difficulty of bringing manufacturing back (molsonhart.com)" — 1010 comments)

I agree with the gist of that piece; focusing on specific engineering choices (important as they are) is missing the forest for a particularly interesting tree. Any American EV maker is heavily disadvantaged right now, no matter how clever they are.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#864

Post by Jorge1o1 »

IceHegel wrote: post #808
Animats wrote: post #771

The US is falling way behind in electric vehicles. If BYD could sell in the US, the US auto industry would be crushed.[1] What went wrong is that 1) Tesla never made a low-end vehicle, despite announcements, and 2) all the other US manufacturers treated electric as a premium product, resulting in the overpowered electric Hummer 2 and F-150 pickups with high price tags. The only US electric vehicle with comparable pri…

I think one of the biggest problems in the United States is the misallocation of ambitious people. The highly educated and ambitious people see finance, government, tech, and corporate executive tracks, as the way to convert their energies into social status. Even startups these days seem to be a case of too many chiefs, not enough Indians.

Andrew Yang launched a presidential campaign based on this idea, he wrote a book:

“Smart People Should Build Things”

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#865

Post by perihelions »

cpursley wrote: post #846
phonon wrote: post #807

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They definitely tried... $7.5 Billion worth. It's on pause now :-( https://www.govtech.com/transportation/federal-funding-for-e...

[flagged]

That program should be a textbook case-study in how not to run federal projects.

Here's a true statistic:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/03/28/... ("Biden’s $7.5 billion investment in EV charging has only produced 7 stations in two years" (2024))

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#866

Post by atombender »

torginus wrote: post #836
Animats wrote: post #771

The US is falling way behind in electric vehicles. If BYD could sell in the US, the US auto industry would be crushed.[1] What went wrong is that 1) Tesla never made a low-end vehicle, despite announcements, and 2) all the other US manufacturers treated electric as a premium product, resulting in the overpowered electric Hummer 2 and F-150 pickups with high price tags. The only US electric vehicle with comparable pri…

BYD's allowed to sell in Europe. They're not crushing the market here. They're not substantially cheaper, or better for what they offer for the price compared to other manufacturers.

The EU has imposed tariffs and levies on BYD, totaling 27% [1].

[1] https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/chinese-e...

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#868

Post by motorest »

voidspark wrote: post #862
motorest wrote: post #839

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the worst thing is that Elon could've been a living legend by building/funding colleges and schools focused on the tech his companies need, software development, robotics etc. Could he, though? I mean, he might have the cash, but if you look at his history you don't see that much interest or respect for basic academic principles, or even any basic academic achievement whatsoever. He conveys an image of someone…

He has two degrees. BA in Physics and BSc in Economics

> He has two degrees. BA in Physics and BSc in Economics

You should verify your claims

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/musk-physics-degree/

From the article:

> Musk's past statements about his educational background, however, have been, at best, imprecise. He has claimed on several occasions to have received a physics degree in 1995 — a claim that was never fully true but which may have aided Musk's early business career.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#869

Post by ponector »

nandomrumber wrote: post #638
ponector wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the best way is to tax fuel itself. This way worse mpg result in more tax. Tax diesel more than gasoline, LNG less.

Thereby penalising existing vehicle owners who can’t switch to a more efficient vehicle overnight. We have to come up with a rigorous alternative that doesn’t disproportionately affect lower income folk, because people tend not to be overly concerned about nebulous concepts like the climate impacts on unborn future generations, especially when my carbon impact at the margin is negligible when taken in context of glob…

If it is an issue - then option is to have less driving. Take a bus once in a while. Or bike.

Or switch to another old vehicle. Take old Golf instead of RAM, etc.

Re: A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

#870

Post by ponector »

DrillShopper wrote: post #596
ponector wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the best way is to tax fuel itself. This way worse mpg result in more tax. Tax diesel more than gasoline, LNG less.

We already do in the US (but the money mostly goes to road maintenance)

Apparently not enough, as USA has quite cheap fuel. Add 100% carbon tax and people will start to pay attention to MPG ratings. With x2 price increase gasoline in USA is still cheaper than in Germany.
Post reply on HN