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Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

  • Thread starter Thread starter nycfan
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www.forbes.com

Elon Musk’s Epic Cybertruck Fail

Elon Musk’s polygonal pickup is a polarizing sales flop that's missed the billionaire’s volume goal by a staggering 84%. And there’s no sign that things are improving.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

Judged solely on sales, Musk’s Cybertruck is actually doing a lot worse than Edsel, a name that’s become synonymous with a disastrous product misfire. Ford hoped to sell 200,000 Edsels a year when it hit the market in 1958, but managed just 63,000. Sales plunged in 1959 and the brand was dumped in 1960. Musk predicted that Cybertruck might see 250,000 annual sales. Tesla sold just under 40,000 in 2024, its first full year. There’s no sign that volume is rising this year, with sales trending lower in January and February, according to Cox Automotive.

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Ultimately, Musk opted for a stainless steel exterior, the same choice Delorean made for his ill-fated sports car four decades earlier. But because Musk isn’t a production engineer, he may not have fully appreciated the challenges it presents versus aluminum or composite materials, the person said. Aside from the fact that stainless steel shows handprints–a common gripe about kitchen appliances–it’s hard to bend and likes to snap back to its original shape, one of the reasons there have been problems with Cybertruck body panels.

“This is where I think they misconstrued the tradeoff,” Mercer said. “They drooled over not spending $200 million on a paint shop, but probably spent that much trying to get the stainless steel to work.”

Developing Cybertruck, including tooling expenses to make it in Austin, probably cost Tesla about $900 million, he estimated. And unlike the company’s other vehicles, like the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover, it doesn’t appear that the Cybertruck shares any development and production costs with other Tesla products.

“Does it have a demonstrated technology that could be used elsewhere by the company? That is not the case,” Mercer said. “Can the manufacturing plant make all this other stuff based on investments for Cybertruck? No, it can’t. An unpainted stainless steel vehicle just doesn’t have that much broad traction.”
 
And the big thing with Cybertruck buyers is to paint them after the purchase. Matte black is a popular choice. I saw a BRIGHT yellow one in Urtown Charlotte recently, but that might have been Lamelo Ball. He also has a Lamborghini that is bright yellow and a big honkin’ Hummer painted in a camouflage pattern.
 
farce© said:
And the big thing with Cybertruck buyers is to paint them after the purchase. Matte black is a popular choice. I saw a BRIGHT yellow one in Urtown Charlotte recently, but that might have been Lamelo Ball. He also has a Lamborghini that is bright yellow and a big honkin’ Hummer painted in a camouflage pattern.
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I learned today that I don't like Lamelo Ball. I thought he was a good player who had matured since initially bursting on the scene (not surprising given his age at the time of said bursting), but a person who owns a Cybertruck and a Hummer will not obtain my allegiance as a fan.
 
superrific said:
I learned today that I don't like Lamelo Ball. I thought he was a good player who had matured since initially bursting on the scene (not surprising given his age at the time of said bursting), but a person who owns a Cybertruck and a Hummer will not obtain my allegiance as a fan.
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I get that, but his questionable vehicular choices aren't even in the top 50 reasons to be annoyed with Lamelo.
 
www.dailydot.com

'I'm so alone': Crosswalk speakers across Silicon Valley hacked to play AI audio of Musk begging for friends

'They say money can’t buy happiness ... God knows I’ve tried.'
www.dailydot.com www.dailydot.com

Multiple crosswalk buttons in California were reportedly hacked over the weekend to play AI-generated voices of billionaire tech moguls Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

In videos posted across social media, crosswalks in Silicon Valley cities such as Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Redwood City, the voices of the two figures could be heard.

In one such clip, a crosswalk button, which is normally used to aid the visually impaired, posed as a lonely Musk eager to make friends.

“Hi, I’m Elon. Can we be friends? Will you be my friend? I’ll give you a Cybertruck, I promise,” the voice said. “You don’t know the level of depravity I would stoop to just for a crumb of approval.”
 
My problem is that they keep calling it a truck. I've been around trucks, especially work trucks for over 70 years. Every time I look at it and imagine trying to put something into or take something out of the bed from behind the cab, I shake my fucking head. That ought to have a Tonka name plate because it's a toy.
 
I would love to hear nsair expand on his opinion. I will readily admit that my opinion of anything Tesla is biased because of my feelings about Elon. Trying to put that aside, I find the Cybertruck really unattractive, it doesn't seem to drive well in the conditions you would want a vehicle like that to perform well in, and there have been a number of manufacturing problems with it. I'm curious about what nsair likes about it.
 
PTOHeel said:
I would love to hear nsair expand on his opinion. I will readily admit that my opinion of anything Tesla is biased because of my feelings about Elon. Trying to put that aside, I find the Cybertruck really unattractive, it doesn't seem to drive well in the conditions you would want a vehicle like that to perform well in, and there have been a number of manufacturing problems with it. I'm curious about what nsair likes about it.
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I always thought that it looked like what a vehicle looks like at the very edge of your graphics cards rendering distance.
 
finesse said:
My problem is that they keep calling it a truck. I've been around trucks, especially work trucks for over 70 years. Every time I look at it and imagine trying to put something into or take something out of the bed from behind the cab, I shake my fucking head. That ought to have a Tonka name plate because it's a toy.
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Tonkas have better build quality and higher resale value.
 
PTOHeel said:
I would love to hear nsair expand on his opinion. I will readily admit that my opinion of anything Tesla is biased because of my feelings about Elon. Trying to put that aside, I find the Cybertruck really unattractive, it doesn't seem to drive well in the conditions you would want a vehicle like that to perform well in, and there have been a number of manufacturing problems with it. I'm curious about what nsair likes about it.
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Ok, I guess I should preface by saying I’m not (and never have been!) a Tesla/Elon fanboy, and I don’t think it’s an attractive automobile either. But it’s cool in the sense that it is radically different than anything else on the road today, in an era where cars and trucks are seemingly all converging on the same boring shapes. I grew up paging through car magazines in the 2000s and always wished I could actually own one of the super futuristic concept cars from that time- this is the first one that has come close to approximating that aesthetic.

Secondly, I think there are some cool features- the wildly adjustable air suspension and the rear wheel steering. Those don’t outweigh the many well-publicized problems and impracticalities even if I were in the market for a truck, but it’s cool that they’re there and hopefully will spur other manufacturers to innovate in time.
 
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