#Tesla road test

[blogpopular]

Tesla Autopilot: A Revolução na Direção Autônoma

O Tesla Autopilot é uma das tecnologias mais avançadas no mercado automotivo, liderando a inovação na direção autônoma. Desde o seu lançamento, essa solução revolucionária tem transformado a maneira como interagimos com os veículos, oferecendo segurança, eficiência e conforto. Neste artigo, exploraremos o que é o Tesla Autopilot, como funciona, suas vantagens, desafios e o impacto no futuro da…

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Tesla Model Y RWD steep mountain climb performance stress test

Bjørn Nyland

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Three AI insights for hard-charging, future-oriented smartypantses

MERE HOURS REMAIN for the Kickstarter for the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There’s also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

Living in the age of AI hype makes demands on all of us to come up with smartypants prognostications about how AI is about to change everything forever, and wow, it's pretty amazing, huh?

AI pitchmen don't make it easy. They like to pile on the cognitive dissonance and demand that we all somehow resolve it. This is a thing cult leaders do, too – tell blatant and obvious lies to their followers. When a cult follower repeats the lie to others, they are demonstrating their loyalty, both to the leader and to themselves.

Over and over, the claims of AI pitchmen turn out to be blatant lies. This has been the case since at least the age of the Mechanical Turk, the 18th chess-playing automaton that was actually just a chess player crammed into the base of an elaborate puppet that was exhibited as an autonomous, intelligent robot.

The most prominent Mechanical Turk huckster is Elon Musk, who habitually, blatantly and repeatedly lies about AI. He's been promising "full self driving" Telsas in "one to two years" for more than a decade. Periodically, he'll "demonstrate" a car that's in full-self driving mode – which then turns out to be canned, recorded demo:

https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-video-promoting-self-driving-was-staged-engineer-testifies-2023-01-17/

Musk even trotted an autonomous, humanoid robot on-stage at an investor presentation, failing to mention that this mechanical marvel was just a person in a robot suit:

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/elon-musk-tesla-robot-optimus-ai

Now, Musk has announced that his junk-science neural interface company, Neuralink, has made the leap to implanting neural interface chips in a human brain. As Joan Westenberg writes, the press have repeated this claim as presumptively true, despite its wild implausibility:

https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/elon-musk-lies

Neuralink, after all, is a company notorious for mutilating primates in pursuit of showy, meaningless demos:

https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-pcrm-neuralink-monkey-deaths/

I'm perfectly willing to believe that Musk would risk someone else's life to help him with this nonsense, because he doesn't see other people as real and deserving of compassion or empathy. But he's also profoundly lazy and is accustomed to a world that unquestioningly swallows his most outlandish pronouncements, so Occam's Razor dictates that the most likely explanation here is that he just made it up.

The odds that there's a human being beta-testing Musk's neural interface with the only brain they will ever have aren't zero. But I give it the same odds as the Raelians' claim to have cloned a human being:

https://edition.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/03/cf.opinion.rael/

The human-in-a-robot-suit gambit is everywhere in AI hype. Cruise, GM's disgraced "robot taxi" company, had 1.5 remote operators for every one of the cars on the road. They used AI to replace a single, low-waged driver with 1.5 high-waged, specialized technicians. Truly, it was a marvel.

Globalization is key to maintaining the guy-in-a-robot-suit phenomenon. Globalization gives AI pitchmen access to millions of low-waged workers who can pretend to be software programs, allowing us to pretend to have transcended the capitalism's exploitation trap. This is also a very old pattern – just a couple decades after the Mechanical Turk toured Europe, Thomas Jefferson returned from the continent with the dumbwaiter. Jefferson refined and installed these marvels, announcing to his dinner guests that they allowed him to replace his "servants" (that is, his slaves). Dumbwaiters don't replace slaves, of course – they just keep them out of sight:

https://www.stuartmcmillen.com/blog/behind-the-dumbwaiter/

So much AI turns out to be low-waged people in a call center in the Global South pretending to be robots that Indian techies have a joke about it: "AI stands for 'absent Indian'":

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/29/pay-no-attention/#to-the-little-man-behind-the-curtain

A reader wrote to me this week. They're a multi-decade veteran of Amazon who had a fascinating tale about the launch of Amazon Go, the "fully automated" Amazon retail outlets that let you wander around, pick up goods and walk out again, while AI-enabled cameras totted up the goods in your basket and charged your card for them.

According to this reader, the AI cameras didn't work any better than Tesla's full-self driving mode, and had to be backstopped by a minimum of three camera operators in an Indian call center, "so that there could be a quorum system for deciding on a customer's activity – three autopilots good, two autopilots bad."

Amazon got a ton of press from the launch of the Amazon Go stores. A lot of it was very favorable, of course: Mister Market is insatiably horny for firing human beings and replacing them with robots, so any announcement that you've got a human-replacing robot is a surefire way to make Line Go Up. But there was also plenty of critical press about this – pieces that took Amazon to task for replacing human beings with robots.

What was missing from the criticism? Articles that said that Amazon was probably lying about its robots, that it had replaced low-waged clerks in the USA with even-lower-waged camera-jockeys in India.

Which is a shame, because that criticism would have hit Amazon where it hurts, right there in the ole Line Go Up. Amazon's stock price boost off the back of the Amazon Go announcements represented the market's bet that Amazon would evert out of cyberspace and fill all of our physical retail corridors with monopolistic robot stores, moated with IP that prevented other retailers from similarly slashing their wage bills. That unbridgeable moat would guarantee Amazon generations of monopoly rents, which it would share with any shareholders who piled into the stock at that moment.

See the difference? Criticize Amazon for its devastatingly effective automation and you help Amazon sell stock to suckers, which makes Amazon executives richer. Criticize Amazon for lying about its automation, and you clobber the personal net worth of the executives who spun up this lie, because their portfolios are full of Amazon stock:

https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5

Amazon Go didn't go. The hundreds of Amazon Go stores we were promised never materialized. There's an embarrassing rump of 25 of these things still around, which will doubtless be quietly shuttered in the years to come. But Amazon Go wasn't a failure. It allowed its architects to pocket massive capital gains on the way to building generational wealth and establishing a new permanent aristocracy of habitual bullshitters dressed up as high-tech wizards.

"Wizard" is the right word for it. The high-tech sector pretends to be science fiction, but it's usually fantasy. For a generation, America's largest tech firms peddled the dream of imminently establishing colonies on distant worlds or even traveling to other solar systems, something that is still so far in our future that it might well never come to pass:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead

During the Space Age, we got the same kind of performative bullshit. On The Well David Gans mentioned hearing a promo on SiriusXM for a radio show with "the first AI co-host." To this, Craig L Maudlin replied, "Reminds me of fins on automobiles."

Yup, that's exactly it. An AI radio co-host is to artificial intelligence as a Cadillac Eldorado Biaritz tail-fin is to interstellar rocketry.

Back the Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle here!

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/31/neural-interface-beta-tester/#tailfins

[savorypink]

test drive

you and alex shop for new wheels.

smut.

You grasp the small electric fan and hold it closer to your neck, reveling in the cool breeze brushing against your skin-kissed skin. The sun's warm rays relentlessly beat down on your skin, the warmth and humidity making your breathing feel more voluntary than usual. It's a beautiful day if you're gazing from a window, but if you're outside, you'd think you're boiling in the crevice of Satan's asscrack—perfect weather for buying a car. 

Alex is talking to the dealership guy about dealership things. Or something. You've tuned out. The sun's rays might've entered your brain and short-circuited the wires that make up the cavities that help you focus. Summertime looks good on your man, though. Adorn in a tank top and jeans; he continues talking to the consultant as if the sun isn't permanently burning hair gel into his handsome head. As sweat beads around his forehead, the gelled strands of his hair begin to loosen. They gradually fall in his face as the conversation continues. You're too tired to swoon but thankful for the view.

The consultant goes inside, and Alex finally joins you in all his sweaty, puppy dog-esque glory.

"Any good news?" You ask.

Alex grins, rubbing his hands together excitedly. "He's letting us test drive it."

"Oh. Fun." The sun might've fried your excitement receptors as well.

"You could show a little more enthusiasm than that." Your boyfriend tuts as he crosses his arms.

"Woo. Tesla." You hold your arms up lazily in mock excitement, cheering flatly. It's too hot to get excited.

"Thank you." Alex chuckles; his large hands pull you in by your waist to press a quick peck to your lips. You happily lap away the sweat that stains your lips, savoring the saltiness stinging your parched tongue. Once the consultant returns, his grip on your waist slips as he turns his attention back to the car. You pout, but your curiosity piques when the consultant hands him a card. The consultant demonstrates how the card opens the door, gesturing for Alex to tap the card on the side of the driver's window.

When the car unlocks, your boyfriend looks up at you in childlike bewilderment, and a smile spreads across your face. His genuine wonder and delight make the weather seem bearable. He walks around to open the passenger door, eagerly holding it open for your arrival.

"Is there AC in this thing?" You ask the consultant as you slip into the passenger seat. The consultant tells you how to operate the AC, but once more, you tune out. You marvel at the sleek, all-white interior, the buttery-smooth leather cooling your slightly damp skin. As Alex shuts the door, you sink deeper into the plush seat, letting your muscles loosen and your bones relax, enveloping in what could be your new, luxurious cocoon on wheels. 

With a soft thud, the driver's door closes as Alex slides into his seat. He searches for the ignition impatiently, like a puppy eagerly searching for a bone. His hunt ends once the consultant explains how to start the car using the touchscreen. His face turns an adorable shade of red at the revelation as he taps the screen to put the car in drive mode, slowly peeling out of the dealership.

Looking out the car's expansive windows feels like watching a movie. The trees you pass by sway with crisp animation as a breeze blows the leaves gently. The sky remains a perfect, clear blue from the sunroof's glass as the sun continues shining its gorgeous, aggravatingly bright rays. The wheels are as smooth as the interior you sit on as they practically glide along the road. You hum a soft tune to yourself while you peer at Alex, the driver's seat perfectly contoured to his back.

"You have the most adorable driving face." You muse. 

You prop two elbows on the glovebox as you watch him like an enamored schoolgirl. He turns to you when he stops at a red light, delivering a lingering kiss to your lips. In another life, you're giggling and twirling your hair. Alex pulls away once the light turns green, and you grow needy instantly, a spark igniting in your chest and core.

"More." You demand.

"I'm driving right now, love." He places a warm hand on your thigh, kneading the soft flesh reassuringly. "We'll play later. Promise."

The touch only adds to your neediness as the wet spot in your panties grows larger and warmer. You pout and cross your arms as you move back to your seat, huffing out of your nose in faux anger. It gets his attention like you hoped; you feel him looking through the corner of his eye.

"Stop that."

You don't acknowledge his eyes on you and keep your gaze fixed on the window. "Stop what?"

"Bein' a brat."

The remark only makes you grin, but you tuck your head further away from Alex as you smile. When you're done fawning over your new nickname, your eyes sparkle once they meet the touchscreen console. You might've tuned out at the dealership but remembered overhearing an essential detail about the car.

"Doesn't this thing have autopilot?" You ask, pretending to be oblivious as you absentmindedly touch the screen. Alex quickly draws your hand away from the console, swiftly placing it in your lap. There's no use in trying to hide your smile. You fiddle with the hem of your dress, your next tactic blooming in your head.

You blow an exasperated raspberry. "That's fine. I don't need you anyway."

You lift your dress to slide off the thin material of your panties, admiring the wet spot in the center as if it's a work of art. You hover the underwear above his lap like the arm of a claw machine, dropping them into his lap dully. Alex's eyes shift to his lap momentarily, then return to the road, his grip tightening on the steering wheel. A delicate, manicured finger draws lazy circles around your clit as you watch the strong muscles of his arms flex with his newly found grip. With your free hand, you trace a finger along his jawline.

"You don't need two hands to drive, Al." You chuckle, finally dipping a finger inside your aching heat. You hiss as you plunge your finger in deeper, curling your fingers to ensure your g-spot is unneglected, hitting the spongy area over and over, your core moistening as you pump. Alex's eyes remain on the road, but you notice an inviting dent straining against the denim of his jeans. You add another finger at the sight, bucking your hips down on your fingers.

Your free hand kneads his thigh, mimicking his movements from earlier, but unlike your boyfriend, you let your hands wander. You rub his bulge like a sore ligament, even allowing the acrylic tips of your fingernails to graze the fabric. His hips jerk into your touch, but his face shows no sign of distress. He's good. 

"Looks like you need me."

You undo his belt, your core tightening around your fingers as the metal of the buckle clanks. The length of your nails causes you to fumble with the zipper, but much to your surprise, Alex helps you unzip it. As the car slows at the next light, you let his cock spring free, pumping it languidly in your silky hands.

"We can't do this while I drive," he chuckles nervously, dropping the steering wheel. "We'll crash."

You withdraw your fingers from your core before kneeling on the seat, pulling your hair back as your head dangles above his lap.

"So turn on autopilot, dummy!"

You wrap your warm mouth around his cock as his shaky fingers fumble with the touch screen. You sink him further down your throat until your head hits the shaft, holding him there until tears prickle the corner of your lashes. You pick your head up and begin bobbing rhythmically, holding the shaft to keep him stable. You suck and twist your tongue around his stiff cock with no mercy intended, humming around him as the taste of pre-cum delightfully stains your eager tongue. Alex's hand brushes away the hair that falls in your face as your wet, warm mouth continues. He shamelessly thrusts into your mouth, and you moan, the warm feeling of your wetness trickling down your thighs.

"You're gonna ruin the seats, baby." His large hand reaches over to squeeze your ass, spanking the flesh harshly. "Slobberin' all over my cock like this...dirty girl."

Your wetness increases with his words as your cunt continues clasping around itself, eventually snaking your free hand to your clit in search of relief, bucking your hips into your quick-moving fingers. Your hair is gathered into a ponytail in Alex's strong fist as he pulls you off his cock abruptly, most likely at the sight of you touching yourself. You lick the saliva off your lips while you admire your handiwork, his cock glistening from head to shaft with your warm drool.

"Get in my lap."

The moment he releases your hair is the moment you rejoice. You climb into his lap eagerly, straddling him with your hips above his aching cock, the warmth of him radiating from mere inches away. Your hands grip both his shoulders, and Alex's hands grip your hips likewise, slowly guiding you onto his cock. There's a delicious burn that sizzles as your cunt swallows him whole, your nails digging into the skin of his shoulders. You moan in his ear before nuzzling your head in his neck, and you nip at the flesh, subduing your cries for him.

"I got you." Alex coos in your ear, pressing a kiss to your temple as he guides your hips up and down his cock, gradually increasing the pace as the number of miles heading towards the dealership decreases. You peer out the window with blurry lenses but recognize the scenery, the end of your test drive in sight. Your boyfriend assists by rolling and bucking his hips into your needy core, attempting to meet the movements of his hands halfway, his tip pounding away at the spongy area of your g-spot.

"What...do you think of the car?" You joke, panting. "Nice ride, huh?"

He grins, "Oh, yeah. Nice and smooth. A beauty inside and out. She's a keeper."

His cock blissfully strokes your walls once more as the knot in your stomach finally loosens. You clench around him tightly as you hit your peak, continuing to ride out your high to aid Alex in finding his own, grinding and bouncing on him. His hands hold you in place as he spills inside of you, coating your pulsating walls with his warm release. You don't have time to lay there and pant, so you slip out of him with trembling legs, slipping back into your panties and the passenger seat, fixing your hair in the reflection of the rearview mirror.

Alex quickly tucks himself back into his jeans as the car pulls into the dealership, swiftly buckling his belt before the consultant approaches the mirror. He exits the car like nothing happened, giving the consultant a polite smile before opening your door, like the gentleman he is.

You take his awaiting hand as you step out of the vehicle, mimicking the kind smile Alex gave the dealership guy. Your cool, air-conditioned skin warms against the sun's rays once more as a much hotter, more familiar warmth trickles down your legs slowly and stains the scorching asphalt under your sandals.

"Whaddya think?" The consultant questions.

You nudge Alex’s side to get him to answer, assuming his mind is rampant with images of you in the car. Your face flushes at the thought.

"We'll take it."

[po1sonous-l0ve]

Jason Grace driving headcannons.

This is really random but OK

•I bet he drives like a fancy car.

•Maybe a Rolls Royce. Or a Range Rover.

•Probably a 4×4 of some description.

•Do you guys think he gets road rage? Probably like silent road rage.

•You just see him grip the steering wheel tighter and set his jaw.

•He definitely puts his hand your thigh.

•And his hands are veiny so it's just AUGH.

•You guys don't understand how much I fold for veiny hands.

•Only on specific guys though.

•OOH wait maybe he drives a Tesla.

•Cuz it's like an electric car?

•I'm just writing these down in the order I think of, this is my live thought process.

•All his stuff is just neat and tidy, but all your stuff is scattered around.

•Definitely likes to blast out music when you're around.

•It's significantly quite when you're not there.

•I just had to stop and think about which you're and there I had to do.

•Why is there three words that sound the exact same several times in the English language FUCKERS-

•Ahem. Anyway.

•I think he aces his drivers test.

•He drives more responsibly with passengers because he's terrified of hurting other people, more so than he's scared if hurting himself .

•THE ANGST IS CREEPING UP ON ME I CANT ESCAPE IT.

•This was a train wreck, more so than usual.

Anyways, BYEEEEEE

[netscapenavigator-official]

People in the notes of my post about Tesla removing the gear selectors from its new cars, asking how that's even legal, clearly have no idea just how incompetent and slow-paced the NHTSA is.

Halogen headlights weren't legal until 1979.

Composite headlights (the uniquely designed ones that aren't the old-school circle or square ones you see on older cars) weren't legal until 1984.

Adaptive High Beams (Matrix Headlights) were only recently legalized, in 2022; and the regulations and testing procedures in order to approve them are so haphazard and over-complicated compared to Europe's that not a single automaker has even made them available.

Side Curtain airbags still are not mandated in the United States.

Turn Signals can be red in the U.S., as opposed to the statistically safer amber which is mandatory in Europe.

Making that worse, those red turn signals are allowed to share lamps with the brake lights. This means if you have your turn signal on, 1/3 of your brake lights can’t do their job because they're too busy doing another job.

There is no law in the United States dictating that an electric car must put on its brake lights when Regen braking. In fact, the law specifically states that only the friction brakes are required to activate brake lights. You can bring a Hyundai Ioniq 5 & 6, Kia EV6, Genesis GV60, and many other EVs to a rapid, complete stop without ever activating the brake lights.

Early model Chevrolet Bolt EVs and some Mercedes-Benz EVs will activate the brake lights appropriately when slowing down, but will deactivate their brake lights once they've come to a complete stop, allowing the car to sit at a standstill in the road without any indicator that it isn't traveling at the same speed as you are.

It's completely up to the automaker to decide how (or even if) to implement regen brake lighting. EVs and Hybrids have been around since the late 1990s and this still hasn't changed.

The US government STILL only evaluates a vehicles crash safety by crash testing it at 35 mph into a flat wall and t-boning it with a barrier representing a 3,000 lb sedan. They don't do an offset frontal test or a truck-barrier side test like the IIHS has been doing for private insurance companies for over a decade.

The NHTSA performs ZERO pedestrian crash safety tests like EuroNCAP does.

Oh, and on the topic of gear selectors, those aren't regulated at all. Here are some examples from modern cars, both electric and not:

BMW i3 & Nissan LEAF (Electric):

Toyota Prius (Hybrid) & Honda Clarity (Plug-in Hybrid):

RAM 1500 & Cadillac Escalade (Gasoline):

The automotive rules of the American government are pure chaos, and that’s if they're even there at all. If you're seriously asking how Tesla can allow a car to select reverse on its own, and then put the manual override in the touch screen, I mean, that's just scratching the surface.

If you wanna learn more, Technology Connections on YouTube has some great videos on the Turn Signal issue, the EV Regen brake light issue, and the history of the headlight regulations. I highly recommend you check them out because it truly puts into perspective just how awful the NHTSA is at doing its one job: keeping safety standards up-to-date.

[diy-fire-water-pups]

Heya, guys! Just an ask for you guys, especially for Rocky. What do you guys feel about those cyber trucks? To me, I get salty because people drive a frickin TRAPEZOID!! it looks like an oversized microwave with four wheels! Even raccoons are attacking those trucks because they think they are dumpsters. But hey, that’s just me. What do you guys think?

If only the problem would be ONLY that this truck looks like a trapezoid… Someone once joked it’s Lara Croft in her first game - I had to look that up - but to be very honest, I think she has more polygons than a Cybertruck. And that’s saying something for sure.

As the Paw Patrol’s pup who’s specialized in medicine, I'd like to say that this truck is literally a menace on wheels for both passengers and pedestrians. Have you seen the crash tests? The truck doesn’t crush when colliding with something! It’s supposed to crush so the force of impact won’t go fully on the passengers inside. Without it, if it hits against something full force at top speed, people’s organs will practically become puree against their ribcage. And if it hits a pedestrian, even at lower speeds, the chances of major injuries is insanely high because it doesn’t have any smooth lines on its frame to soften the impact against the person! Only sharp edges! It’s absolutely deadly!

It looks like something you'd see in an Atari game, of course there are people who would be a fan of it but that's a very small percentage of a specific public; as Marshall said, the very frame design makes it extremely dangerous; I absolutely DO NOT trust anything that's entirely dependant on a touchscreen to function, once the screen is out, you won't be able to do anything anymore; If you need to look away from the road for more than 5 seconds to do something on that tablet, it should be considered already a failure of programming and danger inducing; a lot of them came out of the factory with already rusty components so THAT SHOULD SAY SOMETHING; oh yeah, you can't even take it to a car wash or it'll come out a huge useless brick on the other side and if you can't wash it, you'd at least want to coat it but guess what, you can't do that either; a bunch of the panels are literally GLUED to the frame...?; every time you go recharge it you need to do it as correctly as possible to not risk the charger getting stuck and eventually breaking it; if you drive in the rain, water will leak in through the edges; you can't even haul stuff or help another car because you'll be risking to snap the back frame - it's not in one piece with the chassis, but connected by a sort of plastic piece to it...???? I swear I've seen Chase's cruiser hold and tow heavier stuff with its winch than what a Cybertruck can ever dream of doing; if anything happens to the back of this truck, you can kiss goodbye to its bed, even though it's not as big as they promised either; they basically made a fool of a lot of people by making them pay a lot more for a "Foundation Series" promising a full self driving feature that, as far as I know as of now, is still not available; the truck just has so many problems someone drove it out of the factory and not even two minutes later it bricked completely and has been at a repair shop ever since; the list goes on and on...

Some Tesla vehicles at least look good and have decent features, though they also have a lot more problems than they should, which could have been solved already by now, but they don't even try, all because the company owner is just... A bad person, let's put it like that. He's got a temper worse than Sweetie's, he thinks he's above everyone else and won't ever take a "no" or "don't". I've heard a lot of other EV companies are making better AND affordable EVs literally by looking at what's wrong with Tesla cars to not repeat the same errors on theirs.

Oh, and one last thing! This guy also went against regulation laws against hate speech in our Mod's country, which resulted on his social media website and app getting banned there. Not satisfied with that, he double-crossed the ban to make it available there again although totally illegally, by using the same IP servers that hospitals, public services and even the very Brazilian government websites use, so... Triple crime? Not gonna lie, it's funny to follow how it's going down there.

[halfamask]

Adding on to my earlier post, how good the original yugioh cast would be at driving a car:

Yugi: 2/10. I’m sorry. The boy is 5 foot max. He needs a cushion to see over the windshield and slightly struggles to reach the break. He’s so so so good at the theoretical stuff and he always knows who has right of way and what all the signs mean. But he makes everyone nervous when he pulls that seat all the way up and is white knuckled with his tight grip on the wheel, stressed until he parks again.

Joey: 5.5/10. Solid driver, grew up with a beat old Camry with a tough steering wheel and can drive pretty much anything. Will go with you to the mechanic so you don’t get scammed. Absolutely drives at least 10 over the speed limit and is only urged on by his driving playlist full of super fast songs. King of the California stop.

Tristan: 8/10. Good driver. Passed his test on the first try, always comes to a complete stop. Needs the seat out almost all the way. Pleasant radio music and windows open, can have a conversation with you when he drives. But will get stressed in heavy traffic and mostly likely will snap at you. You probably have to ask him for permission to eat in his car.

Tea: 7/10. Also a solid driver, always stays within the speed limit and doesn’t get stressed too easily. The only exception is rich assholes in fancy cars who weave in and out of lanes really quick; she WILL race them in her 8 year old Honda thats due for maintenance soon while cussing them out the whole time, not caring who’s in the car with her. Can drive well but ideally is playing passenger to Tristan. She and Joey trade off the front seat and Yugi’s forever in the back.

Seto: -2/10. The rich asshole in a blue eyes white Tesla, weaving in and out of lanes and laughing as the plebs try to keep up. Mokuba is nauseous but egging him on. He treats all speed limits and most stoplights and yield and stop signs as vague suggestions at the very best and parks in fire lanes because the fine is pocket change to him. No food in his car. Only Mokuba is allowed to sit in the passenger seat and others are lucky if he lets them sit in the back. Every time he drives somewhere he expects valet parking because finding a spot is too mundane for him (again, he will just otherwise leave the car wherever even if it’s a fire lane). No one has better job security that his chauffeur because Mokuba pays to make sure Seto only drives rarely.

Mokuba: can’t drive yet, never wants to learn because he has a chauffeur, plus his only role model for driving who’s not a professional driver is Seto, so he’s kind of scared of it.

Bonus! Atem: 3/10. Better (and taller) than Yugi because he has a calmer and more authoritative presence that makes people feel like he knows what he’s doing, but only knows the rules of the road because Yugi drilled them into him. He’s a pharaoh, both the modern technology and being his own charioteer are fundamentally incompatible with his being and he always feels like something is wrong when he drives.

[shadowofroses]

Till I See You Again

Possible Reader x Nai Millions Knives.

Trigun Stampede into Trimax

Warnings: This itself is Gender Neutral Reader, Isekai alternate to another Isekai Idea I have where Zazie takes Reader to Nai instead of letting them go. Hints of Yandere Nai, Reader Sings. Tesla research, angst over Morals. If I forget something please let me know. I do intend to build on this more. Reader has experiments done on them , reader has no reason to sing this song, they just do.

Song used: Till I See You Again by Unsecret

943 words Chapter excerpt:

“Why am I a stranger, Lost in the Familiar….will I ever know~”

It’s not like you had much to do. It’s not your fault you got Isekaied into Trigun. Why couldn’t you have fall into Vash’s arms? No you had to fall into the world literally, being caught by a whirlwind of Worms.

Other than the blood tests among other things Conrad had performed upon you. As there had to be a Scientific reason why you were dropped into the world from a world long gone. Something was wrong with your blood work however, you wouldn’t be considered a Viable option as a ideal human, an attempt to perfect the Human race so that they could live independently of Plants all together.

“Running with my eyes closed, hunted by the shadows will they ever go?”

Due to your knowledge you were too valuable to let go. No they needed you locked up, well to an extent. You were free to roam the Ship. As long as you stayed out of the way there was no need to impose most things.

You were in the area where they had collected Surviving books from the Great Fall. You would call it a Library. You gazed through book after book Piecing together how things were the way they were, what happened to earth as a whole.

“I’m afraid...that I’m miles away from yesterday and I’m alone…”

As you sung to yourself in a slow, soft, and haunting way. You would have never thought that there were anyone else around. Seeing picture of Earth, the continents. Historical events leading up to it’s collapse. It really made you wonder...did you actually watch an anime, or were you thrust into the future somehow?

But how….was that possible? How was any of this possible?

“Can’t you see I’m right here? Locked inside the Nightmare...Like a memory?”

You would move on from subject to subject. Eventually you landed on the books on Plants. But...it wasn’t just Plants. But Independent Plants in general. Then...you found documents on Tesla…you really didn’t think you were supposed to find those. The tests they did on her...you couldn’t help but cry at that. Because, of course Humans would destroy another being to attempt to understand them...They stored her dissected body parts separately...but why?

“Whispers in the silence, madness in disguises...like an enemy.~”

You felt sick. Closing the book, disgusted. The more you read, the more you understood Nai, where he came from. His thought processes.

But no. You couldn’t let yourself think like that. There HAD to be some good in Humanity. Vash was out there trying to prove it. Granted you haven’t met Vash. But you knew him from the shows, from the Manga...well maybe known was a loose term…like Vash...you just had to believe there was some good in Humanity...Not quite because Rem sacrificed herself to. It...was hard to explain...

“it’s a cold and lonely road but I’m gonna hold on…..Till I see you again~”

You didn’t place the books back, instead you walked off, heading back to your quarters. A room Similar to what Vash was in when he was taken in after The Fall. You were distracted, that you didn’t even notice that you passed up Nai on the way out.

Nai himself was distracted. His eyes narrowed and followed your form. For one so painfully ordinary, your voice was haunting and beautiful when he heard it. It wasn’t a voice or a Melody he expected to ever have come out of your mouth.

Slowly he walked over to look at the books you were looking at. Old books on Earth were to be expected? Plants were probable. He froze at Tesla’s experiments and documents. Other than the obvious as to why they were there, his eyes narrowed. He saw water droplets beside the papers.

Hesitantly, he reached down, touching the droplets, and he raised it up to his nose. Salt...tears? You would cry for his Sister?

Why was he drawn to you? A Mere human?

It’s a cold and lonely road but I gotta hold on...Till I see you again~

Your voice, it echoed in his head. Who exactly did you want to see again? A lover back on Old Earth? Well you had to get over that. You were most likely never going to see Earth ever again. Not that Nai would let you go.

What makes you want to hang onto whatever it was you were holding onto? Why were you stubborn like his brother. Even going as far as trying to escape the ship under his watch. Why? You weren’t a stupid Human, you had remnants of intelligence. You knew this planet wasn’t Earth. There were two suns, it was hotter than the climate back on Earth. You would get sick, heat stroke, heat exhaustion, hyperthermia, among other things. You weren’t meant for this planet.

If anything you should be grateful he’s protecting you from this.

Till I see you again~

Your voice echoed as an ear worm. Nai frowned, as he moved deciding to do the one thing he could do and control at this present time. He walked until his bare feet took him to his organ. Sitting down, his fingers flew against the keys gracefully.

Closing his eyes his fingers played the notes before he could even think of what he was doing.

But with your voice in his head, singing the song you did earlier, he was playing the organ along with your voice playing on repeat in his head.

However something was missing...Oh, the musical notes he played were perfect. Everything Nai did was perfect. But still something was missing

He needed you.

[mariacallous]

Elon Musk will be pleased that his surprise jaunt to China on Sunday garnered many glowing headlines. The trip was undoubtedly equally a surprise to Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, who had been scheduled to offer Musk the red carpet on a long-arranged visit.

The billionaire blew off India at the last minute, citing “very heavy Tesla obligations.” Indeed, Tesla has had a tumultuous couple of weeks, with federal regulator slap-downs, halved profits, and price-cut rollouts. Yet, in a very public snub that Modi won’t quickly forget, the company CEO made time for Chinese premier Li Qiang. And well Musk might. Tesla needs China more than China needs Tesla. After the US, China is Tesla’s second biggest market. And ominously, in the first quarter of the year, Tesla’s sales in China slipped by 4 percent in a domestic EV market that has expanded by more than 15 percent. That’s enough of a hit for any CEO to jump in a Gulfstream and fly across the Pacific for an impromptu meeting with a Chinese premier. Globally, Tesla has lost nearly a third of its value since January, and earlier this month, Tesla’s worldwide vehicle deliveries in the first quarter fell for the first time in almost four years. As they are wont to do, Tesla investors continue to complain over repeated delays to the company’s rollout of cars with genuine driverless capabilities.

One of Tesla’s stop-gap technologies—a now heavily-discounted $8,000 add-on—is marketed as Full Self-Driving, or FSD. But, like the similarly confusingly named Autopilot feature, it still requires driver attention, and may yet still prove to be risky. Among the deals said to have been unveiled at Sunday’s meeting with Li Qiang was a partnership granting Tesla access to a mapping license for data collection on China’s public roads by web search company Baidu. This was a “watershed moment,” Wedbush Securities senior analyst Dan Ives said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. However, Tesla has been using Baidu for in-car mapping and navigation in China since 2020. The revised deal, in which Baidu will now also provide Tesla with its lane-level navigation system, clears one more regulatory hurdle for Tesla’s FSD in China. It does not enable Tesla to introduce driverless cars in China or anywhere else, as some media outlets have reported. Press reports have also claimed that Musk has secured permission to transfer data collected by Tesla cars in China out of China. This is improbable, noted JL Warren Capital CEO and head of research Junheng Li, who wrote on X: “[Baidu] owns all data, and shares filtered data with Tesla. Just imagine if [Tesla] has access to real-time road data such as who went to which country’s embassy at what time for how long.” That, she stressed, would be “super national security!” According to Reuters, Musk is still seeking final approval for the FSD software rollout in China, and Tesla still needs permission to transfer data overseas. Li added that a rollout of even a “supervised,” data-lite version of FSD in China is “extremely unlikely.” She pointed to challenges for Tesla to support local operation of the software. Tesla still “has no [direct] access to map data in China as a foreign entity,” she wrote. Instead, Tesla is likely using the deal extension with Baidu as an FSD workaround, with the data collected in China very much staying in China. Despite this, Tesla shares have jumped following news of the expanded Baidu collaboration. Furthermore, Li said there’s “no strategic value” for Beijing to favor FSD when there are several more advanced Chinese alternatives. (We’ve tested them.)

“Chinese EVs are simply evolving at a far faster pace than Tesla,” agrees Shanghai-based automotive journalist and WIRED contributor Mark Andrews, who tested the driver assistance tech available on the roads in China. The US-listed trio of Xpeng, Nio, and Li Auto offer better-than-Tesla “driving assistance features” that rely heavily on lidar sensors, a technology that Musk previously dismissed, but which Tesla is now said to be testing. Although dated in shape and lacking in the latest tech, a Tesla car is nevertheless more expensive in China than most of its rivals. Tesla recently slashed prices in China to arrest falling sales. Musk’s flying visit to China smacked of “desperation,” says Mark Rainford, owner of the Inside China Auto channel. “[Tesla] sales are down in China—the competition has weathered the price cuts so far and [the Tesla competitors have] a seemingly endless conveyor belt of talented and beautiful products.” Rainford further warns that the “golden period for Tesla in China” is “at great risk of collapsing.” Tesla opened its first gigafactory in Shanghai five years ago, and it is now the firm’s largest—but the automaker has been playing tech catchup in China for some time. In addition to Xpeng, Nio, and Li, there are other Chinese car companies competing with Tesla on autonomous driving, as Musk will see if he visits the Beijing Motor Show, which runs through this week.

Beijing is now arguably the world’s preeminent automotive expo, but Tesla is not exhibiting—a sign that it has little new to offer famously tech-hungry Chinese autobuyers. Pointedly, the Cybertruck is not road-legal in China, although that hasn’t stopped Tesla from displaying the rust-prone electric pickup in some of its Chinese showrooms. Likewise, Tesla has just announced plans for a European Cybertruck tour. But, just like in China, the EV pickup cannot be sold in the EU, either—and according to Tesla's lead on vehicle engineering, it likely never will be.

Speaking on tighter pedestrian safety regulations in the EU compared to the US, Tesla’s vice president of vehicle engineering, Lars Moravy, told Top Gear that “European regulations call for a 3.2-mm external radius on external projections. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to make a 3.2-mm radius on a 1.4-mm sheet of stainless steel.”

The “Cybertruck Odyssey” tour—as Tesla’s European X account calls it—may titillate Tesla fans, but it could prove to be about as useful as shooting a Roadster into space.

[blogpopular]

Tesla Full Self-Driving: A Revolução na Direção Autônoma

O Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) é uma das tecnologias mais discutidas no cenário automobilístico atual. Prometendo transformar a maneira como interagimos com os veículos, essa solução de direção autônoma da Tesla combina inteligência artificial avançada, sensores de alta precisão e atualizações regulares para oferecer uma experiência de direção quase completamente independente. O Que é o Tesla…

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

2023 Chevy Bolt EUV Redline: Super Cruisin' to Superchargin'

News Coulomb

I took the 2023 Chevrolet Bolt EUV to the closest open Tesla Supercharger in Placerville, California to see how it all worked. I used this as an opportunity to test out Super Cruise availability and functionality on various rural and connecting highways.

[girlactionfigure]

🔘 Wednesday - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

▪️HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH REPORT - HAMAS COMMITTED A SYSTEMATIC ASSAULT AGAINST CIVILIANS.. The report condemned what the rights organization said were various war crimes and crimes against humanity, including “deliberate and indiscriminate attacks against civilians,” the use of civilians as human shields, and cruel and inhumane treatment, finding Hamas complicit with Oct. 7 war crimes. https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/07/17/october-7-crimes-against-humanity-war-crimes-hamas-led-groups

.. HAMAS - NO WE DIDN’T.. “We reject the lies contained in the Human Rights Watch report, the blatant bias for Israel and the lack of professionalism and credibility, and demand they withdraw it and apologize for it.​​​​“

▪️HEZBOLLAH THREATENS.. “The first step will be the launch of about 10,000 thousand missiles to military targets as far as south Israel. The second stage the Air Force is disabled. The third stage is a ground invasion towards settlements near the fence, killing and taking hostages.”

▪️HEZBOLLAH LEADER SAYS.. “fighting is a custom and honor (for us) martyrdom (is) from god."

▪️SMUGGLING TUNNELS.. The IDF believes it will take many more months to complete the search for Hamas's cross-border smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border. So far, around 25 tunnels have been located. Combat engineers are currently meticulously sweeping the entire Gaza-Egypt border area in Rafah, while expanding the Philadelphi border corridor by demolishing structures within about 800 meters of the border.

▪️SICK CRIME & RUMORS.. a mother killed her young son yesterday in some kind of mental break. Rumors immediately swirled that the mother was a survivor of the Oct. 7 massacre. Bituach Leumi: this is untrue.

▪️SOCIETAL CONFLICT.. Last night a bus of soldiers returning from Gaza was, weirdly, diverted through Meah Shearim, the most ultra of ultra-orthodox neighborhoods in Israel. On seeing a bus of soldiers, the locals began to harass and pelt the bus - perhaps assuming they are coming to haul them away to the army.

▪️PROTEST - ANTI-ATTORNEY GENERAL.. Activists of the "If You Want" movement came this morning to demonstrate in front of the home of the Legal Adviser to the Government, Gali Beharev-Mara, in protest of the normalization of violations of public order.

▪️WHY NOT MORE ULTRA-ORTHODOX CONSCRIPTIONS? Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Knesset members ask why the IDF doesn’t issue conscription orders to all yeshivas students of age? The IDF replies: "The conscription bureau doesn't know how to take in more." (( The IDF for years avoiding creating programs for this segment of society. ))

▪️NO CYBERTRUCKS FOR ISRAEL? The Ministry of Transport forbids Tesla's Cybertruck, to be tested or driven on Israeli roads. The amazing reason - the vehicle is (lightly) bulletproof. In Israel, a special permit is required to import a bulletproof vehicle, and the Cybertruck did not receive such a permit.

⭕ OVER 80 ROCKETS FIRED BY HEZBOLLAH towards Mt. Meron and surrounding areas last night, another 15+ FIRED AT NAHARIYA area.

♦️COUNTER-TERROR OPS - JENIN.. Arab channels show apparent special forces operating in Jenin with firefights.

♦️COUNTER-TERROR OPS - KALKILYA.. Firefight.

♦️SIGNIFICANT TARGETED AIRSTRIKES in CENTRAL GAZA overnight.

[juniper-simblr]

Greetings from Strangetown Year one: introduction

Here is the town of Strangetown.

The little desert town is a midcentury architectural gem and even features a military base at the outskirts of town.

There's currently 21 sims spread across 7 households in the town:

13 Dead End Lane: Specter household. Olive Specter & Ophelia Nigmos lives here.

83 Road to Nowhere: Singles household. Chloe and Lola Curious lives here along with their friends Kristen Loste and Erin Beaker.

101 Road to Nowhere: Smith household. PT9, Jenny, Johnny and Jill Smith lives here.

74 Road to Nowhere: Loner household. Ajay Loner lives here alone.

51 Road to Nowhere: Grunt household. Buzz, Tank, Ripp and Buck Grunt lives here.

1 Tesla Court: Beaker household. Circe and Loki Beaker lives here with their test subject; Nervous Subject.

2 Cover Up Road: Curious household. Pascal, Lazlo & Vidcund Curious lives here.

[odinsblog]

Coming Soon To A Road Near You: “Full Self-Driving”

Video clips from traffic surveillance cameras on the San Francisco Bay Bridge on Thanksgiving morning show a white Tesla reportedly in “Full Self-Driving” mode crossing over to the fast lane and abruptly breaking, resulting in an eight-car pileup.

Just hours before the crash, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had triumphantly announced that Tesla’s “Full Self-Driving” capability was available in North America, congratulating Tesla employees on a “major milestone.” By the end of last year, Tesla had rolled out the feature to over 285,000 people in North America, according to the company.

A Tesla Model S vehicle which the driver claimed to be using the 'Self Driving' feature caused an eight-vehicle crash on the San Francisco Bay Bridge on Thanksgiving Day, resulting in the injury of nine people.

The driver reported to the police that he had been using Tesla's "Full Self-Driving" feature prior to the incident.

The crash happened on the same day that Elon Musk announced that the beta-testing of FSD would be expanded from a limited set of Tesla owners to "anyone in North America who requests it."

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched an investigation into the incident.

The NHTSA has said that it plans to examine a crash in Ohio also involving a Tesla that may have been using the automated-driving system. The agency has investigated a total of 35 crashes that potentially involved Tesla’s Autopilot highway-driving system. A total of 19 people have died in the crashes.

(continue reading)

[ausetkmt]

“Teslas are the safest cars on the road, but most people don’t know that,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on X (formerly Twitter) last year. The superlative is typical of the billionaire, and the automaker itself, which boasts that its vehicles “are engineered to be the safest in the world.”

But while Tesla’s cars routinely receive top safety ratings, including from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, accident statistics show that the brand has the highest rate of accidents in which at least one car occupant is killed, according to a new report from the auto research firm iSeeCars.

More from Rolling Stone

Analyzing fatal collisions from 2017 to 2022 involving 2018 to 2022 car models, the group identified the Tesla Model S and Tesla Model Y as two of the most dangerous cars on the road by occupant fatality rate. Though models from Hyundai, Chevrolet, Mitsubishi, Porsche, and Honda occupied the top five spots on the list, the Tesla Model Y, a mid-size SUV, came in sixth, with a fatal accident rate 3.7 times higher than the average car, and 4.8 times higher than the average SUV. The Model S rate is double that of the average car.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

The auto company had 5.6 fatal accidents per billion miles traveled by its vehicles, narrowly edging out Kia, with 5.5 per billion miles, as the brand with the overall highest rate of deadly accidents. This, the iSeeCars study notes, is “despite Tesla’s advanced driver-assist technology,” with features including so-called Autopilot and Full-Self Driving (FSD), which are meant to reduce human error. The former is a basic system including cruise control and automated lane-changing on freeways, while FSD allows a Tesla to “drive itself almost anywhere with minimal driver intervention,” per the company’s language. Both require the continued supervision of an attentive driver who can override the software.

Karl Brauer, an executive analyst with iSeeCars, said in the report that new cars overall are safer than they’ve ever been, and that most of the vehicle models on their lists “received excellent safety ratings, performing well in crash tests.” Therefore, he added, their elevated accident rates likely “reflect a combination of driver behavior and driving conditions.”

The study did not factor in the use of advanced systems such as Tesla Autopilot and FSD, but their shortcomings are well-documented, and Tesla accidents in which one of these features was engaged have triggered a wave of lawsuits, as well as regulatory scrutiny. Both NHTSA and the Department of Justice are investigating whether Tesla misled customers to believe that Autopilot and FSD is more dependable than it truly is. Critics say that drivers who assume their Tesla can operate safely and with total autonomy tend to become complacent or distracted — and then fail to take manual control when necessary.

This hasn’t stopped Musk from repeatedly promising, as he has for over a decade, that Tesla is close to a version of FSD which can safely operate without any human oversight. In October, he doubled down on this promise, unveiling a design for an autonomous two-seater “Robotaxi” (or “Cybercab”) without a steering wheel. He offered few specifics about how Tesla would be able to compete with companies that already have active fleets of autonomous taxis, like Google subsidiary Waymo, though he predicted the Tesla model would be in production before 2027, while acknowledging that he tends “to be a little optimistic with time frames.”

But for the moment, Tesla drivers are getting into fatal accidents with higher frequency than other drivers. Brauer commented that across the board in the automotive industry, improved safety features “are being countered by distracted driving and higher rates of speed, leading to rising accident and death rates in recent years.” No matter how well-made, a car can’t compensate for an irresponsible person in the driver’s seat.