this post was submitted on 09 May 2025
515 points (97.4% liked)

Technology

69913 readers
3280 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
L4s@hackingne.ws
515
Things at Tesla are worse than they appear (edition.cnn.com)
submitted 2 days ago by technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/technology@lemmy.world
80 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Things are undoubtedly bad at Tesla. Its sales are dwindling. Its profits are plunging, as is its share price. There are regular protests outside its showrooms. The Cybertruck is a flop. And somehow, it’s actually a lot worse than that.

The 71% drop in net income it just reported may have been overshadowed by CEO Elon Musk’s announcement that he would be stepping back from his controversial duties at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). But that drop is just one indication of serious financial sickness at the EV maker, problems brought on by falling sales for the first time in its history and falling prices for electric vehicles.

The bottom line problem at Tesla is its vanishing bottom line. A deeper look at its first quarter report shows it’s now losing money on what should be its ostensible reason for existence – selling cars.

It was only able to post a $409 million profit in the quarter thanks to the sale of $595 million worth of regulatory credits to other automakers.

But if the Trump administration gets its way, the company can kiss those regulatory credits keeping it in the black goodbye, too.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago) (1 children)

The thing is humans are horrible drivers, costing a huge toll in lives and property every year.

We may already be at the point where we need to deal with the ethics of inadequate self-driving causing too many accidents vs human causing more. We can clearly see the shortcomings of all self driving technology so far, but is it ethical to block Immature technology if it does overall save lives?

Maybe it’s the trolley problem. Should we take the branch that leads to deaths or the branch that leads to more deaths

[–] tfm@europe.pub 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

The thing is humans are horrible drivers, costing a huge toll in lives and property every year.

True

We may already be at the point where we need to deal with the ethics of inadequate self-driving causing too many accidents vs human causing more.

Are you talking about waymo vs human driver? It's currently (and maybe never) economical to roll that out globally. That would cost trillions and probably wouldn't even be feasible everywhere.

Teslas aren't autonomous but just mere driving assistants so you can't compare them. Otherwise you'd also have to include the Mercedeses (which btw have the first commercial Level 3 car), BMWs, BYDs, ...

but is it ethical to block Immature technology if it does overall save lives?

It would be very unethical to allow companies to profit from dangerous and unsafe technology that kills people.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

No manufacturer does good self-driving yet.

Several manufacturers including Tesla make driver assistants more reliable than humans in at least some cases, possibly most of the time.

It’s easy to say you don’t want to allow companies to profit from unsafe technology that kills people but what is the other choice? If you send the trolley down the other track, you’re choosing different deaths at the hands of unsafe humans. We will soon be at the point, or already are, that your choice kills more people. Is that really such an easy choice?

[–] tfm@europe.pub 1 points 5 hours ago

We will soon be at the point, or already are, that your choice kills more people.

Where do you get that? From Elon?

Yes safety features and driving assistants make driving safer. Letting the car drive by itself not (especially with Teslas).