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E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
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5 May, 4 tweets, 2 min read
A special good morning to this legendary thread on Tesla's hacked-together software infrastructure. I was reminded of it by the latest Tesla exploit, recently shared by @missy_cummings: securityweek.com/tesla-car-hack…
A lot of what is perceived as the "legacy" automakers simply being "bad at software" is in fact the result of very different priorities: less emphasis on performance and more emphasis on durability and robustness. This contrast is also echoed in hardware: thedrive.com/tech/27989/tes…
Consumer-grade devices are the gold standard for performance, but that comes at a cost to stability and durability. If your car broke as often as your smartphone... well, you'd have a sense of what Tesla ownership is like. Remember this when people mock small, laggy displays.

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E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
6 May
We don't know exactly what happened in the fatal crash that killed a Tesla driver yesterday, and we don't know if any driving automation was involved. This is a thread about what we do know, some of which suggests it may be another in a growing string of Autopilot-involved deaths
The initial reporting on the crash is here: losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/05/05/tes…

Today, the @sbcountysheriff released the name of the deceased: Steven Hendrickson, a 35 year-old male: wp.sbcounty.gov/sheriff/media-…

I've found what appear to be his social media pages, and there are troubling posts.
The most troubling posts are on what appears to be his TikTok account. The posts show him using his Tesla's driving automation in traffic, describing it as "FSD" and "selfdriving," and describing his state has "tired" and "bored"

tiktok.com/@shendrickson2…

tiktok.com/@shendrickson2… ImageImage
Read 14 tweets
E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
5 May
Every time someone makes a viral video like this and Tesla does and says nothing about it, they are endorsing the foreseeable misuse of their products and ensuring that more people will die as a result. Hope it's worth it!
For sure, Tesla is not the only party responsible for the future deaths this will inspire. Other responsible parties include:
-the platform
-the influencer
-the influencer/platform's sponsors
-regulators/politicians/law enforcement
We're all failing here.
We have to remember: this is safety-critical technology, which the public is in no way equipped to make independent judgements about. This is precisely why consumer protections exist: everyday people shouldn't need to be expert in arcane topics to enjoy a basic level of safety.
Read 10 tweets
E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
1 May
I don't claim to speak for the left, but:
-union busting
-poor workplace conditions/safety
-SWATing whistleblowers
-repeated environmental violations (really)
-market manipulation
-unsafe automated driving development/deployment, even by the standards of an unregulated industry
I think the core of the left's animus toward Musk is that he embodies the triumphant power of unfettered, highly-concentrated capital that defines our times. The fact that he so openly cultivates a shallow, smarmy, grifting cult of personality as cover adds insult to injury.
Musk once had a coalition of the techno-libertarian right and green left. Then the right hated him for being a climate subsidy grifter. Then the left started hating him for the reasons above (and more). Now the right loves him because he makes libs mad. The story of our times!
Read 4 tweets
E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
28 Apr
Speaking of the need for good AV influencers, here's something to keep in mind: you don't have to be an expert to help people understand complex topics. In fact, the best way to teach is often by learning yourself and sharing your process in real time.
In my first week or so of auto industry blogging, I realized that most readers/commenters knew more about the topic than I ever would. Accepting that allowed me to stop trying to be an expert and just self-educate, share as I learn, and make space for others to build on it.
It would actually be incredibly valuable for those of us in AV education to be able to follow more people as they go about self-educating on the topic. There's no playbook for the best educational processes when it comes to this stuff, so insight into yours would be super helpful
Read 4 tweets
E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
28 Apr
I mean, the feds have done multiple on-site inspections since the (unenforced?) BAAQMD violations dropped, and multiple paint shop sources told me that Tesla rampantly violated its permit conditions for years... so the only surprise here is media outlets actually reporting on it.
The EPA seems to be saying that Tesla has been in a state of "high priority violation" of the Clean Air Act since the start of 2019.

You know, like I've been trying to say. echo.epa.gov/detailed-facil… Image
By the way, the BAAQMD (@AirDistrict) seems to have stopped publishing any documents related to Tesla or the double-digit Clean Air Act violations it has been sitting on for years now. At least the EPA seems to care about Tesla's entitlement to non-compliance with enviro regs!
Read 9 tweets
E.W. Niedermeyer Profile picture
27 Apr
Tesla has made this exact claim a few times.

2012:
2013: greentechmedia.com/articles/read/…
2017:
2019:

The 100% solar Supercharger network has been "coming soon" for even longer than "Full Self-Driving"!
Unless Tesla's carbon impact calculation practices have changed, the carbon impact numbers here assume that all Superchargers only use zero-emission power... which is inconveniently disproven by the promise that they will only start doing so sometime this year. 🙈🙉🙊
One of the most jarring revelations from my first big Tesla story, about its battery swap scheme, was discovering that Tesla's "carbon impact" claims were pure fiction. Their spox insisted they were "not trying to pull a fast one" but they clearly were. dailykanban.com/2015/05/27/tes…
Read 5 tweets

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