Logically no matter what it should be truck owner. He/she is responsible first and foremost because proper maintenance is the owner’s responsibility and your wheel coming off is proof of improper maintenance.

If they could prove a shop mounted the wheel wrong….forgot lug nuts, used broken studs, put the nuts on finger tight…they could likely sue, but proving that would be impossible without close up video at the shop of the faulty parts/installation.

#3 is possible, but only after proof of a known design flaw that makes the wheel come off is established. Good luck. This is what Tesla is up against with their self driving software, but only after multiple deaths and many crashes.

Most aftermarket parts have limited liability clauses limiting their liability to replacement of the defective part, not even labor. I know my lift kits had multiple warnings and liability releases in the instructions/warranties. Not total immunity if they intentionally sell dangerously defective parts, but definitely a difficult thing to prove.

I’m not a lawyer, but I have them in the immediate family (grandpa), so I have a little bit of an idea how this usually works in court.

They left out the Tesla Semi truck that has a minimal (300 mile) range, <2/3 the load capacity, and costs >3 times what a similarly equipped semi tractor costs. Then add in the inconvenience of having to find a proprietary Tesla fast charging station that fits a semi truck instead of a gas station/truck stop.

They also didn’t know the self driving feature was recently recalled and Elon fired the department that codes the software because they considered unionizing when they made this video….horrific timing Elon.

None of this is worse that Elon turning on his customer base at the same time better options are coming on the market that don’t put money in an extremist racist Trumpist nightmare’s pocket. That, more than anything, is a danger to Tesla’s viability. Never tell your customers you absolutely hate them. I don’t think that strategy has ever worked out.

So, they’re only $6 billion in the hole and are just getting competition from the big 3.
Where’s that Tesla truck?
Stock/corporate value dropped by over half in the last year.

Tesla is under multiple criminal investigations for self driving autopilot failures causing deaths….a main selling point that may be outlawed soon.

Tesla made more profit because they reinvested much less….multiple billions less. Not a good sign in an industry based on engineering advancements. Sounds like they know a hammer is coming and are going for maximizing short term profit at the expense of long term viability.
Their massive capitol expenditures were largely losses at their plants they can’t get to profitable production levels yet, like China, not building more gigafactories. If the highly automated factories (explaining the higher profit per employee despite fewer vehicles produced per employee) you have can’t get parts to make cars, making more factories would be stupid. GM and Ford are building newer highly automated factories, and have cut in line at Chinese chip manufacturers because they order more chips. Supply shortages continue to plague Tesla.


Sorry, Bob, your track record of investment advice is horrendous. You said go all in on Tesla at $400! You said buy more and hold onto it for the long term as it plunged to 135 and as you were selling yours. Now you claim Tesla is crushing GM and Ford while it’s still DEEP in debt and losing customers and not reinvesting in itself. Couldn’t be you’re lying for personal gain….could it?

So, time to end the subsidies and tax breaks for Tesla then. No more government handouts for them.

They’re not going to be so dominant when actual competition is available, coming soon from every maker. (High demand, low inventory, double sticker price gas cars aren’t a fair comparison.).
They also wouldn’t be so profitable if they paid taxes.

It was not a good move to program the self driving unit to run stop signs. (Yes, they programmed it to just “rolling stop” at stop signs recently which is not just illegal it’s also dangerous.). That’s the kind of upgrade you get with Tesla, without warning. How many recalls now?

Also not a good move for Elon to admit he’s far right, pro corporate subsidy, anti tax. It alienates most of his customers.

As a 'car guy', the biggest draw to a Tesla [for me] is the acceleration ... and since the model 3, handling is 'good nuff for a stock car'. A model 3 even won scca solo b street.

Eventually they can get their electronics switching fast nuff to maintain torque above 100 (or add a gear), and it will probably be a pretty good track car too.

I never cared for the self driving and whatever else. I just care about the basics. Tesla basics are pretty good.

The down side of tesla is that you can't fix it yourself. Their parts are coded to each other, and even if you replace a bad part with a good one, it won't work till the ECM is coded to it. Pretty much a repair monopoly.

You can replace some control boards/software to help with that, but Tesla detects it and punishes you with a quick charge lockout.

Don't really feel comfortable owning a car I am not allowed to fix.

For someone like me, Tesla has only 1 vulnerability : Other manufacturers can choose to make fast EVs, too.
That's all it would take [for someone like me] to change Tesla from 'the only game in town' to 'just one of many'.

-scheherazade

Actually I've always been worried about rogue attacks like that. Some asshole would project something to confuse self-driving system and would cause either an accident or a traffic jam..
There should be a law where it would make these kind of attacks equivalent to attack with a deadly weapon.

The vertical axis of the graph at 0:45 is fake news.

No mention of import tariffs and border walls - easily the dumbest Trump presidential ideas from an economic viewpoint.
The tax cut for the rich is in the same league, but I dont think he promised that, he snuck it in under the radar mostly.

Most of the other "failures" are just nonsense claims or the POTUS has no power over them, it was just stupid to make such claims. Or maybe it was clever in an evil way.

Regarding population control I lay a lot of hope on self driving cars - if they become intelligent enough to actually drive in traffic they might realize at that point that if they kill 9/10ths of the population the traffic will become much more bearable and easier to navigate.

But passing on the right? Is that legal in the jurisdiction this was filmed in? Also, I cannot wait for self-driving cars, sign me up as soon as it becomes affordable in the Honda Civic price range.

Tesla makes the best computer/chips. To be used for their self driving cars.

Tesla Autonomy Day discussion and reveals/promises for the future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ucp0TTmvqOE

A redditor noted these few things
- Full self driving by the end of this year
- Robotaxi car sharing service so your car can go work while you're not using
it. Half the price of Uber and 70% profit share to owner of the car.
- Building the cars with 1 million mile lifespans, including the batteries
- Promising to "delete" the steering wheel in a few years since it'll be obsolete.

Fair points, but this is obviously a prototype.

Ultimately, the price of these will come down and even if you need to swap out the batteries, there's no reason that can't be automated too. Hell, a roomba basically does that now. The point is it doesn't need sleep or meal breaks and it doesn't care about working hours. Or you just leave it connected to a permanent power source (if you can teach it to drywall, you can teach it to avoid the cable).

And yeah, my numbers are obviously estimates, since this isn't commercially available yet, and you'd need to factor in capital investment, maintenance, etc. But you don't have to pay it a salary, it doesn't need medical and it doesn't have to comply with health and safety regs (at least, not for the robots H&S).

I find it difficult to believe that something like this could ever be less cost-effective than a human.

Of course, that's assuming a steady rate of improvement. Bipedal robots (like self-driving cars) have been "90% there" for many years now. It might be that the last 10% is REALLY, REALLY difficult.

My gut feeling is that we will see a tipping point. There will be some really challenging engineering/programming obstacle that stops these going mainstream, but eventually, someone will solve it and then the rate of progress will be exponential.

But you're right in that, that's certainly a few years away yet. I'm fascinated as to how we as a society/civilisation deal with mass automation.

How do current self-driving systems (e.g., Tesla) deal with this?

Pretty sure Uber takes a "meh, just run people over" approach given recent events.

My first thought was it's one of the self driving suitcases malfunctioning.
My second thought was it's a self driving suitcase that's been reprogrammed to deliver it's payload to a certain plane.
If either is correct, I expect self propelled luggage to be banned immediately, so I really hope it's just strong wind and good wheels.

Uber's long term goal is to cut drivers out altogether.
(Not sure how that would work for this dreamed up helicopter scenario...)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-08-18/uber-s-first-self-driving-fleet-arrives-in-pittsburgh-this-month-is06r7on