D and C

@Scobleizer Just a reminder that rich people are rich not stupid.

"You aren't getting it," a friend who lives in China told me after I said the new Ferrari is ugly. "This is gonna sell well with China's new rich." But why is a story of changing attitudes amongst car buyers, particularly in China. In a world where everyone around you is driving a new electric car, which is true in many Chinese cities now, showing up with a loud gas car just doesn't fit in anymore. Imagine you are a new rich factory owner in Shanghai. Do you want to drive around in a loud Ferrari, like I dreamed about doing when I was a kid? No. Chinese culture is about fitting in, about caring what everyone else thinks. Worse, in China they are going electric so fast that you can see the writing on the wall for gas. Soon gas stations will disappear altogether in major cities. And cars that pollute and put fumes into the air are already being seen as artifacts of an age that needs to die quickly, particularly in cities with 40 million people. Ferrari's sales are way down in China. New car brands there like @Xiaomi, @XPENG_Global, @NIOGlobal, @BYDCompany, and @HongqiGlobal are taking share with vehicles that have much more innovation than even this new Ferrari has. What are my credentials to talk about Ferrari? Well, I've studied automotive innovation my whole life. Audi taught me to race. I had the first ride in the Fiat 500, the BMW i3, the Tesla Roadster, the first Mercedes AI car, and a few others. Have hung out with many billionaires who have Ferraris, went on a famous car rally with such last year to study buyers of super cars, and car collectors, among other things. And I did consumer research about attitudes toward new innovations, like autonomy, around the world. But it goes deeper than just China, which buys more cars that USA and Europe combined. Ferrari is run by people who love to drive and love to drive gas cars with loud, big, engines. In USA that makes sense. My friend Scott Jordan, who owns a clothing company in Sun Valley, Idaho, has one, and within a few minutes from his home he can be on some of the best driving roads in the world. We argue about cars all the time, and he probably never will buy a Tesla. Loves the sound the Ferrari makes. And the design of the hand stitched leather dash. He hates this new Ferrari. Could never see himself in one. But his counterpart in China? Will never get onto a pretty road. When I was last in Shanghai I drove for hours and never stopped seeing high rise buildings with stop and go traffic. Americans can't grok that. They don't want a dirty, gas, car, that makes a lot of noise in China. All traditional luxury brands (another way for saying $500,000 or more for a car) are seeing sales declines for this reason. They also get on race tracks far less frequently than we can here in America. Which is where you can really enjoy a Ferrari. In fact, the luxury brands are more of a club than buying a car. I once hung out with the Bugatti owners from around the world (one of the benefits of living within walking distance of the Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton). They told me that it is a club and that Bugatti flies their cars around the world for a variety of driving experiences. Makes sense, the last thing a billionaire wants to hear while on vacation is a pitch for a new startup, or someone begging for money (same thing, really). So they have a club experience that keeps them separated from those kinds. The Chinese buyer cares more about innovation than those of us in USA do. You see this in their vehicles, which have big huge screens covering the dash, and seats that rub their backs, and even suspensions that "hop" over potholes, not to mention autonomy that drives them everywhere in stop and go traffic. It's one reason why China's government has kept Tesla from really turning on its autonomy, which is slightly ahead of the Chinese brands. As a Tesla investor I am watching that closely. Speaking of Tesla, its new Roadster that we should see "within months" according to @elonmusk and his main designer @woodhaus2, should capture the world's attention, and especially the new rich in China. But will it be allowed into China in a world where USA doesn't allow Chinese cars to be imported here? The answer to that question is way above my pay grade. But if it were, it'd be a massive competitor to this new Ferrari. Why? Well, Ferrari's innovation just isn't there for this new consumer. It doesn't self drive. Its screens are smaller than any of those new Chinese brands, many of which started out making smartphones and other consumer electronics. And that leads to this design that is rightfully getting derided. Ferrari doesn't like being pushed into this new world of electric, screens, and autonomy. If it could it'd go back to an all-analog car, which is what most of the buyers of Ferrari like, taking them back to their childhood. I can just imagine what Jony Ive had to do to come up with even the design he was able to ship here. Consumers used to like buttons. Old people, particularly billionaires, still do. Takes them back to familiarity and tactile senses. They still talk about how much they love the buttons and knobs in their old cars. But the new Chinese consumers grew up with smartphones and iPads you can touch. Many of them carry around @Huawei triple fold phones, that, when unfolded look like an iPad. We don't have those in America yet and Apple is rumored to be bringing a single fold device to America later this year. Such a consumer is more impressed by big screens and automation than loud engines and fast speeds. But the new rich want to stand out. Often they are running factories or tech companies where most of the engineers have Teslas or one of the new Chinese brands. How do they stand out? Roll up in one of these. And now you understand why the design of this car is so ugly. Ferrari doesn't want its traditional consumer to buy it. And didn't want a mind-blowing aggressive design that would make its traditional customer pissed that it was "going electric." It's all about trying to regain share in China.

@maxeddOut @cybertruck What else can you do with the toolbox subscription?

For @cybertruck owners that have OCD and your steering wheel doesn’t appear completely straight, you can “set handwheel zero” manually in service mode. Note you will have to subscribe to toolbox to unlock that function in service mode, it’s $75/day. Note** I took my Cybertruck into service for alignment and @Tesla service team verified alignment was fine, which I believe 100%. The problem was “set handwheel zero” from factory is aligned to the rgb light strip from the top of the steering wheel (according to docs). I do not think aligning the steering wheel to the light strip is centered in my eyes, perhaps there are tolerances to manufacturing and mine just doesn’t align. I subscribed to toolbox and manually centered the steering wheel myself. Just thought maybe this would help any @cybertruck owners out there.

@AFMBlog Buy the equipment yourself and hire a technician to install it.

My neighbor is replacing their HVAC system today. Their house is slightly bigger than ours. Total cost for everything: $34,000!!!!! What in the hell? He said they have tripled in cost since COVID. What a crock of crap.

@sergiumogan It’s merely a suggestion. It has its own mind. And bug is the wrong word since fsd is largely not a programmed behavior.

🚨Bug in European FSD, or am I missing something? Had my first FSD test drive in the Netherlands — awesome! But turn signals didn’t guide the route, with or without a destination. Tried several times, even holding the signal, but FSD ignored it. What did I do wrong? #fsdeurope

@CoachJEB18 @colin_gladman He’ll just say this

@colin_gladman Would you like me to post the direct poll from Gallup for you?

Y’all have to understand 50% of all households own ZERO stock or have retirement accounts. I talk to “everyday” people all the time absolutely getting crushed right now. The stock market is NOT the economy. A very large majority of this country and world don’t care about a memory shortage or how many GPU’s $NVDA can sell. They care if they can put a roof over their head and groceries on the table. And most are struggling to do that. Make sure you look outside the glass house every now and then.

@jmcphillipsjr @Michael_L_Rauch lol mine is May 2024 I said this exact thing last week, then I got the PCS failure, for the second time.

@Michael_L_Rauch Probably jinxing myself but my truck is March 2024 and it’s doing great.

Another one, it’s an epidemic of failures. What’s going on with the Cybertruck that is causing all the failures & buybacks? 🤷‍♂️

@MetamateDaz Well easy try to become a billionaire and you will understand

I genuinely don't understand people like Bezos and Musk. If I had billions of dollars, I would just start fixing everything. Homeless veterans sleeping on the streets? Not on my watch. Hungry children going to bed with empty stomachs? Hell no. They could be making life better but instead choose to build spaceships and data centers to pump stocks and destroy the planet

@cairoasmith As if anyone really thinks being a McDonald’s cashier is their career.

At my local McDonald's they don't have a cashier because they want everyone using the touch screen terminals or app. Yesterday, a Gen X guy came up. "I just wanna order a black coffee." The McDonald's girl is up to her ears in drive-thru orders, but she sighs and comes over. "Okay, I can ring you up." "YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY'RE DOING. They're trying to replace you, automate your jobs. That's why I won't use the screen. I'm trying to help you." "Okay sir." She gives him the coffee.

@wholemars One tap interior camera preview (aka kids cam)

What’s your most wanted Tesla feature request for the next software update?

@WaldronLewis Is he going to run a campaign in 3 years?

Jeff Bezos reveals why politicians never actually fix anything: "There's this tale of two economies. People are struggling with pay rent, groceries. And politicians are using this age-old technique of picking a villain and pointing fingers. But the problem is that doesn't solve anything." He says at Amazon they would never operate that way. "If we have a problem at Amazon, the way we would fix it is we'd go in and do the five whys and try to get to a root cause. We try to find a root fix. And then when we fix it at the root, you're fixing it forever. It's a real solution." "What we don't do, because it doesn't work, is just point fingers and blame people. It might feel good for 10 seconds but doesn't accomplish anything." Most leaders blame, but the best ones diagnose. — @JeffBezos P.S. We build content infrastructure for founders and athletes. 1.5M views/week average. Your voice, cross platform, compounding daily. If you need massive distribution or want to build your brand, apply here: calendly.com/lewis-underdog…

@Blacknatwatch @haugejostein Yeah I’m sure the skyscrapers the high speed railway are all fake.

@haugejostein Is it? Chinese economists are controlled by the CCP and independent analyses constantly peg Chinese growth numbers as massively inflated.

It's pretty wild that the Nobel Prize in Economics has never been awarded to an economist based in China.

@DeL8t @gregoryrsinger @billybinion Money doesn’t magically produce, it doesn’t magically serve. You still need people to do these things, giving most people some equal amount of money won’t make them magically work less but receive more.

@gregoryrsinger @billybinion This is where they exit the conversation. You can take 99% of a billionaires money and they'll still be fine. It's just less money to manipulate government policies that cap their never-ending hunger for more money and power.

People don't want to hear it, but he's right. If you confiscated Jeff Bezos' entire net worth, you could run the government for about a week. He's a convenient villain for politicians who won't admit that their expensive proposals require heavy taxes on the middle class.

@Jamoss29 You broke for a reason lol

@CoreanKat Bro you drive a Tesla no one cares what you think

Economy so bad I make $26/hr and am looking at a 7 year old car with 45k miles and asking myself if this is too much

@NYCMayor Watch the whole video you illiterate

I know a few teachers in Queens who would beg to differ.

@CACandChill Taking everyone else’s jobs

Software engineers, imagine AI becomes 10x better at coding in 3 years. what are you doing next?

@anndybo @LetMyPplGoo @XFreeze Which version are you referring to? Even V13 has a hard speed limit for detected inclement weather even for just heavy rain. Again, try V14.3 if you haven’t, that clip is just an example. I’ve had plenty of fsd driving with and without other cars around me in heavy snow.

@uniqueRDC @LetMyPplGoo @XFreeze Well, your car just follows those front of you. Kerps safe speed because of them. I tried on empty strret. Speed limit 45 safe limit 25 Tesla drives 45.

People completely miss the most important thing about Tesla FSD It’s not just about convenience. It’s not a "cool self-parking trick." It’s about the fact that car crashes are the #1 killer of healthy people aged 5-29 globally and one company has gathered over 10 billion miles of real-world data to actually solve it Look at the recent data: Tesla just became the FIRST vehicle to pass NHTSA's new ADAS safety tests. Not the first EV. The first vehicle. Period. The reality is harsh but simple. Countries that approve FSD get safer roads overnight. Countries that delay will literally watch their citizens die in preventable crashes while bureaucrats sit in meeting rooms debating "safety." The "safety" argument against FSD is officially dead

@anndybo @LetMyPplGoo @XFreeze I took 25 trips to the ski resort this past winter, 3 of them during heavy storm mid mountain. FSD handled it fine. Took this clip while FSD is driving.

@uniqueRDC @LetMyPplGoo @XFreeze No, I live in Illinois where we have snow! try it on snowy street. Drives according to speed limit, sure. But to fast on turns and curves.

@theemptycrowd @weezdotoomuch Ha I’m just saying. Look at the number of reaction posts you made, I don’t know who’s triggered lol.

@weezdotoomuch @uniqueRDC My man's feelings were hurt so he came at me. 😂

Why do asian dudes love cybertrucks so much?

@anndybo @OGsimulant @MrRobertSeeley @XFreeze Yeah ack that you’re a long term Tesla vehicle owner that’s cool, I am too (since 2017). I just don’t think you have an up to date understanding of FSD’s capabilities.

@uniqueRDC @OGsimulant @MrRobertSeeley @XFreeze We driving Teslas since 2020. We know them preaty well. We put on them about 500k miles. (2016 S, 2021 Y and now 2020 S and 2024 Y).