• tuhriel@infosec.pub
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    3 months ago

    I’m happy to dunk on musk as much as the next guy, but that title is bull.

    Lightyears measure distance not time, how can they mess that up?

    • Dr. Bob@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      Because he’s a long way away. Longer than miles away…maybe…light years?

    • Kichae@lemmy.ca
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      3 months ago

      Musk <-------------------------------- LYs -----------------------------------> Self-Driving car

      Any questions?

      • k_rol@lemmy.ca
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        3 months ago

        Your point doesn’t help me because it shows that we can fold space-time to create a shortcut with warp technology. Reference.

      • 4dpuzzle@beehaw.org
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        3 months ago

        It’s extremely nuanced. ‘Light years ahead’ is correct since you are thinking about a race where one competitor is a long distance ahead of others. On the other hand, ‘light years away’ doesn’t make sense, since we think of achievements in terms of time needed, rather than distance.

        • ji17br@lemmy.ml
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          3 months ago

          You’ve never heard the term miles ahead?

          Tommy is miles ahead of Timmy in math class.

          Clearly not referring to distance but it absolutely makes sense.

      • towerful@programming.dev
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        3 months ago

        I think the headcanon is that the shortest distance is impressive.
        Either a different faster and harder route through “the kessel”. Or that 12 parsecs is the absolute minimum distance it can be done in, perfectly apexing every corner.

        • HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com
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          3 months ago

          yeah honestly I know the answer even though I did the joke. the star wars mythical travel requires hyperspace navigation where objects still exist in it and the nav computer is basically plotting the smallest safe distance (or something like that). Basically all speed in hyperspace is the same its just about the route. Its basically explained in the original movie when han says (spoilers ahead /s):

          “Traveling through hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops, boy! Without precise calculations we could fly right through a star or bounce too close to a supernova and that’d end your trip real quick, wouldn’t it?”

        • t3rmit3@beehaw.org
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          3 months ago

          Or it’s a roundabout way of saying he cheated: “I finished the marathon in 22 miles!” :D

    • Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de
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      3 months ago

      Maybe he needs 6.706e+8 miles more data

      Edit, more math: that’s 8.9 million hours of data at 75mph, or about 2 more hours of data per Tesla (at 75mph).

      I’m actually surprised that musk doesn’t talk about how many light years have been traveled.

      Edit: first number was wrong? My TI89 is upstairs, so I’m trusting search engines

    • sunzu@kbin.run
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      3 months ago

      You have to read the title in context of millennial journalism title convention.

      It is tiring, you aint wrong but there is context on why it makes sense tho

  • Scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech
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    3 months ago

    so much money pumped into a pipe dream, when tech just isn’t there yet. It doesn’t matter how many AI models and image recognition systems you use, sometimes you just can’t plan for every case. Driving is an incredibly complex task, that to us humans makes sense and we can easily adjust to. Snow covering the lanes? Slow down, take it extremely cautiously, and find out where the road is.

    But we know what it really is all about - selling more cars. Even if the tech isn’t there the illusion that it’s just a few years away keeps people buying it. Modern AI is only fueling that techbro BS that it’s almost here.

    When really, trains. Trains are relatively (to cars) easy to automate and make run safely, can move way more people. I’m still extremely salty that Musk tried to derail California HSR with his stupid Boring company just to sell more Teslas.

    • Thevenin@beehaw.org
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      3 months ago

      But we know what it really is all about - selling more cars.

      It isn’t even about selling more cars at this point, it’s about selling securities. Their market cap dwarfs their total sales. Their P/E ratio is 67.67x, meaning they could sell cars for 67 years and still not make as much money as their stocks are worth today.

      The real product is the rising stock price. The factories are just a front.

    • onlinepersona@programming.dev
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      3 months ago

      We could have global train network taking cargo and passengers from China all the way to Europe, but instead these people are focusing on the hardest feats possible. All because they read about it in a book and think it’s within arm’s reach. We could be living in unpolluted cities with free public transport and maybe even UBI. Instead we have to settle for this…

      Anti Commercial-AI license

    • Geobloke@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      We’ve already automated trains. In Australia, the mines have trains travelling hundreds of kilometres with no pilot

  • Lime Buzz@beehaw.org
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    3 months ago

    Despite the title not understanding what a lightyear actually means, good. We need fewer cars and especially not ones that have shown they will just run people over without care.

    Not to mention cars steal resources from other countries, whether it be oil or metal for batteries etc. What we need is more publically funded transport that actually works well and is quick, safe and even rich people/politicans would travel on.

    One of the worst things ever invented to a degree was cars especially since they often install roadways to completely bypass small ‘out of the way’ places or worse make cities completely designed around them since there are no places to walk, play or hang out (that’s a slight aside but I do think the death of third places has cars partially to blame).

    We also need for transport companies to start recycling and actually start caring about their own waste management.

    Also, don’t make me laugh that it’s Elon that is ‘lightyears’ away from self driving cars, it’s Tesla and all the people who actually do the work, Elon is an mediocre man who gets worshiped way too much for having too much money, spending it irresponsibly, acting irresponsibly and then taking all the credit for other’s hard work, just like every other billionaire out there.