If you already know an infamous company is run by a white man from South Africa who grew up wealthy during apartheid (hint: his claims of $100K in debt at an early age are admitting his privilege and leverage, also known as credit)… then you might not be surprised to hear that racism is a … Continue reading Racism at Tesla Might Explain Why Their “Autopilot” Crashes So Often
File this one under why markets clearly are not even close to rational. Here’s one headline from March: Tesla raises prices across entire range The March 15th price hikes are purely speculative to “protect” the company from consumers demanding value from cars sometime in the future. The price increases are designed to cover higher costs … Continue reading Rivian penalized for price hike as market awards Tesla “prize” for price hike
Recently I wrote about reckless public road tests by Tesla owners who are intentionally training their “driverless” system to disregard red lights. “All Lives Matter” wants everyone to know that if a Tesla says it sees a red light he has not been able to force it to drive through anyway. Keep in mind that … Continue reading Tesla More Likely to Run Over Black People
An infamous blackface performance by Tesla indicates to me the company is promoting a fantasy of robots that invokes a discussion of slavery. What do you see here? Does a white man dressed all in black seem odd standing next to a robot made to appear like a black woman dressed all in white? I … Continue reading Tesla’s Blackface Robot: Promoting Slavery as Fantasy?
I just got off the phone with a technology reporter for a major newspaper, where I was asked about the risks of facial recognition. That’s a deep topic, since crime using faces (deepfakes, impersonation) can apply to almost anything (fraud/theft, racism, classicism). However, I ended the call by warning about even broader risks in recognition … Continue reading Tesla Safety Fail: “Full Self Driving” Can’t Read Even Basic Traffic Signals