• bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    24
    ·
    3 months ago

    Tesla has always invested heavily in their software. Just because it has always been shitty doesn’t diminish that it was an outsized part of their business model, especially compared to other car companies

    • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      always invested heavily in their software

      So wait, are you now saying they are a technology company? Can you please try and keep your mental gymnastics consistent?

      Are you implying all car manufacturers are now AI or Technology companies? And are no longer automotive manufacturers?

      • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        16
        ·
        3 months ago

        Why must tech company and car company be mutually exclusive? Certainly the amount of technology (including ML) present in cars has increased exponentially in the last decade.

          • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            10
            ·
            edit-2
            3 months ago

            I suppose I define AI company differently than you do. In my mind if a company is investing a large chunk of its operations budget in AI R&D, it is an AI company.

            • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              10
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              3 months ago

              By your logic tesla is also a logistics company (shipping cars), an industrial manufacturer of plant machinery (the machines to build the cars), a battery company (buying and investing in battery technology).

              what do you call tesla? “An automotive, AI, logistics, industrial plant manufacturing, battery company”?

              Do you agree with amber heard “I use pledging and donating as the same thing” when they clearly are not the same thing?

              • darganon@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                3 months ago

                Tesla sells a shitload of batteries outside of their cars, so yeah I’d say they’re a battery company.

                They also sell the FSD software, which is “AI” so they do have an AI offering, for some definition of AI.

                Also, they sell solar panels, so they’re a solar panel company.

                • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  3 months ago

                  Can I buy a battery for my EV from Tesla? Or do you mean their integrated home battery pack?

                  Can I buy FSD for my vehicle even though it isn’t a tesla?

                  Sure, they sell solar and a home battery pack.

                  Has tesla ever advertised themselves as an Energy Company? Have they ever advertised themselves as anything other an automotive company until musk decided to say “We AI company now”?

                  • darganon@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    1
                    ·
                    3 months ago

                    Yeah, their powerwall, and the Mega pack. Also yes, they brand themselves as an energy company. They make really, really big batteries. They also operate superchargers, which if you have experience with electric vehicles are streets ahead of any other charging networks.

                    https://www.tesla.com/support/energy/powerwall/virtual-power-plant

                    And no, they don’t sell FSD for other cars, but it’s still an AI product they are selling to people for money, right now. Maybe in the future they’ll license it out to other people, but that’s pure speculation on my part.

                    I’m not sure if you can buy their car batteries individually, haven’t looked into it, although I have looked into buying a used one and using that as a power wall, as it would be cheaper for shitloads of storage.

                    I don’t like Musk either, but you’re willfully ignoring quite a lot of what Tesla does and has accomplished because of their mouthpiece. Talking about it requires nuance because they have done a tremendous amount of good, while making some suboptimal changes.

              • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                9
                ·
                3 months ago

                I would absolutely call Tesla a battery company. Would you not? They’ve invested a huge amount in battery R&D and sell them direct to consumers as well as use them in their cars. The rest of that stuff isn’t something they invested heavily in developing, ie. they didn’t invest R&D in developing new logistics technology for shipping cars.

                • breadsmasher@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  5
                  arrow-down
                  1
                  ·
                  3 months ago

                  Any company that invests money into something is suddenly also part of that entire industry and they can label themselves whatever they please. Gotcha.

                  The supermarket I used to work for is now a software company, as they build software in house

                  The insurance company I used to work for is now an AI company, as we internally developed and used machine learning models.

                  • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    5
                    ·
                    3 months ago

                    The supermarket I used to work for is now a software company, as they build software in house

                    What % of that supermarket’s operating expenses is software development? How big is their technology division compared to the full scale of the company? Do they invest R&D in developing novel technologies?

                    There are articles every day on Lemmy about how cars are becoming as high tech as smartphones. Is it so wrong to suggest that car companies are becoming a subset of tech companies?