Four years of sight reading practice (sandrock.co.za)
64 points by chthonicdaemon 3d ago 26 comments
Direct TLS can speed up your connections (marc-bowes.com)
71 points by tanelpoder 9h ago 27 comments
BYD Beats Tesla in Europe for First Time with 169% Sales Surge
43 JumpCrisscross 46 5/22/2025, 10:13:06 AM bloomberg.com ↗
Also, a lot of European car brands' EV models are also rebadged Chinese models or the brand is Chinese owned. MG, Volvo, Dacia Spring
MG, Volvo/Polestar/Lynk & Co, or Lotus are brands owned by Chinese automotive groups SAIC and Geely.
[1]: https://fortune.com/2025/05/21/elon-musk-fears-tesla-demand-...
> The Tesla CEO asserts he’s seeing a major rebound in customer interest for his EVs despite persistent evidence to the contrary. “The stock wouldn’t be trading near all-time highs if things weren’t in good shape,” he said.
> Tesla’s return to the elite club of trillion-dollar market cap stocks is all the evidence Elon Musk needs to convince him the worst of the blowback over his political activism is over.
Like a conman losing its grips on the victims' confidence, he entered the phase of "do not believe your eyes and ears" phase of the swindle.
Last earnings showed a steep decline in sales, just around my house in Sweden I've seen 3 neighbours with a new BYD the past 3 months, the one right across my house used to have a Model 3 which I haven't seen in a while.
I can only definitely call him a liar on the next earnings report so there's some 2 months before we can see actual figures and not just his words...
Apparently, the goal is to keep the dreams alive without ever actually fulfilling any of them.
A wonderful observation.
Has someone made a stab at describing these new paradigms of advertising and value? I don't think I've seen exactly this stated or named, but there's a lot of writing and thinking out there. If it strikes anyone reading this, links welcome.
Specifically, it seems like advertising may have gone from "the quality of the product doesn't matter", to "the product existing doesn't matter". Quite a big leap.
Meme stocks have a way of defying normal economic gravity and irritating traditional investors up until they don't, and when that happens their demise is usually rapid and complete.
Makes you want to ask, "say, Elon, how's that full-self-driving going?"
It really isn't or at least not just price. BYD, at least in Sweden, are not cheap cars in an absolute sense. Many car brands have cars that are cheaper than the cheapest car BYD sells in Sweden. MG, Peugeot, Citroen and others all have smaller and cheaper EVs if what you mainly care about is price. BYDs focus is much more on value for money at the mid level.
Surely there were pretty clear signals that a significant number of those people would vote with their wallets based on his politics.
And as everyone was saying last year "Trump can't be THAT bad", you know, before the stock market dropped 3.66 trillion dollars.
I hope they get back on top, though. I just don't see how.
Simple. Musk steps away and the company issues a full statement distancing themselves from Musk and his politics. Tesla negotiates an end to its fights with the unions in Europe. Stop focusing on the Cybertruck and start making an updated Model 3 and a lower priced Model 2. Maybe push out a new Model S to take on the high end market while you're at it. Perhaps do some sort of marketing campaign to highlight that they're now just a cool car company again.
People in Europe still like Tesla the car, and would happily start driving them again given some incentives.
Quality is fine (except their rust protection, last I checked), but not making a new mass market car in 5 years, and just 2 lackluster refreshes to pretty milquetoast cars, and no technical updates is a bit baffling with tens of billions of cash in the books (hopefully non-cooked). Their 1.5 models on offer feel quite dated, even with the refresh.
Makes you wonder if, perhaps, doing small incremental updates and spending time on fart apps and light shows is perhaps less successful in the long run than doing bigger updates every 3-5 years.
The rest is a bunch of broken promises.
Tesla were always a weird fit for the European markets. They are too big and especially too wide. The finish is haphazard. At their price point, which is high for all the segments they compete in, they don't really compare favorably to European brands. They used to be able to compete on battery performance and drive trains but that's hardly the case anymore. It was always pretty clear that Tesla is entirely driven from the USA and has no idea of how and what to sell to European in a way not too dissimilar to other American car makers which could never really succeed in Europe either.
Meanwhile, BYD is genuinely competitive in Europe. Their cars are well positioned in the middle of every segments they are in. They would actually be on the more accessible side without tariffs. Their design is nothing to talk about but they blend well with other cars. Their size is great. They do ok confort-wise, nothing extraordinary but not too shabby either.
Basically, they are ok cars at an ok price, something which can't be said of Tesla.
That's not the image or the cars they're pushing in Europe. Their cheapest car, at least in Sweden, costs more than the VW id3, and their flagship SUV that they're pushing hard starts at around the same price as a BMW iX with all the 'luxury' frills to match.
Current range is more than adequate. The missing piece is public fast recharge stations.
A 30 minute recharge on a 600 mile trip is not a real issue. You probably take a break anyway for food, rest and bathroom. Most people can't last 10 hours without it.
Like or not, electric is not only viable now but also inevitable --- mainly due to economic forces, some of which remain to be fully developed. And Walmart and BP/Waffle House are leading the charge with plans to add public recharge stations to their locations.
https://theevreport.com/bp-pulse-waffle-house-boost-ev-charg...
https://insideevs.com/news/757648/walmart-ev-charging-networ...
In the US, I've traveled about 50k miles on long road trips in a Tesla and I haven't used my ICE car for a road trip since I got the Tesla. Long range and Tesla's excellent network of superchargers made that possible.
I would imagine it's even more doable in Europe since "long distance" road trips there are on the order of 100 miles, while in the US they're more like 1000 miles.
You can cross most European countries with one stop.
Gas cars are still objectively better which is sad and unexpected. I never would have predicted this insanely low rate of improvement 10 years ago. In terms of trucks / tow vehicles, it is even further off. The Cybertruck laughably has 250km of tow range. Disconnecting every 2 hours to charge for an hour is absurd. Until we see a step change in battery technology, EVs are grocery getters in my books. So, might as well double down and make them super cheap with 100km range.
If my commute is less than 100km, I can charge at home, have free solar energy, and only go on long trips once or twice a year, would you still say that gas cars are "objectively better"?
If you regularly go on 400km+ trips or have nowhere to charge an EV overnight then by all means, avoid EVs.
The difference is that in the Tesla the refueling takes place in parallel to me using the facilities and having a snack. The car refuels itself unattended and it will notify me on my phone when it has enough charge to continue.
It's unthinkable for me to give any sum of money to - let alone purchase a car from - a company associated with neo-Nazism.
I couldn't care less about DOGE or anything Musk is doing with US domestic politics, it's really just that salute that would prevent me from buying a Tesla.
It seems inconceivable to some in US how some ”tropes” are not just ”harmless larping” but actually in a specific environments deeply insulting gestures.
I do realize the deep wounds nazism caused are plusibly hard to understand if one is not european.
But that does not really excuse someone who clearly signals he strives to be a thoughtleader.
In general it’s Pauling and Vitamin-C again. You are great at something and thus presume those intrinsic strengths serve equally well in some other context.
Human failures aside, hurtfull things are hurtfull and they cannot be reasoned away. Forgiven - sure, in right circumstances. Forgotten as well.
The second stupidest thing he did was build a huge EV manufacturing academy for the Chinese.
I always thought this was odd --- he could have farmed out select parts and pieces to China manufacturing with the final assembly in Europe but he went all in --- and helped accelerate China surpassing him.
It reminds me of a line from a movie, "Look at you now, you stupid fvck".
Oh and today DOGE is being blamed for the biggest rise in unemployment in years [3], which caused yet another stock market heart attack yesterday.
Who is the bigger security threat here?
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/20/raf-fighters...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/20/us/politics/trump-ukraine...
[3] https://nypost.com/2025/02/27/business/jobless-claims-post-l...