
Steve Wozniak: ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’ - mudil
http://www.siliconbeat.com/2018/01/29/steve-wozniak-dont-believe-anything-elon-musk-tesla-says/
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joelrunyon
Clickbait - here's the original sourced article -
[http://www.siliconbeat.com/2018/01/29/steve-wozniak-dont-
bel...](http://www.siliconbeat.com/2018/01/29/steve-wozniak-dont-believe-
anything-elon-musk-tesla-says/)

TLDR: He likes the car (2 of them), but not the hype.

I think

~~~
api
Elon's a funny animal. Most hype artists are full of shit and never deliver
anything. Elon is full of shit but then ends up actually delivering something
rather amazing-- but maybe not quite as amazing as promised and never as
quickly.

In /r/spacex they joke about "Elon time." Take "Elon years" and triple them.

Of course this is typical for engineers and Elon is an engineer. I do it too.
"Oh this will just take a few weeks" == months later...

~~~
Outpox
> Of course this is typical for engineers and Elon is an engineer.

He's not! This was discussed in the article comments and according to
Wikipedia he have a BS in physics and another in economics. He started a PhD
but quickly stopped.

~~~
greglindahl
I know a lot of people in Silicon Valley who are called engineers and only
have a physics background. They aren't certified professional engineers in the
disciplines that have licensing, like civil engineers, but they're still
engineers.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Used to be, a large segment of Silicon Valley 'engineers' were trained in
music. Some weird overlap that worked early on, at least until the market got
flooded with trained software types.

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whack
As a Tesla skeptic myself, I'm surprised at the visibility this "article" is
getting. It reads like something you'd see in a celebrity gossip rag. _" You
won't BELIEVE what Steve Wozniak just said about Elon!"_ There are far better
articles making a bear case against Tesla, and it's unfortunate that this is
the one picking up clicks.

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nukeop
Elon Musk is a very popular figure on sites like reddit that "like" technology
and science but have very little understanding of it. Every week he says
something that either shows what a "down to earth" guy he is, some doomsday
prophecy, or announces some pipe dream technology that will never be worked
on, and the masses start reposting his every word.

He (or rather his PR team) is very good at creating that "image" and keeping
himself popular on reddit, but he's terrible at the thing an enterpreneur is
supposed to excel at - generating profits.

~~~
stinos
_an enterpreneur is supposed to excel at_

Honest question, but isn't the whole point (or one of the points) that he
doesn't care too much about generating profits for shareholders etc (which I'd
applaud - why does everything always have to be held up in the light of
economy first?) but rather wants to create products no matter what (even if
they are delivered way too late)? At least, that is the image which seems to
be created. From heresay.

~~~
nukeop
Doesn't help much that he also sucks at delivering results.

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workthrowaway27
It's odd how little skepticism any of Musk's claims are met with. I can't
imagine the situation would be the same for anyone else. (Not to say he hasn't
had many impressive accomplishments, but people seem to want to believe
anything Musk says so much that they stop thinking critically).

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ggregoire
Not sure why this is getting upvoted. Does people actually upvote the
"article" or just the title on HN?

~~~
MiscIdeaMaker99
What's the difference between the two?

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ggregoire
The title says ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says’.

The article says ‘I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says but I
already have 2 Teslas and I'll probably buy the next one’.

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surfmike
Why do statements like this from Wozniak get any press? Steve Wozniak was a
brilliant innovator early in the PC revolution days, but he hasn't been
influential in the industry for many decades now.

~~~
greglindahl
Once you get past the article fluff to what Woz actually said, it's usually
pretty interesting. I prefer interesting content to statements from
influential people.

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rwc
With respect to Woz, it seems he increasingly spouts these contrarian opinions
simply to remain relevant. His contributions to discourse are sniping at large
organizations from the outside.

~~~
raisedbyninjas
His quote may be hyperbolic, but the article says he lost confidence after the
conflict with their LIDAR provider. Which isn't an unreasonable view. Tesla
may crack level 5 autonomous driving with their current hardware, but their
solution requires also cracking problems in computer vision. An impediment
none of the major competitors have.

~~~
greglindahl
You're referring to the radar provider? Tesla doesn't use LIDAR except on a
few test vehicles occasionally spotted near HQ.

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ShermanSamuel
This is just a puff piece. He's not saying anything.

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jijojv
Hype is fine but I don't how Tesla is legally getting away with selling it and
not delivering on its vaporware (full self driving)

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lolive
I am sure he ordered the flamethrower anyway.

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malmsteen
Maybe he has trust issues since his story with Steve Jobs :|

