Comments by "ke6gwf - Ben Blackburn" (@ke6gwf) on "" video.

@Bourinos02 Starlink is not currently making a Profit, thus it's not viable as a stand alone business. But no business is viable until after it's actually running. But Starlink is not vapor ware for all the hundreds of thousands of people using it every day, and growing as fast as they can build dishes. So another of your arguments is dashed on the rocks of reality. And Elon has said it will take years to get Starlink completed and ready to start making a profit, but in the phase where they are still investing capital into the construction, no, no one expects a profit. How long and how many billions into Uber? And have they made a profit? The Vegas Loop will show its potential in time, it so far is working better and faster and a LOT cheaper than some of the other options proposed for the same project, so even if it's not a finished product as Elon hopes yet, it is still functional. If you don't understand how projects can be delayed, then I guess you will never understand how the Tesla Semi has been under development for several years now, and how that doesn't mean it's vapor wear, just that it's more difficult than they expected. And what will you say when they start delivering them in probably a few weeks and they are hauling for Pepsi/Frito Lay in Modesto, where they are currently building the MegaCharger in preparation for the delivery? Will you just move the goal posts and find some excuse why it's still not real?
7
@berryreading4809 solar roof works, the Tesla Semi is in low volume early production, with limited delivery to customers starting soon, Cyber truck is getting a factory built, Starlink is selling like hotcakes and users love it, and Starship engines continue being built, if slowly. So you are proving your lack of knowledge of reality.
6
@Bourinos02 Elon is not the one working on Hyperloop, he wrote a paper on it so that other people would research it. Branson is the one putting the most work into it, has a test track built out by Las Vegas and everything. So that's a straw man argument that has no basis. And we can very publicly see the slow progress on FSD, and it's taking longer than anyone expected, but remember that at the same time Elon was saying they were almost there, several other companies were saying they would get there first, so Elon wasn't the only one who underestimated the difficulty. But that's not stopped him working on it, and making progress faster than anyone else.
6
@Bourinos02 "impossible" that Musk could build a popular affordable mass market EV at high volumes and impossible that he could build a leo low latency global internet system that would be affordable and popular. As well as impossible to land and affordably reuse orbital rockets, impossible to build a wholly owned successful car factory in China, etc etc. But as usual you twist things to change the goal posts. And I guess you have never been to Las Vegas if you think that they can just add a dedicated bus lane! Lol Not enough room, or it would already be there.
4
@Bourinos02 a single bus line was not an option at the Las Vegas convention center, because there is no room for it. Otherwise they would have simply bought a couple of busses. And the reason so many casinos want the system to go to their casino is because traffic is already so bad that the busses that run the Strip can take an hour to get down it. Even 30 mph is several times faster than the options. You then compare some early concept art with the early prototype system, and don't see that the design matured since that early artwork, and also that the current system of human driven cars is only temporary. As the demand increases, higher capacity pods specifically designed for tunnel operation will get built, but I don't expect to see that until after Giga Texas gets finished, since Fremont doesn't have the capacity to build any new designs. And as the FSD software improves, it will be able to take a greater role in the driving. And as longer straight tunnels are made, such as down the Strip, speeds can increase as well. So all of your current complaints are that it's not all happening instantly right at the start, and so doesn't yet look like the end goal. When Elon says "next year", he's saying that he thinks something can be achieved in that period of time, but he makes clear that he is speaking of the goals he has, and that there are often delays and setbacks. Look at the Crew Dragon system. Years of delays, lots of "vapor ware" accusations, but now working beautifully. Same with Starlink and Model 3 and countless other projects that he has worked on that were delayed and called impossible, and are now part of daily life. And I was extrapolating that Starlink is probably over 2 hundred thousand users by now as they continue shipping dishes as fast as possible, but my point is that it's in daily use across the globe, so can't really call it vapor ware any more.
2