When Reuters reported in April that Tesla had scrapped plans for a long-promised, next-generation $25,000 electric vehicle, the automaker’s stock plunged. Chief Executive Elon Musk rushed to respond on X, his social-media network.

“Reuters is lying,” he posted, without elaborating. Tesla’s stock recovered some of its losses.

Six months later, Musk appears to have backed into an admission that Tesla dropped its plans for a human-driven $25,000 car. He said in an Oct. 23 earnings call that building the affordable EV would be "pointless” unless the car was fully autonomous.

  • FireRetardant@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    And if we never build it it will never address the needs of commuters. Your government doesn’t think twice about a new road or expanding an existing one but will delay transit for years.

    • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 hours ago

      Detroit in the 70s had more GDP than NYC and took that money right to congress. To this day giant automotive lobbies are the reason for not only legislation in the US but also city planning (or lack thereof) and the removal of public transport. To think getting a railroad is anywhere near as easy as a road is disregarding the influence of millions of dollars from people who would lose money if that rail was built.

        • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          58 minutes ago

          No, you shold realize that in America one does not simply ‘vote for a railroad’ unless you have the money to contend with the auto industry. But we both know you understood this, so why feign ignorance to misrepresent it?

    • glimse@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Sure, but it’s not a one-or-the-other thing. The best solution now is to get a cheap EV AND vote for public transit