May Likes TorontoThis is what tech is supposed to be. Innovation based on today's human knowledge to improve lives and prevent deaths. Not whatever this bullshit is that we're dealing with every day.
I don't love the idea of private vehicles, or vertically integrated companies like this. This article is definitely marketing, but if you spent 8 years investing in research to make lithium ion batteries safe, I think you deserve the marketing.
Chris Adams@mayintoronto I think it’s useful solely as a calibration exercise: what could the billions of dollars Silicon Valley has spent maximizing ad impressions have done if directed to something useful? Tesla got subsidized comparably to BYD, what could they have done if they had a full-time CEO?
urien2@mayintoronto totally agree. Also, at least Wang Chuanfu is an engineer, so he at least knows what he is talking about. I don't want to talk too good of him because he's a rich CEO, but at least in that aspect I think he's pretty cool
Charles A-M@mayintoronto yeah, the sentiment of the opening anecdote gives hope, but he's also a CEO of a giant corp which usually means skeletons in the closet.
I'm not inclined to dig further, but if I were, I'd start at "he was his destitute family's only hope" being closely followed by "he borrowed startup capital from his cousin."
@Centretowner I noticed that one too. "A small loan of $10M" energy.
JP@mayintoronto outlets like FC will occasionally do these kinds of glowing "gotta hand it to em" pieces on chinese entrepreneurs but they never seem to mention that if any of these guys did even a fraction of the shit elon musk has done they'd be in prison for life
Dagnabbit, Pascaline! 💥What a story, terrific 😊
Yes, *that* dawn person@mayintoronto As a systems and process oriented person, I found this an engrossing piece of journalism. The discipline, clarity, and cultural expectations of Lean read like a case study you almost can’t believe because it sounds too ideal.
@thatdawnperson I'm sure it wasn't perfect. That commitment to research and the greater good made me happy.
zygmydI'd like to find the person who wrote and the editor who left in the word "inhuman". Just because they can't conceive of somebody achieving something doesn't mean it's inhuman.
datenwolfNot trying to draw attention away from the core statement, I can't shake the strong gut feeling that this text is LLM generated. It has this typical "droning" paragraph structure.
Also since when would be another media outlet be attributed as the author? And not, you know, as usual as "by ${author's name} for ${3rd party outlet}"
@datenwolf Reads like most modern outlets now. I have no idea if it's AI. Syndicated publications are pretty common.
"Wang Chuanfu, BYD’s CEO, barely slept for weeks. Three passengers, all in their twenties. His chemistry. His cell. His company’s name on the casing. He had not built it to kill anyone, but it had."
I'm trying to imagine Elon Musk or really any other western billionaire being this affected when their product causes harm. I can't do it.