What Was the Cybertruck? Elon Muskâs car from space offered a vision for a sustainable and autonomous future. All along, it was as awkward, easily bruised, and volatile as the entrepreneur himself.
Despite empirical evidence to the contrary, the Cybertruckâs fans defend it as the greatest car ever madeâsome going as far as sending death threats on X to those who disagree. It is this refusal to learn from experience, whether oneâs own or that of others, that I find to be the hallmark of the Cybertruck devotee. Ever ready to believe the hype, fans exhibit an almost religious devotion to their purchase, forgiving everything from harmless foibles (inconvenient door handles) to major flaws (a tendency for parts to fly off).
But perhaps we are all duped by something. A willingness to be conned as long as the illusion flatters our sense of self and our image of the future is a defining characteristic of our time. American culture has always favored snake-oil salesmen, but perhaps never more than in the era of Trump, Americaâs most successful con man. Under an administration that was backed, at least temporarily, by the worldâs richest manâElon Muskâthe performance of innovation has become more important than the substance. The Cybertruck is todayâs paradigmatic consumer object because it perfects the art of expensive disappointment, pushing buyers into ego-protecting delusion. To survive America in 2025 requires at least a little self-deception, if not about our cars then about the environment, politics, or the general direction society is heading. In a country run by scam artists, all thatâs left is the illusion of autonomy and control. Why wouldnât people gravitate toward a car that similarly promises, however falsely, to make them powerful and free?
Dojoâs lead, Peter Bannon, is leaving the company, and the remaining team members will be reassigned to other data center and compute projects within Tesla, per Bloombergâs reporting, which cited anonymous sources.
The disbanding of Teslaâs Dojo efforts follows the departure of around 20 workers, who left the automaker to start their own AI company called DensityAI. The new startup is reportedly coming out of stealth soon and is building chips, hardware, and software that will power data centers for AI that are used in robotics, by AI agents, and in automotive applications. DensityAI was founded by former Dojo head Ganesh Venkataramanan and ex-Tesla employees Bill Chang and Ben Floering.
In 2023, Morgan Stanley predicted Dojo could add $500 billion to the companyâs market value by unlocking new revenue streams in the form of robotaxis and software services. Just last year, Musk noted that Teslaâs AI team would âdouble downâ on Dojo in the lead-up to Teslaâs robotaxi reveal, which happened in October.
That must have been in the second half of the interview. After about 30 mins of mind-numbing word salad and "visionary" insight I had to turn it off.
I guess you did catch the part where he suggests that the Antichrist is more likely to be someone like Greta Thunberg as opposed to some evil tech overlord.
Thiel told the New York Times that âMars was supposed to be a political project; it was building an alternative. And in 2024 Elon came to believe that if you went to Mars, the socialist US government, the woke AI would follow you to Mars.â
Muskâs change of heart was reportedly inspired by a conversation with London-based Google DeepMind AI boss Demis Hassabis, in which the two discussed whether AI or interplanetary travel would be the most important technological advancement in the world. According to the New York Times interview, âElon went quietâ after Hassabis told him: âWell, you know my AI will be able to follow you to Mars.â
In Thielâs view, this was the impetus for Musk backing Trump so heavily in last yearâs presidential election. The Palantir founder agreed with Douthat that this was the reason why the X owner had invested so much time in âbattles over budget deficits or wokenessâ.
Thiel also depicted Muskâs interstellar utopia as akin to American science fiction writer Robert Heinleinâs vision of the âmoon as a libertarian paradiseâ. A Martian colony may have started out as purely scientific aspiration, but Thiel says that as this was âconcretisedâ, it became clearer âthat Mars is supposed to be more than a science project. Itâs supposed to be a political projectâ.
That must have been in the second half of the interview. After about 30 mins of mind-numbing word salad and "visionary" insight I had to turn it off.
