Eines der Dinge, die mir an Silicon Valley und Big Tech auffallen, ist, wie oft sie sich die Sprache der Transformation und des Wandels zu eigen machen, und wie schlecht es ihnen doch gelingt, sie umzusetzen. Bildung, Gesundheitsversorgung und Wohnen – alles wird immer schlechter. Nicht die Sorge des Silicon Valley. Sie jagen Investoren-Billionen hinterher, um mit KI schnell reich zu werden.
Die US-Regierung erhebt Zölle auf links, rechts und in der Mitte, um einheimische Geschichten wie die in Mexiko zu fördern. Was wäre, wenn das Silicon Valley darauf ausgelegt wäre, sich einfach nicht darum zu kümmern?
A Mexican startup has started selling Mexican-built EVs for $8,500. Why can't Silicon Valley do this for the US & rest of world, instead of pouring hundreds of billions into AI designed to replace human workers?
byu/lughnasadh inFuturology
41 Kommentare
Shows you where their priorities are. We will increase pollution, water usage, electricity bills, cost jobs, if it means 1% more profit margin.
Big corporations put their resources where they think they will make the most money for said corporation. Silicon valley corporations probably don’t want to retool to become auto manufacturers and suffer reduced margins in the process.
Because they want to get rid of you, simple as that. No you, no need to pay you a wage, no need to do anything social and so on. AI and robots will serve and sustain their rich overlords, not cheap EVs.
Can only guess that safety standards and royalties may play a part. Governments also want a piece of the pie.
Apple can make an iPhone for a fraction of what it sells for. It’s not the materials. Someone else im sure will have a better idea and explain it.
The car isn’t released yet. Possibly 2027. It has a top speed of 31 mph and a range of 75 miles. OP is either disingenuous or low information.
0: that car is TINY; really thing the SUV-loving drivers will go for that
(Amazing how many eco-warriors have to drive a SUV/van/truck)
1: Mexico doesn’t have unionized workers. Like them or loath them, union wages get passed on to consumers.
2: I doubt Mexico has as strict regs as California.
3: Like or loath Trump, his import taxes do affect production costs (eg aluminum)
4: I think China’s EVs are cheaper, but are full of spyware so there’s a tradeoff
5: I’m not sure if the US grid can handle a flood of EVs, or if can, the prices will go closer to the price of gas. That’s why **I own a plug-in hybrid**; I can go either way, but electricity is more reasonable where I live, & a decent % is green.
6. SV is focused on driverless cars; I imagine some to many are EV?
>top speed 31 miles per hour
Yea you didn’t read the article. cute try though
„Why can’t Silicon Valley do this for the US & rest of world“
Lots to unpack here…
1. Silicon Valley is more known for it’s tech industry, than auto making. While it does have a couple of auto makers and a few more R&D centers, these are largely focused on premium vehicles, Research, software etc, rather than low cost manufacturing.
2. For the US: USA has fairly struct crash safety reequipments etc. Also US auto buyers generally want a normal car level of performance, and buyers for the spect of the Olinda woudl be rare: „Olinia has a 14.7-kilowatt-hour lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery and a 13.5-kilowatt electric motor, giving it a top speed of about 50 kilometers per hour (31 miles per hour) and a range of 125 kilometers (just under 78 miles) per charge“ Also the USA, being a wealthy market, means there is a decent supply of used cars. Stuff like the 40 kWh leaf is cheap in the used market, and packs much better spec.
3. For the world: What would be the USA’s completive advantage in the ultra low cost space? They are not a low cost manufacturing location, and even if they were just a design house, automakers from China, India & Vietnam are already mature in the ultra low cost space. I USA brand would need to break into that space fresh.
„instead of pouring hundreds of billions into AI designed to replace human workers“
AI has the potential to be immensely profitable, if it can replace human workers as you suggest.
Auto industry runs famously low margins.
No surprise capital is attracted to the AI space. (that said, most AI brands are not making profits at the moment, so this bet is highly specultative)
At top 30mph and 65 mile range, I think I would rather take a $25k Slate that is actually useable at 90mph and 205mi range. It doesn’t seem like a practical vehicle for.. pretty much anything.
because these are death traps. Mexico doesnt require the same safety standards as the US market does.
Does it meet the various safety standards in the US?
US safety standards add a lot of weight to a vehicle which could limit it further.
The car mentioned here is absolute garbage, and it’s just a rebranded Chinese ev ( one of the bad ones not byd ), nobody is buying it and it’s like the fourth try at introducing cheap EV“s in Mexico
Get your facts check OP
Mexico, incoming national security threat. Time to build that wall (again) – Trump the nation builder. All jokes aside, yes, US tech companies are mostly just advertising it as a get rich quick scheme… One might say, always has been. But rest assured the rest of the world will not sit idly by and let that scheme go unchallenged.
There already are tons of companies that build cars like that. But the general costumer wants a bigger, faster car
1. It is not a Mexican startup. It is a Mexican government scam.
2. They are going to import cheap Temu motorcycles that look like cars.
3. You can buy those things in Temu or Alibaba for half the price.
4. No airbags, no security whatsoever. Crash and die.
5. There is not one warehouse in Mexico producing those things and never will.
6. Just propaganda that I now can see it is crossing borders.
Pd. Yes. You can order them from Alibaba. Yes. Ups will get your package to your door. Yes you can assemble „your car“ out of the box with a screwdriver.
This one is government sponsored, so it eases the cost burden, so it isnt a total private endeavour.
No one is buying this in the US. Did you read the specs on it ?
Well they can’t monitor your every move and sell all sorts of personal information if they can’t put in the fancy cameras and electronic surveillance systems which cost money. They want to be able to shut your car down when your eyes look funny while you try to crank it.
Because Silicon Valley businesses make computers and computer accessories. Direct your criticism at auto manufacturers.
You mean building shit cars no one wants? Including yourself.
Because an $8500 car is too sane for Silicon Valley.
Silicon Valley is all about huge bets with potentially huge payoffs. They want to fund big, crazy ideas that probably will fail, because the few that don’t fail make impossible amounts of money.
That being said, Silicon Valley investors might back an idea like this if it was pitched using big, crazy language. For example, tell them they’ll retail for an even lower price, say $850, will only cost $85 to build, and will “put Toyota out of business”.
I read somewhere on Reddit that „They’re chasing investor trillions to get rich quickly from AI.“
They want slaves and serfs, not a happy and contented population.
People need to wake up on the idea that there has been a massive shift in who the customer is versus the product. It used to be that the general public has so much money collectively that they were the target audience, now its the ultra rich. We are no longer the ones that things are being built for.
OP you can get a car with more range for cheaper than this already in the US. Like have you actually looked at ev prices?
Safety standards. The US – and many other markets US manufacturers are targeting – have much higher safety standards for cars than Mexico does, so making a car for the US and/or global market is always going to cost more. It’s the same reason Kei cars aren’t legal in the US, and The Olinia is even shorter than most Kei cars so it’s unlikely to have eg sufficient structural integrity to pass US crash test requirements. Apparently it also lacks other core safety standard requirements such as airbags, ABS and ESC. All of these things add to the cost (and size) of modern cars.
Even some cheap European cars which pass EU and UK safety regulations (such as the Dacia Spring, the cheapest new car currently available in the UK, which retails for around £12k GBP / $16k USD – almost *twice* what the Olinia costs) wouldn’t pass certain US safety mandates.
Because of 6 reasons.
1: The vehicle is not highway or road legal. It has a maximum speed of 31 mph. That’s incredibly difficult for anything but urban diving.
2: it’s best range is 78 miles before needing to charge and due to its nickel battery it can’t charge as fast.
3: It does not have the crumple zones or safety requirements to meet American standards.
4: No airbags
5: No anti-lock brakes
6: No air conditioning
As it is most ev cars in America are second cars to be driven for pleasure rather than every day cars. This car is designed to be an every day city driver, but meets none of the safety requirements that the US has.
It is designed to be driven in a mild climate for a short drive. It has no heat in winter and no cooling in summer.
Rented a 8 seater golf cart last week that they limited to 35mpg and had a range of 70 miles per charge. I’d bet the golf cart is 1000 times better.
Technocrats have some 1950’s magazine cover style vision of the future with flying rockets and soaring buildings but if you look close, there’s zero public spaces.
They sell a lot of cars in developing countries that we don’t get in the United States because they do not meet our safety and emissions standards. The Olinia is not even scheduled for production until next year and there are no plans to certify it for the US.
The objective is to decrease workforce but maintain productivity = increased profit margins makes shareholders very happy!
Because no one would buy it. It has a top speed of 50 km/h and a range of 125 km.
Slow and short range according to other.
But I’d hazard a guess crashing it. Or being crashed into while in it. Would be extremely bad for your health. Compared to the same crash in a regular small car like a fiesta or polo for example.
because in our natural ecosystem Darwin is right, not Marx.
It’s a temporal problem. The actual answer to your question is entropy is real, things take time. You’re assessing the performance of leadership based on the current moment. Current leadership is making decisions for outcomes that are 20+ years away. Why? China.
The economic debate ended with the collapse of the soviet union. Modern economics does not follow any singular school of thought. It integrates the high efficacy theorem of all schools. Communism, capitalism, and socialism are effectively dead terms. This innovation has not yet been well integrated into political leadership or the public lexicon.
We’re not talking about national security. We’re talking about everything else that facilitates the capability of implementing national security.
Economic growth and social cohesion.
The reason why you aren’t seeing affordable EVs is because of some hard limits, unfortunate truths, WW3, and difficult lessons learned.
[This is the UN charter, read it. it states clearly what the objectives of modern geopolitical leadership is attempting to accomplish.](https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/full-text)
Difficult lessons learned. Westerners are opposed to the methodology of state craft. They are much less opposed to a private company engaging in the same activities. When the government spies on us, we get mad. When a private company does it, we are more willing to accept market and geopolitical realities. This isn’t entirely unreasonable. It’s based on the Western proclivity to avoid creating a domestic threat in the attempt to resolve a foreign threat. Western theory can be best summarized as if I have 1 problem I don’t want 2.
Hard limits. As of right now, we lack the capacity to uplift the lower demographics. As of right now, we don’t have the technology or resources to adequately remediate the human condition. We can’t feed everyone, we can’t house everyone, we can’t ensure security to everyone, we can’t get clean water to everyone. We know what we need to do to reach post-scarcity, but currently lack the resources required. It is currently not viable to uplift lower demographics to a western standard of living. Current estimates that are reliable suggest we’re at least 150 years from realizing post-scarcity.
Unfortunate truths. Don’t ever underestimate the desperate, they always have an impressive and unusual capacity to become a security threat. Given current market capacity and resource constraints, it is not possible to uplift lower demographics to a western standard of living. I personally disagree with this position but it is very important to understand that it is an idea viewed as accurate across global leadership. If we cannot uplift lower demographics to western standards of living. Then the next best option is to lower western standards of living as means to reallocate resources to lower demographics that represent a greater security threat.
China. China proved it. They learned. Hong Kong was Maos gift. It was a capitulation to reality. Command markets will always perform poorly. It’s a data problem. It’s a hard limit understood by Turing and Hilbert, that exists because of entropy and thermodynamics. The world you live in has more to do with Turing, Gilbert, and Foucault than you’ve been provided to realize. China is not the communist state you grew up learning about. China’s geopolitical strategy can be best summarized as avoiding another great humiliation. Chinas biggest objective is to prepare for the demographic collapse that is both occurring globally and absolutely going to happen. Unlike other western nations, they can operationalize symmetry and objectives.
WW3. You were raised to think that the ultimate threat was nuclear in nature. It is not.
You’re standard of living is being intentionally reduced because current leadership is making decisions on the belief doing so is the most viable approach to the topology of the modern threat landscape.
Tell me I’m wrong if you want. I’m ears wide open for an alternative explanation of current leadership and decision making.
Because its all about money. There is probably not a very large profit margin on an $8,500 car when trucks are making companies around $10k profit. Also replacing people will save a lot more. The issue I don’t understand is who is going to buy the stuff the robots make when nobody can work because its all robots?
I just want a simple electric car with no bells and whistles. Also some batteries and electric motors in a 1985 Ford Tempo and call it good
That would require Tech companies to create an actual working product and be liable for failures.
Not just take our jobs. They will also destroy our water and energy supplies.
Because the Big 3 Dinosaurs that own US politicians dont want them. You WILL buy a $90,000 truck.
Well my friend, you think they are doing things FOR you? No, they are doing things TO you.
You think they care about you? Lol
You think they care about money? No, they have it all. So what do they care about? Power.
Will giving you cheap cars increase their power? Not really.
Will creating AIs to look into your daily life, your bank accounts, your taxes, your online habits, your social media posts etc, increase their power? There’s your answer.
Why can’t silicon valley do this? Let’s do some poking around, shall we?
Olinia, the company making the car, chose to situate its production facility in Puebla, Mexico. The average factory worker’s salary in Puebla is ~USD$6,175/year. That makes the car cost about 1.4x the average worker’s yearly salary.
The average factory worker in San Jose, CA makes ~USD$43,600 a year. If we assume that the ratio between average factory wage and vehicle cost is 1:1 (it’s not for *many* reasons, but just as a general indicator) that would make the Olinia 1 cost $60,730, or about the price of a Rivian R1S EV.
If we look at ‚total compensation‘ for a silicon valley factory worker instead of just salary that jumps to USD$83,000 a year, which puts the price of the Olina 1 at about $115k, or the price of a Rivian R1S quad-motor with all the bells and whistles.
Why is labor so much more expensive here than there? Labor rights, centuries of wealth extraction, etc. So Silicon Valley can’t make an $8500 EV because they’ve spent too long making everyone else super poor so that they can have access to cheap labor overseas.