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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2110 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 2, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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There's also something special-pleadingy about calling it a whole new market segment. It's a pickup truck. It competes with kther pickups.

It does not -- if I want a pickup, I will go buy a regular 1/2 tonne 4x4 from a major manufacturer -- Ford alone sells nearly a million of these per year. Cybertruck/Rivian/F150L compete in this segment in the same sense as caviar competes with hamburger.

Yeah... maybe it was a bad idea to bet on an electric piclup, then?

Hard to know until you try! Anyways, it really depends on how much the bet cost and what the margins are like on the trucks that they are selling -- 'making less money than planned' is not a dumpster fire; 'losing money' might be. I don't know what these figures are, do you?

Oh, the Cybertruck fits that criterion as well

You will note a distinct lack of recalls related to issues of spontaneous combustion on that list -- really puts the 'fire' in dumpster fire!

It does not -- if I want a pickup, I will go buy a regular 1/2 tonne 4x4 from a major manufacturer -- Ford alone sells nearly a million of these per year.

That just means they're not very good trucks and are losing the competition. When the Model Y was the best selling car in a given year (or quarter, I forget), Elon was rightfully crowing about it. Same rules apply when things don't go his way.

Hard to know until you try!

And know that we know, we can call it a dumpster fire.

Anyways, it really depends on how much the bet cost and what the margins are like on the trucks that they are selling -- 'making less money than planned' is not a dumpster fire;

Opportunity costs are a thing.

Also, when you are trying to wow your investors with a shiny new product and how much it will sell, don't even get the order of magnitude right, and then see the sales cut by half the following year, yeah, that's a dumpster fire. The same thing with Optimus, if (or rather when) it turns out it's a dud, it will be pure cope to claim "well, it's not selling that much worse than Boston Dynamics".

I don't know what these figures are, do you?

No, sadly the world doesn't run on open source, and companies tend to be pretty cagey about their failures.

You will note a distinct lack of recalls related to issues of spontaneous combustion on that list

Well... that's technically correct, but it's not clear whether that's because they don't have an issue, or just don't want to make the recall public.

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