Receiving countless blessings from ChatGPT, including some gratuitously indecent digital proposals covertly encoded by irreverent and savage software programmers, the design of Tesla semi-trucks looks great on CAD applications and paper to tech enthusiasts. However empirical evidence cannot avert the discerning eyes and talents of the legitimate engineering community.
While the Elon Musk infused corporate venture is fueled by the opposite of fossil fuel hype, the developing technology is still decades from legitimacy and eons from feasibility. The National Traffic Safety board released a report citing that vehicles produced in 2022 were plagued by a multitude of serious issues which only enhances the concerns of skeptics already questioning the efficiency of the manufacturing process, and ask with the fervor of the 1980’s burger grandmother, “What about the batteries?” in an emphatic tone twinging in humor and orchestrated snarkiness. This is all about politics, fortunes, and ultimate power, with the promise of an electricity future eliciting of lights and speed sparking the imagination of the masses.
As Tesla automobile remain the prodigious award of the participation trophy and inane culture of herbivores, and a status symbol for the introverted Silicon Valley professional emerging from a mother’s basement, the various blunders carpet bombing the trending news cycle. Speaking of dropping, the birth rate in the US has fallen off the Empire State building, as the aforementioned tech industry has traded raising families for gaming and virtual relationships where the contraception provided by a softscreen is more effective than being awkward around women. The “most-popular” content selectively featured on the major social media sites, describes an entire encyclopedia magnitude of unimaginable glitches and driver horror stories, while common sense remains confined to a tour group experience gone bad in Pyongyang. The standard contract relieves the tourism organization from any liability if members traversing the sound stage farce of a city are nominated for work detail in the forced labor camp penal colonies dotting the landscape. When an electric vehicle decides to freeze out a driver, the future nightmare of AI insubordination is brusquely released into reality from science fiction plots, and the middle 20th century pioneers of the electronic age have the last laugh in the form of a resounding solar flare spanning across the decades.
The GDP sized universe of a corporation, PepsiCo, earlier this year announced that it would begin its gravitation towards deploying a fleet of Tesla semi-trucks, and while the company boasted that the environmental benefits would outweigh the lucrative government grants covering the cost of nearly 90% of the initial fleet, even the leadership of Fortune 500 organizations are seduced by Musk’s magnetic personality, his propaganda army, and influenced by big government. Hypocrisy aside, the indoctrination of key business figures is clearly a serious issue that could have serious repercussions on both the economy and the environment.
One aspect of this script that is just too drama-laden for a streaming service entertainment plot is that the net amount of raw materials required to sustain the supply chain of both Tesla cars and semis are not readily accessible, and this includes rare earth elements for crucial engine components and the insatiable lust for lithium in producing the toxic and much-maligned batteries. The deplorable storyline twist is the dizzying magnitude of tax-payer money and down payments the company has received without actually delivering the product due to what the PR team at the corporation describes as “assembly line issues”.
While it is common knowledge that China currently produces 80% of the global lithium supply, and thus has the inroad with battery manufacturers, the Biden administration has taken issue with the truth by unsettlingly tripling down on exponential expenditures to construct the necessary terrestrial infrastructure to overtake Beijing. The environmental movement and Democrats curious love affair with the electric vehicle is based on the fundamental belief that Big Oil is a nefarious energy source, and bureaucrats and tycoons are lining their pockets with heaping sums of capital in forcing Americans to transition away from fossil fuel consumption.
While the current generation of Tesla Semis have proven to be a disaster for the company, the subversion and hyperbole surrounding the perpetual failure is a surface level representation of just how far the tentacles of a subtly vast scandal descend towards earth’s core through layers of metaphorical natural resources. The potential nightmare in the wake of all of the production glitches, and political and economic battles is that at least in Europe and the US, the push towards universal electric vehicles on the roadways could result in deliberate acts by government or other organizations in controlling the roadways and deliveries of food and medical supplies, or forcing the behavior of an individual.
Fortunately, the checks and balances of the Republic still exist, no thanks to the efforts of extremists, but it all starts and ends with the supply chain, and who or what is doing the driving.