Actually that's EXACTLY what bloomberg suggested at one point.

If nothing else, it shows how utterly out of touch with reality that man is.

Agreed. Most POs are (or should be) there to help keep the peace. Deal with the drunken idiot. Handle the domestic violence case. Block traffic around the accident.

When someone with body armor and a rifle perches atop a building and starts shooting people ... having the gallant POs rush in will get more people hurt, not less.

SWAT has it's place - against truly dangerous situations akin to urban warfare. We don't want the military operating on US soil so we need something that can handle those types of situations.

That's an interesting thought. You can still sue a governmental agency but as far as I know there's a wholly different set of protections and limitations when it comes to suing cops vs. private corporations.

I'd also question the legality of them acting as government agents (i.e. cops who arrest/detail/etc.) if they're a private corporation. Last I heard private security does NOT have the same powers as police. Not even close.

*tin foil hat*

What's to say someone hasn't released a virus that infiltrates the live executable on PCs and tweaks a few bits to weaken the encryption? It's unlikely but not impossible. Verifying source code is not the same knowing the executable files in memory are clean. You need a verifiable real-time hash check every step of the way...etc.

Not impractical to follow though. KNOX from Samsung does something relatively similar to prevent rooting and similar hacks. It may not stop them but it will shut down your security container (or the device) instantly if something changes it's hash or starts writing to memory outside it's sandbox/etc.

So even after the audit (which I supported) I'd consider it 99.99999% safe. But don't think it will safe you if you do something to REALLY piss off the gov't.

Also they'll just beat you with a wrench...queue xkcd

Kind of ironic that the government agency that requires 6 or 7 years of receipts/documentation be available can somehow limit themselves to a 6 month retention policy on THEIR documentation (well email, but these days that's definitely relevant).

I work for a self regulated organization (finance) and we're required to retain every-fucking-thing for 7 years. It's not 'save your PST file' ... it's a WORM compliance archive of email that's completely automatic and not even visible to the user. It boggles my mind that the IRS doesn't have something like this. From the sounds of it they're literally downloading from exchange and deleting the server copy. What the actual fuck? I think the last time I did that anywhere in or out of the enterprise realm was the old Outlook Express client on Win 98 or something. Like 15 years ago.

Without them quashing the whole suit on the basis on national security

or

without them refusing to comment on the basis of national security

or

without them delaying until the judge insists and then letting him privately view the evidence once and issue a ruling on the basis of national security

or

manage to disprove the claims of an 'anonymous source' who happens to provide the same information

or ...

What I don't understand...is why people are so focused on these long road trips. How often does everyone drive cross country? Even considering the semi-common trips I'd make - from NYC up to Boston or down to DC - they're all well within range and I could hit one or more superchargers along the way. A 20 minute stretch half way through a 4 hour drive? Yes please. Oh, and I get free 'gas' too?

Besides that ... if I'm taking a (rare) very long road trip I'll rent a car anyhow to avoid putting the extra miles on mine.

Even the interminable road trips for vacation when I was little (checks google maps) were only about 200 miles. Maybe I'm the minority here but if I could afford a Tesla I'd pretty much never have problems with it's range limit. Forgetting to plug it in is another story though :)

How dare he spend time and effort and money to resolve a problem he's personally experienced?

I'm sure there are millions of customers satisfied by their experiences at dealerships. They did just fine so it's clearly just him having an unreasonable expectation. maybe it's a childhood trauma manifesting itself and causing him not to properly appreciate the dealerships. It's totally unreasonable - and obviously should be explicitly illegal - that Elon dare make a change to this. I mean...think of the children!

While we're at it, we should make it illegal to go from point A to point B in a straight line as well. Shortest distance my ass....

I sincerely, wholeheartedly hope they DO disrupt NADA and the automotive industry as we know it.

Plus it's hilarious watching a PSA written to 'teach' things basically everyone knows are complete BS. It amazes me that people can say these things without dying laughing.

I totally agree with you on shopping based for total price and it drives me nuts when the dealerships try to talk around it. I usually throw up my hands and tell them I'm going to read their worksheet from the bottom up. You start with the total $ and then show me what went into it. I usually only have to get up and put my coat back on once or twice before they stop with the games.

With that said...many people do NOT buy cars like you or I. Many people live check-to-check so the monthly payment has to work into their monthly budget and it's the only immediately relevant number to them. Sad but true and it's how people wind up getting ripped off at dealerships.

>50% discounts off list price are certainly unheard of in the US. Well unless the car is used :)

The lack of ability to negotiate isn't unique to direct sales. Saturn used to do fixed pricing and IIRC there was one or two others that did the same (again, in the US).

Consider the opposite though...a car with limited availability that's in demand can, and will, be sold above sticker price - much less invoice. Dealerships are just butt hurt that they can't get in on this and scum their way into extra profit.

Tesla has no need to run silly sales and promotions like other manufacturers (you'll note that the DEALERSHIPS aren't offering these promotions themselves) or worry about having stock levels too high. They're selling em as fast as they can make em.

What part of this CAN'T you get if the manufacturer runs the showroom?

Can't. Resist. Can't....
Your insurance is going to suck when they hear your car crashes almost every single day. ...

Also, why limit it in general? Assuming Google and Apple (and others) don't come up with a stupidly complex, locked-down, restricted connectivity method why could't the mfgs support anything using an open/common standard?

In reality only iOS and Android have the market share to make that feasible...but MS will likely throw a ton of money to get themselves included (oh wait, Sync? Derp what a retarded interface).

They're not talking about energy produced, they're talking about the total rating of the panels they produce in a year. So at 250w/panel they're aiming to produce 4 million solar panels/year.

    wow that's about a metric fuck ton of solar panels too. I wish the system integration/install wasn't stupid expensive still.

I wonder what this will do for the long-term viability of the car though...in regards to repairing it. If I have a 1998 Honda civic DX I know I can find parts for the windshield wiper assembly.

If I have a model 1.5.14b (mod alpha) Tesla S with options XYZ ... do I need this wingding or that one for the rear-view mirror? Repair shops are going to hate this game.

At the same time...knowing the battery, motor, and other major components are the same is a huge win for the same question. Frankly the car industry revamping cars every freaking year is beyond stupid. Why is a 3000 pound, immensely complex, expensive piece of machinery rebuilt every year? To tweak a fender and include the radio buttons it should have had last year?

As usual...go Tesla. I just hope they have a good compatibility matrix for the upgraded components.