Elon, set up an account to track the kid!! (preview)
Support the show for $3/mo at http://patreon.com/miniondeathcult and get instant access to hundreds of hours of bonus content, and a premium episode every week. This week, we go deep on Elon Musk as his fervent admirers react to thenews that he may buy twitter. We explore the numerous contradictions between his technogenius image, the cringe memes he and his fans immerse themselves in, and the bogstandard capitalist reality. Also, Tom Macdonald gives a feature interview to Rolling Stone and reveals perhaps too much about his home life and true beliefs.
So I found the question, you know, did Elon Musk buy the title of founder of Tesla?
And we have Richard Mason here whose bio on Quora says, I am a serial entrepreneur.
I should specify it's spelled S-E-R-I-A-L.
Like he didn't invent a cereal.
No.
He's just a serial entrepreneur.
Like he can't get enough of it.
Somebody stop him.
He can't stop entrepreneuring.
Yeah.
I don't even know why I do it.
Turns out I only start small businesses, though.
I have a thing for small businesses.
Mr. FDIC, I gave you all the clues.
Yeah.
If you look at his picture though, it looks like he's a serial something else.
Yeah, for sure.
Okay, so he answers, Tesla was founded by Martin Eberhard and Mark Tarpenning.
Elon Musk was an early investor in the company who later became active in the management.
When the company struggled to contain costs, investors forced the founders out.
Musk, along with early employees J.B. Straubel and Ian Wright, were allowed to retroactively call themselves co-founders in the settling of a lawsuit with Eberhard and Tarpening.
So not only did he buy the title of founder in a settlement.
Yeah.
He is responsible for kicking out the actual founders.
Like, the actual people who, you know, designed and built, you know, the company.
Designed the product and built the company.
Nothing matters.
Like, even if you come up with something cool, it might not matter.
That might not actually matter.
David Bivians, another answer on Quora, said, who is a small business owner, period.
Pilot, period.
Entrepreneur.
Hell yes!
I think I'm gonna start putting pilot in all my bios and just like, and then when they're like taking me on a flight, I'm like, well I'm also like an eco warrior too, so I'm not gonna just, you want me to just fly on a, you want me, oh you just, all that damage is for that?
No thank you.
Yeah, you think I'm a hypocrite.
But I am a pilot.
Like Leo DiCaprio or Radiohead.
Yeah, Radiohead, yeah.
Do I look like a Radiohead?
Okay, David Bivian's pilot says he was there at the first meeting and provided the funding.
So he was there, Tony.
He was there at the very first meeting.
He was in a chair.
I remember that.
But the first meeting was probably like the first meeting with investors.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, that's the most important thing.
He's the only one that counts.
Yeah.
He also designed their first production car after the first CEO And I know, see, it has to be capitalized, but I still like screaming it.
No, you got to.
Well, I mean, it's like out of respect, you have to yell CEO.
It's tradition.
After the first CEO was caught committing fraud and the entire thing had to be redesigned.
So yes.
Not fraud.
So yes, he is legally considered a founder.
Well, none of that has anything to do with why he's legally considered a founder.
There's no law saying if you design the first production car, you are the founder.
By the way, Designed their first production car?
Do not believe that for one second.
No, not even a little bit.
This is definitely a Homer Simpson situation where he drew a bubble on top of a rectangle and was like, this is what it needs to be.
And then a hundred other people actually did things.
I read so much cool stuff about Tesla when I was trying to figure out this brain genius, this master of the universe of Elon Musk.
You know, this is just from Wikipedia.
We're now going to be one of those podcasts that just reads Wikipedia to people, which make like $50,000 a month.
So I'm expecting that to start happening.
Well, I would donate to Wikipedia more if more people were subscribed.
On December 30th, 2021, Tesla announced that they are recalling more than 475,000 U.S.
model vehicles.
That's so many.
The recall was not linked to a contemporaneous issue regarding the passenger play feature, which allowed games to be played on the touchscreen while the car is in motion.
After an investigation was launched by the NHTSA covering 585,000 vehicles, Tesla agreed to make changes where the feature would be locked and unusable while the car is moving.
I thought that was weird because I can't even like pair my phone to my stereo if I'm in motion.
You know, most cars won't let you do that.
But the Tesla was kind of like, fuck it.
They weren't very much like, nah, it's cool.
Even if you like, even if you can't drive, we got you.
And like, that was so, what a wild statement.
Well, that was sick until they caved to pressure by the NHTSA.
They wouldn't let drivers also be gamers.
Oh, because I'm a gamer, I can't drive a car, I guess.
Gamers, Tony.
They came for gamers.
And the thing is, that's like a pretty big portion of the market.
That's pretty fucked up.
I mean, just buying a Tesla in and of itself seems like a game.
And, you know, the odds aren't always great, but sometimes it works out.
Sometimes it does, and then sometimes it just stops on you in the middle of the freeway in the middle of the night.
And it's like there's a bunch of minigames, too, on the Tesla.
Like, get your door open in freezing temperatures.
Let somebody in your car while you're trying to make money in your gig job, but you rented this car because you're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place, and people can't get in your car, so you get bad reviews, and then you end up paying for that day of Uber driving.
Yeah, it's like a game of Saw, but in your own car.
It's exciting, I like that.
If you allow the AI to kill this pedestrian, you will survive.
However, you can steer around it and drive straight into a turnbuckle.
