A new car look without steering wheel and pedals. A working robovan. I don't think people understand the complexity of creating a hardware prototype of anything. This can't be ChatGPTed
They've shown working shells of cars at every single reveal of their past cars without the interior filled in. We know they can do that. What's in question is whether they can make a driverless taxi.
The demo is open to the eventgoers and lets you choose your destination. It's quite polished and a lot more advanced than "hardcoding to drive in a loop".
I saw a video from people in the car. The screen allowed them to pick between 2 different destinations. It’s not like they could just punch in any old address.
That's a pretty generous way to describe a ~20-acre geofenced, low-speed ride using a pre-mapped area in which they likely tested this out quite a bit prior to the event.
Yes they say a lot of things, for example they say they have a permit to do this for example but the permit is for a different purpose (storm water, not industrial process discharge). But among the claims they make the one you cite is not one. They say "finally, some water does leave the area of the pad, mostly from water released prior to ignition and after engine shutdown or launch."
Look this is very simple: this is one of the most basic environmental laws (don't dump stuff into the river), which requires you demonstrate that you are not in fact dumping stuff into the river. You do that through the permitting process. If SpaceX is doing all the correct things there should be no problem getting a permit like everyone else does.
Again this is not some government over-reach, this is probably the first 1-2 environmental regulations you would come up with and which no one would disagree with. There isn't an exception for being a very cool dude.
Getty-Images* will barefacedly "license" you public domain images at significant cost (i.e. thousands per image.)
Worse, they've attempted to extract licensing fees from people who use such public domain images, in one unfortunate case: Carol M. Highsmith, a photographer who had donated her works to the public domain received a letter of demand from Getty Images for using her own public domain images.
Seems like the right call to me. I really know almost nothing about this case, but seems like gofundme isn't doing something illegal and the officer hasn't been convicted. Are folks presumed innocent in France? Even if he is convicted, does that blacklist his children as being unworthy of support?
No everyone is aware, but SpaceX mass to orbit is close to the rest of the world put together. Hey are massively reducing costs to access space. The point of the starship is to continue to reduce costs.
honestly, this is all to plunder the solar system further. Mining asteroids, etc. Of course the R&D is tax payer publicly funded and the future profits privatized. This is the way it has always been.
I guess I just don't see the point. We're not leaving earth, no one wants to life in orbital stations or habitats - nonobstant all the issues with making that happen, so why plunder the solar system? There is more matter to plunder on earth than we would need to cover the whole globe with people, what's the point of trying get our great-great-great-great-grandkids to mine asteroids? Even more questionable if it makes our own and the life of the people coming next to be measurably worse
Perhaps I'm missing something, what are the enormous environmental consequences? Are you referring to just those from the photo? I feel like a fishing trawler does more damage every day than I see in these photos.
While I'm not an expert - the article does mention that the cement dust has an impact on soil, and I can imagine that the rocket itself was filled with multiple dangerous and toxic chemicals which were scattered to the wind.
It's probably not Exxon Valdez, but I doubt it's a small deal.
Actually this is the second cleanest type of fuel possible. (The best being hydrogen.) When they blew it up they released a ton of methane, which is bad for global warming, but otherwise isn't toxic.
Believe it or not, the boosters are just built out of stainless steel so that they can survive the heat. Not toxic.
Starship itself uses a silicon-based ceramic for insulation. You wouldn't want to be hit in the head by one of those tiles, but it's unlikely to poison you.
Just stumbled upon this - it does seem that the particulate matter scattered for miles is being investigated as being a major health risk to nearby residents and endangered species.
Breathing in non-toxic particles can be bad for you due to the effects of mechanical injury. The classic example is asbestos, completely non-toxic, but the result of how your body attempts to repair damaged cells in your lungs can cause an increased chance of cancer.
This is one of the top concerns of nanotechnology. It could potentially create a lot of grit that we really don't want to breathe...
You remind me that I heard brake pad particulate was horrible for our health, and highly present in the air in LA as well - another thing to lose sleep to!
The exhaust was pretty clean. It might have been a bit engine-rich though, so a bit of copper was probably emitted, but otherwise it was just H2O and CO2.
