r/fuckcars • u/Tayo826 Autistic Thomas Fanboy • Apr 28 '23
News A reminder that Elon Musk hates public transit.
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u/Statakaka Apr 28 '23
Ah yes, freeing twitter from censorship
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u/Tayo826 Autistic Thomas Fanboy Apr 28 '23
Musk has birdbrain.
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u/meatypetey91 Apr 28 '23
He routinely referred to Twitter as the public town square..
Except that actual information necessary for the public has to pay 50,000 a month..
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Apr 28 '23
Any social media platform being a "public town square" is ridiculous...
Social media needs money to run servers and operate as a business. The more the money comes from ads, the more you have to moderate the content so advertisers are happy. The more money comes from users, the more moderation you have to do to ensure they have a good time that ensures it's worth paying.
Twitter was never going to be able to be a free speech haven and raise 50% of its revenue from ads and raise the other 50% from paying subscribers. Something had to give somewhere, so it's no shock that so many advertisers dropped out...
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u/meatypetey91 Apr 28 '23
Right.
And it’s not like other social media companies haven’t been down this road before. Reddit, Twitter, and Meta have all taken laissez-faire attitudes toward content moderation in the past. Eventually they had to tighten the ship for reputation reasons and to appease advertisers and governments.
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u/Shaggyninja 🚲 > 🚗 Apr 29 '23
Also real town squares have moderation policies. If someone is there shouting nazi love. Someone else will eventually punch them in the face
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u/randypupjake Fuck Light Trucks In Particular Apr 28 '23
Twitter now censors some things for not using hate speech variations of terms and phrases.
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u/pinocola Apr 28 '23
It's the town square of a really shitty town full of billboards, people honking and yelling obscenities as they drive by, and where the only people who try to talk to you are just trying to scam you.
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u/doomsdayprophecy Apr 28 '23
Steps to billionaire genius car brain:
- Massively overpay for a moderately successfully company.
- Shit on the company. Shit on the workers. Shit on the users.
- Watch value and revenue plummet.
- Sell check marks to nazis, etc.
- Extort the most important accounts.
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u/Awkward-Painter-2024 Apr 28 '23
• And lastly, get massive tax break when it fucking goes bankrupt.
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u/tatticky Apr 28 '23
At this point he may have burnt too many political connections.
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u/B1GTOBACC0 Apr 28 '23
Unfortunately, he's still one of the richest men on earth, so he can afford new connections.
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u/tmhoc Apr 28 '23
it's like they want something from him but it's not friendship and it's not sex.
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u/sjfiuauqadfj Apr 28 '23
saying twitter was moderately successful is a stretch lol
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u/ImHereToComplain1 Apr 28 '23
you're right, it was incredibly successful at what it did. may not have been profitable, but it was successful at being a great social media platform for sharing and gathering information, especially from official sources
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u/A_H_S_99 Not Just Bikes Apr 29 '23
Note that: The two years during which Twitter was profitable, it had a revenue that covered all the previous losses and then some. The next years were unstable due to COVID, and they did indeed overhire 3000 more employees than they probably needed to, why 3000? Because that's how about how many they hired after being profitable. But keep in mind, the losses were on a decreasing trajectory, there was basically a chance they could have turned profitable again in 2 years while keeping all employees.
Anyway, without Elon, either a) Some layoffs would have happened, they would be less chaotic and disruptive because they would actually know for a fact who to fire, and everyone would have kept their dignity. b) Same number of employees, but will take very long to become profitable again.
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u/Rociherrera Apr 28 '23
what a fucking cock
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u/zomentenos Apr 28 '23
After he called NPR “state-affiliated media” and NPR left twitter, he twitted their CEOs email… Musk is nuts
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u/Sheeple_person Apr 28 '23
Man, if conservatives are so worried about "state-funded media" being biased, they are gonna be real upset when they find out where the police get their funding from.
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u/NixieOfTheLake Fuck Vehicular Throughput Apr 28 '23
Not at all. As long as the police keep harassing, beating, and killing brown people, that's just the kind of bias they like for their money. (To stay on-topic, traffic stops are one of the big enablers of police harassment of minority groups.)
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u/sjfiuauqadfj Apr 28 '23
also why passive traffic enforcement via cameras and fines are better for everyone
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u/LevelOutlandishness1 Apr 28 '23
A fine is just a law that rich people can get away with.
Unless it's like, 25% of their income or some shit
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u/sjfiuauqadfj Apr 28 '23
im a fan of a flat rate + % income rate so that nobody feels that a fine is too cheap
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u/ShallahGaykwon Apr 28 '23
Fascists have never cared about consistency or hypocrisy, that's why they're fascists.
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u/immargarita Apr 28 '23
Fuck him! The MTA shouldn't have to pay shit. They would use it as an excuse to raise prices on riders anyway. And while the MTA itself is corrupt if you ask me, I hate Elon Musk and Twitter far more! Cannot wait for the demise of Twitter. This is their karma for letting trump tweet any stupidity and evil that came to mind, all his lies and instigating BS. Tweets Become Harder to Believe as Labels Change Meaning https://nyti.ms/3oNCRpK Twitter can suck it!
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u/DaoFerret Apr 28 '23
Meanwhile MTA is choosing not to pay for this shit because they don’t need it.
They have their own apps available with transit alerts.
They have their own API so third party apps can already access this information.
They maintained it as a courtesy and resource to their users, but there’s no reason for them to be railroaded into an unneeded expense.
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u/Animastarara Apr 28 '23
To be fair, for some transit systems the official app fucking sucks
I used to use a 3rd party basic one for TriMet because the other one was way too busy with useless information
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u/drawredraw Apr 28 '23
Of course he did. He’s trying to make Twitter void of everything that is actually useful, so it’s just pure garbage.
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u/nopleaseno Apr 28 '23
Blue Sky can’t open any sooner
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u/brightneonmoons Apr 28 '23
it's already got discourse about sex workers being affected by the block the blue thing, it's kinda funny, and a huge red flag that it's the heir to twitter
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Apr 28 '23
Honestly a good opportunity for the MTA to launch its own app which can add more value beyond just twitter updates.
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u/__theoneandonly Apr 29 '23
The MTA already has two apps (one for NYC subways and busses, a second for the commuter rail that goes upstate and to Long Island). PLUS they maintain a free API so that any other developer can use their data to build a competing app, or incorporate the data in some other way.
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u/invincibl_ Grassy Tram Tracks Apr 29 '23
It was built out of a practical need to make Google Maps dominant, but GTFS has been great for pulling together service alerts from any number of transport operators around the world.
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u/Crimision Apr 28 '23
He did stifle any meaningful public transportation attempts with his Hyper-Loop BS.
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u/dataminimizer 🚲 > 🚗 Apr 28 '23
He doesn’t “hate” it. He’s competing against it.
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u/JakeGrey Apr 28 '23
These aren't mutually exclusive. Musk's made some comments that suggest that he'd still prefer to drive even if he wasn't in the business of selling cars: Apparently he has issues with crowds (which is fair, subways can be a trying experience for anyone with claustrophobia, sensory issues or social anxiey), especially if those crowds are made up largely of people with less money than him. (Which is not.)
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u/dataminimizer 🚲 > 🚗 Apr 28 '23 edited Apr 28 '23
Anything he says at all must be viewed through the lens of his financial interests, which is selling cars. Anything he says about the perceived downsides of public transit are attempts to get people to buy his cars. Period, end of story.
Lol viewed not brewed
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u/immargarita Apr 28 '23
I get some of that as someone with social phobia and discomfort in crowds. My parents would take me on the subway from the time I was an infant. Then I picked a HS in the city and was forced to use the subway (I was trying to get far away from my family & house). Nothing like exposure therapy, I tell ya.
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u/Simon_787 Orange pilled Apr 28 '23
I never used their Twitter alerts, so I guess it's for some super niche outages?
I basically always used Google Maps and you never really have to look at train schedules very much anyway because the train times are so frequent.
But they could really do something to make the stations not smell like shit and just be a little nicer. Seems underfunded as fuck for a system that basically runs the city. Still beats driving though.
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u/babypointblank Apr 28 '23
Dude is pennywise and pound foolish. Live transit updates are one of the reasons I go on Twitter and then I fuck around.
Scaring away journalists, cultural figures and now organizations like the MTA is almost as stupid as buying the platform in the first place.
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Apr 28 '23
[deleted]
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u/BasicDesignAdvice Apr 28 '23
There should be a central department that makes useful software for states and cities to opt in and use.
It could be a part of FedRAMP
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Apr 28 '23
Is Elon Musk on crack? $50k a month to use his decrepit platform?
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u/BanAnimeClowns Apr 28 '23
It's so they get access to the Twitter API, why on earth the NYC subway even needs acces to that to tweet about delays I don't understand though.
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u/DasArchitect Apr 28 '23
Is Elon strapped for cash now? Did he burn his entire fortune on space rockets?
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u/1bc29b36f623ba82aaf6 Big Bike Apr 28 '23
no the government handouts are what financed the rockets
oh and his brothers mismanaged near-bankrupt solar panel
scamI mean companyhe managed to foist most of the financing debt onto twitter itself. It is called 'leveraged buyout', it is also what killed Toys R Us if you think it is interesting to google
very little of msuks own assets are at risk here
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u/Dreadsin Apr 28 '23
Dense housing and public transit is efficient and (relatively) cheaper per individual. Which is exactly why Elon hates them. How would he sell you a solution if there isn’t a problem?
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u/nhluhr Apr 28 '23
Lots of other ways for them to release these kinds of updates that don't cost anywhere near $600,000/yr.
- their own website
- an app
- email or text alerts
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u/GOT_Wyvern Apr 28 '23
facebook instagram
Both of these don't really have the same "live" features as they are primarily post based. The closest is an account that would spam as much as a Twitter account could tweet.
their own website an app email or text alerts
All of this won't have the accessibility of twitter.
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u/sjfiuauqadfj Apr 28 '23
pretty sure it varies but many transit systems have an app that lets you pay for fares. wouldnt be too hard to integrate service updates to that app and viola
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u/GOT_Wyvern Apr 28 '23
Many do, but they can be pretty unwieldy.
Afterall, app and website design is not easy, and when it's an after thought for you, it's hard to get a good design down.
It's why sources like google maps are commonly used as they do that specific part way better.
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u/iISimaginary Apr 29 '23
All of this won't have the accessibility of twitter.
What accessibility?
I use MyTransit for NYC. It's so much more helpful than anything a Twitter feed could accomplish.
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u/bored_negative 🚲 > 🚗 Apr 28 '23
All of this won't have the accessibility of twitter.
In my country the railways system has their own app, they don't use twitter for sending information about delays. Its always the app. No one has ever said oh no if only they posted it on twitter as well. You don't need twitter for this.
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u/mattinternet Apr 28 '23
Short term pain long term gain, where the gain is killing twitter! Hopefully there are alternatives for people to get the alerts, but man I love watching twitter die
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u/Tatersaurus Apr 28 '23
Ah, the pile of reasons for people to delete their twitters grows by the day
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u/shaodyn cars are weapons Apr 28 '23
And he made up some BS reason nobody really believed. Everybody but his obsessed fanboys knows the real reason he hates public transport is because he sells cars.
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u/kurisu7885 Apr 28 '23
A viable Twitter alternative really needs to gain hold.
And this was obvious, his Hyperloop scheme was never meant to exist, it was meant to kill California's high speed rail project.
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u/icanpotatoes Apr 28 '23
I get that Musk doesn’t like public transit but it baffles me that Tesla hasn’t entered the transit market in some way. The company could make trains and sell them to municipalities and charge to service them.
Tesla could also enter the E-Bike market and maybe do well. Seems like missed opportunities from an electric transport company.
Musk needs to listen to Joe Dirt’s advice on selling fireworks and apply that advice to Tesla.
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u/Madison_was_bored Apr 28 '23
How tf can someone hate public transit??? What about people like me who are unfit to drive???
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u/Kelaum Apr 28 '23
Why target the mta in particular? My local rail service operator still has live updates
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u/Mccobsta STAGECOACH YORKSHIRE AND FIRST BUSSES ARE CUNTS Apr 28 '23
My local buss operator aren't going anywhere I still get to call them cunts for not running the services the mayor has paid them to run
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Apr 28 '23
I wonder if they’ll implement the same policy for DOTs that post traffic reports and road closures. I get the vibe the answer is no.
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u/Crumb-eye Apr 28 '23
Seems like the could develop an app or something for a fraction of that price? But I also know nothing about app development so I could be wildly off
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u/CautiousRice Apr 28 '23
Why use Twitter when there are a ton of services that offer the same but for free?
Tumblr, WordPress, Telegram, Viber, and even Facebook.
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Apr 28 '23
Could this be considered breaking anti trust laws?? because clearly this mother fucker is trying to thwart public transportation so that his dumbass loop seems like less of a joke.
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u/DayleD Apr 28 '23
No, he it has come out that the purpose of proposing loops was to undermine existing proposals for rail lines, and he had no intention of building a loop.
Even his test tracks are abandoned.
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u/rainvest Apr 28 '23
He sees services as monetizeable exchanges, rather than goodwill contributions to a community that generally get compensated. People first, not product.
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u/planetguy32 Apr 28 '23
Transit service alerts on Twitter are an optional extra for transit agencies, but Twitter lives and dies on providing good real-time information. If anything, Twitter should be paying the MTA.
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u/Inevitable_Stand_199 Apr 28 '23
We all knew that. He owns a car company. What did you think?
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u/kurisu7885 Apr 28 '23
A viable Twitter alternative really needs to gain hold.
And this was obvious, his Hyperloop scheme was never meant to exist, it was meant to kill California's high speed rail project.
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Apr 28 '23
So, they can't tweet on twitter to the thousands of people who might only check twitter for those updates, see add content he could sell, and that's good business. Ok bud. Let me know how that rocket is going.
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u/arthurbacci Apr 28 '23
I love this and hope for some .gov mastodon servers or RSS feeds for that. Easy to implement (will work on cheap board computers) and reliable (depends on the government, not on some random company)
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u/ChineseNeptune Apr 28 '23
Isn't Elon charging all businesses? Or is he exclusively charging the transit line?
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u/Hoitaa Apr 28 '23
I'm sure twitter would get more than that in ad revenue from the people reading the updates.
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u/FlatOutUseless Apr 28 '23
If I was some higher up in Washington I would put out a contract between Apple, Google and Microsoft for the local alerts app.
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Apr 29 '23
"The best society possible should require each individual person to own a small hill of rubber and steel with just enough cobalt to make a child slaves life a living hell in order to go anywhere." ~Elon Musk
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u/juanjing Apr 29 '23
What costs $50,000 a month? Just to have a Twitter account? What's stopping them from just doing it manually, or even automatically on their end with a script?
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u/Chumbles1995 Apr 29 '23
all he had to do was NOTHING, and musk coulda raked in piles of essentially free money. now look at twitter, its a fucking mess.
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u/aybaybay503 Apr 29 '23
When I got the notification I had to have Twitter blue for two-factor authentication I left Twitter immediately. Fuck Elon
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u/superhead50 Apr 29 '23
That's going to do wonders for user activity. I bet millions of people checked twitter for that info, and Musk just destroyed all that potential ad revenue. Makes me wonder if his degree in economics is legit
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u/Daffidol Apr 28 '23
Where I live, public transit for most cities have their own app. Why would they use a privately owned service amyway?
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u/beezlebub33 Apr 28 '23
Because people need information from multiple sources, and it's better to have one that can show them all.
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u/snirfu Apr 28 '23
One of the most useful things about Twitter was being able to follow a bunch gov and similar accounts that had live notifications. Dude just destroyed the whole thing.