this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2025
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Tesla has added another brazenly stupid new entry to its dubious safety record.

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[–] jwt@programming.dev 93 points 6 months ago (5 children)

How is this even legal? If a toaster manufacturer introduces a setting "kill neighbour's dog" it would get sued into oblivion.

I swear, America's got issues man...

[–] PenguinMage@lemmy.world 35 points 6 months ago (1 children)

We call it a democracy but it's been an oligarchy for over a century.

[–] Steve 24 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No.
Oligarchy has waxed and waned throughout US history. It's latest rise has only been over the last 50 years or so. They were kept thoroughly in check for 40ish years before that. It was after Nixon's pardon that they realized they might be able to get away with it again.

[–] PenguinMage@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yes I gave an overly simplified version... but the essential meaning is the same. Every gain was immediately lost, oligarchy is still 100% the description.

[–] Steve 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Every gain was immediately lost

Not at all.
They may be weaker, but we still have unions. Social security is still in place. We still have 5 day 40 hour workweeks as standard. Overtime is still paid at 1.5x. We still have OSHA ensuring safe working conditions. The list is long.

Each cycle the public makes many gains. Most of them are carried through to the next cycle, where more gains are made. I have hope that Gen z or Gen Alpha will gain ground on universal healthcare, mandatory vacation and sick leave, mandatory family leave, voting rights and methods. Hell with AI coming for everyone's jobs, maybe even a form of universal basic income.

[–] PenguinMage@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

I have personally seen the ways overtime is maneuvered. Service industry is still paid in pittance with no chance at the gains a union can provide. The working poor are still keeping this oligarchy afloat. Mayhaps my grand neices and nephews can see gains but by then will we have poisoned the world too much for them to enjoy it?

I'm just depressive, your points are well made, but the doom still sits upon my shoulders....

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 5 points 6 months ago

mad max= isolates and locks into children and small animals and steps on the gas.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 months ago

I can see it both ways

On the one hand I don't think companies should be legally required to restrict the freedoms of consumers. Stuff like this is why custom roms were illegal for a while in the US.

On the other hand, safety is involved

[–] CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world -2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Because it goes 15mph over the speed limit, which is the prevailing traffic speed on most highways. Going 55 when everyone is doing 75 is far more dangerous.

[–] F04118F@feddit.nl 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

WTF? Are your speeding cameras set so lenient to allow 15 mph (23 km/h) over the limit?

[–] CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Easy to avoid, rare, and don't impact traffic greatly. And yes 15 mph is commonly the trigger point.

[–] Honytawk@feddit.nl 4 points 6 months ago (3 children)

What is the point of a maximum speed if "everybody is going over it anyway"?

Going 75 where you are only allowed to go 55 is the dangerous part, even if everyone is doing it.

In Belgium, they substract 6km/h from what they detect in case the machine makes a mistake. Nowhere are people allowed to go faster, let alone 15 mph faster. If they do they all get fined. And for good reason. They are endangering everybody around them.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I have heard that in America the police sometimes fine people for driving at the speed limit because they're driving too slowly. It's an absolute farce.

A law that everyone breaks is a law that the police can choose to prosecute anyone for, for any reason. A law that you can be prosecuted for not breaking means you can't even escape being targeted.

[–] pohart@programming.dev 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I've only ever heard of this in a generic sense. I've never seen evidence of a specific case. I don't think it's real

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 3 points 6 months ago

In fairness I also didn't feel like I was reading eyewitness accounts of this kind of thing so maybe it doesn't actually happen (or almost never, or did in the past but no longer)

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 0 points 6 months ago

Both are dangerous. If you're going significantly slower than the flow of traffic you're making yourself a road hazard, regardless of the speed limit.

Some places have minimum speed limits for this very reason.

[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Welcome to North America, where the speed limit is more like the speed minimum.

[–] makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world 17 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I was really confused why this was news because I remembered trying mad max mode. It's fucking batshit how aggressively it merges on that mode. I turned it off immediately. Although the speeding thing isn't new, all the autopilot modes will let you set the speed to 15 over or more by default

[–] August27th@lemmy.ca 8 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Part of me wonders if they sell your driving telemetry to your insurance company, and if those companies pay out more for data on worse offenders. If so, they're just letting you tie your own increased insurance rate noose by providing that option, for their own financial gain.

[–] FishFace@piefed.social 1 points 6 months ago

Presumably not in California or wherever else there are sensible data protection laws?

[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 2 points 6 months ago

Probably necessary for driving in Boston

[–] Aeri@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Mr Elon people are worried about how unsafe the Tesla is what should we do.

Elon, ripping an enormous line of coke: "oh I'll give them something to worry about"