this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
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General Motors, Ford and other established automakers risk becoming relics if they don’t catch up to Chinese carmakers and technology companies in electric vehicles and self-driving cars.

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[–] Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 64 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (5 children)

self-driving cars

Ew, fuck off. I don't trust those things being on the road near me, not with how much worse they are than human drivers right now.

Edit: To be clear, my complaint isn't about me buying a self-driving car. My concern is someone else buying a self driving car and it hitting me as either another driver or a pedestrian.

[–] Elextra@literature.cafe 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

As someone who works in the bay area California. The Waymos are unfortunately better than most human drivers. It is noticeable....

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Which isn't a high bar to clear. Humans are horrible at driving.

[–] axexrx@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

At least theres a human to be responsible though, in most places with mandatory insurance.

Personally, I think waymo should be allowed to operate, but each car should be tied to someones ownership/ liscence (ie the CEO's) and that it should come with an automatic guilty / full at fault in any accident or incident.

[–] Elextra@literature.cafe 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Agreed. I've also seen a lot of hits (and sometimes runs ) in San Francisco. I haven't seen a Waymo hit anyone yet and they have been able to navigate people parallel parking on the street. Waymos are not the best but they haven't hit anyone and def know how to drive better than the average person in the city.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

It's the lidar, my dude. If musk hadn't demanded those be ripped out then Teslas wouldn't be such absolute shite at driving with their lame cameras.

It's

waymo > human > Tesla

When it comes to average driving skill.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Depends on whose. The Waymo ones do remarkably well. Other makers aren't nearly as good.

[–] CADmonkey@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Isn't waymo just using remote workers to drive the cars?

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Not exactly; they've got a remote worker facility where they've got about 1 person per 100 cars, who maps out what to do in situations where the software can't handle it, but doesn't do a full-on remote-drive. This enables them to gracefully handle the long tail of situations the software can't do yet, so long as not every car hits it at once (as with, say, a power outage causing all traffic lights to fail in San Francisco, or flash flooding causing issues all over Phoenix)

[–] homes@piefed.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’d prefer that to them just letting an AI do it

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I'd rather pay a taxi driver.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

For a lot of people, the main risk with a taxi is being attacked by the driver.

[–] cenzorrll@piefed.ca 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago

Those have the same problem, but less concentrated ownership

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[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I don't care. Any self driving car is resigning my autonomy to a corporation. That is not fucking happening. for the love of god just invest in busses already

[–] TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (14 children)

Yeah, but the whole point of a car is autonomy and independence. The person's, not the car's. If you're looking for someone, or something, to transport you places, buses and trains are much cheaper and safer.

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[–] ruuster13@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well then... you're the market they're talking about.

[–] Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

Because I know I'm never going to buy a self driving car (or at least not any time in the next 20 years) I'm not particularly annoyed by the risk of me owning one. My concern is instead with someone else buying one and then hitting me with it, because I keep hearing about how Teslas specifically are way worse than a human at driving around and not getting into "accidents".

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[–] cygnus@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 week ago

That's fine, they can survive on the large domestic market thanks to protectionist tariffs, and Americans can enjoy their very own Trabant equivalents

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I wouldn't buy their bullshit cars anyway. As an American who has been inside many, I can say that most American cars and trucks suck. Their reliability and build quality have driven me to only purchase vehicles from former WWII Axis powers nations.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 14 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Globally, the Chinese automakers are taking a huge chunk of market share.

They're effectively banned in the US, which is why you can't buy a decent new car for $7000

[–] partofthevoice@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Is it just the import that’s banned? Or is it more, like registration, sale, ownership, purchase, …?

Like, if I could teleport a Chinese EV into my garage then what’s stopping me from using it?

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 3 points 1 week ago

You can't register it for on-road use, with an exception for automakers who agree to destroy the car within a year.

[–] kittykillinit@lemy.lol 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Holy fuck why are Americans so stupid

[–] maturelemontree@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 week ago

I don't know but it sucks being here.

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[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

The maintenance costs of my GM vs my Nissan are like night and day. My GM was junked by the time my Nissan was paid off, and that's getting close to half of its lifetime ago now, and I still haven't replaced as much shit in my Nissan as I needed to in the GM.

Though tbf, I have been putting only synthetic oil in it and that might actually make the difference. At least for the components on the drive train. I also recall not having working AC, fuel guage, digital clock display... Only issue with my current car is sometimes one of the speakers gets a bit of a buzz at certain frequencies, but even that doesn't happen frequently.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

They are doing it to themselves so let them. What rises from the ashes will be more suited to getting the job done.

[–] traxex@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago

No no it’s a free market until <insert_donor_company> feels the burn then it becomes a problem!

[–] Horsey@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

What rose from the ashes in 2010ish is the shit we’re dealing with now.

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Nah. The US car industry has always been bailed out. Now its all owned by multinationals who use bribes err, lobbies to keep the free market captive. At some point they will lose the ability to due to one or more companies moving a factory to the states and that is when china will kill them.

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[–] ZC3rr0r@piefed.ca 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's almost like the ousted CEO of Stellantis was onto something with his "Dare Forward" plan. But apparently having long-term vision is punished by the market, so now they're bringing back gas guzzling V8s and fucking small-car diesel engine options (despite them being banned in more and more inner cities in Europe).

[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I’m thinking of Mary Barra at GM who pushed for the Bolt, then canceled it, then brought it back, then decided only the larger model and that it’s a limited run.

[–] ZC3rr0r@piefed.ca 6 points 1 week ago

Yeah, that was some baffling leadership.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

That got to me. I'd pay extra for a union made electric subcompact.

[–] comrade_twisty@feddit.org 7 points 1 week ago

Who needs cars if you have AI and mass surveillance.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

To sell them to a nation of impoverished firmer middle class who can't afford them

[–] kittykillinit@lemy.lol 4 points 1 week ago

How is China surpassing the US if they don't respect intellectual property?

Don't tell me the useful idiots were wrong again?

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The same US Automakers who ruled the world virtually unchallenged for 100 years and then had to steal from the taxpayers to stay alive because decades of shit management had squandered every ill-gotten gain and opportunity?

That US Automakers? Yeah a NYT article ain’t gonna get it.

[–] thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Car industry starts just before WWI.

Roaring 1920s. 10 years good.

Bankrupt in the 1930s. 10 years bad.

Good run from 1949 to 1979. 30 years good.

Almost bankrupt again in the early 1980s. 10 shaky.

Dirty 90s, with bailouts. 10 years shaky.

Sputtering along since 2000-2025. 25 shaky.

Equals:

40 good years.

10 bad years.

45 shaky years.

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