Once Elon put himself at the epicenter of American political life, Tesla stopped being treated as a brand, and more a placeholder for Elon himself.
Waymo has excellent branding and first to market advantage in defining how self-driving is perceived by users. But, the alternative being Elon's Tesla further widens the perception gap.
I think the Tesla brand and the Elon brand have always been attached at the hip. This was fine when the Elon brand was "eccentric founder who likes memes, wants to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and plans to launch a Mars colony." It only became a marketing problem when he went down the right wing rabbit hole and started sieg heiling on stage.
He has proven to be untrustworthy much longer than his trip down the right wing rabbit hole. For me, it started when he through out the accusation of pedophilia against the cave diver trying to rescue students. And since then it's become clear that he will say whatever he wants without regard for reality in any meaninful way. Whether it was promising FSD over a decade ago, which he still hasn't delivered, lying about video game proficiency, or even his non-sensical statements about twitter technology after he acquired the company, it's clear that he's entered the realm where consequences don't really matter to him and he will say or do whatever he wants. There is no trust to be found there.
Surprised Canadians would pick the US as a tourist destination to begin with.
Europe is cheaper and more fun. America's one advantage: nature, is matched and at times exceeded by Canada. Flights to warm places like Miami and SD take just as long as Mexico or the Caribbean.
Other than NYC and Utah-area national parks, I can't think of unique reasons for Canadians to vacation in the US specifically.
Also, if you want the booming, futuristic metropolis experience that doesn't exist in any comparable way in the US, China now offers visa-free travel for Canadians[1].
ok thats interesting, wonder how they take to overlanding?
drive west the whole way accross Canada, ship the rig, fly over , keep driving west till the atlantic shows up, ship the rig , fly home.
There were lots of places in the USA that (as a Canadian) my family and friends loved visiting - Kauai for hiking and beaches, Mt. Baker for skiing, bay area for all the weird stuff that goes on there, Nevada for that thing in the desert, Oregon coast for surfing, Utah-area parks like you said, hiking in Washington.
Lots of amazing outdoor adventures to be had in the USA. Now days I don't know anyone that goes to the states.
> Other than NYC and Utah-area national parks, I can't think of unique reasons for Canadians to vacation in the US specifically.
While NYC and Utah Area national parks are iconic, the US has immense geographic and cultural diversity beyond them. Destinations like New Orleans, the California coast, or the unique high-desert landscapes of New Mexico offer experiences that are distinct from anything available in Canada.
Trump aside, the US hasn't been good stewards of their tourism in major cities. Las Vegas is bent on pricing itself out of reach and New Orleans apparently hasn't been the same since Katrina.
I take your point, but I believe the U.S. brand has historically shown a strong ability to weather the types of challenges you mentioned. I’m actually quite optimistic that it can bounce back at least partially to its former standing relatively quickly once the current unrest subsides. Additionally, speaking as someone from outside North America, I find the unique appeal of New England to be a major draw also
All the major Canadian airports also have the US customs and immigration on-site. You go through it as part of the standard airport security process and then the airplane goes to a domestic terminal when it lands, as if the flight had originated within the US. You get off the plane, grab your luggage and leave, no additional lines, security, talking to officials, etc.
The only European airport that does this is Dublin, last I checked.
You can use eGates in the UK, same as me as a British citizen (as long as your passport's new enough, probably all of them by now) - that covers it doesn't it? Otherwise I'm not clear what 'pre-clearance' is skipping? Painless for me into Canada too.
Americans can _often_ use eGates into the UK - but the same set of exemptions apply as to British citizens using them. For example, if you're traveling with children under 10, you can't.
However, as others have pointed out, this isn't what pre-clearance is. It's more akin to clearing French passport control and customs in Dover or rather than Calais, and can make the trip substantially shorter than it might be otherwise.
When I still lived in the UK, I found it quicker and more pleasant to fly from Heathrow (or Bristol) to Dublin and then on to the US having cleared immigration during the layover. It's also quite a bit cheaper when you fly from the UK in a premium cabin since Ireland doesn't have the egregious air passenger duties that the UK does.
The portion of Dublin airport that has flights to the US is officially American soil. You deal with customs in Dublin airport, and then arrive to a domestic terminal at your US destination. It's very helpful.
I was pointing out the convenience of the process that may cause Canadians to enjoy flying to the US on holiday.
If you fly from London to Manchester, what happens when the plane lands? You get up and walk away, right? If you fly from London to Dubai, wouldn’t it be nice if you could just get up and walk away once the plane lands? Aren’t you tired of waiting in lines and ready to just fall into your hotel bed? Canadians can do that if they are flying to Miami or Los Angeles, but not Cabo San Lucas.
You could do this too if you flew from Dublin to New York, but not if you chose London to New York or Paris to New York.
I did a two week trip through Southern Utah and northern Arizona two years ago and it was amazing. I loved it, the scenery was incredible and I would love my parents to make the same trip to share what I experienced. They recently outfitted their truck with a camper in the back and have been enjoying long roadtrips in their retirement and it would be a perfect trip for them.
But they have zero interest in going. Part of it is fear and uncertainty about the situation there currently, but another part is just the sourness that the idea of visiting the US right now gives that kind of sucks the appeal out of such a trip.
There are other places they can visit, and Canada is indeed a lovely country in its own right, but I hope there is a time again where they can find joy in the idea of visiting the US and enjoying the beauty of the southwest before they are too old to really appreciate it.
As a Canadian, we don't think of travelling to the US as "international travel". It's more like going to a friends house.
I remember flying Alaska Airlines out of SFO and when I went to check-in at the International Terminal, the gate agent said "Canada isn't International" and looked at me like I was the dumbest human on the planet.
Electronics and code ruined replaced pure mechanics. Components aren't physically maintainable or hot-swappable, because they aren't just physically connected.
Second is that maintenance is how dealerships make money, so there is a monetary incentive to make it seem esoteric.
NYC's city budget is larger than every state apart from California, Texas, NY. At $115B, it equals Florida. By numbers alone, he's very influential.
Now NYC is a over-regulated mess that faces gridlock from both unions and the state representatives. In practice, it makes the NYC mayor a cog-in-the-machine. The real task for a NYC mayor is consensus building first, and allocation of funds second.
It's important in these cases to preserve the lineage of where they came from.
There's a tendency to start calling them 'western medicine' and crediting it to the person who formalized it in the west rather than the source culture where it has existed for centuries.
The conversation is bit 2010, but the point still stands.
It's been a bizarre watch. The automotive industry (and nations that rely on it) has sabotaged itself for a good decade. Unsurprisingly, China has caught up. Classic case of 'we've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas'.
Unions sabotaged automation efforts and limited hours worked. Quarterly financial pressures kept research investments to a minimum. Nations refused to scale up nuclear, and cost of electricity kept rising. The one well-run EV company (Tesla) decided to destroy its brand value overnight. Toyota went on a pig-headed hydrogen tangent and Honda still hasn't tried to make an EV. Korea has done surprisingly well. But, they're the exception that proves the rule.
China's rise as a manufacturing superpower was inevitable. But its rise as an automotive superpower involved major capitulation by the primary competition.
Unions in countries like Germany and France are much more powerful. Especially VW is extremely unionized, half of the seats on the Supervisory Board are allocated to worker representatives. These employee representatives are elected or selected by the workers (usually via union and works council processes), so VW employees indirectly influence board decisions through these seats.
> Unions sabotaged automation efforts and limited hours worked.
It's completely rational for unions, and the workers, to prevent automation. The short term results of automation are only negative for workers, and positive for every other part of the market (customers, suppliers, capitalists). The results might be positive in the long run, but why should only one group suffer.
Perhaps, the capital-owning class could make the deal positive for the workers by giving the workers ownership of a substantial portion of the firm. Then whats good for the firm would become good for workers, and the union would not oppose automation so much.
Top engineering grads are excellent and are being paid high wages. Work culture is cut-throat, but talent is comparable to the US.
India's target universities (IITs, IIITs & NITs) produce ~40k new software-engineers every year. Historically, average graduates of these universities end up in FANG jobs after their masters. If not immediately, then within a few years.
We're not talking about the 1 million sub-par engineering grads produced by India every year, most of whom will end up at infosys, TCS or sadly, BPOs. Big-tech only cares about the top 50k.
This the primary group that American new-grads are competing with. Around 20k new Indians get an H1b every-year as part of an OPT (Masters) to H1b transition. For every 1 of them in the US, there is at least 1 back home of the same caliber.
Not quite. Chinese rivers are fed by the eastern tibetan plateau while South Asia is fed by the western glaciers by the tallest mountains.
Bangladesh would be at risk because the Bramhaphtra sees upstream fresh water use by China. But China's use of Bramhaputra water is mostly energy related, not for drinking water or irrigation.
If decreasing population trends continue then this problem will solve itself.
The world will become unevenly greener. Population density and recent population rise is inversely correlated with places that will get greener.
Polar and Continental regions will get greener at the expense of the tropical and equatorial regions.
Mass migration is the inevitable conclusion of uneven impacts of climate change. Ie. In 2026, Political climate and physical climate are moving in mutually incompatible directions.
Not sure if 'aware' is the right word. More like anxious.
Kidnappings and murders are exceedingly rare, even more so by strangers. Abuse primarily occurs at home, with acquaintances and at places of education. Moving a child from free form play to structured classes is moving risk around, but isn't reducing it.
When there is a big community of kids, there's safety in numbers. Highly supervised play reduces the kids involved, and takes away safety in numbers in exchange for constant vigilance.
An aware person would see the numbers and Calibrate risk accordingly. There is risk involved in everything and helicopter parenting has done little to reduce it.
Once Elon put himself at the epicenter of American political life, Tesla stopped being treated as a brand, and more a placeholder for Elon himself.
Waymo has excellent branding and first to market advantage in defining how self-driving is perceived by users. But, the alternative being Elon's Tesla further widens the perception gap.
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