The poll shows that public views of Musk are increasingly polarized, with Republican support of the billionaire rising while Democratic support falls.

Elon Musk’s support among Democrats has withered to a new low as he has embraced Republican politics, according to a national NBC News poll.

Only 6% of Democrats in the poll, which was conducted Sept. 13-17, said they had positive feelings about Musk, while 79% said they had negative feelings. The numbers were flipped for Republicans, with 62% having positive feelings toward him and 14% negative feelings. Independents were split, 31% to 36%.

The poll shows that views of Musk are increasingly polarized, reflecting the transformation of his public image in recent years from that of an environmentally aware automaker crusading against fossil fuels to that of a conservative activist aligned with former President Donald Trump.

  • @SpaceNoodle
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    541 day ago

    Full Self Driving super soon except you still need to intervene regularly and also robotaxis will never work so it’s pointless anyway!

      • @Zron
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        161 day ago

        The worst part is we could definitely have a mars base with today’s technology.

        It’s just not economically or scientifically necessary to set up. Robots can do 99% of what a human can on mars, scientifically speaking, and if they break we can just build another one. If someone dies on mars, it’s gonna global news for weeks.

        And mars doesn’t exactly have a huge open pit of platinum or something we want to mine, so there’s no economic incentive to set up a colony.

        Musk just wants to sell the sci-fi vaporware fantasy to shareholders because SpaceX has one viable product and he’s desperate for no one to notice that.

        • Logi
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          123 hours ago

          SpaceX has one viable product

          Two. I can’t even figure out whether you’re ignoring Starlink or their space launch business. But yeah, the Elonville on Mars obsession makes about as much sense as the Cybertruck.

          • @Zron
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            118 hours ago

            I honestly don’t consider starlink to be a SpaceX product.

            I’d technically owned and operated by them because SpaceX owns starlink LLC, but they did it that way to boost their launch contracts for their one viable product: falcon 9 launches.

            So since they wanted to split starlink off into its own company, that just so happens to rely 100% on SpaceX for all contracts, then I’ll give it to them. Starlink is its own company. Which means SpaceX still only has one product.

        • @dgmib
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          319 hours ago

          Which is good because mars will be about the only inhabitable planet in the solar system if Trump has another term.

    • v_krishna
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      20 hours ago

      Waymo is already operating fully autonomous self driving taxis in SF. Price point is about the same as uber/lyft, a bit cheaper since no tip. And they are all hella nice Jaguars. The difference is Waymo uses lidar and radar to make it work (and also did intensive mapping of city streets). Still needs a lot of work to scale (they do dumb things, but so do human drivers, and are limited to the city so I can’t take one to or from my home in Berkeley yet) but they fully exist and are a viable option today.

      • @[email protected]
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        23 hours ago

        Man, after years as a valet ages ago I’m so anti Jaguar. Every single time one came through, it had problems. Owners constantly griped about it being in and out the shop a bunch. Nice at a glance, but plenty of the “luxury” brands are apparently made with fucking plastic and band aids.

      • @webadict
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        322 hours ago

        Waymo sucks. They get stuck a lot, tend to cost as much or more than Uber and Lyft, and you basically hope they don’t get stuck trying to navigate around situations because you basically wait until remote assistance fixes it. Also, if you live anywhere near where they park the things, you want Waymo to die in a fire because they honk. ALL. NIGHT. LONG.

      • @SpaceNoodle
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        15 hours ago

        I know, I’m in the industry.

        Edit: downvotes? Oh, I guess I’m not. Good job, y’all.

        • clif
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          22 hours ago

          Damn, got removed from your job by down votes. Sorry, that sucks.