15 Tesla vehicles were burned down by group of radical morons
15 Tesla vehicles were burned down at a car dealer in Frankfurt, Germany this week, and a radical group of environmentalists has claimed to be behind the act of arson.
With the incident alone, this gang of morons is probably responsible for more pollutant emissions than they can ever counter with their so-called activism.
IAA moved its car trade show from Frankfurt to Munich a few years ago, mainly due to environmentalist protests affecting the event.
I have been attending the show for the last two editions as it has transitioned into a “mobility show” with a lot of electric vehicles being featured.
There are still some protests in Munich, but nothing compared to Frankfurt.
I was there last week and only saw some cohorts on bikes with sign going around the city and giving speeches at some hot spots.
Greenpeace did this protest at the conference center, but I missed it. Although, I’m pretty sure that they heavily photoshopped this image because the artificial pond in front of the center is no more than one or two feet deep.
While the protests over IAA in Munich were mild, it looks like the group in Frankfurt hit again in a much more criminal way.
15 Tesla vehicles were burned down at a dealership in Frankfurt last night. 40 firefighters were involved in the attempt to extinguish the fire and over 500,000 euros of damage has been done.
Now a radical group has taken credit for the criminal attack.
They released a letter on the Germany version of the Indymedia website, which is often used by radical left-wing groups for communications.
In the letter, the anonymous writers reference the IAA protest and then claimed the arson in Frankfurt (translated from German):
That’s why we flambéed some new Teslas in Frankfurt tonight. As a greeting to the protests in Munich. As one attack among many on the destructive auto industry.
Their main problem with Tesla appears to be the mining of lithium and cobalt and the impact on indigenous communities (translated from German):
Tesla is one of our most prominent enemies. The company represents like no other the ideology of green capitalism and the ongoing global and colonial destruction. Electric motors are constantly presented as the clean alternative. That’s a cynical lie. Like other companies, Tesla exploits resources worldwide. The necessary raw materials for electric car batteries, such as lithium and cobalt, are mined under terrible conditions in Latin America and Africa. Despite the great green paint, fossil fuels are needed for transport and production. All of this always happens in connection with the oppression of indigenous communities, whose resistance must be a signal to us to act.
Furthermore, they take issue with Elon Musk and his “patriarchal fantasies”. They think that his efforts to colonize Mars is about creating a “vacation destination for the richest” and not making life multiplanatery.
Electrek’s Take
I think there’s value in bringing attention to ethical mining of resources, but that’s just not the way to do it.
First off, you are not a real environmentalist is you think it’s smart to burn down EVs that would have displaced literal tons of CO2 over their lifetime and could have been recycled at their end of life.
Instead, Tesla will get insurance money and build those cars again. It’s dumb.
As for ethical mining, the truth is that most mining companies have deals with local indigenous communities.
In the US and Canada, it is a must for any new project.
Now if it’s not the case for any specific project, then it needs to be addressed, and it’s important to bring attention to it, but big actions like that need to come with big proof.
Do they have clear examples of mining projects that Tesla benefits from that are being contested by indigenous communities? Because if they don’t, these idiots are just burning cars for the sake of burning cars. They are petty criminals and not unsung heroes.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
HOUSTON — Amazon, Alphabet’s Google and Meta Platforms on Wednesday said they support efforts to at least triple nuclear energy worldwide by 2050.
The tech companies signed a pledge first adopted in December 2023 by more than 20 countries, including the U.S., at the U.N. Climate Change Conference. Financial institutions including Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley backed the pledge last year.
The pledge is nonbinding, but highlights the growing support for expanding nuclear power among leading industries, finance and governments.
Amazon, Google and Meta are increasingly important drivers of energy demand in the U.S. as they build out artificial intelligence centers. The tech sector is turning to nuclear power after concluding that renewables alone won’t provide enough reliable power for their energy needs.
Amazon and Google announced investments last October to help launch small nuclear reactors, technology still under development that the industry hopes will reduce the cost and timelines that have plagued new reactor builds in the U.S.
Meta issued a call in December for nuclear developers to submit proposals to help the tech company add up to four gigawatts of new nuclear in the U.S.
The pledge signed Wednesday was led by the World Nuclear Association on the sidelines of the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston.
Environment
French industrial giant Schneider Electric hails the significance of China’s ‘DeepSeek moment’
China’s so-called “DeepSeek moment” is likely to be good news in the global race to develop artificial intelligence models that can carry out more complex tasks, according to Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chairman of French power-equipment maker Schneider Electric.
“I actually think its good news. We need AI at every level,” Tricoire told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick at CONVERGE LIVE in Singapore on Wednesday.
“We need AI to optimize your whole enterprise at all levels, so that you can buy better, consume better, decide better, source better. To do all of this, we need models to operate on a smaller scale,” he added.
Tricoire said the emergence of Chinese AI app DeepSeek showed that AI models can achieve the same results as some of its more established U.S. rivals, but with a much smaller model.
It “will actually spread AI at all levels of the architecture much faster,” Tricoire said. He added that DeepSeek’s blockbuster R1 model would be “fantastic” for improving safety and reliability when deploying AI on dangerous equipment.
“The spread of AI models at every level of what we need is actually very good news,” Tricoire said.
His comments come shortly after Schneider Electric reported record sales and profits in 2024.
The company, which has been a big beneficiary of the artificial intelligence trend, raised its 2025 profit margin following robust fourth-quarter demand for data centers.
Shares of Schneider Electric rose 33% in 2024, following a 39% upswing in 2023. The Paris-listed stock is down around 7% year to date, however, with China’s recent AI push sparking concerns about AI investment and tech sector returns.
Data centers, which consume an ever-increasing amount of energy, represent a key piece of infrastructure behind modern-day cloud computing and AI applications.
— CNBC’s Ganesh Rao contributed to this report.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports11 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway