There will be no over-supply. Given 2022, everyone with any spare cash will be investing in their own energy generation.

Sounds like you have identified the one problem which needs fixing. Around 15 mph should be fine.

Instead of "reclaiming road space from cars", just make them big enough for passengers and there you have your self-driving taxi.

> You keep trying to minimize it as if it isn’t a problem at all

It's an incredibly minor problem for the topic, which is Li batteries. That is my whole point. It has already been addressed, and will become even smaller in the future.

This is neither the time and place to campaign against child labour, which affects much more than cobalt mining. You seem to be campaigning against EVs instead, which is why I said you are arguing in bad faith.

If you are campaigning against child labour, you can use your time more effectively elsewhere.

While you are fake crying about 40,000 children, about 4.7 million children aged 5–14 work in Congo.

E.g. in the Congo children are employed in the following areas:

Sector/Industry

• Agriculture: Farming, including in the production of manioc, peanuts, corn, plantains, potatoes, and sugarcane
• Fishing
• Industry: Working in stone quarries,† including breaking stones
• Services
• Domestic work
• Market vending and carrying heavy loads
• Categorical Worst Forms of Child Labor‡: Commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking
• Forced labor in farming, including in the production of cocoa, fishing, domestic work, and working in stone quarries
• Forced labor in market vending and working in bakeries
• Forced labor of indigenous Baka, Aka, and Kola children in farming, including in the production of manioc, and in fishing, hunting, and domestic work

https://www.dol.gov/agencies/ilab/resources/reports/child-labor/congo-republic

Rwanda is even worse

> ILO estimates Rwanda has 400,000 child workers. Of these, 120,000 are thought to be involved in the worst forms of child labour and 60,000 are child domestic workers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labour_in_Africa

I've seen some in testing in London already, and that was many years ago (before 2016). I even took a photo. No roll-out afaik however.

> American tech companies cannot be sued for the work environment of a company in another country.

Also called an attempted cash grab.

> My only issue is child labor, as I’ve said for this entire thread.

If that is true (which I seriously doubt), now you know it's a non-issue affecting a vanishingly small amount of batteries used by EVs. Hopefully, now you know you will never mention it again.

Are these bots actually active anywhere? I've seemed them trialled for years, but never rolled out anywhere except maybe on campuses.

The law suite was not won, it was dismissed, it was so ludicrous. Despite this, for some reason, you still believe their erroneous claims.

> You don’t see me talking about rubber wheels because the topic of the thread is lithium batteries.

You are talking about Cobalt child labour because you are attacking EVs. You do not really care about worker welfare.

> The Congolese don’t have to starve, and they don’t have to utilize child labor to keep their economy going

The DRC is so rich right lol.

> The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ranks in as the poorest country in the world based on its GDP per capita over the 2009-2013 period. With DRC citizens earning on average $394.25 a year

So $33 per month.

> The Anker Living Income Reference Value for 2021 for rural Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is CDF 380,033 per month (USD 193)2 with a 95% confidence interval around it from CDF 325,801 to CDF 443,291.

So average salary $33. Living income $192.

> The Congolese don’t have to starve, and they don’t have to utilize child labor to keep their economy going

We should obviously boycott DRC Cobalt. That will definitely make them richer. I am so glad you solved poverty. #3rdWorldProblems.

That whole case sounded incredible shaky and this outcome is no surprise.

https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/usa-washington-dc-court-dismissed-cobalt-mining-deaths-case-against-five-major-technology-companies/

As to the impact of the FCA

https://www.faircobaltalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Q2-2022-Progress-Update_EN-1.jpg

But that is all by the by really. I don't see you talking about how the people who make rubber for the wheels are being looked after. The whole narrative is in bad faith.

The obligation to the citizens come from their government, but in any case, this may be educational:

Tesla’s engagement in the DRC and the Fair Cobalt Alliance (FCA)

The DRC is an important source of cobalt for Tesla batteries. We will continue supporting sourcing from the DRC provided our responsible sourcing standards are met. While Tesla does not source cobalt from Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM), we recognize the importance of ASM for local livelihoods. This is why Tesla provides funding to, and sits on, the Steering Committee of the Fair Cobalt Alliance (FCA), a multi-stakeholder initiative to support the improvement of conditions in communities impacted by artisanal mining through the following activities:

• Occupational health and safety awareness raising campaign for mine workers

• First aid training for mine workers and selection of safety captains

• Distribution of protective equipment to washer women

• Creation of savings groups for mining community members paired with financial literacy training

• Development of referral system for children engaged in mining activities, including child labor notification protocol, remediation solution packages, and guidelines for case managers on remediation steps, in collaboration with the NGO, Save the Children

• Trainings related to child rights

• Electrification of five schools covering students through the distribution of solar-chargeable portable lamps

• A marketplace and football field selected for the placement of lighting poles

https://www.tesla.com/ns_videos/2021-tesla-impact-report.pdf

This is about EVs.

More than half of EVs do not use cobalt.

DRC only supplies 50% of the cobalt in the world, so potentially 25% of EVs have DRC cobalt

90% of DRC cobalt are from big, non-artisinal mines without potential child labour, meaning only 2.5% of EVs have artisanal cobalt in it with potential child labour.

And you believe this is a major issue with EVs.

You are the ones who want the Congolese to starve.

Literally taking food out of the mouths of babies.

Feel ashamed man.

> Let’s see a source for the certification process, I can’t find anything about it.

You obviously did not look very hard.

https://www.faircobaltalliance.org/resources/frequently-asked-questions/

> But in the meantime, I’m not cool with 40,000 kids having lifelong damage done to them because of cobalt toxicity.

Better stop typing on your laptop then and hang up your phone.

And make sure you set up a standing donation to FoodAid, since Congolese need to eat too.

Some artisanal Congolese mines use child labour. There is certification processes in place, and NMC batteries are a smaller and smaller proportion of batteries.

Maybe the whole issue is a bit more complex than you want to paint it as, and maybe you need to butt out of the issue of poorer countries trying to survive.

You said:

> I don’t have a problem with the Congolese profiting off of their cobalt

yet you complained about.

> almost all long range versions still use cobalt sourced from the DRC.

You just said you wanted no cobalt from the Congo in any batteries. Cant you reason from step 1 to step 2?

Next you will be complaining about Lithium from Chile.

Just because the solution has not rolled out to everybody does not mean it's not a solved issue.

Why do you want to deprive the Congolese of profiting off their mineral wealth?

It's solved already.

And 50% of Lithium batteries do not use cobalt.

All petrol refining does.

I agree. Just look at these abominations.

When we fully electrify (and move to renewables) then the carbon cost of mining and manufacturing would not matter.

Then oil would be just another raw mineral.

If you think about it, unless those things get burnt they are actually a form of carbon sequestration.

It was orbiting another astroid. Now it's orbiting the same astroid faster.

You would definitely program in Love, as in a consistent bias towards the interest and well-being of the object of that love.

That way you would have an AI act in your interest even without orders.