The first human recipient of a Neuralink brain implant has shared new details on his recovery and experience of living with the experimental assistive tech.
I have a number of concerns about Neuralink specifically. Mainly:
The scientists I’ve seen saying stuff like, “I work in a lab with Nematoads (flatworms), and if we had casualty rates like they’ve had with monkeys, we’d have our license revoked and a full investigation of the lab.”
What’s the long-term look like for these? How often will they need to be replaced? What’s the End of Service going to look like? Will they be like that recent issue with those bionic eyes that the company just stopped supporting and the patients who had them implanted had no other choice but to go back under and get them surgically removed because they were going to just stop working.
The idea of the tech is great, but I don’t trust a for-profit company to care about the people that it’s going into, and a company under Musk especially. Look at all the issues with Teslas that make it seem like there’s no regulatory oversight on those cars. From that billionaire woman who just drowned because the glass Tesla uses is shatterproof when submerged and the doors are electronic (so don’t work without power - like when the car touches water) and the only way to manually open them is to disassemble the door panel and pull an unmarked wire, to how they have the highest accident rates of any car brand. And supposedly, their newer models (since 2021 or so) don’t even have a manual shifter. The car guesses whether you want the car in drive or reverse, and if it guesses wrong, you have to change it in the touchscreen menu.
Musk’s name being attached is reason enough to worry simply because of how often it seems that safety regulations just seem to disappear when he’s involved.
Everything you mentioned about the Tesla vehicle issues is largely inaccurate. It’s not your fault, because there’s been a ton of sensationalized stories and misinformation thrown out there about them. Full disclaimer: I do own a 2020 Tesla Model 3 and love it. It’s not a perfect vehicle by any means, but it’s a whole lot of car for what I paid, and it’s required almost no maintenance or attention from me over the past 4yrs beyond rotating and changing tires. I don’t like Elon Musk and think he’s a giant tool/lunatic in so many ways, but Tesla makes pretty damn solid cars despite him. I wish they’d get rid of him, though I bet he has a controlling/majority share unfortunately. I bought my Tesla before he became a huge raging asshole on public platforms, and that definitely contributes to hesitation at buying another in the future (though that’s several years out anyway).
The emergency door release in the front doors on a Tesla is a simple latch mechanism easily accessible right underneath the digital button door handle. It’s actually so easy to access that it’s extremely common for people new to the vehicles to pull that manual release instead of using the button to open the door. This is true for all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles, and newer Model X and Model S vehicles. On older Model S and X vehicles that have the pull handles, the manual release is the same as the digital release. It’s only the rear passenger doors that have more obscure manual releases, presumably so children can’t bypass the child lock easily. That process varies by model, but none of them require any door panel disassembly. You can see most of the methods in this video. It’d be nice if this process were more standardized across models, though, and it could be made more clear for any passengers not familiar with the car they’re in for sure.
The glass isn’t anything different from what every other auto manufacturer is using on vehicles. Glass used in car doors is tempered and will completely shatter into thousands of tiny, mostly harmless pieces upon precise impact on a point, but will resist shattering from blunt hits. More “luxury” vehicles use laminated glass on the doors that does not immediately fully shatter even from precise pointed hits, but once a small shatter has been created, the glass can then be pushed out/in relatively easily. See the link above again, as they also go over this.
All of the newer models do still have a manual shifter, but it’s definitely not traditional (none of their shifters have been fully traditional in the first place, though). They’re now all P/N/D/R buttons, either up near the rear view mirror or down on the center console. The preferred method of shifting on these newer models, however, is using the touch screen - but it’s probably not how you’re thinking. The side of the touch screen closest to the driver has a dedicated area when pressing the brake pedal while in park and always active when driving that you just swipe up or down on to switch between drive and reverse manually. I’ve never experienced this personally, as my Model 3 is an older one with a steering wheel stalk to shift. Owners of these do generally say they very quickly get used to it, the gesture rapidly becoming natural to them. I can definitely understand hesitation about it though, which is why there are still the physical controls in addition to this. The predictive shifting is a setting that can be disabled, and any user input always takes priority even when it is enabled. I’ve heard it also works rather well from other owners, but again, I have no personal experience.
In terms of general overall safety, Tesla’s vehicles have consistently been scored as some of the safest vehicles to drive in the world by the NHTSA and other safety organizations. See their latest NHTSA-rated model for an example. You are more likely to survive a collision and other incidents (and more likely to remain unharmed) in any of the Teslas than most other vehicles on the road. They’ve been highly rated for pedestrian safety as well. (Note: dunno where the Cybertruck sits in all this, as it’s brand new and is an entirely different class of vehicle from their previous, being a full-size pickup truck. I don’t think they’ve been fully rated by any organization yet.) Tesla actually publishes their incident rates quarterly, and they can be seen here.
I have a number of concerns about Neuralink specifically. Mainly:
The scientists I’ve seen saying stuff like, “I work in a lab with Nematoads (flatworms), and if we had casualty rates like they’ve had with monkeys, we’d have our license revoked and a full investigation of the lab.”
What’s the long-term look like for these? How often will they need to be replaced? What’s the End of Service going to look like? Will they be like that recent issue with those bionic eyes that the company just stopped supporting and the patients who had them implanted had no other choice but to go back under and get them surgically removed because they were going to just stop working.
The idea of the tech is great, but I don’t trust a for-profit company to care about the people that it’s going into, and a company under Musk especially. Look at all the issues with Teslas that make it seem like there’s no regulatory oversight on those cars. From that billionaire woman who just drowned because the glass Tesla uses is shatterproof when submerged and the doors are electronic (so don’t work without power - like when the car touches water) and the only way to manually open them is to disassemble the door panel and pull an unmarked wire, to how they have the highest accident rates of any car brand. And supposedly, their newer models (since 2021 or so) don’t even have a manual shifter. The car guesses whether you want the car in drive or reverse, and if it guesses wrong, you have to change it in the touchscreen menu.
Musk’s name being attached is reason enough to worry simply because of how often it seems that safety regulations just seem to disappear when he’s involved.
Everything you mentioned about the Tesla vehicle issues is largely inaccurate. It’s not your fault, because there’s been a ton of sensationalized stories and misinformation thrown out there about them. Full disclaimer: I do own a 2020 Tesla Model 3 and love it. It’s not a perfect vehicle by any means, but it’s a whole lot of car for what I paid, and it’s required almost no maintenance or attention from me over the past 4yrs beyond rotating and changing tires. I don’t like Elon Musk and think he’s a giant tool/lunatic in so many ways, but Tesla makes pretty damn solid cars despite him. I wish they’d get rid of him, though I bet he has a controlling/majority share unfortunately. I bought my Tesla before he became a huge raging asshole on public platforms, and that definitely contributes to hesitation at buying another in the future (though that’s several years out anyway).