Yann LeCun, one of the world’s foremost AI, machine-learning and robotics researchers, an engineer, NYU professor and ACM Turing Award laure…

Yann LeCun, one of the world’s foremost AI, machine-learning and robotics researchers, an engineer, NYU professor and ACM Turing Award laureate, has been torn to pieces today by Elon Musk fans for daring to inject some reality into the Tesla Roadster debate. The objection isn’t that the technology isn’t impressive. It is how these capabilities are being marketed, with deposits being taken on the basis of what we’ve been shown. The physics remain the problem. A production car carrying enough compressed air to deliver those levels of thrust would face enormous compromises in weight, storage capacity and recharge requirements. At best, you’re looking at seconds of extreme thrust, followed by specialist recharging that can absolutely not be integrated into the car - literally impossible because of the weighty equipment needed & the energy required for that equipment to compress 600L of air for a few seconds of thrust. And let’s not forget that the Roadster 2.0 was announced in 2017. Nine years later, instead of finally putting that car on the road, we’re watching a new version of the same old story. This isn’t hate. It’s realism based on experience, engineering and physics. And when someone like @ylecun makes essentially the same observations, the response shouldn’t be “What have you ever achieved?” or "what do you know?" - sure, use that one on me, but not on Yann. I'm definitely not anti-achievement and never criticized real achievements, including by Elon. I even own two Teslas. I do expose marketing stunts that, while cool on the surface, are not the achievements they are claimed to be. Compressed air thrusters might give you acceleratio…

Source: Yann LeCun (X) | 2026-10-18

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