I had a recent experience with the Lowes agent today. It was pretty decent! Until I asked "how many of that item is available", and it didn't know how to answer that (It was a clearance item). At least when I asked to talk to a human I got one in a few seconds.
You seem pretty young, honestly. You likely don't remember a time when websites displayed a message "Only works in IE", or "Only works in Netscape". It was not a good time for the web.
All of the data, including the AI endpoints (Phrase API - https://www.xweather.com/phrases-api), and mapping tools were built using our weather API and MapsGL SDKs. I don't know the exact number of hours but its been worked on for about a year. You could spin up a really basic mapping site like this using the SDKs in a matter of hours.
The 45k is a myth for now. The vehicles that have been reviewed so far are going to be $60k+ performance models. We'll see if they actually get down to 45k.
From the analysis I've seen with that drag coefficient, the 45k vehicle is going to have to have a range of 220 to 260 miles. Hardly something that will fly off the shelves.
From what I've heard, what few interviews there are for software engineers these days, they do have you use models and see how quickly you can build things.
The interviews I’ve given have asked about how control for AI slop without hurting your colleagues feelings. Anyone can prompt and build, the harder part, as usual for business, is knowing how and when to say, ‘no.’
Software development hiring is terrible right now, but hiring has been pretty slow in general. We gained 2 million jobs in 2024 and only 500,000 in 2025.
Autopilot / FSD was a mess. Autopilot is very old tech and people confusing "self driving" with it, which it's not. We'll see how many pony up for FSD, but I think the play is to force people to try it.
They handed people free trials before, which is using the carrot and not the stick. Around where I live, with HW3, the last trial made it clear that it was just not worth it at all, as there's key areas around my house where intervention was mandatory.
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