High risk electricity?

Nick_Dr1

powerful_Rogue said:

That's to do with a war - Totally different to what the OP implies in regards to Powerwalls potentially being switched off.

My rather tongue in cheek point I was implying is that if you put infrastructure under the control of someone with a temper, or a country with unstable government who can order infrastructure turned off, then the users of that infrastructure are at risk. This should be so obvious to not need commenting on. The very fact that I can comment on this shows that things are changing. Is the risk high? Probably not, but who want to predict what Trump will do next?

If the users sign up knowing that risk, then that's up to them. But not everyone will realise this, so such situations need to be publicised and discussed so informed decisions can be made.

Musk turned off Starlink in Ukraine and with his recent spat with Trump, threatened to decommission Dragon early putting the viability of the ISS at risk. You might argue that the first was because of a war he didn't agree with and the second doesn't apply because it was a threat and you don't need rocket anyway, but that's not the point. The point is he can do it or be ordered to do it, and he's not afraid in the spur of the moment to do it, even if he calms down later.

The principle goes wider than Musk- he's just the obvious one.

The UK will not allow Chinese technology into the 5G network because of such fears. Huawei to be removed from UK 5G networks by 2027 - GOV.UK

Martyn1981

Did Elon actually turn off Starlink over Ukraine? I thought he simply refused to activate it over Sevastopol, near the Crimea coast in late 2022, when it was going to be used as part of a drone strike. His explanation being that Starlink is not a military service, as set out in the T & C's, and would or could be held complicite by Russia.

Starlink did provide lorry loads of base units to Ukraine, and I think it's the main, or most reliable form of communication there, given the obvious infrastructure destruction. It's widely used by the Ukrainian military.

That said, I disagree with most of Elon's comments about the war.