Donald Trump 'thanks for your attention,' Tesla robo-taxis in Austin, and facial recognition against immigrants

Historians and political thinkers meticulously archive and monitor Donald Trump's rich and unique language. And, lately, they've noticed a certain relaxation in his spoken language. The US president used the word "fuck" to express his displeasure with Iran and Israel's failures to comply with the ceasefire he had ordered. He also claimed that Iran's nuclear facilities had been " obliterated " by "his" bombings, while "his" intelligence services nuance the extent of the actual damage inflicted on the mullahs' arsenal.

On the other hand, his writings have recently taken on an unprecedented solemnity. Fast Company , a newspaper well-versed in marketing magic, notes that Trump, while still using thunderous capital letters, now ends his messages on his social network Truth Social with strange formal flourishes, signing his proclamations on the Middle East with an imperious “DONALD J TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.” And “when he really wants to make an impression, [he] concludes with ‘Thank you for your attention to this matter!’ ” as a polite formula addressed to the wider world.

The article offers several explanations for this innovative style. During his first 132 days as president, Donald Trump published a record number of more than 2,200 messages on Truth Social. However, his network has only 5 million subscribers, and only a tiny number of his posts, odious or diplomatically important enough to be picked up by X or Bluesky, are read by the general public. To be heard, the president must now differentiate certain messages from the hundreds of other missives written by his White House communications staff, or from his frequent nocturnal belches against his political enemies, the “left-wing judges,” Joe Biden, or wind turbines. In short: too much communication kills communication. Donald Trump, concerned about his posterity, hopes to add a seal of authority, of presidential gravitas, to his daily online verbiage, especially when his remarks relate to the bombing of other countries. We truly thank him for this attention…

It's on. Elon Musk launched his first Tesla "robo-taxis" last week in Austin, Texas. According to Bloomberg News , the event is of crucial, even vital, importance for the American electric car pioneer. If he misses his entry into the futuristic world of self-driving cars, Elon Musk would have a hard time justifying his company's extraordinary market value of more than $850 billion, a sign of fanatical investor confidence despite the plummeting sales of his classic models worldwide.

But there you have it... With his consummate art of making announcements and emphatic promises, Musk will undoubtedly have raised expectations too high, at the risk of causing disappointment.

The launch in question was, according to many witnesses, a mere invitation-only event reserved for a handful of fans. Each car was manned by a security guard sitting in the passenger seat and monitored remotely by teams of technicians.

Observers in Austin this week can also attest to the many minor glitches of robo-taxis: violations of traffic rules, worrying hesitations at intersections, the vehicle panicking at the sound of a police siren, and unloading passengers in illegal areas. The debut of autonomous Teslas therefore closely resembles the early days of competitors Waymo and Cruise, the latter of which abandoned its trials following a serious accident.

There's a significant difference, though. Waymo only offers a few thousand taxis, machines costing several hundred thousand dollars, loaded with sensors and remote-sensing lasers, which circulate in cities mapped at great expense and down to the last centimeter. Tesla, on the other hand, intends to prove through its robotaxi trials that its current consumer software, informed by onboard cameras alone, will soon enable more than 1 million of the brand's cars currently on the road in the United States to become fully autonomous. And it's not conclusive yet.

As proof, Musk attempted a diversion, touting on Twitter as a historic feat the first delivery of a Tesla from the factory to a customer in fully autonomous mode over a distance of 30 kilometers. Tremendous. But to enhance the brand, it would have to be done every day, and in the future with millions of cars.

At every American airport, passengers are accustomed to posing for a few seconds in front of the camera of the border police officer who checks their passports. 404 media reveals that these images are integrated into facial recognition software now used by anti-immigration police inside the country to identify people in an irregular situation, most often for having illegally overstayed their stay. This is why masked ICE (Immigration and Custom Enforcement) agents so often point their smartphones at passersby when they carry out roundups of immigrants on the street or at the exit of supermarkets. The ACLU, a civil rights group, is protesting against this system, which is much less reliable than comparing fingerprints and which, because of its errors, exposes legal residents to traumatic stays in detention centers, or even to unjustified deportations.