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Climate protestors clash with police outside Tesla’s German gigafactory

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Climate protestors in Germany broke through police barricades on Friday, amid clashes between activists and law enforcement. The protestors either made it onto (according to protestors) or near (according to local police) the grounds of a Tesla gigafactory in Grünheide, Germany, near Berlin. It’s part of a planned five-day demonstration ahead of a local government vote next week to determine whether Tesla’s plant can expand.

Wired flagged social media videos showing activists, many of whom have been camping out in treehouses in nearby forest encampments, running toward a Tesla building on the site. In addition, the German newspaper Welt said at least one person participating was injured. Police reportedly police used pepper spray and batons to try to thwart the crowd, and there were at least some arrests.

A spokesperson for one of the groups participating in the protests told Wired that they broke the police barriers and stormed the Tesla grounds. “Eight hundred people have entered the premises of the gigafactory,” Lucia Mende of Disrupt Tesla said. However, local police posted on X (Musk’s social media platform) that the activists only reached a field facing the site. “We have been able to prevent them from entering so far,” they posted.

GRUENHEIDE, GERMANY - MAY 10: Police confront environmental activists in a forest near the Tesla Gigafactory electric car factory on May 10, 2024 near Gruenheide, Germany. Activists have come from across Germany to demand a stop to plans by Tesla to expand the factory, which would involve cutting down at least 50 hectares of trees. Some locals also support the protest, citing stress to local groundwater reserves from the factory. (Photo by Axel Schmidt/Getty Images) — Axel Schmidt via Getty Images

At least at first glance, it’s easy to wonder why activists are pouring so much energy into fighting Tesla. After all, despite Musk’s increasingly unhinged right-wing conspiracy-mongering and Nazi-catering on X, other automakers pushing gas-guzzling cars seem like more appropriate targets (not to mention the fossil fuel companies spending big bucks on anti-climate-reform disinformation). However, several factors make the issues at the heart of the protests less simplistic.

A (nonbinding) vote in February showed Grünheide residents opposed the expansion by almost a two-to-one ratio. If for no other reason, the local government having a chance to brush aside the overwhelming will of the voters in the name of capitalism is enough to raise the eyebrows of anyone who balks at minority rule.

Wired notes the area is also one of the most water-scarce in Germany, and residents worry the gigafactory will drain the resource, leaving much less for the humans who live there. The plant could also pollute local water supplies.

Those fears appear to have merit: The plant is licensed to use 1.4 million cubic meters of water annually, and a separate Wired report from Tuesday noted that’s enough to supply for a large town. As for the contamination fears, Tesla was fined in 2019 by the EPA for several hazardous waste violations at a California factory. The company paid a grand total of $31,000 to settle. (Tesla had a market cap of almost $76 billion in 2019.)

But some of the groups protesting have concerns that go much farther than those more immediate issues affecting the locals, instead taking issue with the entire electric vehicle movement. “Companies like Tesla are there to save the car industry, they’re not there to save the climate,” Esther Kamm, spokesperson for Turn Off the Tap on Tesla told Wired.

Another activist, who only gave Wired the name Mara, described the factory as the result of “green capitalism.” She views the EV movement as little more than a theatrical performance in the name of profit. “This has been completely thought up by such companies to have more growth, even in times of an environmental crisis,” she said.

I wouldn’t exactly say flipping the bird to the EV movement is a “workable” solution to the very real and pressing climate crisis. Regardless of your thoughts on the matter, the world needs to move quickly to fend off climate change’s most ravaging effects, and the scientific consensus is that the planned shift to EVs will need to play a central role.

Tesla reportedly told its employees at the factory to work from home on Friday, shutting down the plants for the planned protests. As for Friday’s protests, Welt reports that the situation had calmed by afternoon — at least for now.

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German military invests millions on an artificial intelligence “environment” for weapons testing that might completely alter battle.

The GhostPlay platform uses “third-wave” AI systems that make decisions that seem “human-like.”
Germany has put a lot of money into an artificial intelligence (AI) virtual training area that some people call a military “metaverse.” Officials say this will help them figure out how to fight in the future.

GhostPlay project head Gary Schaal, a professor at Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, said in a news statement, “We compete with the big ones in the industry.” “Our unique Selling point is that we can move quickly and show results quickly.”

To create the virtual battlefield GhostPlay, developer 21strategies brought together a group of defense experts and start-ups. This lets developers try out different weapons and systems in a risk-free environment.
Defense News said that the German Defense Ministry paid for the project as part of a 500 million euro ($540 million) spending plan called COVID-19. The plan was meant to help the country’s high-tech defense business get back on its feet.
On the GhostPlay website, the tool is called a “simulation environment with AI-based decision-making at machine speed.”

“Complex military battle scenarios can be simulated to find new, better ways to act,” the company wrote. “As a result, flexibility and superiority can be achieved on the strategic, tactical, and operational levels.”

The creators said that the models can create “unpredictable” situations that make testing and planning for the military more detailed and thorough.
One of the things that makes this program stand out is that it uses “third-wave” algorithms, which, according to 21strategies CEO Yvonne Hofstetter, make the virtual units make more “human-like” decisions.

She said that the second-wave algorithms just improve or speed up the decision-making process, but that the third-wave algorithms will help make new situations and decide on new moves.

Hofstetter says that the platform also tries to recreate environments “down to the last leaf.” It does this by putting together satellite pictures and local files about everything from houses to plants.
“There is enough information… it’s kind of scary, really,” Hofstetter said.

The most interesting thing the platform has done recently is look into how to improve swarm tactics, especially lingering weapons. The Office of Army Development has worked with the tool because it can make thorough simulations of the locations where the weapons would be used.

Hensoldt, a multinational company that helps fund the GhostPlay platform, said in a press release, “To best enable highly complex defense systems, we need to master artificial intelligence in its entirety. To do this, we develop a lot of AI skills in-house and add to them in a very targeted way.”