Jason Urgo

Father, dabbler of the tech, video creation, social media, & crypto fields. Creator/CEO of @SocialBlade YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook & Twitch stats

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

Walkin' At The Zoo With Jonah https://t.co/VBTQZA2iVM

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

@teslascope Ah interesting. I saw that error this morning too but figured it was due to having low power mode activated since we're away on vacation. It really wasn't a big deal though as the camera was fine after about 5-10 seconds.

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

That's kind of what I was thinking too. Hadn't seriously considered them until today after the announcement but started doing some research into how they compare. Looks like they are working on their own version of FSD. From the test drive videos it looks like its better then the initial beta of FSD, but not better then where FSD is now. Hopefully if Tesla doesn't reverse course and un-cancel these, by the time I am ready to buy a new car it will be on par. I do like that they are embracing radar and lidar too. I never agreed getting rid of it completely was a good idea. That said any company that has a FSD program I'll look into... or Tesla could just un-cancel the X...

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

@whatsinside Hopefully more. This really sucks.

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

They're discontinuing the S and X so they can build Optimus. I guess this is how they want families to travel now.

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

Really disappointed with the news that @Tesla is discontinuing the S & X. Unless their "honorable discharge" is a to good to pass up deal my next car will not be a Tesla. Have had my S since 2015 & X since 2022. The 3 & Y are nice but too small for me & not interested in the CT.

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

@adit_katiyar @elonmusk Or maybe Optimus might show up in a robotaxi with your Amazon package

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

@KdotLunny @TimBuckleyWX Saw it too and same! Was really impressive!

[Social Blade @SocialBlade]

This week YouTube celebrates its 20th Birthday. CRAZY! Here is a video the Social Blade community put together 10 years ago, for the 10th birthday celebration. Crazy how much has changed since then.

Happy Birthday YouTube!!!

https://t.co/nnR6QJrmBy

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

Perhaps the most interesting question from the @Tesla Earnings Call today was one asked many times before, about vision vs lidar, specifically about sun glare.

@elonmusk said this was solved using a method he called "Direct Photon Count". Not a lot of talk about this online that I found in normal cameras, just in relation to CT scans/X-ray and also astronomy (Hubble for example) tech.

So not sure what exactly this means for the use in cars. Is it just they're using the raw image and processing it differently then one would to view as a human? Or do the HW4 cameras have some extra tech built into them to do this?

I really hope some photography/camera experts pick this up and dig in deeper or Tesla releases a tech video showing the process because Elon's answer to this I think was the first time he explained how Tesla is actually processing the video feeds. If this is the secret sauce the cat is out of the bag now so explaining this with real examples I think will make a lot of people come around to it over lidar.

Anyway here is the link to Elon explaining it in the earnings call as well as a "cleaned up" transcription I made of the explanation:

"Actually it does not blind the camera. We use an approach which is direct photon count. When you see a processed image, an image that goes from the silicon photon counter, then goes through a digital signal processor or image signal processor, that's normally what happens. And then that image that you see looks washed out because if you point the camera at the sun the post processing of the photon counting washes things out. It actually adds noise. So part of the breakthrough we made some time ago was to go with direct photon counting and bypass the image singal processor. Then you can drive pretty much straight at the sun and you can also see what also appears to be the blackest of night. In fog we can see as well as people can, probably slightly better then the average person."

https://t.co/F2WGcgg4k1

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

@Richard_YTS @digg I guess we'll see! Excited to see Digg coming back either way. Social Blade was born there. I already registered @Urgo and @SocialBlade as a Groundbreaker :)

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

@jeffskelly @SawyerMerritt my thoughts exactly

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

@SawyerMerritt Does it require you to select that middle option that says "I consent to the collection of .... cabin camera image data" in order to join the program? If so going to pass on this.

[Social Blade @SocialBlade]

There were some complaints about the new design so we reverted the design back... 10+ years lol :P https://t.co/cPXpPdAWA7 Happy #AprilFoolsDay

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

As tomorrow is @AprFoolsDay crazy to think I've been running https://t.co/Dy8WDv9ypm for 22 years now, half my life. Thank you to all who help out each year submitting jokes! Maybe next year I'll finally get around to making the site look like its not 22 years old :P #AprilFools!

[Social Blade @SocialBlade]

The question of why X is removed from our new update is our #1 question, understandably, so going to answer this in full, just once. We did not plan on removing X, it only happened at the last minute, but you all deserve to know the full reason. Long post..

X is welcome to monetize their platform however they like. We know first hand it costs a lot of money to run a website, especially as big as X, especially if your goal is to be profitable vs just spending VC funding and operating at a loss. Also, when choosing customers a business must decide if they want a few very high paying customers, or a lot of lower paying customers, or a mix. Each has their own benefits.

A decade ago when we added Twitter stats to our website there was no charge to developers from Twitter so they were squarely in the get a lot of low/no paying customers category. We too are in that category as most of the information on our website can be accessed for free. We do have paid features for power users, but even those we price as low as we can to keep the website running and the small team on board to maintain and expand them.

Two years ago X decided to switch this up. The API they provided to developers was divided into three paid levels. Thankfully everything we needed to use to operate was included in their lowest level, a $100/mo charge which eventually changed to $200/mo.

Last month however X reached out, via their lawyer, and stated that Social Blade was not allowed to use the $200/mo package anymore, and should be on the Enterprise package which they don't list an exact price for publicly but list that it ranges from $42,000 to $210,000 a month if you click apply now for it on their developer website. They said their intention is that any established website/app/etc is supposed to be on Enterprise. They said the other tiers are for hobbyist or prototypes and said "all of your peers have either had to unwind or transition to enterprise" and encouraged us to "expand and monetize your X integration more aggressively."

There was some talk about a lower price, but they would not check if they were even allowed to offer it without us committing to paying it first, and even the lower price was still a major price hike and wouldn't change this outcome too much. Our biggest ask was to be able to have a gradual increase to allow us to grow things along with them, but they were not interested in this.

At the end of the day we were left with a choice. Either immediately put all X stats behind a paywall and aggressively monetize facing backlash from that, or remove X from our website. Depending on how aggressively monetized this would mean somewhere from hundreds to many thousands of you would need subscribe out of the gate for us to just break even.

While it's not impossible that we'd be able to get that many of you to sign up right away for something that was free up to this point, it was a giant risk that could end up in us not being able to run the rest of the website either.

We hold no ill will towards X and defend their right to monetize however they see fit. If they did want to work with us on a sustainable path forward to bring things back they have our contact info. Just like they made a business decision to keep their lights on, we did the same.

So with all of that said, we're again very sorry about the removal of X from the website. Hopefully this helps you understand a little more of what happened behind the scenes. Thank you to our amazing community who has supported us over the years for understanding.

[Social Blade @SocialBlade]

We got sick of staring at the new site waiting for launch day, so we're going to launch it tomorrow. #excited #hopeyoulikeit

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

@ModestTim Well I guess this answers my question about your viewing location. Sorry it didn't happen tonight though :(

[Alexis Ohanian 🗽 @alexisohanian]

The early web was fun. It was weird. It was community-driven. It's time to rebuild that.

Which is why @KevinRose & I just bought back @Digg — rival CEOs turned partners!

Just don't call it nostalgia! This is a necessary evolution.

[Jason Urgo @Urgo]

@087_1973 Right now US Eastern time, but it will be UTC as soon as the new site launches