New York State Wants to Ban Flamethrowers Because of Elon Musk

[Tsing]

For some inexplicable reason, Elon Musk began selling a $500 flamethrower on The Boring Company's website last year. New York legislators have responded by passing a bill that makes owning a flamethrower a felony.

Lawmakers didn't like the idea of people running around with a potentially dangerous weapon. The fact that Musk managed to sell all 20,000 in less than a week didn't help matters.

“They were concerned that people were essentially having something that looks like a toy, is being billed as something fun to use, and there was all different stuff coming up on social media showing people really using the device as intended, which is to have fun,” Reid said. “Unfortunately, firing out a burst of flame for a number of feet can have some really horrific, unintended consequences.”

Interestingly, Musk's flamethrower isn't technically a flamethrower. “It’s just a roofing torch in an airsoft gun shell.”

New York officials say the bill does include it, however.

 

[Brian_B]

I absolutely love kneejerk legislation

 

[Dogsofjune]

How will I keep my weeds in check?

 

[Marees]

How will I keep my weeds in check?

Try this

Nvidia reveals Large Plant Model to zap weeds using laser beams from tractors fitted with nvidia GPUs​

LaserWeeder packs two dozen Nvidia GPUs and lasers to zap your weed problem, vaporizes ‘600,000 weeds per hour' with sub-millimeter precision — instant laser death for pesky weeds​

News
By Mark Tyson published August 28, 2025
Nvidia and Carbon Robotics’ tractor-pulled device is designed to kill large areas of weeds

Carbon Robotics LaserWeeder G2 packs in 24 high power lasers and 24 Nvidia GPUs to facilitate its claimed “10,000 weeds per minute” zapping performance.

That's equivalent to 600,000 weeds per hour, or 167 weeds per second.

The ‘Large Plant Model’ weed identification system, ensures your crops don’t fall to friendly fire.

The robotics device is also a massive labor saver, outperforming “a hand crew of 75 people,” according to the product pages for the G2 600 model.

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-i...eath-for-pesky-weeds#xenforo-comments-3885403



Carbon Robotics’ story began not in a lab, but over lunch in Idaho. Founder Paul Mikesell asked a farmer about his biggest challenges. The answer was simple — and ancient: weed control.

That conversation led to an audacious solution. The company’s LaserWeeder G2 spans 20 feet and carries 12 modules, each powered by two NVIDIA GPUs — 24 in total. This compute muscle lets it identify and incinerate up to 10,000 weeds per minute, without chemicals.


Every LaserWeeder doubles as a data-gathering machine. Images from the field feed into a custom labeling tool, building what the team believes is the world’s largest labeled agricultural image dataset: over 65 million images, fueling the company’s “large plant model,” a play on the large language models that power chatbots like ChatGPT.


When GPUs finish their tour on the farm, they head to Carbon’s “retirement facility” — a Seattle-based data center — where they’re used to train the next generation of models. Optimized with NVIDIA TensorRT, the resulting foundational model works across all crops, creating a durable competitive edge.



https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2-million-robotics-developers/#carbon-robotics

 

[Grimlakin]

Great so now I can burn my ENTIRE yard to scorch and it will only cost be 500k in video cards, lasers, actuators, and power generation/storage. Not to mention the tractor itself!

 

[Ditchinit]

Great so now I can burn my ENTIRE yard to scorch and it will only cost be 500k in video cards, lasers, actuators, and power generation/storage. Not to mention the tractor itself!

The more you buy, the more you save.

 

[Skillz]

Great so now I can burn my ENTIRE yard to scorch and it will only cost be 500k in video cards, lasers, actuators, and power generation/storage. Not to mention the tractor itself!

Your yard is nothing but weeds? Might wanna address that.

 

[Brian_B]

Hacker classifies Corn as a weed - entire world starves

 

[Dan_D]

For some inexplicable reason, Elon Musk began selling a $500 flamethrower on The Boring Company's website last year. New York legislators have responded by passing a bill that makes owning a flamethrower a felony.

Lawmakers didn't like the idea of people running around with a potentially dangerous weapon. The fact that Musk managed to sell all 20,000 in less than a week didn't help matters.

“They were concerned that people were essentially having something that looks like a toy, is being billed as something fun to use, and there was all different stuff coming up on social media showing people really using the device as intended, which is to have fun,” Reid said. “Unfortunately, firing out a burst of flame for a number of feet can have some really horrific, unintended consequences.”

Interestingly, Musk's flamethrower isn't technically a flamethrower. “It’s just a roofing torch in an airsoft gun shell.”

New York officials say the bill does include it, however.

It's not surprising. They ban everything fun in states like that.

 

[Grimlakin]

Your yard is nothing but weeds? Might wanna address that.

Shut up.... you're mean!

 

[Brian_B]

It's not surprising. They ban everything fun in states like that.

Haven't banned nail guns or captive bolt guns yet!