Researcher slams LLM-generated BART vs Tesla energy chart: apples-to-oranges data

JFPuget · x · 2026-08-28

Jean-François Puget publicly criticized a BART-vs-Tesla energy comparison chart (with data apparently pulled by LLMs), arguing it makes a classic data science error: BART's consumption includes offices, station lighting, and track maintenance, while the car side only counts driving energy — not an apples-to-apples comparison. He also questioned whether Tesla figures used highway cruising rather than city driving, and noted that Gemini and GPT 5.6 Sol returned very different numbers, a red flag for jumping to conclusions. Grant Slatton countered that transit agencies publish passenger-miles and electricity use, giving 362 Wh/passenger-mile. The debate itself is a live case study in LLM data-analysis reliability.

Original post →

More from Fun

Fun channel →