It is at this point, yes. It was also the first to make a commercially viable all electric car. Prior all electric cats made by a large company were used as “proof” that electric cars were not viable (see the GM EV1 for example). To be fair when the EV1 was made I think there was no economically viable way to make a EV that could replace most uses of gas cars. It took low-sh cost LiIon batteries to make that possible.
I think if Tesla hadn’t done it the big car companies would not have bothered. Eventually someone else would look at what hobbyists were doing and give it a go. A product like the Tesla was pretty much inevitable…but it might not have happened for another 10, 15, or 30 years.
So it is fair to give Tesla a lot of the credit for all the other car companies that waited for the model S or even model 3 to get serious about making electric cars…which is to say every single other car company that is bothering to make an EV.
Countless; hyperbolic enough? You realize that testimonials are subjective (I love my car… even though it’s in the shop again) and not the same as repair/safety data, right? And by the way…
Again with the sweeping comment? Seeing proof of “just about every” would be nice.
Would any of those be the publications that do or don’t run Tesla ads for the revenue?
I call that… “the disingenuous no-where dare”. I don’t plan on stalking a Tesla car – if I just happen to run across one – so to eventually hit the emerging driver with questions. Do you think I should do that to gather unscientific, single point data in hope of getting the big picture?
The larger point was started by my original point and your direct question to that: How is Musk like Trump. I answered that question by posting links to reports that speak directly to how Tesla workers are treated under Musk.
No one on this thread – or on any other BB thread ever – has expressed a desire for the continuation of ICE; to do so would be idiotic and dangerous. In the early years, I rooted for Musk for what he promised (and especially in regard to SpaceX). But there appear to be people who see nothing but the tech and what could be… without considering what the Tesla workforce has been up against and how Musk sidelines human resources considerations in going from point A to B. The tech-dazzled crowd won’t care, and in doing so forget that you can’t have good product without good (and respectfully-treated) people. That formed the argument for my answer to your first question; take me for a fool for not anticipating that it wouldn’t end there when Musk is the subject.
You are preaching to the choir. I don’t believe in public shaming of any kind under true or false pretenses. If he doesn’t have evidence, he shouldn’t have said that. If he does, he should provide it to the authorities so they can properly investigate the situation. Then the man can be judged guilty or not guilty by those with more information than we have (as opposed to having his life ruined by incorrect, or partial information).
I’ve been very outspoken on BoingBoing about this very cause, publishing forms of public shaming without knowing the entire story in a way that could ruin lives, but there are also things about BoingBoing that are good. They are usually critical thinkers, and publish thoughtful content that encourages the rest of us to be critical thinkers.
The same can be said about Musk: He’s not perfect, but he’s been a leader in electric car technology, solar energy roofing, private sector space technology. Yes, he’s made petty comments, but like all of us, he deserves to be judged for all his actions, not just the worst of them. In this case, I think he knows enough about evidence to not make a claim that could endanger people’s lives.
Sure. Here’s an interesting one, Motor Trend awarded it not only car of the year, but the best car of any car that’s ever won car of the year (all 70 years). That’s downright amazing.
An interesting quote from the article: " “The Ultimate Car of The Year is a celebration of the 70 years of the Car of The Year Awards. Motor Trend started them in 1949. It’s a consensus among judges and staff that no vehicle… can equal the impact, performance, and engineering excellence of the Model S.”
I’m surprised I can’t find a compilation list of the various Car of the Year awards, and it seems silly to just post individual links from a google search, but it looks like vast the majority of car of the year awards for the last few years have gone to Tesla, and literally every one of them puts it among the finalists. Here’s a thoughtful review of Tesla (starts around the 20:00 mark) from my personal favorite car reviewer, Doug Demurro, and he’s someone who often dislikes Tesla (he super pans the Cybertruck):
He calls the Model 3 Performance “the best car of the modern era”.
Please don’t! But it is easy enough to start a conversation with someone, for most people at least.
Now that would be nice to see some proof for. I posted some proof, how about you go digging? If getting this kind of adulation from car reviewers was simply a matter of advertising budgets the other car makers would have done it ages ago. But spoiler alert, Tesla famously doesn’t pay for advertising:
The Tesla may be a wonderful car but nothing changes the fact that Musk is a terrible and toxic person that has managed to build this unshakeable and undeserved cult of personality around himself.
I’m honestly surprised that so many people are falling on top of one another here to defend this guy in spite of his very shaky record. (And this happens every time a thread critical of Musk or one of his enterprises comes up.) This guy promotes toxic workplaces, lobbies heavily for Republican causes, and prides himself on “enlightened centrism.” If it were anybody else doing these things, they would be getting slammed in the comments, but Musk gets a pass because his companies do trendy stuff like space, AI, and electric cars. His history with PayPal and equally horrible person Peter Thiel should be enough to give anybody pause.
It’s almost as if it’s a complicated issue about which people can disagree without shouting each other down for violating the rules of some perceived consensus opinion!
On a more serious note, here’s how I think about it: if the most despicable person on the planet, lets say Peter Thiel, invents a machine that somehow scrubs CO2 from the atmosphere and turns it into water and food for people who need it, I’m still going to praise that machine. So clearly there’s limits on how much scumbaggery overshadows a product. The world is complicated and full off compromises, and whatever gizmo you typed your above comment on surely involved lots of them. And if you own a car, there are probably far more compromises involved than with a Tesla, especially once you factor in where the petroleum came from. But of course your proverbial mileage may vary.
The sudden acceleration thing was covered well in “Galileo’s Revenge: Junk Science in the Courtroom” by Peter Huber. Or at least my 25-years-ago-self thought it was a good read. Maybe it’s all BS.
I believe he did receive money from his parents, but it was something to the tune of $20,000 to start Zip2. The company was funded by angel investors. I really don’t get all the hate towards this guy. He’s a jerk sometimes (just like many lesser known executives, I’d imagine), but he’s also done a lot of good in the world (more than most other executives).
Mm, I’m not anti-Tesla, I’m anti-Musk. Ideally, Tesla and SpaceX would succeed while Musk somehow personally failed, but I’m not sure what convolution of circumstances would allow this.
If he did that (and Peter Thiel has never invented anything in his life) then I will be trying to guillotine him and liberate the technology for the world before his absolute monarchy gets started. The actual inventors, who Thiel stole labour from, would get the credit for the technology.
