I live in a moderately toney new build estate in West Oxfordshire. There are plenty of electric cars on people’s drives. You only need to walk around and count the home charger units. Half of them are Teslas.
The Tesla got an early mover advantage because 10 years ago the only other EV on the market was the Nissan Leaf, which is a good car if you want a sensible small family hatchback but in comparison, the Teslas had range, speed and the charger network. But all the other manufacturers have been catching up.
If you want a luxury EV, Mercedes, BMW and Jaguar have got you covered. If you want a budget EV – to the extent that they exist so far – Cupra, MG, and BYD, are on it.
The other major makers like Volkswagen and Citroen are quietly grinding out fleets of EVs to rival ICE vehicles in all classes except heavy goods vehicles.
Add this to the list of reasons Tesla is getting so much terrible press this week: apparently the gear shift assembly is glued to the windshield above the driver’s head (along with the sun visors, which mean that the assembly is subjected to torque every time someone adjusts a visor) and at least one owner’s has already fallen off.
Can’t wait to learn what other kinds of hilarious novel ways the truck manages to fail over the next six months or so.
To be fair, only in a broken capitalist system like this would a company seriously fucking up on all fronts, led by a micromanaging idiot-tro1l actively alienating their main market while constantly overpromising and vastly underdelivering, be making 1 BILLION dollars a year in profit.
Why would the gear shifter be somewhere that you have to reach up to get to it? Why would it be something touch-based? Why would it be a pivot point for the visors?
None of these things make any damn sense mechanically or ergonomically. Just like that stupid yoke steering wheel concept that was such an obviously bad idea.
Tesla designs are so focused on breaking convention without understanding that in many cases these conventions exist because of over 100 years of trial and error to find optimal implementations of these things.
I expect Elon thought it would be cool to have some of the controls above your head, so you could pretend to be a helicopter gunship pilot. Something like that.
While lack of CarPlay support is my deal breaker for not getting a Tesla, mixed reliability feedback and Elon’s weird behaviour were very contributing factors in me choosing another brand.
A while back, I decided that every combat or mountain biking story should begin with three words; there I was. I propose that every online comment should henceforth begin with the three words; here’s the thing.
Here’s the thing; I’m all for free speech for reasons that are probably plainly obvious to any readers of Boing Boing. I grudgingly admire Musk for his breathtakingly expensive commitment to free speech. Everyone is entitled to speak freely on any topic of their choice, hooray! The thing that absolutely no one is entitled to is an audience. Shunning is a thing and has been an integral part of humanity since before language emerged. The phrase “cancel culture” is another word for shunning, just like the phrase “fake news” is another way of saying lying.
Is that really what you think he’s done at Twitter and elsewhere? Yes, he calls himself a “free-speech absolutist” but there are many, many examples showing how that’s simply not the case for the types of speech that he himself disagrees with. He retaliates against others for their speech all the time.
He REGULARLY removes posts that HE finds offensive. This is WELL documented. He’s NOT committed to “free speech” his committed to spreading fascist propaganda under the guise of “free speech.”
Stop believing these dipshits. They are not to be taken at their word. They are ACTIVELY trying to tear down any form of democracy and replace with technofeudalism.
Musk is ok on free speech, but he’s not as good as say Breitbart, where far right lies get to flourish without any checks at all. (Which must be the only measure of “free speech” if you think he cares at all about it.)
If you’re attempting to be sarcastic, then maybe indicate that. You can necessarily tell that from text, especially since Poe’s law exists. People seriously take Musk at his word and argue so.
Hey Kathy: It is wonderful to read all the comments here and participate in this conversation. I am absolutely not a fanboy of Musk. I may really need to step up my sarcasm game.
People seriously take Musk at his word and argue so.