No shit. My lease on the Model 3 I got in 2020 is up in a few months and the requirements we had for the replacement was “anything but Tesla”.
(which turned out to be a VW ID.7)
“No shit” we’re the first words in my head too. Will be buying electric in the summer and the list starts with anything-but-Tesla.
I’m hoping my next car (might be a while, my Prius is only 8 years old and I will continue to drive it until it becomes necessary to replace it) will be an EV or a PHEV, but it will not come from Elon’s company.
I had the same hope, then got rear ended and my 12 year old Lancer got written off. My plan had always been to keep it as long as possible, maintain it, and drive it into the ground, but I hadn’t banked on someone else doing that for me.
Have a PHEV now, charging infrastructure where I live is pretty asstastic, and I do just enough longer range driving to make a full EV annoying under those circumstances.
I’m stuck at hybrid, as I work from home and live in an apartment complex that has only one level 1 charger for some 300 units near the front office where the property manager parks her stupid Tesla.
I’d go full electric if I had a place to reliably charge it.
my Prius is only 8 years old and I will continue to drive it until it becomes necessary to replace it
That might be a while. My parents had one of the first hundred Priuses imported into the US in 2001, and it barely needed maintenance and hit 200,000 miles before my niece totaled it in an minor accident. When they bought it she still needed a car seat.
I feel this. I own a OG body style model S. I still have unlimited supercharging. The battery is starting to show its age and i’m sort of starting to look around. The Rivian R3X is my current front runner.
Tesla would do well to distance themselves from Musk, for a lot of reasons. But it may be too late - the damage to their reputation may already be fatal.
They could definitely bounce back if the board fired him and the new head of the company made changes that actually made the cars better, rather than make the model numbers spell S3XY or have the horn make a fart noise for a premium or make and sell whatever the fuck the Powell Motors Homer Cybertruck is.
They need to first fix the myriad of issues that plague the Cybertruck, from its reduced range from its pre-released advertised figures, to its inability to handle cold weather, to its difficulty in off-road terrain, to its stainless steel panels now rusting only months after its release.
None of that matters. I just like riding around town in one of Lara Croft’s breasts.
Maybe. But they’re not the only game in town when it comes to electric cars anymore. There are real auto manufacturers with good reputations making them now.
The problem is that Elons con man routine is the only reason Tesla is so overvalued. I’m sure they are afraid that if they let him go the stock price would readjust to a reasonable market price.
No matter what you think of him, he is brilliant at conning a tech enthusiast’s money out of their wallets.
That just comes with the territory of being wealthy, which he lucked into thanks to Peter Thiel taking a liking to him (probably because he wanted to fuck him). People confused the companies he invested in which happened to be successful despite him, and would probably more successful if he weren’t involved- see SpaceX when Shotwell took over day-to-day operations.
Lots of people, otherwise smart people, smell someone with money and say, “I want to go to there” because they think wealth can be transmitted through close contact.
Nah this iant true at all. I covered this in another xomment so Im gonna copypasta it here…
Tesla has the following:
Custom AI silicon designed by the designer of Apple’s M1 chip. It’s designed for training. They are about to scale it massively to create the Dojo supercomputer. They look to be on par with NVidia on performance/$. No small feat, and means they arent reliant on NVidia
They have custom inferrence chips used in all of their cars and their android robot. It gets fantastic performance per watt. My 5 year old car has first-gen inferrence chips and it’s still getting better with software… meaning it hasnt reached its potential. The latest chip design is probably much better, but I dont know much about it
They have possibly the best humanoid hands and arms that will work with this AI goodness.
Their walking and navigation is looking to be top notch… We’ll see
FSD really is incredible. I drive with it and it improves every year. Just got 12.3 and it’s pretty bomb.
Tesla solar is still a thing. The model 3 kinda derailed development a while back and it never really recovered. I think competitors are doing well and Tesla sees better returns on their other projects. Tesla needs to bring down their Solar prices which they just dont seem to be doing. Im guessing they dont want to scale manufacturing yet.
They have some of the largest casting machines on the planet and press out the frames of their cars for far cheaper than their competition can stamp and weld theirs. Stellantis and Toyota are adopting this manufactiring strategy as fast as they can, but they are a year or maybe 2 behind. I suspect Ford, VW and GM are adopting this too.
Tesla factory floors are much more efficient at iterating and improving. Their in-house software for managing workers and workflow development are unique to Tesla. Just look at the efficient packaging of their HVAC system after dozens of iterations every year for a couple years. It’s by far the best HVAC in the car world.
They have developed a lithium clay extraction process that vastly reduces chemical waste and water usage. They’re still 5 or so years out from implementing this in even a small capacity and clay extraction isnt guaranteed to be superior to spodumene. I expect the efforts they’re putting to this will pay off in 15 years.
They own lithium clay rights in Nevada where some of the richest Lithium clay deposits are. I think theyre doing permitting for mining, which will probably take to the end of the decade. Mining’s crazy
They offer the best price for grid-scale batteries and are growing that business faster than their cars grew. Hawaii just replaced their last coal peaker plant with Tesla batteries. California and Australia are saving a lot of money with them. The batteries pay for themselves when used to replace peaker plants and stuff to maintain frequency.
They are growing so-called virtual power plants and have been doing extremely well in a few test locations in Texas, Australia and Puerto Rico. I think the UK too?
After funding and working with the inventor of the lithium battery’s team they’ve been getting first looks at new battery chemistry. The thick walls of their 4680 are designed with adding silicon in mind. I suspect theyre testing this out at Kato road production facility.
They’ve collected a bunch of battery manufacturing patents over the years and their dry-electrode process is providing very good economics. Getting them to scale has been excruciatingly slow, but they’re about to triple capacity this year in Texas and I think are starting development of another iteration of their 4680 battery production process at their Kato road facility right now.
They are on track for becoming a top-three battery manufacturer by the end of the decade.
GM and Ford’s battery packs are like 5 years behind tesla’s. Tesla packs more battery in less volume using less weight with better thermals and ridgidity. Their packs are a lot cheaper to produce too.
Tesla claims they have a ferro magnet motor in development. We’ll see. If so, watch out for very cheap electric cars with no rare-earths or cobalt
They just signed deals with BP and an another conglomerate to sell chargers for the other business’ charging infrastructure. More volume means cheaper manufacturing for their own charging stations too.
All cars will soon have the NACS plug so everyone will be able to charge at a Tesla station… Which is the largest and most reliable charging network in the world.
Battery prices keep falling. Gas cars are going to have to compete with cheaper electric by the end of the decade. Tesla isnt competing with other electric car makers so much as it’s competing with fossil fuels. Electric will win this. The faster the better
Elon has contributed to these only in a “we’re gonna fund these wild ideas!” Way. Like Edison. He’s smart and avoided bad projects and embraced fast failing to great success… Things are maturing and I dont think there’s much value to get from Elon…
Tesla will be fine without Elon. I’d argue better.
The only fear of Elon leaving would be big oil investors buying control and derailing things… I dont think that’ll happen though. I think enough investors are in it specifically to eliminate fossil fuel dependency.
The fear of Elon staying is he drags Tesla into his edgelord bullshit and uses it to dick over the world as hard as he and some dictator/billionaire friends can… Which seems more likely
After he derailed the CA bullet train with his hyperloop hyperbole and joked on twitter abould the Bolivian coup, I dont trust his ass one bit.
I only have one question about the Cyber truck. Why haven’t I ever seen a rusty DeLorean, especially considering I have seen DeLoreans that lived in KY, GA, MS, AL, and LA
(Louisiana, not the city in California, not to be confused with Canada. Why TF do we reuse so many two-four letter abbreviations?)
The general theory is that they used a cheaper grade of stainless, specifically one that is still magnetic because it makes material handling easier during manufacture, meaning higher iron content, meaning more prone to rust if you don’t pay extra for the clear vinyl wrap. People will say the “real” name of the material is “stain less” steel, which is not true – “stainless steel” is just 1910’s marketing wank – but it is accurate enough as a description.
the damage to their reputation may already be fatal
Definitely. Tesla = Musk in my mind and always has been ever since it blew up with promises of a greater tomorrow that never materialized. All it did was up the EV competition, imo.
I’m someone who’s buying an EV and due to Elon alone, I won’t buy a Tesla. I’ve wanted one for so long but waited for the data to show how well they hold up after years of use and now that the data is out, I’m buying a non-Tesla. Thanks Elon, you moron.
I have a datapoint of 1, but I’ve also heard from my wife that when she’s traveling outside the US, so many cab companies and rideshare drivers have started using Teslas that the brand prestige is taking a hit, regardless of quality (which is also low).
I literally sold mine because I was embarrassed to drive one after Musk called that cave diver a pedophile.
Sure, be repelled by the dork, but stay away because of the unsafe lack of tactile dashboard controls.
The fact that they removed the stalks on the steering column so all functions are on the screen is reason enough. Do I really want to slide my finger up/down to change from D to R? I know they have wipers on the steering wheel, as well as turn signals but the changing of gears? Hard pass.
I know I have… I’d probably have one right now if it weren’t for him.
Out of curiosity- did you end up buying a different brand of EV and if so, what do you think of it?
Not yet, no. Still in the market. Looking at hybrids too. I have transportation for my job taken care of, and I’ve gotten comfortable not having a car so I haven’t been in a rush.
I actually envy your position. I don’t live in a populous enough place to live without a car in America and I live outside city limits anyway, so the shitty, very limited bus system we have here doesn’t even get near my subdivision (which is massive), let alone my home.
My next car will be an EV or a PHEV (definitely NOT a Tesla). I have a hybrid now and I plan to drive it into the ground before I buy another car. Maybe I will be living somewhere else and won’t need it by then though.
I put a deposit down on a Polestar 3 Performance Launch Edition. Years ago I wanted a Tesla and now you can’t pay me to take one.
Remember when he removed the Disney+ app from Teslas because he was angry over twitter ads? That kind of unreliable behaviour might have something to do with it.
It is hilarious, but it’s also very seriously something that would make most people reconsider their choice of vehicle.
Oh absolutely. Though with all the EVs on the market right now, Tesla isn’t a good choice, Elon or no. There are better EVs out there.
Yeah. There’s a lot of products I use and buy where I really don’t like the owners or CEOs. I try to avoid what I can where I can, but some are so ubiquitous or monopolistic it’s quite tough. But this would get a hard pass from me, even if Teslas were far and away the best EV options.
If I can’t be sure the company’s policies aren’t going to be directly influenced by the fascist man-child CEO then I’m going to stay far away from the products. I have enough to worry about with corporate policies making stupid decisions for profit without watching an idiot throw tens of billions into an incinerator because of pride.
That was such a dumb move, not just because it was petty in and of itself, but because it means you now can’t separate Musk’s drama from his products. His antics will demonstrably spill over into fucking with your car, even after you bought it.
Now imagine having all your shit tied up in X, The Everything App!™️* and you make a statement he doesn’t like or agree with one or whatever. Welp, there goes your bank account, social security info, personal medical data, and so on because you are being quarantined for the Woke Mind Virus
Tap for spoiler
*which will never actually become A Thing
My opinion is that nothing like D+ or Netflix or whatever should be on a central console in the first place. If it is there, there will always be a driver watching it instead of a road and killing someone as a result.
Until FSD is a thing, entertainment should be reserved for passengers.
As far as I know those systems are intended to be used either by second monitor in the back or only if the car is standing still.
When you have your lovely family time in the daily traffic jam. Or when you had to sell your TV and now go into your car to watch. /s
I personally think the idea on itself is stupid. However in China they are a step ahead and have even more of that shit. The point is that in china you won’t have much space in your flat in the big cities so you can move into your car because there is more space /s
The price of those cars with that stuff is starting at about 100k€ and only going up.
No normal human being is intented to buy these.
A while ago, someone posted a photo (I think on Reddit before I left) of a Tesla with a bumper sticker that said something like, “I bought it before we all found out Elon was crazy.”
I think that should be encouraged for all people who bought a Tesla before the ‘pedo guy’ incident. After that, you have no excuse.
