Tesla Motors is famous for two things: Pricey electric roadsters and its exceptionally-prickly-when-it-comes-to-the-media CEO, Elon Musk. Musk has gotten into it before with Top Gear, and now he’s after the New York Times. Why? Because the Times gave his car a bad review.
Essentially, the NYT’s car critic, John Broder, had a less than fun journey between Washington D.C. and Connecticut testing out Tesla’s “Supercharger” stations. Broder’s essential point is that physics currently works against the Tesla sedan he tried out: Cold days mean less battery power means more likely to be stranded on the side of the road once your EV runs out of juice. Considering the Model S costs $52,000 or so to start, that’s kind of a problem.
Musk, in response, said Broder was faking the whole thing, something to which Broder reasonably took exception, although he also stated that once Tesla gets more charging stations up and running, he’s happy to redo the review. Musk has now released what he claims are Broder’s logs, and he insists they tell a different story.
Of course, adding some mud to the issue is the fact that Musk fails to include any sort of way to independently verify that these are Broder’s logs. We’re supposed to kinda take his word for it that these are legit, which, objectively, is a bit hard to swallow. It’s not like Musk has no dog in this fight, after all.
Musk might simply be sick of dealing with customer complaints: It’s become fairly clear the Model S is very much a work in progress, even if everybody who bought one loves it. Still, eventually somebody will have to explain to corporate types that saying “NO U” in public is not an effective public relations strategy.
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..and yet…..
[www.nbcnews.com]
Apparently there’s an issue where shutting down the car at low drivetrain battery levels causes the other battery that controls accessories to not function which means that he both couldn’t power up the car due to the low battery level and couldn’t release the parking brake. Also the car was fitted with different sized tires and wheels, for the weather, than the stock configuration so there might be a calibration issue.
But Broder’s main contention that he was doing what was told to him by Tesla employees is the biggest point. If you need that much hand holding for a not untypical trip the technology isn’t ready for primetime.
Also Elon Musk is a fake name right?
I linked to that in the article. There’s no way to verify those logs and Musk is in full “NO U” mode, so bluntly I don’t trust them.
Good point about Telsa’s owner doing terrible PR on this one.
This isn’t doing much to dispel the idea that everyone involved with electric cars are self-righteous douche-bags.
And then there’s the fact that CNN pretty much just verified that Broder is full of shit…
That image of Google Maps that overlays the amount of charging stations on the route the journalist took pretty much blows Broders weak ass “arguments” out of the water.
Broder did the same thing Top Gear did – had a story before even taking the keyfob from Tesla.
I can see why they’d get seriously pissed over this, it’s so very damaging to their reputation when people just make shit up like this.
Takes focus away from the important work they are doing to make EV’s a real thing that people can actually use. I don’t think you appreciate just exactly how much is at stake here, Dan.
Here in Europe the whole EV thing has pretty much run out of power (!)
The auto industry and oil industry have formed an unholy alliance and have a grand plan for making EV’s happen:
- You buy a car with no battery. You then rent the (weak ass) battery from the oil industry and buy “miles” from them. For long trips you can swap out your battery on the road for a fresh one and keep going – sounds sweet right? Wrong. These batteries have so little range that making any sort of long trip in it is entirely unfeasible and would require you to luck out on batteryswapping stations along your route with a LOT higher frequency than you’d be required to charge your Tesla.
- They put a charging station up in front of your house, you charge your car from this.
- You don’t pay the electricity the charging station uses, you just pay the “miles spent” thus crushing the dream of owning an electric car and charging it with solar energy / your own mini windmill and driving for free.
Small wonder that nobody buys these cars over here and thus the auto makers point at the weak sales numbers and say: Yeah see? Nobody wants these, lets just ditch our EV programs and keep making regular cars, it’s what the market wants!!
TLDR: Tesla needs to happen. The future of cars depend on it – don’t expect ANY help from europe, we are in the oil industry’s pocket.
Also: this own’t be the last attempt to run Tesla’s credibility into the ground – look at what happened to Delorean when he tried to go up against the established auto industry.
This says it all. ^^^^
Amen.
“That image of Google Maps that overlays the amount of charging stations on the route the journalist took pretty much blows Broders weak ass “arguments” out of the water.”
No, actually, as Broder pointed out, it doesn’t. He was tasked with reviewing the CHARGING STATIONS Tesla put in, and their claims. If he had to pull into a charging station not operated by Tesla and wait a few hours to charge the Model S, that frankly would have made Tesla look a hell of a lot worse.
Honestly, I agree electric cars need to happen. But keep in mind, Musk brought two suits to Top Gear over their piece, in the UK, which has much looser rules for suing over slander and libel, and he lost. Twice.
“No, actually, as Broder pointed out, it doesn’t. He was tasked with reviewing the CHARGING STATIONS Tesla put in, and their claims.”
Well he didn’t even fill up the car to 100% before he started or follow any common sense so how is his contribution to our knowledge of driving a Tesla meaningful in any way? No Tesla owner wanting to get from A to B would do any of the stupid self-sabotaging things he did.
“But keep in mind, Musk brought two suits to Top Gear over their piece, in the UK, which has much looser rules for suing over slander and libel, and he lost. Twice.”
I don’t see how a loss in court in any way validates Top Gear here.
Have you SEEN an episode of Top Gear ever? It’s pure entertainment and so heavily scripted, of course they did what they did – don’t be obtuse. Hell, I’m not even mad at them, I watch it to get laughs, not to get meaningful information from them. (I bought a car that they absolutely loathed)
They had home turf, and the mighty BBC behind them, they can get away with murder.
The reason why Musk gets pissy every time is that regular people can’t always distinguish between what is factual and what is entertainment, because they present it as (convenient) fact.
I’ve always believed that battery swap-out was the key to electric car success……just like changing the tank on your gas grill rather than bringing the whole grill somewhere…..
Newer battery technology would be driven by the demand for longer trips…
Battery switch would be a good idea. Honestly, I don’t look to Tesla as an EV leader. They build luxury cars, full stop. The real innovation is going to come from Japan or from European manufacturers.
As I said in the post above, there is NO innovation coming from those sides. Tesla is litterally the only company that is completely invested in this technology and who wants it to be succesful.
There is too much money in keeping the status quo for the big companies, and swapping out batteries is a silly idea, because the range coming from something so small that you can lift it with your own two hands will not give you any meaningful range for the next many years. It will be a car you can pick up the kids & groceries in and maybe commute to your work if it’s within your own city – everything else if off the table.
Is a Tesla the optimal car for long roadtrips? Obviously not. I don’t think you’ll find a single Tesla owner that would say that.
But you still have the option of going for decently long trips or a kind of long commute to work.
New technology developing in an exe4nsive product? Stop the presses!
Where do you expect to see innovation like this Dan? Did Yugo pioneer airbag technology? Look around, innovation nearly always starts in the high end products and gets to the lower price products as the technology develops.
You’re quite the journalist.
oops. expensive