What I didn't see in the article was: how are they handling the failures?
It is one thing to have a car that's unreliable, but that you can then take to a dealer and get it back a couple of days after with everything fixed. It is another if you have to fight the company every step of the way to get it fixed or, even worse, pay for their mistakes out of your own pocket.
> Tesla spokesman Ricardo Reyes said the Palo Alto automaker keeps in close communication with its customers to “proactively address issues, and quickly fix problems.”
As far as companies go, I have a decent level of trust on statements by Tesla. But it is still a company, and that statement has to be independently evaluated.
They have a 97% satisfaction rating.
They actively update their cars through software and hardware/parts[1]
Just because they're a company doesn't mean they're trying to screw everyone over. Do you think they roll out cars with bad parts of purpose? No of course not.
[1] http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesla-adds-titanium-underbod...
Fortunately, they give me a nice loaner vehicle (usually a better model) while mine is in the shop.
That said I think the advantages of such an incredible piece of technology outweigh some repair issues down the line.
A lot of owners however seem concerned about what will happen after the warranty period, when these repairs start costing the owner.