Especially if they are arguing that it's normal for the memory to fail in 6 years. I can't imagine all of my center console buttons failing after six years and requiring a whole new center console to get up and running again.
Yeah, I know Tesla sells things besides cars. But I think their reputation will be based on things they sell to the public, and I think most people will judge them on their cars.
I would say they're going to have a hard time of it.
I honestly think they were hoping to make that up in volume. As it gets cheaper to make cars at scale, some portion of the savings goes to fixing up the issues with the cars they already shipped. They haven't been able to scale their pipeline, though.
> I think Tesla is going to earn a similar reputation as other car manufacturers as time goes on.
Long term, I don't think it's going to go well. "Move fast and break things" is a bad principle to apply to a car. I can use DDG or Bing if Google doesn't work, but I can't summon a Kia when my Tesla won't start. I don't think they can use that velocity to create features consumers want enough to deal with the instability. They might strike gold elsewhere though where the instability is less of an issue. It might be okay for self-driving semis to break down, if they're cheap enough that you can afford extras to use when some break.