Strange they skipped the step of 1) taxing cars which cause more injuries per mile, 2) taxing resources (including externality cost) so that if you use more, you pay more.

Instead they are taxing a pretty bad proxy for those actual policy goals.

i.e. this incentivizes companies to reduce weight rather than add safety measures, and to use light materials regardless of if they cause more environmental damage. Hypothetical example: carmakers might use more aluminum & titanium, which may cause lots of harm to produce, rather than iron.

Just tax the thing you don't like: pollution & using resources you want to control distribution of.

Wired has really fallen. It's like they don't understand markets or incentives at all. Also - isn't tesla one of the safest cars on the road per mile? So it's really inane to write a hit piece on their alleged safety without say actually looking at their safety results