Some potential Tesla buyers couldn't stomach a purchase amid the CEO's outbursts | Hacker News Reader

Some potential Tesla buyers couldn't stomach a purchase amid the CEO's outbursts

wsj.com

17 pointsfortran7715 comments

I bought a Tesla before the Diver/sub idiocy. I still have (and honestly love) the car, but I don't think I could buy another in good conscience

I want to live in times when I don't know too much or care too much about the politics of a CEO. But that's also a mutual thing: they need to not be waving it around in everyone's faces either. Maybe show up to talk about taxes or this or that regulation... that seems fair if they feel it's material to the company; but he has been so in your face about it. It's no surprise that it turns people off.

Wealthy individuals have always influenced politics, we just talk about it a lot more now.

Yes, of course they have, but I guess I just discount that more when it's "I want tax breaks for the wealthy like me". It's regular old self-interest on their part. Some of the stuff he's on about... it's much broader (and nastier, IMO) than that, and since he bought Twitter, he gets to broadcast it far and wide so that people are sure to have seen or heard about it. As opposed to having dinner with his congressperson or more traditional ways the wealthy might lean on things.

Pretty sure John D. Rockefeller talked politics. William Randolph Hearst had his own newspaper and gave rise to the term "yellow journalism". Henry Ford was a fascist, complete with glowing admiration for Hitler.

Wealthy individuals have always opened their mouths, were quite loud, and quite often spewed sewage through said orifices. Far too many equated economic success with comprehensive intelligence and expertise in all things.

Musk is nothing new among the extremely wealthy, but has the potential to do just as much damage to the social fabric as his predecessors.

I owned a Model 3 for 5 years until it got rear-ended and insurance totaled it.

I didn't replace it with another Tesla because of Musk. We instead went with a Ford Mach-E, and are quite happy with the decision.

The contra-positive is also interesting: Some Tesla buyers are eagerly buying because of the CEO.

In the past, definitely yes. Now? I don't think so, early adopters/geeks generally follow news and usually have good moral opinions.

I'm not sure there's a cause/effect here. But since it came from the WSJ it's worth considering.

I find the fact that the self driving feature results in much higher fatality rates to be a reason to strongly avoid the car. It’s high safety ratings and driver aids were a big draw, but the fact that more people die in Tesla’s than similar luxury vehicles is a huge turn off to me and not at all what I would expect.

Source for this “fact”?

The NHTSA system is down right now, but why are vehicles with built in crash warning systems and so much automation experiencing the highest accident rate? You would think it would be the lowest.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevebanker/2023/12/18/tesla-ha...

Accidents per driver without taking into account the miles driven is kind of inaccurate. Not to mention there is no indication on whether Autopilot or FSD were in use. So this is completely not the way to judge FSD

Why is a WSJ article flagged?

A lot of people flag anything behind a paywall. Which the WSJ always is.

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