I don't have much of an absolute opinion on this spat, but there are a few interesting points. While I am not a great fan of electric cars and would not buy one currently, I don't hate Tesla or want the company to fail. If others want to buy these cars, its still a relatively free country, so good for them. If there was deception on the part of the New York Times reporter, then it does need to be investigated. Its not like reporters have never unfairly targeted a car company, with fake rollover tests and fireworks in exploding gas tanks.
However, while I like the fact that Tesla is fighting back, I am also troubled by the amount of data the car is generating by spying on the driver. It is one more invasion of privacy, until we have none at all left. I would hope that this logging can be turned off, or that it is not being broadcast back to Tesla for all owners.
People may not know that industry has used electric vehicles for 40 years, such as electric carts and fork-trucks. There are problems with load, temperature and charging that have yet to be solved. I hope they succeed...
Maybe because he didn't have an hour and a half to sit around?
We'll see how much the NYT cares about the truth.
I doubt very much if this level of data logging is limited to media drivers. In fact, Broder probably knew about Tesla's experience with Top Gear and may have intended to highlight the data-logging and privacy issues. If so, Tesla could hardly have grabbed the bait any harder.
What confuses me is that Musk and the NYT are both solid members of the Baraqqi Coalition.
So why the intramural spat?
Hey Tesla, Obama, et ilk:
Call me when you can pack enough energy in a suitcase-sized container (gas tank) that will drive my 4000 lb car 300-400 miles and then “recharge” in five minutes at the omnipresent gas station.
It looks like Tesla was a victim of a NYT hit piece. However, I find it strange that the NYT as the beacon of all things ultra liberal, would have savaged the electric car which we know is the new “people’s car” and the wet dream of every liberal. It would have been more in keeping with the NYT to give glowing, rave and even falsified positive reviews instead of telling the glaring truth about the electric vehicle’s shortcomings. Perhaps when the standard mode is to lie about everything, you cannot tell the truth even when it is about something you support.
The government understands that only a damned fool would buy an electric car, so they subsidize the transaction so that the fools convince themselves that they’ve made a good decision. I’m not sure that either the NYT report or this rebuttal does much to alter that dynamic.
Consider all of this from the reporters view, if he had written a story about an uneventful trip up the east coast with a few leisurely stops for a charge and a Latte, who would have read his story? Top Gear obviously understands how all this works: write the story first, collect the film and sound bites to back it up later. At least with Top Gear, you get first rate comedy to go along with it.
However, while I like the fact that Tesla is fighting back, I am also troubled by the amount of data the car is generating by spying on the driver.
In this case, had they not done that NYT would have gotten away with the smear. They still might. Besides, it's not a surprise they have this equipment on the early production runs. I would hope they'll not install the spy stuff on later runs, to save $$ as well as improve privacy. But that is not the direction this society is heading. :^(
The oldest Space Shuttle in the fleet was the Columbia, and it weighed hundreds of pounds more than the later versions because it had more sensing equipment on board. Ironic considering what happened to it.
Norway and Switzerland? I wunner why? People in Greece and Portugal should be snapping these up.
How does it handle in a Houston year which includes flood water and temperatures over 100 degrees daily throughout the summer (including sitting for 8 hours in a hot parking lot, then making a one hour traffic jam commute ride home)?
Houston's "light rail" can't run in 3-inches of rainfall.
Desperation to finally get moving again? Who in their right mind could relish multiple one-hour-stops to travel a mere few hundred miles, which could easily be done on one single tank filling of liquid fuel?
Clarkson of criticized Top Gear drove a heavy BMW A8 4-litre-V8 turbo diesel sedan from London to Edinburgh -and back!- on a single tank of fuel! 800 miles!
Well, at least Mr. Tesla has confirmed in his own writing that his cars are nothing else but toys for the idle rich (not that there's anything wrong, per se, with toys or the idle rich). Those who can afford to have Jeeves follow them in a real car to drive when the juice runs out...
Uh, maybe because he needed to be someplace and couldn't afford another two hours of charging time? Maybe because there were others waiting in line for the only charger available for miles? Maybe because young urban punks were threatening those waiting for a charge?
When was the last time it took you two hours to pour 20 gallons of liquid fuel into your tank?
Something about Musk doesn’t smell right.
Here’s a story about Musk and Tesla’s rebuttal not being what they claim it is:
and here’s Broder’s own response to Musk’s spin:
Well in this case, based on Broder’s behavior, they should have put a data search on his financial records as it was clear Broder was lying and likely being paid off to fabricate these lies.
Looks like Tesla tried to get a million bucks in free advertising, but the product failed miserably. So now they are engaged in shooting the messenger.
No wonder Obama likes these scammers.
I’m glad that a lot of Tesla buyers are in Norway. Up here in Alaska, it’s -23 degrees right now outside my window, a temperature that normally sucks the juice right out of a battery.
In any case, electricity is running about 90 cents a kilowatt hour - which means that $7.80 per gallon price we’re paying for gasoline is still a bargain, relatively speaking.
I agree with the post about packing enough energy to drive 300 miles into the size of a suitcase, then being able to recharge it in five minutes. It gets cold up here, but it’s never been too cold to burn something.
Elon Musk just needs to go pucker his lips at Obama some more.
Anytime a bad report comes out over his little taxpayer funded green fantasy he smears the people reporting the info.
Musk is little more than a confidence man slurping money from us instead of risking his own money.
