Tesla critic of “Change My Mind” fame reverses stance, buys a Model S

Teslarati ^ | 1 Sept 2020 | Dacia J. Ferris

[DUMBGRUNT]

Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk are no strangers to critics, and in the past, YouTube personality Steven Crowder of the “Change My Mind” series fame has counted himself among them. However, a search for the best Autopilot functionality to help his wife’s recent health issues led the conservative comedian to reconsider the merits of the all-electric carmaker’s products.

“It’s not even close… It’s pretty damn cool. It is so fun to drive,” he expressed matter-of-factly on Tuesday’s Louder with Crowder episode. “That wasn’t the case back when I had a friend who had a Prius… [The Tesla] is more fun than any car I’ve ever driven, and the Autopilot is incredible. It does make sense to get for my wife.”

After test driving a Tesla, Crowder said he bought one “immediately.”

Where Musk’s company paid back its $465 million loan nearly ten years early (and with interest), the “big three” (GM, Chrysler, and Ford) received $80 billion bailouts in 2008, of which billions have not been returned.

[DUMBGRUNT]

Louder with Crowder

[jarwulf]

I like electric cars. Like libtards I think its inevitable that they’ll replace the ICE. But I’ll get one because its a cool piece of tech and the economic benefits not for some save the planet nonsense. And a cool one not a sissy Prius or anything like that.

[volunbeer]

I have to say that the Tesla S is one of the most fun rides in the history of automobiles. It has incredible performance (wicked even), is silky smooth, an adjustable suspension that really works, and it is very quiet. The autopilot still scares me though.

I was a skeptic and in hindsight it is much like the scorn towards Glock pistols (tupperware - I ain’t gonna have a plastic gun) whey they were first “a thing”. It will outperform almost every car you have driven.

[Pollard]

Youtube pays well for some

[SamAdams76]

[ObozoMustGo2012]

Actually, he’s been demonetized for quite a long time.

[hanamizu]

The autopilot still scares me though.

---

I haven’t tried Tesla or Autopilot, but my 2018 Honda CRV has some of its features. With dynamic cruise control and lane assist, the car will pretty much drive itself on the interstate. First time I had both, I felt the car pulling to one side and then realized it was just following the curve in the road. Car braked in front of me and the car braked itself almost to a stop.

I still don’t trust it, in the sense that I still keep my hands on the wheel and my feet near the brake pedal, but I’ve read that that is a function of age. Younger drivers trust the tech more than geezers like me.

There is an outfit that simulates Tesla’s Autopilot system for cars with adaptive cruise control/lane assist and I’ve seen YouTubes where it seems to work pretty well. It involves mounting a supplied cell phone that taps into the car’s existing systems and uses the external camera to watch the road and the screen camera to monitor you—take your eyes off of the road and it sends a warning and then starts braking if you don’t respond.

Kids born today may never learn to drive.

[It Aint Easy]

I’m not sure electric cars will replace oil burners due to quickness of “refueling.” However, they are an interesting vehicle. Electric motors definitely have their strong points.
For me, however, they aren’t practical for my lifestyle at this level of technology.

[Secret Agent Man]

Umm idiot reporter

FORD DID NOT RECEIVE ANY BAILOUT MONEY

[wjcsux]

I wouldn’t want to drive a Tesla across West Texas in the summer. Our Lexus RX 350 can be fueled anywhere in a manner of minutes.

[House Atreides]

FORD DID NOT RECEIVE ANY BAILOUT MONEY
********************************************
Thank you for pointing that out. Ford was not “Government Motors”.

[dp0622]

Only a DumbGrunt would publish this article.

:)

As long as they are being made to go FAST now and without charging too often...I might consider it.

But my Challenger only has 22k miles on it and my BIL and I worked on it a few saturdays in a row to make it look NICE and run better...so..down the line a bit.

have a good one FRiend

[xp38]

Tesla has had a lot of naysayers and cheerleaders. I fall somewhere in the middle. I test drove the model S 4 years ago. It was too expensive for me but one could see the potential for Tesla to improve. The only question was how quickly they could. Well they have improved and now have a lot of momentum behind them. 3 big models soon to be released. That weird looking truck. The sports car and the big semi. As bizarre as that truck looks I would say it has the potential to revolutionize the business.

[DUMBGRUNT]

https://www.thebalance.com/auto-industry-bailout-gm-ford-chrysler-3305670 Ford's Bailout Although Ford did not receive TARP funds, it did receive government loans.4 These were critical because banks were not lending during the financial crisis. It requested a $9 billion line-of-credit from the government. In return, it pledged to spend $14 billion on new technologies. On June 23, 2009, Ford received a $5.9 billion loan from the Energy Department's Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program. In return, it pledged to accelerate the development of both hybrid and battery-powered vehicles, close dealerships, and sell Volvo. It upgraded factories in Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio to produce hybrid vehicles.28 Ford used its bailout to switch its focus to commercial electric vehicles. In 2016, CEO Mark Fields said, "We want to become a top player in electrified solutions. The company wants to lead…we can win such as with our commercial vehicles." Eighty-one percent of the funds went to create new efficiency technologies for gas-powered vehicles. For example, they helped fund Ford's aluminum bodies in the F-series pickups. The Congressional Research Service estimated the loans saved 33,000 jobs.29 Ford will repay this loan by 2022. Many argue that Ford needed the funds to sustain its cash flow during the recession. Ford says it was in better shape than the other two because it had mortgaged its assets in 2006 to raise $23.6 billion. It used the loans to retool its product lineup to focus on smaller, energy-efficient vehicles. It got the United Automobile Workers to agree it could finance half of a new retiree health care trust with company stock.30 By April 2009, it retired $9.9 billion of the debt it had taken out in 2006.

[DUMBGRUNT]

“Only a DumbGrunt would publish this article.”

I can not help it, I become possessed and am forced to post such articles.
It keeps the blood pumping fast in the heavy iron guys, delights the Muskmen, and I get an occasional chuckle.

[TChad]

Louder with Crowder

Steven Crowder used to be a Freeper:

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:stevencrowder/index?brevity=full;tab=comments

[DUMBGRUNT]

Good memory!

[goorala]

Electric cars are hot garbage. Tons of rare toxic minerals sourced from china. The battery plants look like hiroshima after the bomb dropped. Teslas are extremely dangerous because almost everything has to be done by looking away from the road to their giant touch screen. Electricity isn’t magic.

[dp0622]

Lol

It is probably the least applicable name on freerepublic. I have read many of your threads and posts and you are far from. But if it makes you happy :-)

[norwaypinesavage]

"the [Tesla] Autopilot is incredible. It does make sense to get for my wife."

From what I've read, it is, indeed, "incredible". It takes you to more places, on more roads, than any other. It also kills you more often.

It's relatively easy to make an autopilot with lot's of features. It's much more difficult to take you everywhere safely. Simple things for a human to see (like always distinguishing between a white sky and a white semi-trailer on the road ahead) are quite difficult to anticipate in advance. Especially when there are millions of such decisions made by humans every minute on the roads today. In a whole lot of these decisions, a mistake can be fatal.

For instance, whenever I see a deer crossing the road ahead of me, which happens regularly, I will slow down considerably, since occasionally there is another deer following it. Essentially, I slow down for an unseen hazard. If I'm travelling on a country road and see another car on a cross road that will reach the crossing at the same time as I, I'll slow down, even if the other driver has a stop sign. Does a Tesla do all of this? There are thousands of decisions made while driving such as this. A Tesla autopilot is not for MY wife.