My Tesla Model Y is the best thing I've ever bought. There's nothing else close on the market. The other options are really poor. Most other EVs are ugly, clunky and lame, have poor driver assistance features, charge slowly, or have other major drawbacks.
I know many people who have Tesla vehicles and think they are excellent products. However, Elon Musk's descent into mean, angry, offensive, lazy, factually incorrect and incoherent right-wing idiocy has made every one of us uncomfortable with continuing to support the company. Most of us are actively considering other, worse brands for our next car. Many people I know or have talked to won't even consider a Tesla now.
It's also no longer exciting to talk about the company or the products. It used to be exciting to talk about the future, electrification, technology. Now it's all mired in the muck of angry MAGA politics.
It's a real problem. I think Elon Musk is (was?) probably the best entrepreneur and businessperson since Steve Jobs, and his reputation has been permanently stained by his actions in the past couple years.
Unfortunately, I think the same brain thing - stubbornness, singlemindedness, grit - that made him able to build unusually incredible companies like Tesla and SpaceX are going to cause him to continue doubling down on his current self-destructive path.
Dumping what you find to be the best vehicle for your needs / technical enjoyment based on either a personality in the company, the fear of other’s impression of you for driving it, or both.
Buying an expensive product from company headed by a tyrannical loonie throws long-term support into question. Will a software update brick my car on the highway? Will the company try to shove self-driving “functionality” down my throat? Will Musk remotely disable my car because I said something mean about him on Twitter? How much competent staff is Tesla retaining these days?
I tend to not give a flip about personalities of people behind things. If you make the best widget and I need a widget, you do you and I’ll get to widgeting. Practical outcomes are the priority.
I know many people who have Tesla vehicles and think they are excellent products. However, Elon Musk's descent into mean, angry, offensive, lazy, factually incorrect and incoherent right-wing idiocy has made every one of us uncomfortable with continuing to support the company. Most of us are actively considering other, worse brands for our next car. Many people I know or have talked to won't even consider a Tesla now.
It's also no longer exciting to talk about the company or the products. It used to be exciting to talk about the future, electrification, technology. Now it's all mired in the muck of angry MAGA politics.
It's a real problem. I think Elon Musk is (was?) probably the best entrepreneur and businessperson since Steve Jobs, and his reputation has been permanently stained by his actions in the past couple years.
Unfortunately, I think the same brain thing - stubbornness, singlemindedness, grit - that made him able to build unusually incredible companies like Tesla and SpaceX are going to cause him to continue doubling down on his current self-destructive path.