The problem Tesla has isn't really fake news.
It's the obsession news sites have with everything surrounding Tesla.
In a lot of ways it's a double edge sword because on the one hand it afforded Tesla massive success in being able to get hundreds of thousands of people to put a $1K of their hard earned money on a car sight unseen that was a long ways away from being delivered. Which is really unheard of at such a scale.
Of course this magnifying effect is also true of negative things. Any negative gets blown out of proportions. The recent issue regarding the Model 3 brakes is a perfect example. In most cases there would be a small blurb about a problem spotted in a specific make/model of a vehicle regarding inconsistent braking distance. Where you might hear about it if you're really into automotive news.
But, EVERYONE heard about it because it involved a Tesla.
In this particular case it was right up Elon's alley to handle the situation, and to put out the flames. I think he did a fine job of it. Where he took responsibility for it, and promised to fix it.
What he hasn't handled right is the Autopilot accidents.
I have NO QUESTION that these are being disproportionally reported that makes Autopilot look bad.
This is a bad thing to Tesla itself, but it's actually a good thing when it comes to automotive safety.
The problem is a lot of people have ADAS (driver aids) systems in their cars, but they don't really know how they work. This is especially true of adaptive cruise control. So what happens is people get overly confidence in them, and they trust them without knowing the limitations of them.
The correct way of handling the situation would be to find data to show that the Tesla system wasn't all that different. To use it as a way of educating not just Tesla owners, but owners of other systems who might not understand how those work.
But, instead Elon decided to attack the customer. That they didn't have their hands at the steering wheel. That was horribly bad tactic because owners like myself know the system doesn't always know if I am or if I'm not. It also doesn't make a lick of a difference as I can hold the steering wheel while texting. It's doesn't require any engagement in the driving task at all. So what was the point of revealing the time span that the system didn't detect the hands? Most people would likely assume the driver wasn't paying attention so there is no need to double down on it.
Elon has lost a massive amount of credibility over the last 6 months if not longer.
The failure to delivery anything on the FSD front. This is a package they've been selling for over a year with nothing to show. At this point most assume it's vaporware.
Lots of people feel that Elon did a bait and switch in regards to the $35K Model 3.
On TMC we're isolated from a lot of the negativity, but on sites like Arstechnica, Jalopnik, etc it's pretty much a blood bath in the comments sections.
What's fun is to post something identical on both an Arstechnica article, and a TMC thread about the same thing. To see how many likes, and dislikes it will get.
On this site I have 3 disagrees on my comment about Elon needing to rebuild his credibility. Where I've seen it take a massive hit in recent months in how people perceive him. The person above me also got 3 disagrees even though he (I'm assuming a bad horse is a male horse) did a great job of explaining why Elon came off looking unhinged to a lot of people.
Coincidently the three disagrees were from the same people so I think they were voting with their identity, and not on what was actually written.
A couple weeks ago I posted roughly the same thing as Elon has been really been unhinged for a couple months now. But, I posted in on an Arstechnica article. That got a lot of likes and very little disagrees.
Kinda feels like high school all over again.
