5 ms·

Tesla's response to Top Gear executive producer

13 points by albemuth 16y ago

nodata 16y ago
This article is embarrassing to read. I hope Tesla stops saying things soon, they're making it all worse.
- kristofferR 16y ago
  How so? What they're saying is true. Top Gear predetermined that the car "didn't work" and they fabricated a failure using fake engine sounds.
  - kaitnieks 16y ago
    It wasn't like they were showing the failure with the sounds and the proclaimed that the car doesn't work. From what I remember, Jeremy said that car has overheated and has reduced power (then they showed car stopping at the side of the track with the sound, which sounded very much like sound-over effect instead of make-believe real sound). At the time I thought that stopping because of overheating is normal and can happen to any car on the race track. The "does not work" came later, near the end of the segment, and it was clearly stated, that the car does not work in the real life (because of the charging times), not that it doesn't work literally.
    - kristofferR 16y ago
      Nope, you've got it wrong. Here's the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXfV2hw_2Xo&t=4m45s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXfV2hw_2Xo&t=4m45s The parts in question is between 04:45 to 07:45
      - jameskilton 16y ago
        Yeah, particularly with the follow-up: "An amazing technical achievement" ... "will get better as the price comes down" ... "and they work on reliability". No wait, I don't see it. Tesla apologists can go home. If a company has to SUE over a bad review of their product, then that company doesn't deserve our business. EVERY product gets bad reviews, real, fake, whatever. Sueing the reviewer is the WORST path you can take. I was so looking forward to owning a Tesla some time in the next 30 years. Now, I'll never give that company a dime.
  - beej71 16y ago
    Because it's a PR loss to go up against Top Gear in this way, truth or not. Not even Americans love Tesla more than they love Top Gear. Tesla should take the car to them and show them how it's done. Top Gear would go for it, and Clarkson would admit it if he was wrong. But with the lawsuit, Clarkson isn't going to admit a damn thing, and is just going to bag on Tesla and whiny lawsuit-happy Americans that much more.
- whatusername 16y ago
  It feels like a 37S blog post.. It's like they read this: http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php and decided that suing top gear was the best thing they could come up with... It's certainly getting them lots of publicity about how the Tesla is better than top gear implied...
kaitnieks 16y ago
I'm starting to dislike Tesla very much even though I was excited about Tesla, even after the episode in question. I hope HN gets bored of this whole subject and stops writing about it. Wilman's points are very clear and straight. Teslas response sounds like hysterical feeble attacks. This whole thing reminds of trolling attacks in online forums. Please settle it in court in a civilized manner and stop the trolling.

13 points by albemuth 16y ago

nodata 16y ago

This article is embarrassing to read. I hope Tesla stops saying things soon, they're making it all worse.

kristofferR 16y ago
How so? What they're saying is true. Top Gear predetermined that the car "didn't work" and they fabricated a failure using fake engine sounds.
- kaitnieks 16y ago
  It wasn't like they were showing the failure with the sounds and the proclaimed that the car doesn't work. From what I remember, Jeremy said that car has overheated and has reduced power (then they showed car stopping at the side of the track with the sound, which sounded very much like sound-over effect instead of make-believe real sound). At the time I thought that stopping because of overheating is normal and can happen to any car on the race track. The "does not work" came later, near the end of the segment, and it was clearly stated, that the car does not work in the real life (because of the charging times), not that it doesn't work literally.
  - kristofferR 16y ago
    Nope, you've got it wrong. Here's the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXfV2hw_2Xo&t=4m45s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXfV2hw_2Xo&t=4m45s The parts in question is between 04:45 to 07:45
    - jameskilton 16y ago
      Yeah, particularly with the follow-up: "An amazing technical achievement" ... "will get better as the price comes down" ... "and they work on reliability". No wait, I don't see it. Tesla apologists can go home. If a company has to SUE over a bad review of their product, then that company doesn't deserve our business. EVERY product gets bad reviews, real, fake, whatever. Sueing the reviewer is the WORST path you can take. I was so looking forward to owning a Tesla some time in the next 30 years. Now, I'll never give that company a dime.
- beej71 16y ago
  Because it's a PR loss to go up against Top Gear in this way, truth or not. Not even Americans love Tesla more than they love Top Gear. Tesla should take the car to them and show them how it's done. Top Gear would go for it, and Clarkson would admit it if he was wrong. But with the lawsuit, Clarkson isn't going to admit a damn thing, and is just going to bag on Tesla and whiny lawsuit-happy Americans that much more.
whatusername 16y ago
It feels like a 37S blog post.. It's like they read this: http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ch02_Have_an_Enemy.php and decided that suing top gear was the best thing they could come up with... It's certainly getting them lots of publicity about how the Tesla is better than top gear implied...

kaitnieks 16y ago

I'm starting to dislike Tesla very much even though I was excited about Tesla, even after the episode in question. I hope HN gets bored of this whole subject and stops writing about it. Wilman's points are very clear and straight. Teslas response sounds like hysterical feeble attacks. This whole thing reminds of trolling attacks in online forums. Please settle it in court in a civilized manner and stop the trolling.