19 ms·

Musk has a history of going after people who critisize him in public. He (and his staff) have again and again attacked journalists, former employees, and anyone

by yarcob 5y ago

Musk has a history of going after people who critisize him in public. He (and his staff) have again and again attacked journalists, former employees, and anyone else who said anything bad about Tesla or Musk. A common thread is that they always try to present critics as liars and try to destroy their reputation. It's happened so often, that we must assume it's their standard method of operation. And whether that call was made by Musk himself or someone he instructed to ruin that persons life doesn't really make a difference. The fact is that Musk himself or one of his bullies lied to the police and they got away with it.

TeMPOraL 5y ago
> Musk has a history of going after people who critisize him in public. Does he? Can you name three cases? > He (and his staff) have again and again attacked journalists, former employees, and anyone else who said anything bad about Tesla or Musk. Again, can you name three cases where Musk went after a journalist or former employees, and we know, beyond reasonable doubt, that the victim was right - and not, in fact, lying through their teeth? I ask because there is documented history of the reverse happening. Consider: 1. Top Gear did a hit piece on their first car, lying about its range (55 vs. 200 miles). This doesn't sound serious until you realize that, back then, people didn't believe in electric cars, mostly because of range worries. This kind of bullshit was arguably life-threatening not just to Tesla, but to the entire EV industry. Anyway, Tesla sued for libel and lost[0]. Here's a kicker: they lost because the judge deemed Top Gear is an entertainment show and not documentary, therefore they're not obliged to be factually accurate. 2. The incident with Top Gear made Tesla install telemetry in the cars given out for test drives; this came in handy few years later, when John Broder from New York Times decided to publish a hit piece on Model S[1]. Tesla then released data from the logs, directly contradicting the story, and demonstrating that Broder put in extensive effort to fabricate the bad results he then reported on. I can't blame them from being a bit sensitive after situations like these. For the past decade, there were, and still are, a lot of people standing to make boatloads of money from bringing Tesla and the EV market down. -- [0] - https://www.wired.com/2012/02/tesla-vs-top-gear/ https://www.wired.com/2012/02/tesla-vs-top-gear/ [1] - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/feb/14/tesla-post-data-times-review https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/feb/14/tesla-pos...
- saiya-jin 5y ago
  What the heck are you talking about, Tesla failed at Top Gear because when you drive the car hard on laps (which is what TG was mostly doing), just like any other electric car the theoretical range goes down significantly. Just like any other car running on any other source of energy. It annoyed the hell out of them that after driving for few laps they have to wait for hours to charge the car to do few more laps. Musk's ego simply couldn't swallow the fact that show which is being watched by 300 million people regularly slanted his baby. Luckily in this case, his enemy wasn't some lone expert diver but BBC with team of expensive lawyers, hence the result.
- yarcob 5y ago
  Regarding the NY Times test drive, I would recommend to read an independent review rather than taking Musks blog posts as gospel.

by yarcob 5y ago

TeMPOraL 5y ago

> Musk has a history of going after people who critisize him in public. Does he? Can you name three cases? > He (and his staff) have again and again attacked journalists, former employees, and anyone else who said anything bad about Tesla or Musk. Again, can you name three cases where Musk went after a journalist or former employees, and we know, beyond reasonable doubt, that the victim was right - and not, in fact, lying through their teeth? I ask because there is documented history of the reverse happening. Consider: 1. Top Gear did a hit piece on their first car, lying about its range (55 vs. 200 miles). This doesn't sound serious until you realize that, back then, people didn't believe in electric cars, mostly because of range worries. This kind of bullshit was arguably life-threatening not just to Tesla, but to the entire EV industry. Anyway, Tesla sued for libel and lost[0]. Here's a kicker: they lost because the judge deemed Top Gear is an entertainment show and not documentary, therefore they're not obliged to be factually accurate. 2. The incident with Top Gear made Tesla install telemetry in the cars given out for test drives; this came in handy few years later, when John Broder from New York Times decided to publish a hit piece on Model S[1]. Tesla then released data from the logs, directly contradicting the story, and demonstrating that Broder put in extensive effort to fabricate the bad results he then reported on. I can't blame them from being a bit sensitive after situations like these. For the past decade, there were, and still are, a lot of people standing to make boatloads of money from bringing Tesla and the EV market down. -- [0] - https://www.wired.com/2012/02/tesla-vs-top-gear/ https://www.wired.com/2012/02/tesla-vs-top-gear/ [1] - https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/feb/14/tesla-post-data-times-review https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/feb/14/tesla-pos...

saiya-jin 5y ago
What the heck are you talking about, Tesla failed at Top Gear because when you drive the car hard on laps (which is what TG was mostly doing), just like any other electric car the theoretical range goes down significantly. Just like any other car running on any other source of energy. It annoyed the hell out of them that after driving for few laps they have to wait for hours to charge the car to do few more laps. Musk's ego simply couldn't swallow the fact that show which is being watched by 300 million people regularly slanted his baby. Luckily in this case, his enemy wasn't some lone expert diver but BBC with team of expensive lawyers, hence the result.
yarcob 5y ago
Regarding the NY Times test drive, I would recommend to read an independent review rather than taking Musks blog posts as gospel.