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PR more than anything. Tesla growth story is pretty much over, many people turned off the brand for a multitude of reasons (Musk, terrible service, price, lack

PR more than anything. Tesla growth story is pretty much over, many people turned off the brand for a multitude of reasons (Musk, terrible service, price, lack of innovation, more EV competition). So if anything a good opportunity for Tesla to win some PR, potentially expand partnership, sell more cars. Now they get more bad news "rental company dumps Tesla because of XYZ", the used market took a big hit as well pissing off existing owners, and I feel like this pushes newer buyers even more away.

jjulius 2y ago
>PR more than anything. Tesla doesn't believe in PR[1]. [1]https://electrek.co/2021/04/28/elon-musk-no-new-tesla-pr-department-manipulating-public-opinion/ https://electrek.co/2021/04/28/elon-musk-no-new-tesla-pr-dep...
- Spooky23 2y ago
  They didn’t believe in advertising either, but I’m getting alot of it.
- CydeWeys 2y ago
  And yet Elon does massive PR stunts on the regular, including smashing a Cybertruck's windows at a launch event. Curious...
  - jjulius 2y ago
    >And yet Elon... Elon does that. Tesla doesn't have a PR department to spend the time thinking about the things that the OP suggested they should consider.
    - CydeWeys 2y ago
      The parent comment said "Tesla doesn't believe in PR". It's clear that Tesla does in fact believe in PR judging by all of Elon's related activities, they just do it differently than other companies. Also, look at website content like this: https://www.tesla.com/about https://www.tesla.com/about That is PR, regardless of whether you want to call the people doing it "PR" or not.
      - jjulius 2y ago
        Elon believes in doing his own PR, but Tesla does not, simple as that. If I'm to believe that Tesla does believe in PR then, as I mentioned in response to another user, I'd wager they'd be doing a lot more to improve their image given how much of a negative impact Elon's poor attempts at shaping public discourse via Twitter has had on Tesla lately, where their stock is at, etc. An "about" page is bog standard stuff and a pretty paltry effort in the grand scheme of the things a PR department at a company the size of Tesla would otherwise traditionally be doing. It's like, yes, technically that's a form of PR, sure, but it ain't much.
- FireBeyond 2y ago
  LOL. Tesla believes heavily in PR, Musk just doesn't believe in PR departments. That's why if you're involved in a Tesla accident, even a fatal one, Tesla will have no hesitation holding a press conference, pulling vehicle telemetry, to make sure that (rightly or wrongly) blame goes to you as the driver and not Tesla. They'll make statements like "Autopilot wasn't to blame here. The vehicle had warned the driver of his inattentiveness", and the Tesla fans will nod their heads, reassured. What will later come out will be that Autopilot was active, and that while a driver attention (steering wheel) warning had occurred on the fateful trip, it had happened ONCE, and that that one time was EIGHTEEN MINUTES prior to the collision. But there won't be a press conference to correct those details.
  - tnmom 2y ago
    I feel compelled to point out that usually, the story develops the other direction - from: "Autopilot crashes car, kills family!" to (with much less fanfare): "Actually, it was a drunk dude driving manually and wrapped his car around a tree at 120mph in his own driveway"
    - callalex 2y ago
      Got an example of that?
      - jdminhbg 2y ago
        Yes: https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/21/22738834/tesla-crash-texas-driver-seat-occupied-ntsb https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/21/22738834/tesla-crash-tex...
    - avgDev 2y ago
      I have never seen such a story from a respected source. Please provide some examples.
      - jjulius 2y ago
        Two minutes before you responded: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39933211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39933211
- mrgoldenbrown 2y ago
  Musk might claim to not believe in PR but his twitter activities (both the purchase and his actual tweets) strongly imply he does care about public opinion and his ability to shape it.
  - jjulius 2y ago
    What Musk does on Twitter is wholly separate from Tesla not having a PR department to handle some of the things that OP suggested. In fact, I'd wager that the lack of a PR department hampers Tesla's ability to control the negative reactions towards the company that have been caused by Musk's attempts to shape public discourse on Twitter.
- Draiken 2y ago
  Which is in itself, a PR stunt.
Rinzler89 2y ago
>the used market took a big hit as well pissing off existing owners Oh no, poor wealthy Tesla owners loosing value on their car. /s Since when are ordinary cars appreciable investments? It's been well known cars tank in value, especially when you're an early adopter of new tech in a market that's in constant disruption. Your 1999 GeForce 256 also lost most of it's value in a year compared to other later GPUs, it's the nature of tech in a rapidly changing market. People who expect cars to hold/go up in value need to buy limite edition exotics, not mass produced commodities. EVs tanking in value on the used market is good for EV adoption as non wealthy people can afford them.
- sandworm101 2y ago
  >> good for EV adoption as non wealthy people can afford them. The sticker price isn't the issue. The issue is ironically fuel costs. Anyone who doesn't own their own house will rely on commercial chargers. In many circumstances a commercial charger can cost more per-mile than gasoline, and certainly they take much more time. So the non-rich, people who rent apartments and don't generally have spare time, cannot afford a used EV despite the sticker price. Not-rich people also generally own only one car. They cannot "afford" a vehicle that is expensive to fix, both in time and cash. A couple days waiting for a part is a couple days missed work. A few weeks without a car (ie most any Tesla repair) could mean a lost job.
- rurp 2y ago
  It's a matter of degrees. A car losing 25% of its value is much better than losing 75% over the same time period. How well a vehicle will hold its value is a factor that many people factor into their purchasing decisions.
  - Rinzler89 2y ago
    >How well a vehicle will hold its value is a factor that many people factor into their purchasing decisions. Cars are commodities, like microwave ovens or washing machines, not houses. You won't get any sympathy because your risky economic bet didn't pan out the way you expected it to.

jjulius 2y ago

>PR more than anything. Tesla doesn't believe in PR[1]. [1]https://electrek.co/2021/04/28/elon-musk-no-new-tesla-pr-department-manipulating-public-opinion/ https://electrek.co/2021/04/28/elon-musk-no-new-tesla-pr-dep...

Spooky23 2y ago
They didn’t believe in advertising either, but I’m getting alot of it.
CydeWeys 2y ago
And yet Elon does massive PR stunts on the regular, including smashing a Cybertruck's windows at a launch event. Curious...
- jjulius 2y ago
  >And yet Elon... Elon does that. Tesla doesn't have a PR department to spend the time thinking about the things that the OP suggested they should consider.
  - CydeWeys 2y ago
    The parent comment said "Tesla doesn't believe in PR". It's clear that Tesla does in fact believe in PR judging by all of Elon's related activities, they just do it differently than other companies. Also, look at website content like this: https://www.tesla.com/about https://www.tesla.com/about That is PR, regardless of whether you want to call the people doing it "PR" or not.
    - jjulius 2y ago
      Elon believes in doing his own PR, but Tesla does not, simple as that. If I'm to believe that Tesla does believe in PR then, as I mentioned in response to another user, I'd wager they'd be doing a lot more to improve their image given how much of a negative impact Elon's poor attempts at shaping public discourse via Twitter has had on Tesla lately, where their stock is at, etc. An "about" page is bog standard stuff and a pretty paltry effort in the grand scheme of the things a PR department at a company the size of Tesla would otherwise traditionally be doing. It's like, yes, technically that's a form of PR, sure, but it ain't much.
FireBeyond 2y ago
LOL. Tesla believes heavily in PR, Musk just doesn't believe in PR departments. That's why if you're involved in a Tesla accident, even a fatal one, Tesla will have no hesitation holding a press conference, pulling vehicle telemetry, to make sure that (rightly or wrongly) blame goes to you as the driver and not Tesla. They'll make statements like "Autopilot wasn't to blame here. The vehicle had warned the driver of his inattentiveness", and the Tesla fans will nod their heads, reassured. What will later come out will be that Autopilot was active, and that while a driver attention (steering wheel) warning had occurred on the fateful trip, it had happened ONCE, and that that one time was EIGHTEEN MINUTES prior to the collision. But there won't be a press conference to correct those details.
- tnmom 2y ago
  I feel compelled to point out that usually, the story develops the other direction - from: "Autopilot crashes car, kills family!" to (with much less fanfare): "Actually, it was a drunk dude driving manually and wrapped his car around a tree at 120mph in his own driveway"
  - callalex 2y ago
    Got an example of that?
    - jdminhbg 2y ago
      Yes: https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/21/22738834/tesla-crash-texas-driver-seat-occupied-ntsb https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/21/22738834/tesla-crash-tex...
  - avgDev 2y ago
    I have never seen such a story from a respected source. Please provide some examples.
    - jjulius 2y ago
      Two minutes before you responded: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39933211 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39933211
mrgoldenbrown 2y ago
Musk might claim to not believe in PR but his twitter activities (both the purchase and his actual tweets) strongly imply he does care about public opinion and his ability to shape it.
- jjulius 2y ago
  What Musk does on Twitter is wholly separate from Tesla not having a PR department to handle some of the things that OP suggested. In fact, I'd wager that the lack of a PR department hampers Tesla's ability to control the negative reactions towards the company that have been caused by Musk's attempts to shape public discourse on Twitter.
Draiken 2y ago
Which is in itself, a PR stunt.

Rinzler89 2y ago

>the used market took a big hit as well pissing off existing owners Oh no, poor wealthy Tesla owners loosing value on their car. /s Since when are ordinary cars appreciable investments? It's been well known cars tank in value, especially when you're an early adopter of new tech in a market that's in constant disruption. Your 1999 GeForce 256 also lost most of it's value in a year compared to other later GPUs, it's the nature of tech in a rapidly changing market. People who expect cars to hold/go up in value need to buy limite edition exotics, not mass produced commodities. EVs tanking in value on the used market is good for EV adoption as non wealthy people can afford them.

sandworm101 2y ago
>> good for EV adoption as non wealthy people can afford them. The sticker price isn't the issue. The issue is ironically fuel costs. Anyone who doesn't own their own house will rely on commercial chargers. In many circumstances a commercial charger can cost more per-mile than gasoline, and certainly they take much more time. So the non-rich, people who rent apartments and don't generally have spare time, cannot afford a used EV despite the sticker price. Not-rich people also generally own only one car. They cannot "afford" a vehicle that is expensive to fix, both in time and cash. A couple days waiting for a part is a couple days missed work. A few weeks without a car (ie most any Tesla repair) could mean a lost job.
rurp 2y ago
It's a matter of degrees. A car losing 25% of its value is much better than losing 75% over the same time period. How well a vehicle will hold its value is a factor that many people factor into their purchasing decisions.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  >How well a vehicle will hold its value is a factor that many people factor into their purchasing decisions. Cars are commodities, like microwave ovens or washing machines, not houses. You won't get any sympathy because your risky economic bet didn't pan out the way you expected it to.