3 ms·

Elon is revealing too much hubris in his messaging. You can treat people around you like that, but lining up too many people against you is foolish. His intent

by pistle 13y ago

Elon is revealing too much hubris in his messaging. You can treat people around you like that, but lining up too many people against you is foolish. His intent is to PR+burnish the added safety feature. Instead of selling it as an objective demonstration of the leadership tact that Tesla takes in ensuring driver security, he gets passive-aggressive. Instead of laying out a tremendous history of safety as a foundation for a vision of the future of driving, he lords it as an accomplished achievement... which means the first time someone gets stuck inside the car and is burned alive, all these statements will bite him in the ass. It doesn't matter if that happened 100 times in gas cars the same year. Those manufacturers weren't overselling it. In aggressively projecting strength, it expresses weakness.

_zen 13y ago
So the first death Tesla ever had will nullify their safety record? Ok. All the first death will do is have media go nuts, then Musk will make another blog post calling them idiots for making a big deal of 1 death in the history of Tesla, compared to the thousands of every other car manufacturer.
andrewtbham 13y ago
tesla is weak. they are a huge underdog against the other car companies. they are david versus goliath. they are being cocky. that's what the small dog does :-) there is a risk of a bad accident that could be bad pr. that risk exists with or without the arrogance. elon musk has a high tolerance for calculated risk. that's why he's a billionaire and you and i are 2nd guessing him on hacker news.
- larrys 13y ago
  "elon musk has a high tolerance for calculated risk" And perhaps he will be the survivor that is referred to when stories about survivorship bias are passed around. Or maybe he will crash and burn with that calculated risk. "that's why he's a billionaire and you and i are 2nd guessing him on hacker news." There are billionaires (or close to it) on hacker news btw. Of course if one of those "billionaires" went out and said something like that that wouldn't go over to well would it? Would you like a commenter on HN to say something like "well that's why you are driving a used Yugo and I am driving a brand new Lamborghini that I paid cash for?" as justification for why they know something or are somehow better than you are?

by pistle 13y ago

_zen 13y ago

So the first death Tesla ever had will nullify their safety record? Ok. All the first death will do is have media go nuts, then Musk will make another blog post calling them idiots for making a big deal of 1 death in the history of Tesla, compared to the thousands of every other car manufacturer.

andrewtbham 13y ago

tesla is weak. they are a huge underdog against the other car companies. they are david versus goliath. they are being cocky. that's what the small dog does :-) there is a risk of a bad accident that could be bad pr. that risk exists with or without the arrogance. elon musk has a high tolerance for calculated risk. that's why he's a billionaire and you and i are 2nd guessing him on hacker news.

larrys 13y ago
"elon musk has a high tolerance for calculated risk" And perhaps he will be the survivor that is referred to when stories about survivorship bias are passed around. Or maybe he will crash and burn with that calculated risk. "that's why he's a billionaire and you and i are 2nd guessing him on hacker news." There are billionaires (or close to it) on hacker news btw. Of course if one of those "billionaires" went out and said something like that that wouldn't go over to well would it? Would you like a commenter on HN to say something like "well that's why you are driving a used Yugo and I am driving a brand new Lamborghini that I paid cash for?" as justification for why they know something or are somehow better than you are?