I think a simpler explanation is that terminally online people just don't like the politics of the CEO and like to take any chance to dunk on him.
In a world that has been stagnant for decades in terms of design and doing things out the box, it's something at least trying to be different. Don't get all the hate
People were dunking on the Cybertruck before Musk made that sharp turn into a political lightning rod around when COVID hit. I recall seeing discussion about how silly the car is, even during the height of his popularity.
Some of us need trucks purely to move dirtbikes and snowmobiles and it will do that.
Add in the requirement of "electric" and there are cheaper options but none that are cheap that are also allowed to be sold in the USA (remains to be seen how much you can get away with temporarily moving a BYD Shark over the border from Mexico and never bringing it back)
What's your definition of a car person? I don't care for the guy, but having multiple modified super cars and building several custom trucks in the past -- he seems like a car [truck] person to me?
I prefer Sarah-n-tuned but something tells me that folks who want to purity test folks on if they are a “car person” or not will really dislike the idea of a trans female appearing person knowing more about cars than 99% of the “car people” of YouTube.
I think that no matter who makes an off-road vehicle that rusts when wet, people that are aware of that issue (there's many more, that's just the first one that comes to mind) are going to cast shade on the product.
It feels a lot like rotten tomatoes adience vs critic rating deviations. Here, just like there, the critic scores are irrelevant because they arent the buyer
Elon Musk made it too easy to dunk on him with the CyberTruck, similar to the last Tesla event, it was kinda hilarious how bad that was, even if you agree with his political ideas, I don't know how you would have a different opinion about it.
It's always about making impossible promises and talking about the future they hope to achieve, not things that will be available soon. Also, much of the talk made little sense, such as "individualized mass transit", it doesn't seem to solve any problem they were talking about.
Also, the robots that are controlled remotely by humans without disclosuring it is hilarious.
A goal not some metric that has to be met. It’s a goal, an aspiration to do something, not a deadline.
Most businesses ran by people who use goals as deadlines fail horridly.
This is one thing many of the major companies that are ultra successful have in common. They are ran by people who set goals, failed to meet the goal - and continued to move forward.
Name me a product that Tesla has sold that did not meet the spec advertised on the buy page with the price?
You can’t. What you can do is name cases where Tesla says they aspire to make “X” and er got “Y” by the time we could buy it.
The closest thing we have to what you describe is FSD or whatever they call it. And it was sold as hardware that would be used once they got it working.
The only gymnastics we have here is you trying to make a case for fraud. You are the one acting cult like, and yes it is infuriating to us who are not obsessed with Elon.
I don’t know dem own a Tesla product, and probably never will.
Furthermore my comment was completely disconnected from Tesla and was an attack on a style of thinking related to all companies. Then you who are obsessed with Elon brought all that baggage into it simply because you worried that a sound and logical comment might not align with your view of the person you are obsessed with.
"Politics of the CEO" is both an understatement and a little bit of missing the point.
If we put the Musk Twitter/Trump/right wing stuff aside, there's still a big problem with Tesla and Musk in general: poor build quality especially on new product launches, exaggerations and lies about product capability, pricing, and the upcoming product roadmap, and the cult-like following that places Tesla's somewhat mundane product achievements on a pedastel.
For example, the idea that only Tesla is doing things out of the box, that they're the only ones who aren't stagnant...well, that's only true if you're in the cult and you ignore all the other carmakers. I don't think Kia/Hyundai's design is stagnant. I don't think the Chinese car industry is stagnant. I don't think the host of other EV startups like Rivian or Lucid are stagnant.
The Cybertruck doesn't have any unique features that other carmakers aren't doing besides having stainless steel panels that are literally glued on to the unibody frame and can't be painted. Toyota, the most boring car company, has steer by wire (Lexus RZ). If you buy a Rivian you get better range and capability. The Cybertruck isn't even the best EV truck, never mind the best truck of any powertrain.
And the final part of the Tesla hate is all the ways in which their "innovation" has been basically dangerous bullshit. Putting beta versions of self-driving code on the road, making a car with stainless steel panels that are not pedestrian safe, all their documented issues with plant safety and labor issues, removing physical controls for critical car functionality like gear shifting and turn signal stalks to generally deliver a car UI that encourages distracted driving more than perhaps any other brand. These types of things are the place where the "hate" becomes "justified outrage over corporate neglegence."
Elon Musk should dump Trump, support Kamala, perma-ban the right-wing and whoever the White House wants from Twitter. Then his popularity on HN will increase by 100x and HN commenters will start loving the Cybertrucks and start (re)liking X.
the reason he went with trump is because the dems sided with the legacy auto manufacturers who were trying to shove tesla under the rug and for woke and trans issues the Dems wouldnt give him support but it falls to be seen whether trump isn't just going to use him the same way since hes clearly hungry for oil
In a world that has been stagnant for decades in terms of design and doing things out the box, it's something at least trying to be different. Don't get all the hate