News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Tesla co-founder and CTO JB Straubel stepping down. Parent comment

Re:Tesla co-founder and CTO JB Straubel stepping down by AnthonyMouse on Thursday July 25, 2019 @04:11AM (#20523554)
The demographic point is true, but it really invalidates the whole thing, because you have to be assuming that the same people who buy a Tesla would have otherwise bought a Mercedes S class and not e.g. a Corvette or Porsche. If the Telsa owners skew younger or have other demographic differences from ordinary luxury car purchasers then the comparison is meaningless without factoring that in because you're measuring the driver behavior as much as the cars. (And choosing "luxury cars" rather than "sports cars" or just "cars" as the comparison is maximally unfavorable, since luxury vehicles are generally the safest available regardless of driver.)
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tesla co-founder and CTO JB Straubel stepping down by hef19898 on Thursday July 25, 2019 @05:55AM (#20524022)
The comparison between Tesla and other luxury cars isn't that far of. It is even the one Tesla is using, or was using, to show success compared to high priced Mercedes, Audi, Porsche and BMW models.

One thing I find annoying is that Tesla and Musk seem to always move the goal post to point where it suits them best. For me stuff like self-driving taxis and sattelite internet are prime examples. It looks, at least to me, like running away from rwality faster than it can catch up.

One last point regarding luxury cars and safety. Tesla is proud of being the top performer at the NCAP crash test. And all of a sudden that comparison is unfair just because the numbers aren't positive for Tesla?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Tesla co-founder and CTO JB Straubel stepping down by MegaButts on Thursday July 25, 2019 @04:23AM (#20523614)
That's a valid criticism, but I still think it's the best analysis with the available data.

FWIW, and this is completely anecdotal, I find Tesla drivers to be the most obnoxious on the road - which would lend credence to your argument that it attracts a certain kind of person and is not the car itself. That's ignoring the entire Autopilot X factor though, which is a whole separate conversation with even more missing data.

‾\_(ツ)_/‾

[ Parent | on HN ]