The factory that makes hydraulic fluid for Tesla's presses that stamp out car parts is also part of the transportation supply chain, As is the oil refinery that supplies feedstock to the hydraulic oil vendor.
(Just to be clear, I'm not defending Tesla here. They have the choice to shutdown regardless of government order or exemptions)
If the largest business in the area was producing nail varnish, you might find that "beauticians are staying open too based upon the same exemption" - it would still be special treament because neither of them should be open.
I honestly think the thing we will learn from this pandemic is that we can't stop a modern economy like this for a couple months without also incurring significant loss of life. If this shutdown extends more than a month we're going to see supplies start to run low and people will panic. Grocery stores around me (large northeastern city) are already having trouble restocking.
At the same time, I hope Tesla is going as far as they can to protect their workers... and that will probably be the real story at the end of all of this, "What companies did to protect their workers and the economy around them."
We're heading into the next great depression, and it's going to take a New Deal type of effort to recover. Trump is actually in a remarkably similar position to Hoover in all this too; so it's not unprecedented to be headed into something like this with a nincompoop at the helm.
We need to "Flatten the curve" enough to spread out critical care capacity surges without over-achieving to the extent we cause even more harm long-term to the world's poorest populations. We need a constant gradual rate of CV19 spread. If we "full stop" CV19's spread now, when social distancing and lockdowns lift, we'll be facing Wuhan/Italy surges again.
Yes, I believe that is rather the point of the exemptions laid out in the order. The health commissioner is trying to prevent infections of Covid-19, not destroy the economy.
Tell me how you feel about drycleaners. They are also explicitly exempted as businesses providing essential services.
Actually, now that I think about it, you're right: It is more important to have a crisply-pressed suit than transportation to the grocery store for food. Grab the pitchforks, let's get Elon!
However, I’d like to point out that you’ve done the same thing again: while I do not personally have a maid, I might have been disabled and require a housekeeper to do some cleaning that I was incapable of. Fortunately, unlike you, the public health department has also thought of that scenario and covered it in their order as well.
And I suspect their other products (power wall), etc, are more upper middle class, unless there are new apartment communities using it.
And I say this as a Model 3 owner. It's a nice car for sure, but I personally wouldn't call it a luxury car.
Sure, its a premium with premium perforance, but its not "luxurious". Conversely, you can get more "luxurious" cars with worse performance for about the same money.
Want luxury and premium performance? That's another 10k (at least) with most brands and Tesla doesn't really offer a car with both at all, IMO.
Outside of performance, what features does my Model 3 have that my Subaru BRZ didn't?
Heated seats are pretty standard these days. My TM3 has heated seats in the rear. The TM3 has a better entertainment unit for sure, but I could have certainly replaced the head unit in my BRZ if I wanted navigation and Spotify integration. There's self-driving features, but all Subaru's these days except the BRZ have lane-keeping and TACC, which makes it on par with the AP I have, since I didn't pay for FSD. My BRZ even had dual-zone automatic climate controls!
The only things I can think of that my Model 3 has that my BRZ didn't are the automatic wipers, the a power passenger seat, and profiles for the power driver seat.
What features would the TM3 need to be considered a luxury vehicle? I can think of a few things it doesn't have.
- Heated steering wheel
- Entertainment screens built into the back of the front seats
- Air suspension
- Higher quality paint
That makes it cheaper[2] than a Honda Civic ($36.3), Volvo S50 ($36), and a BMW 2-series ($35.3).
Are they luxury cars?
[1] Please don't say you can't actually buy one for that, it has been proven many, many times that you can, you just have to call Tesla.
Taking this one step further, auto repair businesses can't very well repair cars if there are no parts available, and those parts come from Fremont. Therefore, the Tesla factory would (at least in part) theoretically already qualify for an exemption under the existing order.
One could also make the argument that (given that private transportation has been deemed an "essential" service) replacing worn out or destroyed cars is essential, and thus manufacturing finished cars qualifies for an exemption.