That is a little harsh, according to that recent Consumer Reports study Tesla is middle of the pack on reliability. At least according to Ars' take on the data, they build a quite good powertrain it is the rest of the car they haven't gotten good at yet.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/11/evs-have-79-more-reliab...
I'd argue Tesla min/maxed aspects of their product that gave them a initial strong lead in product space. Quintessentially performance/distance/charger-availability, but also some aspects of their tech really stood out like the touchscreen performance and mobile integration (relative to what other cars had in the mid 2010s.
IMO that initial lead has diminished. Other brands are catching up and do better in terms of some aspects of quality control and now reputation. If this trend continues I think we could see Tesla losing in most metrics, although we still probably have a good chunk of time until that happens.
If I had to buy an electric car today Tesla would still be one of the first cars I researched. Maybe Tesla would win. But in a few years I wholly expect another brand would win out.
New Tesla's are literally worse to my thinking. Would I like more range? Sure, I guess, but truth is that 70% charge on the S is reliably enough range that unless I'm traveling cross country, the car just tops up every night.
I will buy another EV. It's very unlikely to be a Tesla both for their ergonomic design and Elon's very public display of policy positions and opinions that I disagree with.
Is there a car that currently actually does it? Asking because I am yet to see one. And every single tesla model I’ve ever seen in real life uses normal turn signal stalks, so that wasn’t the car you were referencing either.
Edit: Actually, with how dry it can get in wintertime, sometimes my fingers don't even work.
And then they kept lying about the self driving problems and kept trying to gaslight their customers about all the issues. All that was before the Fall of Musk. I just can't trust Tesla at all.
There was some awesome engineering done there (much respect, honestly), but at the end of the day I think I prefer a boring car that wasn't built with a "move fast and break things and kill people" mentality.
From what I understand they still lead the EV space in several metrics, but other manufacturers have done a lot of catching up in the last few years. Add that to greater reliability and build quality, and inclusion of physical controls (anyone who thinks replacing the indicator/turn signal stalk with capacitive buttons is sensible has clearly never driven in the UK—my 15 minute drive into the office crosses 11 roundabouts).
Plus I've developed such a strong personal distaste for Musk over the last few years that it's hard to want to give him money, however indirectly.