I think he would be relieved to get rid of Tesla if someone would buy it. The full self-driving promise was always a matter of interpretation, and the cars they build are more expensive symbols of status than practical products. Tesla can’t compete with global EV manufacturers, that’s a Damocles sword waiting to fall.
SpaceX is where the money is now, and all the electric innovation Tesla did can be used for something else.
Musk is getting $8 million each day from the US government to destroy the US government. He was given $44 billion to destroy Twitter. He's not worried about money.
Nobody at Tesla headquarters voted to alienate their customer base. No board meeting decided to turn their electric car company into a political lightning rod.
This is technically not true. The board keeps Elon Musk on as CEO of Tesla, and they granted him the biggest bonus package ever, while he was already very controversial and clearly was losing his mind, because they thought he would be able to make them money.
You're right, that's not just technically untrue. The board voted with their wallet, by giving him even more money than ever, so he could continue doing what he is doing.
The people on the board wouldn't give a shit if only Nazis buy their cars, as long as there's enough of them to keep buying.
Well joke's on them though, because it seems Musk has found a way to tap US citizens directly, so he probably doesn't even care much about Tesla anymore now that it is failing.
Elon has always been a terrible person, but he was once focused on things that society actually needed, like electrifying transportation to avoid climate collapse.
He seems to have gone sharply downhill into total insanity by taking ketamine while locking himself in a rightwing echo chamber. It’s the perfect storm of dissociating from reality.
Potential ketamine addiction aside, he's just gravitated toward where he sees more money and unfluence for himself. He wanted the prestige of being a leader in tech, so he used his influence and money to build SpaceX. Then he bullied his way into the ownership of Tesla, desperately wanting to appear as a genius to libertarian and liberal minds alike, but he's never been any less of an authoritarian. When Trump rose to power the first time, he sat and watched and along with the rest of the Silicon Valley Moguls, he began to move himself into positions of influence with populist politicians, borrowing the evangelical right's playbooks and throwing himself into the spotlight no matter the reason. He pivoted off his falsified image as some kind of American self-starter into MAGA rhetoric.
Musk doesn't have lofty ideals or any real focus on the betterment of society. I don't think he ever did. He just wanted to be a real life Tony Stark and command the influence that came with it. Now he doesn't need to, because he's got Trump in his back pocket and is mostly untouchable by any normal means.
The problem with Elon is he's been provably an idiot for the past 25 years.
The first thing I ever heard about Musky is that back in 2000-ish he wanted PayPal to take their infra, throw out all the Linux/BSD in use, and move everything to Windows NT.
Anyone who was even remotely IT adjacent in that era can come along and tell you how utterly moronic that idea is.
Anytime I've ever heard him blather on about some stupid shit that doesn't exist except in his delusions or talk about, well, ANYTHING technical or specialized all I was ever able to think of is that he got lucky that Thiel didn't drain all of his blood and leave his corpse in a ditch.
Dr Dorothy Bishop resigned from the Royal Society back in November 2024 because of Musk. Everybody knew. And being an FRS is a huge, huge deal to a British scientist.
Will he really need customers much longer? I mean it seems like he can just have any government agency replace their fleet with his trash in the name of "efficiency".
Apparently a big part of Tesla's business is selling carbon credits to other automakers... Which relies on them having a certain number of EV sales. If they drop below a threshold, then they can't sell those credits anymore.
He tied the financing of his loan to buy Twitter with Tesla shares, if they tank it pressures the Saudis to call in the billions they loaned him for the purchase. He'd survive, but it would embarrass him which would be funny.
Remember 2015? A Tesla parked in your driveway told your neighbours that you valued innovation, that you possessed an environmental conscience, that you had a stake in the future of the planet. The cars weren't perfect, but they meant something. They represented hope - for clean energy, EVs, and a world beyond fossil fuels.
This was me years go. I knew climate change was real and an imminent threat. I wanted to vote with my wallet for a cleaner future. I also wanted to strike a blow against the National Automotive Dealers Association for their regressive practices that hurt consumers and drive prices for cars higher for everyone. Buying a Tesla did those things. I charge the car on sunlight from my house. I don't have to support the petroleum industry's damage to environment and people around the world. I was proud to be doing something rather than just talking about needs for changes against climate change.
Musk doesn't get any of my money from this car. I don't pay for any of the Tesla monthly services. I'm don't want to be seen driving with a Tesla logo on the car. I'm ashamed that my good intentions funded a fascist.
There is no shame in your ownership of the vehicle based on your intentions; I would humbly assert that anger is a more appropriate reaction to the current leadership of the company that made it. If strangers judge you, that’s on them.
If I had had the means to purchase one 10+ years ago, I would have. Most people who claim they wouldn’t are not being honest with themselves or disapproved of the virtue signaling associated with them at the time.
Many bought Tesla's years before elon went full crazy-person, yet people are still vandalising their cars, calling them Nazi-slurs and saying they should be ashamed.
It’s crystal clear to me that Tesla played an important role at a key time, and pivoted the industry. The technology to do so had been there for a while but they lacked the will and they needed an innovator to scare them into action. Tesla did that. However, that role is now complete. I am flabbergasted that anyone still values this stock. Even setting aside this recent downturn in sales due to their brand going necrotic, they were already overmatched by the flood of competition coming their way. If major manufacturers don’t eat Tesla’s lunch, Chinese upstarts will. They can’t survive. They won’t survive. Even their supposed software advantage on self-driving has turned out to be a fraud, and the Simpertruck is a high profile failure. I’m glad that the stock hasn’t died yet though, because the rest of the world is still completing the transition to EVs, and the death of Tesla might put a chill on that. But in a few years, yeah, Tesla will blow away on the wind like so much dust.
This is me too. I have two of them bought and paid for and people just don't get it: I went all in on this and you can just sell for 15% of purchase price, I still have mobility needs. More to the point my swasticar still has access to the best charging network on the market and even if I COULD just sell, it's not cut and dry. It's easy to shit on Tesla, but it's still the best offering in the EV market for long range driving. And even if it was not, like fuck me I can't time travel. Most people who flame have no idea what the actual hell they are talking about.
I came really close back then, had a deposit but canceled due to realizing I had a perfectly good old car and didn't "need" one at the time. Hindsight says I lucked out.
If I did get it, and still had it (I would, I keep cars for 10+ years), I would probably rebadge it as an indicator of my dislike for what the brand has become.
I'd actually love to see a rebadging campaign by dissatisfied owners.
Maybe it’s time to get better at researching companies before major decisions. Do you have a system in place for doing background research on future large purchases?
That shame is no use unless it helps you update your behavior. Shame about a “one-off” decision in the past will continue to nag you until you figure out how to avoid the same mistake in the future.
So how can you avoid realizing ten years out that some big purchase you made supported someone you disagree with? How can you do it in advance?
Don't be a dick. No one's going around investigating the corporate culture of every parent corporation that they buy their product from because they'd be at it all damn day.
Did you even watch The Good Place that's the whole point of the show, you can't be a "good" person based on absolute morals, because it's impossible in the 21st century as the world is too complicated.
My buddy messed up and spilled a drink in his model X. When pulling up the carpet and panels to clean up he found a bunch of blue painter’s tape where there were supposed to be wiring harnesses and screws. You’ll note that blue painters tape is designed to be temporary, and will not last more than a year or two.
I've heard mixed stuff, like some people saying it's plastic and stuff and only serviceable via Tesla if things go wrong?
Others I know have driven it for years and have been happy except the whole Musk shit which leads to your point. (excluding Cybertruck, I don't know anyone that drives a Cybertruck).
We all know what’s going to happen, Elon just going to get a “government contract”, where he can make it so that teslas will be the main vehicle manufacturer for government.
Actually, no. Tesla always had huge QA issues. Panels not fitting on the cyber truck really isn't the first time that stuff just doesn't quite fit on teslas
I’m not away of any other car where this was something people had to check before delivery — apparently it was a bit of a common problem for a time. That seems absolutely crazy to me, and a major failure of QA as it poses a significant safety hazard.
My buddy messed up and spilled a drink in his model X. When pulling up the carpet and panels to clean up he found a bunch of blue painter’s tape where there were supposed to be wiring harnesses and screws. You’ll note that blue painters tape is designed to be temporary, and will not last more than a year or two.
And VWs were survivors, crossing the desert under air cooling and repairable usually with a pair of pliers and a screwdriver. The rear bumper can hold a grown man perched back there manually pulling the throttle if you bust the linkage ... or, so I ... hear.
I worry Teslas wouldn't survive long enough to become classics. They don't seem to be survivors.
I checked on where Edsel prices have gone. They mostly match inflation. Not a worthwhile investment as a car that people are interested in decades later because it's an infamous failure.
Everyone forgets where the German cars, Henry Ford, etc came from politically.
I was looking into my first EV, and politics just didn’t weigh that much into the decision. Now, the “infotainment as a perpetual service”, that turned me off and away from Tesla. With CarPlay my car dash will never lose service, and will always be free to use with updates from Apple/Google. I can’t imagine why people would ever pay for their infotainment when CarPlay is better or equal in all cases to the alternative.
That said, if Tesla and other brands were equally weighted in my purchase decision, I’d then happily rule Tesla out based on merit.
Not necessarily Carl Benz himself, but it has been litigated that the company had ties to the nazi regime. I’m not arguing that Mercedes was founded on Nazi values, I’m just saying there was a connection and a less than stellar history of bedfellows.
The issue is that the alternatives generally aren’t that much better in a vacuum. Infotainment vs Tesla infotainment (removing the CarPlay merits): It’s not even close. Tesla is like 10-15 years ahead of everything else on the US market in their price range. Car manufacturers famously lock in their tech and designs something like 3 years before public release.
Will there be meaningful software updates for your Kia EV6 in 2028? Absolutely not, no way.
Do you want to tow anything more than 1000Kg? Good luck outside of Tesla.
NACS? Not one single other car available yet.
Do you want a dashcam? Rivian is the only other brand, IIRC.
I’m not apologizing for Tesla, but it’s really painful how awful all other cars are compared to the competition.
That is an insane take to me. Elon Musk is Nazi scum and the Tesla has issues, but the infotainment system is the best you can get in any car and the main reason I haven't been able to get rid of it, ignoring the fact that literally every other non Chinese EV in the same price range in my country is objectively worse specced.
Having an extremely responsive map with satellite imagery that boots up instantly is already better than every other car out there, but it also has built-in dashcam and livestream functionality for all 4 cameras, which is a removed to install in other cars, and it's already saved me a bunch of times.
Android Auto just plain sucks ass, disconnects constantly and a lot of newer models still require a wired connection.
Also worth noting you're not paying for the infotainment, you're paying for the cellular connection, with whatever local cellular company they are working with. In my case it's cheaper than getting a data plan directly from the cellular company and my old Hyundai didn't even have that option in my country.
8% drop in car sales isn't great but I think the article is overselling the idea that the company is straight up dying. (Sadly) Most people just don't make a connection between how they spend their money and the politics of the people they prop up.
Tesla is definitely dying unless they can turn this around quickly.
Surplus capacity is expensive, and I bet they are already operating at a loss. And turning around a bad reputation is hard.
Their models are dated, the cheap Tesla is cancelled, the Cybertruck is a catastrophic fiasco, and the model Y has already lost a lot of popularity, so even a new mode already said to be mostly a facelift, is unlikely to make a huge difference.
The drop in sales in January in EU is 50%, and they are losing market share in China and USA too. So I think the actual drop is higher now than 8%.
Note that for Nissan a 5% drop last year was called catastrophic!! And their survival is also questioned, and they are way bigger than Tesla.
Plus of course if the US ever does impose import fees on Europe the obvious response would be to impose import fees on Tesla's. It's a luxury item so the general public probably won't hugely care, and it will hit the only person really to blame for all of this without unnecessarily targeting other US businesses. You know, how import fees are supposed to be used
I would too, but you have to understand why the USA is blocking these cars from coming in. The cost of these cheap EVs are not based off of supply and demand. Its not even this cheap because of effectiveness or efficiencies. Its from the CCP subsidies. The CCP wants to dump on the competition in efforts to kill off anyone making a car, then start jacking up the price after they have market share.
My dude the US subsidizes the shit out of its electric car industry. When someone brings up "supply and demand" and just tries to pretend that the economy is exactly what they learned in their econ101 class.
They are doing the tarrifs on Chinese EVS because (1) they can't compete on price and (2) the Chinese EVS are just a superior product.
You're right on China though. They are just doing exactly what the US has done for decades. It's just that the US doesn't like having to actually compete with another country. So instead of actually making better and cheaper cars they instead just decide to tell the American people "nah, looks like you're just being a shit Tesla"
The US loves to say "free market" but notice how they don't allow a free market to force their industry to actually innovate and compete.
China is not "cheating" by subsidizing it's industry. That's literally just standard shit every government does. Thats just an excuse. America is subsidizing it's EVs too. They just have worse EVs.
That's only half the truth though. The main reason why they're so cheap is because they manufacture everything in the supply chain themselves. Everything. They have their own mines for their resources, they make their own batteries (which they've been doing for ages), they make their own electronics, they make their own software etc.
They also have a completely different mindset. For them they are rolling electrical devices with some software. They don't need the knowhow of the traditional car manufacturers.
And then they bought the Audi designer along with his entire team to make the cars look good.
Edit: I'm talking about BYD. The rest is pretty much irrelevant.
Nothing quite says "American Capitalist bootlicker" more than proudly paying more for an inferior product while complaining that it's the Communists fault.
I guarantee that in a few months, mark my words, he will not be in DOGE anymore, he will pivot to the Left, and SHE will come out as trans.
I would almost willingly put money on this.
Edit: Not sure why I"m being downvoted on this, I'm not saying "Elon's bad so he must secretly be a leftist."
I'm saying he's transphobic in a "Methinks the Lady doeth protest too much way", and that he has no loyalty to anyone or anything outside of what he thinks will get him attention. So if he is rejected by the Right, he'll try to say he's "Seen the light" and go to the Left.
Why would he do that? He has the closest thing to absolute power that existed since the independance of the US, without even getting elected and he would loose everything : the non-Nazis won't forget what he did, and the Nazis won't accept him.
I think he will be kicked out of DOGE because of all the controversy and Trump's own distaste for him. That between this and firing so many people who voted for Trump, Elon will become Persona Non Grata to the Right, pivot to the Left searching for some group willing to give him attention....
And in doing so, he will finally come out as trans... and be mercilessly mocked by the Right over it.
He will never find a group that accepts him (well her at this point), because we'll still remember all the horrible things she did.
And sort of find herself in the same kind of limbo Caitlyn Jenner is in where Nazis hate her because she's trans, and Non-Nazis hate her because she's transphobic.
This is how I'm convinced Elon's story will end. Just how I feel like this is going down.
I'm voicing my opinion about titles like that. They are posted here to invoke a reaction. 99% of commenters here haven't read the article. The title is the whole reason why it's posted.
Nazi's are far-right to the extreme, Musk and Trump are Right-Wing. Nothing more. Disagreeing with them doesn't make them Nazi's and calling them Nazi's actually says more about that persons intolerance than they think it does.
When you're a billionaire. Then it turns out, you're just giving your heart to the crowd. And then, when you fund and speak at Nazi party rallies overseas, you're just fighting "woke" or something. And when you agree that "Jews are doing ethnic replacement" on Twitter, you just have to take pictures at a concentration camp and you're a "friend of Israel"
But I do enjoy when people get fired because they think they can do it too
I'm not going to get into how the Federation are clearly space Nazi's right now. However I'm not sure how my username should effect my feelings about freedoms we no longer enjoy in the UK. Freedoms that according to the UK government only pedophiles and far-right extremists care about. Don't forget that as our freedoms are being removed I now need to use a VPN to access Lemmy.zip because we have rampant censorship and no free speech.
Its not intolerance to refuse to support them. Being far right makes you a liar and bigot at the very least. I haven't seen one example of a decent human being who considers themselves far right.
Everyone that isn't a Leftist gets slapped with the far-right label these days though. Especially by the British government where ANY anti-immigration sentiment or even patriotism is branded dangerous far-right.
Hell even waving our own flag in Britain will get you labelled as far-right.
The term gets thrown around while most people don't really understand it. That is what is dangerous.
I guess you could say the same about Hitler, since he didn't personally kill any jews. If killing jews isn't a requirement then there is definetly evidence that musk is a neo-nazi
This is exactly what this polarizing title intended to do. Attract people like you who relativise the atrocities Hitler has done. Populism is a removed and you're falling right for it.
Just give me an informative article with normal title and stop filling Lemmy with all of this clickbaity populistic shit that helps nobody. I'm tired of it and tired of discussing it too.
The only very few, specific categories I didn't find any explicit mentions of him doing in my 10 minutes of searching around were anti-Romani sentiment and social darwinism, and you'd be hard pressed to prove that everyone you'd probably otherwise consider a Nazi throughout history believed every single possible bullet point in this Wikipedia page.
If all this doesn't make him a Nazi, then I don't know what does.
History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Musk isn't a member of the Nazi party. He does hold a lot of important views in common with them, however. He also associates with people who fit most of the rest.
What percentage do you think is needed before calling someone a Nazi?
I disagree. He's done enough that calling him a Nazi feels accurate to me. Or at least enough of a Nazi sympathizer that I totally support not doing business with him.
What I get frustrated by is justifying hurting the people that have his cars. Having a Tesla does not make one a Nazi sympathizer. You could maybe make the case that buying one today might, but even then I don't think it's justified attacking people for having a car.
If you want to be an extremist about it, hurt the dealerships and the company. Don't go after people who are almost certainly not that different from you. The people keying cars just want to feel smugly superior to someone and feel morally justified for being an asshole, they don't want to make anything better for anyone. If that's how you act, you're just a fascist with a slightly different ideology.