• magnetosphere
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    10911 months ago

    Probably the best line I have read in any article this month:

    I drove back and forth to a bookstore job in an ancient Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais so apocalyptically derelict that when I got pulled over for a busted taillight, the lady cop fixed me with sad eyes and asked “Is everything OK with you?”

    • 𝓢𝓮𝓮𝓙𝓪𝔂𝓔𝓶𝓶
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      7711 months ago

      This article is peppered with em.

      The reason those companies, and not Tesla, know how to build cars that (in general) can drive from here to there without dropping a wheel or bursting into flames is not that they are staffed by a bunch of centenarian Lore Wizards who learned the secrets of auto manufacture back in nineteen-aught-dickity and now hide this sacred knowledge in a walled mountaintop abbey.

        • @[email protected]
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          811 months ago

          If you just go to any of the actual information pages about the blog, you’ll very quickly see it’s a genuine thing.

        • @[email protected]
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          811 months ago

          One would expect a spam blog to at least serve ads? Seems like a lot of effort to write an entire editorial without even so much as a revenue stream.

    • Doofus Magoo
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      2011 months ago

      Respectfully, Defector is about the furthest thing from a spam blog that you’ll find on the internet, my dude/lady.

      It was formed a few years back by writers fleeing the sinking ship that was Deadspin.

      I’d encourage you to check out some of their other articles and judge for yourself.

    • @[email protected]
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      611 months ago

      It pretty clearly states in the first paragraph that it’s a blog. It’s okay to post blogs. Moreover, the author specifically encourages reading the quoted Reuters report:

      The Reuters piece is quite long, and earns its length with an incredible wealth of damning receipts, including internal Tesla communications making clear that the company has known about its own shoddy work for a long time, even as it deceived investors, regulators, and drivers. I urge you to read it for yourself.

  • @[email protected]
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    3411 months ago

    The bloom was off the rose pretty early with people that know about cars. I remember seeing a video of an engineering team disassembling one a few years after they launched and finding all sorts of crazy assembly problems that you’d think would have been worked out by then. I’m talking about bad welds, some not in the correct place, and random bolts rattling around in door panels, that kind of stuff. I give them credit for capturing the collective imagination on what an electric car could be and championing them as cool. But they still have a lot of work to do to catch up in the quality and reliability realm compared to established car companies. The fact that they have significantly less moving parts yet still haven’t been shown to be more reliable than a lot of ICE vehicles says something.

    • @[email protected]
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      1511 months ago

      It makes them too much money. When they’re charging tens of thousands for a battery replacement, and the only way to fix the car without getting banned from the charging network is to go to the dealership… this will never get fixed.

  • @[email protected]
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    11 months ago

    IDK, even since Fight Club we know that cars have defects that kill people and the car companies send Edward Norton to check if it’s cheaper to pay to the victims or go to court. This is nothing new. I wouldn’t get to worked up about it until I’ve seen some statistics saying that for example Tesla drivers get into more accidents than other drivers or something. O, wait…

    • @[email protected]
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      411 months ago

      So it’s OK because other companies have been shitty, besides Tyler Durden warned us?

      But I give you credit, this is the first time I’ve seen Fight Club unironically used as a source outside the Incel community.

      • @[email protected]
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        111 months ago

        No, it’s not OK but we have seen better reporting on how shitty Tesla is than this article. I don’t think it really proves anything.

    • @[email protected]
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      311 months ago

      This isn’t true because of what was said by a character in a movie. Planned obsolescence is a thing the big 3 pioneered.

  • @trackcharlie
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    1211 months ago

    Seems more like a hit piece on tesla than an article describing actual issues that have statistics associated with it.

      • @trackcharlie
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        -611 months ago

        I just don’t understand why so many people shit on the companies, customers and employees for something a borderline retarded CEO says or does.

        • @[email protected]
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          211 months ago

          I mean, probably because musk has been so insufferable and publicly injects himself into the DNA of his brands. Musk and Tesla are deeply intertwined.

          I think walmart and Google overall are worse than Tesla, but Sam Walton and the Google CEO I’d have to… ahem, Google, don’t slather their ids all over every aspect of those companies. That had the sense to keep their mouths shut and not hog the spotlight

    • @[email protected]
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      011 months ago

      I mean wouldn’t any article about Tesla build quality come off as a hit piece due to how shit the build quality is?

      They ain’t doing anything good in there.

      • @trackcharlie
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        111 months ago

        Sure, if the only thing they were talking about was just the build quality. However they didn’t decide to stop there, nor in my opinion, did they keep it professional at all. The article reads more like the opinion piece of someone who’s got a personal vendetta against tesla or the ceo rather than someone judging a vehicle on its quality of construction.

  • @[email protected]
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    811 months ago

    “I’m just gonna make a car out of cardboard box cuz I refuse to be told how to do it by a b-b-b-BOOOMER!”

  • kingthrillgore
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    811 months ago

    What amazes me is this is a luxury brand of car, which should have a higher quality of part. And its built like a badly assembled kit car.

    • Bizzle
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      1611 months ago

      You should read the Reuters article, there’s actually some pretty bad stuff in there.

    • @[email protected]
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      1511 months ago

      Did you even read this? The car’s suspension fell off going over a speed bump because the wiring was corroded when it went through a car wash and charged a man 4400 dollars for it. If that isn’t a cause for outrage then I don’t know what is.

      • @[email protected]
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        -411 months ago

        Yes, I read this. Yes, that’s bad, but it’s one instance, ONE. Are you conveniently forgetting the hundreds of insane recalls that have happened from other car manufacturers in the past, many with equal or worse safety hazards? Yes, Tesla has issues, like many car manufacturers, but the unhinged vitriol directed at Tesla is just bizarre. I don’t know, maybe people have this latent guilt for driving ICEs, and attacking EV companies somehow alleviates this guilt? Perhaps it’s envy (although the Model 3 is hardly an expensive car now). The fact that so many people did actually read the article and then went on to apply zero critical analysis of it is typical, though I suspect most people, once again, saw a headline ‘Tesla bad’ and upvoted."

    • @[email protected]
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      411 months ago

      Probably the wheels falling off their cars. But I don’t know I actually read the article

      • @[email protected]
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        -211 months ago

        yeah you read it, but you didn’t apply any critical analysis to it, based on your comment…

    • @[email protected]
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      11 months ago

      unsubstantiated

      The incredibly detailed, lengthy, and impeccably sourced Reuters report wasn’t enough?

    • @[email protected]
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      -1211 months ago

      I’ve had a Tesla 3 years. It’s not brittle junk. It’s the best car I’ve ever had and hopefully the last car I ever have to buy.

      • @[email protected]
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        -1111 months ago

        Second this. Bought a Model 3 almost 3 years ago, before Musk went full unhinged.

        Yeah it’s not perfect, but it’s a great car, especially for the money. Any issues I had, have been solved by the warranty service.

        I probably wouldn’t buy one now, but back in early 2021 it was the best thing on the market.

  • blazera
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    -5911 months ago

    They just felt like writing whatever they wanted for the headline huh?

    • @[email protected]OP
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      2511 months ago

      How so? Doesn’t seem like much of a disconnect with the article as sometimes happens.

      • blazera
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        -2511 months ago

        Where is the “supposed to be glad” part in the article?

        • Volkditty
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          3011 months ago

          Last paragraph…

          "Then the wheel falls off while you’re driving, or the autopilot plows into a jersey wall, and you’re meant to be thrilled.* Glad even. Grateful! This is proof: You were an early adopter. A beta tester, a brave explorer. You’re helping to work out the bugs, mapping new territory. Who knows? In a hundred years this car’s descendants might be as reliable as cars that by then will be 150 years old, and you will have played a part in making it so. Won’t that be nice.

          *Assuming you lived through it."

          • blazera
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            -3211 months ago

            But they’re claiming this as being something said or insinuated or anything from Tesla themselves. Who is telling Tesla owners they’re supposed to be happy when their cars have problems?

            • @[email protected]
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              1711 months ago

              Do you struggle to comprehend simile, metaphor, hyperbole? Can you discern an opinion from a fact, or indeed an OpEd article from regular fact based reporting? Do you have difficulty detecting sarcasm and facetious turns of phrase? Does wit and creativity intimidate and confuse you? Are you secretly a Thermian from the historical documents chronicling the later adventures of the NSEA Protector?

              • @[email protected]
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                -1311 months ago

                This is neither simile, metaphor or hyperbole. If anything it could be a strawman, but more realisticly it’s just rage-bait.

    • @[email protected]
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      1511 months ago

      Yeah, that’s literally how opinion pieces work! Would be pretty silly otherwise huh?

    • Endorkend
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      1511 months ago

      Teslas are known as the Panel Gap kings of the automotive industry, even in countries that still have clear memories of British Leyland where you were never even sure the doors on your car were actually meant for the model you bought.

      • BruceTwarzen
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        411 months ago

        At least that’s just visual. Still shit for a car that expensive. But the welding and “engineering” holy shit these are crappy cars