Elon Musk has said there are black boxes inside the Tesla Model S’ that keep track of all things relevant. He apparently is using this information in a previous lawsuit against some bogus company. Now however it appears another bogus company in America, the NY Times, is stating what are hopefully outright lies. So either there are “black boxes” inside the cars and what I think are bogus stories can rightfully end the careers of sleazy reporters. Or Elon will richly deserve the abuse he will certainly get from people with non-altruistic interests.
I’m oh so very very much hoping that Tesla pulls out the black-boxes and turns this into a PR bonanza that boosts their sales way beyond their most hopeful expectations.
UPDATE 2013-02-14 =============================== It turns out that this NY Times reviewer has a long career of supporting big oil. All except the last three articles he has ever written have been in support of big oil. His last three articles have been negative reviews about electric cars. Go figure. Anyways this reporter keeps changing his story as the days go on. Now the reporter, Broder, is trying to defend his article by saying owners can’t be responsible for checking the expected mileage and charge if needed before driving! Similar to saying current car owners can’t be expected to check their gas gauge and fill-up if needed. Fortunately Elon has pulled the logs, not that it now matters since Broder has changed his story so much, and reports:
Here’s a brief list of issues Musk gleaned from the logs:
- Despite Broder saying that he called a flatbed truck after the Model S battery ran out of energy, the logs show that he didn’t, in fact, run out of energy, according to Musk.
- Musk charged Broder with an “obvious violation of common sense” when he he disconnected the Tesla’s charging cable when its range was at 32 miles and his trip back was 61 miles.
- The logs, Musk said, show that Broder never set his cruise control to 54 mph to save energy, as he suggested, and instead was driving at speeds between 65 mph and 81 mph.
- Because cabin temperature can impact energy usage, Broder said that he reduced it. However, Musk claims that the temperature was turned up from 72 degrees to 74 degrees.
I’m wondering if the oil industry will pay for his retirement after he has been fired from the NY Times… This story is playing out very much like the one with Top Gear. Top Gear eventually came clean and said their article was actually meant to be a fictional “what if” story and had nothing to do with reality.
You’d think everybody would have learned by now there are logs in these Tesla cars. Perhaps supporters of fossil fuel can’t learn…
Ivor O'Connor 