Hoopla From The Tesla Kerfuffle

Did Musk plan the whole kerfuffle with the NY times out ahead of time? I really think so. He has very ambitious production plans that have never been realized in the history of the auto industry. And even if he somehow magically ramps up production from 0 to 60 in 1 second he has more car orders to fill than can be done in 2013. He probably has a backlog that is getting close to 24 months even if his factories turn out the number of cars he hopes it can. So this PR fight with the NY Times can’t hurt him and only serves as a Streisand effect to put his company on the cover of every magazine and newspaper. To make Tesla known in every remote village in the middle on nowhere across the planet. So planning out a fight like this is pure genius.

Already others have repeated the authors trip without any problems. I’m also enjoying how the author is constantly rewriting. His latest brilliant defense has been to take Musk’s apology about the authors bad experience given before the initial article was written and time displace it to now. As if Musk were now apologizing and claiming it would be better to have more charging centers. The second reality bending defense is to state the car lost 70% of it’s power over night because it was cold outside. This could be true but the context is not right. If it takes 7 watts to keep the battery pack warm and the car starts out with 10 watts then it is true. However if the car starts out with 1000 watts then it would have only lost .7% and be insignificant. The author started the night with the battery discharged and so can claim the battery lost a huge percentage.

Anyways, I would not be surprised to see a new crowd sourced application for the Tesla. An app allowing proud Tesla owners to publish their car’s black box data to the net so everybody can see just how good they have it. Tesla probably already has developed this and will be making it available for free shortly. They are probably waiting to get the timing on this just right to do the most PR for their company.

People are now clinging to the factoid Musk did not address the issue of how much power was lost overnight. I suspect he’s purposely backed them on to this factoid where they desperately huddle. However the aforementioned app will probably show the energy usage needed to keep the batteries warm at various temperatures. A chart with temperature on one axis and energy usage on the other axis. With this their final factoid will vanish like an iceberg with a polar bear on it. Hopefully these polar bears will be left wanting to buy a Tesla to show they can adapt…

Alison Van Diggelen Interviews Elon Musk

This lady is known for her interviewing skills. She seems to have done a little homework but not very much came out that was noticeably new or remarkable.. The last 6 minutes or so Elon talks about why private companies are good.

Tesla Delivers The Car To You?

I knew at some level this must be the way it works. Everything about this car is a bit strange. I’d have a whole lot of apprehension. Does the kid hang around and show you how to use the car? That big huge monitor and all the other strange things about the car kind of intimidate me. Like my first smart phone did. (And still does in many ways.) Do they have classes where they instruct you on how to use the car to its fullest? Somebody needs to start a blog. Somebody real. Somebody who would use their car like me. That is that they rarely wash the thing. Rarely do maintenance and drive through dirt, mud, puddles and ditches. Let the cats and sometimes chickens jump on. Somebody who believes a car is merely to get you from point A to point B and be ignored the rest of the time. (I’m still waiting for Elon to invent the “helioquad” that will allow us to get from place to place as the crow flies so we no longer have to rely on our crappy government for roads and such.)