[graphitezepp]

Musk DOES have a lot of support. I personally suspect much of the negativity comes from backlash caused by him having a legion of fanboys. Whenever someone gets idolized like I have often seen Musk as, haters come out in reaction.

[lumberjack]

Tesla's marketing is always misleading. That irks people and from there comes the "negativity". When the Model S came out, they tried to claim that they had "solved EVs". When they introduced their self driving tech, they pretty much implied that keeping your hands on the wheel was only a legal technicality. They are always trying to claim they are two more steps ahead than they really are. I understand that it is their job to do just that, but we don't have to believe them, and if we don't, that is not really "negativity". For example with the Model 3, they achieved just about what what Chevy did with the Bolt, in terms of price and range, which is good, but if you believed their marketing, you'd expect them to be far ahead of their competition.

[sharpercoder]

I think Model S solved electric driving. Car reviewers seem to think so, the industry seem to think so (most manufacturers announced electrical models). Range, comfort, charging locations, safety, all solved problems.

How is Tesla's supposed claim they solved electrical driving misleading?

[lumberjack]

For the past 15 years people had been trying to make the mass market EV. The envisioned future was that the every day man would be driving this basic EV instead of their $15k ICE commuter car. That was the goal, obviously influenced to a great extent by both fuel prices and climate change concerns. All EV car models before the Tesla Roadster were trying to target this market.

The Model S targeted a new market entirely. Nobody had tried to do a luxury sedan EV and kodus to Tesla for spotting that niche, but that was not the goal that everyone else was chasing. It was something else entirely.

From an economics and from a technology point of view, building an $80k EV with decent range is insanely easier than building a $15k EV. Even if it has to be a luxury car and look good. It still gives you that $20k leeway to equip you car with a massive battery.

The misleading part was trying to claim that they had solved the problem that everyone else was working on, when in fact they had not. And they still have not today as evidenced by the $35k price tag of the Model 3.

[mmsimanga]

Perhaps everyone was chasing the wrong goal. Just about all "new" technologies start off being expensive. This is true of the telephone, cellphone, car ... In time when manufacturing processes catch up they become available to the masses. I presume the first devices are expensive to cover the R&D costs.

[username223]

> I think Model S solved electric driving.

Not so much: The actual Cannonball record is a bit over half the EV one -- 28 hours and 50 minutes -- and Roy himself drove it in 31 hours and 4 minutes. I'll be curious how much of their journey was charging time, a figure someone will probably extract from their GPS track soon.

[reaperducer]

>They are always trying to claim they are two more steps ahead than they really are.

Sounds like Google, Microsoft, and pretty much every tech startup between Palo Alto and Vancouver.

The difference is that Musk actually does something. Creates something. 90% of the other "tech" companies are just shoving around bits of other people's information and calling it innovation.