[mjamesaustin]

What a stark difference in tone this kind of statement would have made. Tesla's statement reeks of a desire to protect themselves from liability or a potential lawsuit. It's very sad to see them adopting such language in the face of such a tragedy.

[Johnny555]

What company can afford to embrace a wrongful-death lawsuit?

And it's not just this one, it's all the others that they'll suddenly be accepting liability for.

[mjamesaustin]

Not Tesla, but they can afford to pay someone to write a thoughtful and sympathetic response to a tragedy in a way that also protects them from a lawsuit.

This sample statement makes it very clear that the user was misusing autopilot and trusting it beyond its intended function, but also shows sympathy for the family's situation.

[kolpa]

Certainly not a company that can't even afford to embrace a 1GB Google maps download over LTE.

https://forums.tesla.com/forum/forums/tesla%E2%80%99s-crazy-...

[sakarisson]

They say they can't possibly afford to have cars download the maps at the wifi of service stations, yet they don't see any issue with leeching off Starbucks' free wifi. How anyone could have written that e-mail with a straight face is beyond me.