[wurst_case]

Do you own products from companies that take part in illegal, corrupt, or morally questionable acts? My point is not to shame you, my point is to say what Tesla does is just not close to the behavior of traditional car companies, oil companies, or many Chinese manufacturers that make your favorite gadgets. It's just that Elon is a twat at times because he is obviously emotionally unstable.

[jshen]

Not that I’m aware of, but I’m sure I do in some cases. I try, and I’m a vegetarian because of view of factory farming for example.

Maybe Tesla is no worse or better than the other companies. That’s one issue for me, but there is another. He doesn’t appear to be in control of himself. It leaves me with very little confidence in a company that I would be spending ~70k on their product with the expectation of high quality, and good support for 5-10 years.

[ornornor]

That’s whataboutism though.

It beats doing nothing at all, and using some of the things you cite (oil, made in China) is close to impossible to avoid (for now at least), but that doesn’t preclude anyone from saying they disapprove of Tesla and won’t buy one of their car because of what they think of the ceo. Especially when the ceo is the brand.

[concordDance]

Well what's the alternative to buying a Tesla? Are there any other purely electric car makers out there that produce at a non-negligible scale?

Global warming is orders of magnitude more important than COVID19.

[ljm]

In many parts of the world, the alternative is to not buy a car at all.

Not so feasible in a car-centric country, but that's a other problem that needs to be solved.

[FalconSensei]

We are talking about Tesla and US. So 'in many parts of the world' doesn't apply here.

[ornornor]

Why yes, as far as I know Tesla isn't only the only auto maker that offers a 100% electric car.

[ben_w]

I thought the point of the free market was to send signals about what factories should be built with your purchasing choices, not to limit your purchasing choices to whoever has the biggest factory today?

So me buying a non-Tesla electric car will have much the same effect as buying a Tesla with regard to the future of personal transportation? Regardless of how many cars the other manufacturer is currently producing?

I wonder what signal I’m sending by not owning a car…

[concordDance]

> So me buying a non-Tesla electric car will have much the same effect as buying a Tesla with regard to the future of personal transportation? Regardless of how many cars the other manufacturer is currently producing?

I honestly don't know either way