This whole fiasco reminds me of Ryan Holiday's book "Trust me I'm lying". I can't help but wonder if some "media manipulator" was involved in the possible manufacture of some negative PR for Tesla.
This assumption is not unreasonable since Ralph Nader was attacked by hired gun media (hired by the big three) when he dared challenge the status quo. I'm not that the big three are involved, but the stink caused by the car fires seems a bit "manipulated".
My friend rolled his truck this weekend. He's looking for the new car and when I suggested a Tesla, he gave me a Resounding no, due to fire hazard. While this a heuristic observation, he is a pretty innovative guy and I'm confident he would a picked or even considered a tesla had it not been for the negative press.
Lastly, I wonder if Elon's doing the right thing by repeating this. Maybe he should talk to Ryan Holiday type. I genuinely hope that this blows over and that Tesla & Elon can get back to building awesome cars & changing the world rather than playing PR.
There has been some absolutely ridiculous media coverage from the usual suspects like Fox[1], but it doesn't really have the smell of a organised campaign to me (yet). It's just the usual right wing talking heads taking a skewed view of things because of their preexisting biases.
I think a lot of Tesla fans are getting into the conspiracy theory zone with this and they are starting to sound fairly cult-like. HN and the Tesla users forums had quite a few people seriously suggesting that some agent of 'big auto' was out on the highway looking for teslas to throw debris under (no doubt the 'big auto' spies inside Tesla had alerted them to the vulnerability of the underside of the battery pack).
The personality cult surrounding Musk turns a lot of people off. Also the Boeing incident is coming back to bite him now, and rightly so.
I don't think there's a conspiracy. The Tesla has been hyped to the the 9s by its founder and enthusiasts in the tech press. When you seek the spotlight, don't be surprised to find yourself in it.
Lots of other rare automobile faults have made big headlines, because the press likes drama. See: uncontrolled acceleration problems in Audi and Toyota vehicles.
The media have been driven by the stock price, for the most part. It shot up to 180 and then dropped into 120's. It seems much of the odd behaviour around any discussion is attributable to that. Its not clear why people seem so 'invested' in the story, on either side.
