Submitted 4 weeks ago by cm0002@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theindex.media/nobody-wants-a-nazi-electric-car/
Nobody at Tesla headquarters voted to alienate their customer base. No board meeting decided to turn their electric car company into a political lightning rod.
This is technically not true. The board keeps Elon Musk on as CEO of Tesla, and they granted him the biggest bonus package ever, while he was already very controversial and clearly was losing his mind, because they thought he would be able to make them money.
You’re right, that’s not just technically untrue. The board voted with their wallet, by giving him even more money than ever, so he could continue doing what he is doing. The people on the board wouldn’t give a shit if only Nazis buy their cars, as long as there’s enough of them to keep buying.
Well joke’s on them though, because it seems Musk has found a way to tap US citizens directly, so he probably doesn’t even care much about Tesla anymore now that it is failing.
You are 100% correct. They knowingly doubled down on him. They can all ride his coattails straight to hell.
About a week ago I saw a brand new model Y (still had the 90 day temporary plate) sporting one of those “bought before elon…” stickers.
Elon has always been a terrible person, but he was once focused on things that society actually needed, like electrifying transportation to avoid climate collapse.
He seems to have gone sharply downhill into total insanity by taking ketamine while locking himself in a rightwing echo chamber. It’s the perfect storm of dissociating from reality.
Potential ketamine addiction aside, he’s just gravitated toward where he sees more money and unfluence for himself. He wanted the prestige of being a leader in tech, so he used his influence and money to build SpaceX. Then he bullied his way into the ownership of Tesla, desperately wanting to appear as a genius to libertarian and liberal minds alike, but he’s never been any less of an authoritarian. When Trump rose to power the first time, he sat and watched and along with the rest of the Silicon Valley Moguls, he began to move himself into positions of influence with populist politicians, borrowing the evangelical right’s playbooks and throwing himself into the spotlight no matter the reason. He pivoted off his falsified image as some kind of American self-starter into MAGA rhetoric.
Musk doesn’t have lofty ideals or any real focus on the betterment of society. I don’t think he ever did. He just wanted to be a real life Tony Stark and command the influence that came with it. Now he doesn’t need to, because he’s got Trump in his back pocket and is mostly untouchable by any normal means.
probably his upbringing. theguardian.com/…/elon-musk-peter-thiel-apartheid…
Knowing how badly Tesla has managed their supply chain, it’s possible they paid for it in 2016.
They’re not paid until delivery
I didn’t know till …tomorrow.
Dr Dorothy Bishop resigned from the Royal Society back in November 2024 because of Musk. Everybody knew. And being an FRS is a huge, huge deal to a British scientist.
Not as big a deal as virtue signaling to that particular British scientist, naturally, but it’s quite important to the other ones I’m sure.
Temporary plates could be someone moving out of state. Are you sure it was the latest model?
They all look the same I would never be able to tell myself
Man, talk about copium.
It is mental that a man worth billions in mostly electric car companyv shares is courting people who would run their cars on coal if they could.
A man who has made his billions on being essentially a corporate welfare queen.
Are you criticizing Musk or our government?
He sells a subscription-on-wheels. Any environment benefits are just gravy on top.
Will he really need customers much longer? I mean it seems like he can just have any government agency replace their fleet with his trash in the name of “efficiency”.
He tied the financing of his loan to buy Twitter with Tesla shares, if they tank it pressures the Saudis to call in the billions they loaned him for the purchase. He’d survive, but it would embarrass him which would be funny.
Apparently a big part of Tesla’s business is selling carbon credits to other automakers… Which relies on them having a certain number of EV sales. If they drop below a threshold, then they can’t sell those credits anymore.
Even worse is, he can use the government to sabotage the competition, as Russia and Hungary did.
so we can kill government workers and important people easier? i think elon Musk funded the failed trump assassinations /j
Pretty soon the only government workers left will be Trumpler’s goons. I’m ok with them dying in swastikars.
A more concise headline is “Nobody wants a Swastikar”
Remember 2015? A Tesla parked in your driveway told your neighbours that you valued innovation, that you possessed an environmental conscience, that you had a stake in the future of the planet. The cars weren’t perfect, but they meant something. They represented hope - for clean energy, EVs, and a world beyond fossil fuels.
This was me years go. I new climate change was real and an imminent threat. I wanted to vote with my wallet for a cleaner future. I also wanted to strike a blow against the National Automotive Dealers Association for their regressive practices that hurt consumers and drive prices for cars higher for everyone. Buying a Tesla did those things. I charge the car on sunlight from my house. I was proud to be doing something rather than just talking about needs for changes against climate change.
Musk doesn’t get any of my money from this car. I don’t pay for any of the Tesla monthly services. I’m don’t want to be seen driving with a Tesla logo on the car. I’m ashamed that my good intentions funded a fascist.
There is no shame in your ownership of the vehicle based on your intentions; I would humbly assert that anger is a more appropriate reaction to the current leadership of the company that made it. If strangers judge you, that’s on them.
If I had had the means to purchase one 10+ years ago, I would have. Most people who claim they wouldn’t are not being honest with themselves or disapproved of the virtue signaling associated with them at the time.
Oh yea, when Teslas first started appearing, I loved their whole philosophy and really wanted one.
Don’t feel ashamed. You did nothing wrong. Life failed you, not the other way around.
Many bought Tesla’s years before elon went full crazy-person, yet people are still vandalising their cars, calling them Nazi-slurs and saying they should be ashamed.
Maybe it’s time to get better at researching companies before major decisions. Do you have a system in place for doing background research on future large purchases?
That shame is no use unless it helps you update your behavior. Shame about a “one-off” decision in the past will continue to nag you until you figure out how to avoid the same mistake in the future.
So how can you avoid realizing ten years out that some big purchase you made supported someone you disagree with? How can you do it in advance?
When you can predict the behavior of a company 10 years out, you pet me know. I’ll make you my banker.
Until then, that whole comment is hot garbage.
Don’t be a dick. No one’s going around investigating the corporate culture of every parent corporation that they buy their product from because they’d be at it all damn day.
When did you even watch The Good Place that the whole point of the show you can’t be a “good” person based on absolute morals, because it’s impossible in the 21st century as the world is too complicated.
It’s crystal clear to me that Tesla played an important role at a key time, and pivoted the industry. The technology to do so had been there for a while but they lacked the will and they needed an innovator to scare them into action. Tesla did that. However, that role is now complete. I am flabbergasted that anyone still values this stock. Even setting aside this recent downturn in sales due to their brand going necrotic, they were already overmatched by the flood of competition coming their way. If major manufacturers don’t eat Tesla’s lunch, Chinese upstarts will. They can’t survive. They won’t survive. Even their supposed software advantage on self-driving has turned out to be a fraud, and the Simpertruck is a high profile failure. I’m glad that the stock hasn’t died yet though, because the rest of the world is still completing the transition to EVs, and the death of Tesla might put a chill on that. But in a few years, yeah, Tesla will blow away on the wind like so much dust.
This is me too. I have two of them bought and paid for and people just don’t get it: I went all in on this and you can just sell for 15% of purchase price, I still have mobility needs. More to the point my swasticar still has access to the best charging network on the market and even if I COULD just sell, it’s not cut and dry. It’s easy to shit on Tesla, but it’s still the best offering in the EV market. And even if it was not, like fuck me I can’t time travel. Most people who flame have no idea what the actual hell they are talking about.
Musk still gets some money if you ever need parts. I had to replace the heater and went to non tesla shop. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to get a used heater so I had to buy a new part.
I came really close back then, had a deposit but canceled due to realizing I had a perfectly good old car and didn’t “need” one at the time. Hindsight says I lucked out.
If I did get it, and still had it (I would, I keep cars for 10+ years), I would probably rebadge it as an indicator of my dislike for what the brand has become.
I’d actually love to see a rebadging campaign by dissatisfied owners.
I have BYD badges that should be here any day.
Tesla might have to go on welfare… by having the US government buy, thousands upon thousands of Teslas.
Swasticars for a fascist government. Makes sense.
The popo using cybertrucks would really be the cherry on the techno-feudalist hellscape pie.
Problem is that Trump is on the oil companies’ pay rolls. Unfortunately he’s subsidizing them instead of Tesla.
We all know what’s going to happen, Elon just going to get a “government contract”, where he can make it so that teslas will be the main vehicle manufacturer for government.
Fuck. What if Elon is just gonna start making weapons? Didn’t he flaunt a flamethrower for his lame company years ago?
Boring*
I hope so. Any one who signs up for trump’s military deserves to burst into flames
What?
Revenue [increased] 2% to $25.71 billion
Yes. Only 25.7 billion dollars. It’s practically dead.
Q4 2024 was before all the overt nazi shit.
But I agree that calling it dead is premature.
2%
It’s called inflation.
Pretty sure you’re focusing on the wrong number out of the two
Everyone forgets where the German cars, Henry Ford, etc came from politically.
I was looking into my first EV, and politics just didn’t weigh that much into the decision. Now, the “infotainment as a perpetual service”, that turned me off and away from Tesla. With CarPlay my car dash will never lose service, and will always be free to use with updates from Apple/Google. I can’t imagine why people would ever pay for their infotainment when CarPlay is better or equal in all cases to the alternative.
German cars come from Carl Benz, who built the first automobile in 1885, four years before Hitlers birth.
Not necessarily Carl Benz himself, but the company has been litigated and has been proven to have had ties to the nazi regime. I’m not arguing that Mercedes was founded on Nazi values, I’m just saying there was a connection and a less than stellar history.
nobody wants a defective car.
its not the death of the electric car. Its the death of a bad one.
I would like a Chinese EV, but the capitalists are enforcing protectionism.
Well VW is still around. Maybe Teslas will be classic cars in 80 years.
/s: They will all self immolate.
Musk chased right-wing approval, but the only thing he got was declining sales and a dying brand.
I mean he got tens of billions of dollars in increased wealth so I dunno if I’d say that.
8% drop in car sales isn’t great but I think the article is overselling the idea that the company is straight up dying. (Sadly) Most people just don’t make a connection between how they spend their money and the politics of the people they prop up.
One of the things that has continuously confounded me about Musk’s veneration by the modern American fascist is that one of the main accomplishments they hail him as a genius for are “his” advancements in electric cars.
Which are necessitated by Global Warming.
Which they do not believe in.
Since when does being right-wing make you a Nazi?
Nazi’s are far-right to the extreme, Musk and Trump are Right-Wing. Nothing more. Disagreeing with them doesn’t make them Nazi’s and calling them Nazi’s actually says more about that persons intolerance than they think it does.
And the board is probably afraid to fire him now too.
Nazism has no place.
Ironically, the EV’s suck and are for commies crowd are now lauding Tesla as the best vehicle on the market
Musk aside, Tesla cars have always been pretty shoddy
Yet another asshole businessman with a business plan to fuck over the good name of Tesla.
I just want to stop seeing a storm of them when I am on a road. I can’t seem to drive anywhere without seeing approximately 10 within a single hour.
Then explain why I see them everywhere lmao
Dunno, if it’ll blast marches …
I’ve seen an increase in new Teslas where I live, not a decrease.
Bs. The Chinese in Richmond BC don’t give a af about whiny white leftist problems.
Well not nobody. Turns out there are some Nazis. /s
AreaKode@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
I believe this is the part where we get sued for not buying his cars.
ryan213@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
Don’t give him any ideas!
laurelraven@lemmy.zip 4 weeks ago
I’m sure he already calls his lawyers every day at 3 AM while half blitzed on K to pitch exactly that
TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub 4 weeks ago
I think he would be relieved to get rid of Tesla if someone would buy it. The full self-driving promise was always a matter of interpretation, and the cars they build are more expensive symbols of status than practical products. Tesla can’t compete with global EV manufacturers, that’s a Damocles sword waiting to fall.
SpaceX is where the money is now, and all the electric innovation Tesla did can be used for something else.
OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 4 weeks ago
There’s nothing to interpret. It does not fully drive itself.
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Musk is getting $8 million each day from the US government to destroy the US government. He was given $44 billion to destroy Twitter. He’s not worried about money.
zipzoopaboop@lemmynsfw.com 4 weeks ago
Like companies getting sued for not advertising on Twitter
NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
That was the joke, yes