I know many people thinking exactly like you, so I decided to take an hour of my time to actually try and debunk some of this, as I think it would benefit everyone if they realized some of this when buying a car or just listening to horror stories from the mainstream media.
I hope you and others who consider the abovementioned cliches true, will listen. I'd say most of you lot are sensible posters, so I'd say you and most others would find logic in these debunkings. It's still alright to hate Elon Musk for what he says on X btw. Can't disagree that much of it is just pure bullshit. I'm just here to argue that what he is doing with Tesla is simply mindboggling and will be only more clear over the next couple of years.
Everything below is with links to articles and I've been fact-checking these things. Fair enough if you can find an article that zooms in on a tiny part, but it's the sum of it all and the direction that truly matters.
Rare materials in the 3rd World - Not true
- Tesla materials for batteries are sourced from all over the World. Tesla use minerals that are
not rare. They used to however, so on to my next point
- Tesla used to make batteries with 10% cobalt (Cobalt's a rare mineral mostly seen in Congo). They then went on to innovate batteries and use less than other manufacturers making them progress and switch to 5% cobalt. Then 2 years ago they
moved half their productions to completely cobalt-
free and they have now moved
completely to a production without rare minerals.
- Tesla just made a new 4680 battery, which is re-inventing the battery as we know it - and has big impact on current production. (No one's really heard of these news, because they just read the outrageous news about Elon Musk). Tesla's 4680 battery reduces the cost of producing the battery by 30%. They spend 5 years on it, and it basically lowers the cost of using these batteries. Sadly few can understand what impact this has on a great scale with transportation. The lowered production costs ultimately makes it possible with more lower end electric products like, say a car - but also soon in the future more trucks, maybe even boats and flying or trains. All from non-rare minerals. This'll further help saving the planet with emissions on a great scale. Again: Hate Elon Musk's views all you want but this is something that will change a lot of things for the good, benefitting the planet in so many ways. Elon Musk can be an idiotic
person at the same time. The two are not mutually excluding.
- In case anyone forgot: Electric cars save 1/3rd of emissions from buying a normal vehicle seen over a typical 10 year lifetime. Hybrids are roughly speaking around 2/3rd less emissions, last time I checked.
Impossible to put out in a fire - True, but extremely rare.
- Yes, you're completely right here - Battery fires are really difficult to put out and takes many hours to put out. It's around
10 times tougher to put out than a normal fire.
HOWEVER: The risk of a battery catching fire is
0.0012% vs 0.1% for internal combustion cars (a factor of 83 times x less flamable compared).
- On top of that Tesla claims (unverified) to be 11 x more safe with incidents than the average (i.e 830 x less flamable). True or not the media's really blown it all completely of proportion - fear rules the narrative about electric cars - I wonder which old dinosaur of cars that benefits the narrative? ahh the dying combustion engines that runs on the same fossil fuels.
Pick up truck that's too big - Question of taste, but not a safety issue
Sure Cybertruck
is huge, but in the rare event you're hit, then the Cybertruck's design also hits you lower than most popular trucks due to it's
lower front, which reduces the risk of death if you're hit. Last time I checked (Admittedly Tesla-biased channels) the early stats showed that we don't really see a lot of incidents with Cybertrucks involved, but it's still early days and no stats are really out there to prove either side completely right or wrong. The Cybertruck just got Full self driving - "FSD" (unsupervised) a month ago, which'll further improve safety. On average Teslas with Tesla Autopilot (used on highways) are involved
7 times less in crashes than the average crashrate by regular vehicles on highways. Tesla's technology clearly improves their cars, and FSD (Supervised) will do that over time too, as stats already show this some extent (see the last point).
Sabotaging rail road connections? (Not sure what you mean here?)
Not sure what you mean by this, but probably an article about a guy
not paying attention to his Supervised FSD (as he should) while driving in foggy conditions at 60 mph furthermore blaming (a now old version of) FSD? Considering the fact that Tesla is about to end all car-competition, if Tesla achieves full self driving/RoboTaxi on a mass scale, you can also understand why some news outlets want to smear a revolutionising technology like this. I'm not saying FSD is perfect (it isn't - yet) but there should be some evidence for stories like these/when they're faulty. The new neural approach that FSD and most AI runs on is currently evolving like crazy and we might be 2-3 years away from fully autonomous driving and a much lower death rate other manufacturers adapts this revolutionizing system (if current increments in advancement can actually tell you anything about the progress - it has yet to regret and looks to improve x 2 pr version which is released roughly every 1-2 months). It has to be said that Elon's been wrong about the self driving timeline again and again. He might be late, but he rarely fails to deliver. Over time the FSD system will eventually be not just better than human's driving but completely outdo even the best drivers.
On that note, the last point:
Full Self driving (Supervised) - Eventually there'll be little or no deaths on the road
- Currently, Tesla's Supervised Full Self Driving-system
has evolved greatly. It's already either bettering average current traffic deaths or being better than a human driver. You'll only notice this if you pay attention to Tesla these months and days where FSD is doing the laps and impressing even your grandma (if she lives in the states and has eyes, that is). FSD looks to be saving lives overall already and it constantly improves those stats until it becomes a RoboTaxi where you don't even have to drive. If/when RoboTaxi is achieved, it'll reduce so many deaths if not 99% of current deaths and injuries that cribble people and the possibilities of transport will just be out of this World - What a terrible guy that Elon fella and his companies are, eh? Even if RoboTaxi is not achieved, FSD will still evolve so much that it's many times better than a human driver. Each and single traffic death is horrible, but the technology should always be measured on a greater scale against how many tragic deaths they prevent/and the lives they save compared to the regular driver.
Anyways, that was a long one, and I'll happily debate (and listen) to anyone who wants to listen to the above, but yeah - if it gets unnuanced or non-factual, shitposting, I'm out. I can't disagree with the fact that Elon Musk - the political one - says incredibly stupid stuff. He totally does, so that part is irrelevant for me to debate, we already agree. But his actual body of work and innovation is fascinating and will completely outdo all of the controversial stuff he's currently involved in. He's basically a villain and a hero at the same time.
