Just about every other day lately, I see reports of acts of vandalism against Tesla cars, or of “coal-rolling” Teslas, or of what is known as “ICEing,” which is just parking conventional cars (pickups usually) at Tesla Superchargers, so that Teslas can’t recharge.
What’s the story? Why the hostility? There seems to be considerable overlap between the Tesla-haters and the MAGA types, and yet you’d think that Trump fans would be happy to see an American-designed, American-made, by American workers, car dominate this market segment.
Sadly climate change and environmentalism have become politicized. At least in the US, I’m not sure about other nations.
A lot of people view people concerned about the environment as limp wristed pansies or pathetic ‘others’. Look at all the hate 16 year old Greta Thunberg is getting for being angry we are destroying her future. Attacking Teslas is part of the culture war against the limp wristed multiculturalists in the eyes of the people who do it.
In a lot of ways, its good you don’t get it. It shows you’re a decent human being and a responsible citizen. You really don’t want to be the kind of human being who thinks caring about your children and grandchildren is less important than triggering your political adversaries. Or who thinks attacking teenage girls is acceptable for standing up for their future.
I just think Teslas are pretty cool, and it’s nice to see at least one small sector of the American auto industry taking the lead again, after so many years.
You’d think everyone would think the same, wouldn’t you? Conservative, liberal, tree-hugger, whatever.
Hmmm a doctor where I work is a huge Trump supporter, that listens to Rush Limbaugh in his office everyday, he drives a very nice Tesla, not sure political persuasion necessarily has anything to do with it, the OP is light on facts though.
Yeah, I’m glad Musk brought the EV back. Now there are over a dozen EV cars about there I believe.
Used Nissan Leafs are pretty damn cheap too. You can buy at 2015-2018 Leaf for 10k or so if you shop around. They should pay for themselves in fuel savings alone in 4 years.
It’s light on facts because I don’t have a lot of facts. That’s why I’m posting in IMHO, not General Questions. Just a lot of reports of ICEing, keying and coal-rolling. When the perp is identified (which happens surprisingly often, because apparently Teslas have cameras everywhere), there is sometimes a MAGA hat or bumper sticker or something in evidence, and in other cases I’m just guessing (somewhat unfairly, admittedly) based on appearance that the person is a Trump supporter.
Funny thought occurs to me. If what Wesley Clark says above is correct, and the attacks on Teslas are motivated by anti-environmentalism, hasn’t it occurred to any of these morons that at least some Teslas actually run on coal, being electric cars and all?
Some of it is certainly class envy. We live in a world where the trolls are in charge. In the 90s, it was the nerds and now it’s the trolls, they’re terrible people and do terrible things.
I think this is part of it too. It wasn’t too long ago that there were threads here on SDMB claiming that someone driving a BMW or Mercedes was some sort of personal affront to the poster. “Huh, they think they’re better than me…” Odd really.
Not to tangent the thread, but I have also wondered the same thing about Apple haters. I have a friend who is very US patriotic and absolutely despises anything Apple.
I’ve said the same thing to him - you’ve got a massive American success story that is a global phenomena and you despise it? You should be proud! I can see saying the product “isn’t for me, so I buy Samsung” but the level of vitriol is irrational.
My friend has no explanation either and can’t reconcile his hatred for Apple products (and Apple “Fanboys”) with his love for America.
I think you can’t expect rational thought from irrational people and haters are gonna hate.
I tell people the Tesla is an American muscle car. That is usually met with skepticism, but the only things it’s missing are a V8 rumble and smokey donuts.
I think part of it is the “Florida Man” effect. (I have read) that all of the stupid news about Florida Man is because of Florida’s laws requiring public mug shots and police blotters. Those are public record everywhere, but in Florida they are available quicker and easier than in other states, so they get trawled for viral content. In the last year or so, Teslas have gone from being the same as most other cars with regards to dashcams, to being mobile surveillance platforms with now four different cameras recording all the time while the car is being driven, and any time it is parked while in sentry mode. It is a simple option to set sentry mode to be on all the time. So, maybe they’re not being vandalized more than other high end cars, but there is a high chance that when they are vandalized, there is video.
Obviously the things other people have said about hate of Teslas and electric cars also apply.
Where are you located? I live not far from the Tesla plant, there are tons of Teslas around here, and I’ve never heard of this. But I can think of places where I totally see it happening.
I despise Apple, because it is overpriced and seems to live on blind devotion. Especially now that Jobs is gone. When they came out with larger iPhones, my boss proudly held up the cardboard cutout Apple gave him. I held up my real Samsung phone of the same size.
Apple manufactures in China and parks its profits in Ireland. Apple has no relation to patriotism. ARM is a British company, by the way.
Some of it may be back splash from the holier than thou attitude that many prius drivers are commonly reported to have (which I’ve never encountered) and the style of driving that some prius drivers employ trying to get every last possible linear inch out of a charge, starting slow, driving slow, decelerating lòooong before you have to. This I havr encountered. Asshole gave me the finger as I went around him the first chance I could and I imagine that finger got a good workout during that morning rush hour. So yeah, ev drivers have a bad rep thanks to rumors and bad driving practices during the busiest times of day for traffic
I have no idea what planet the people in this topic are living on but ANYTIME I see anti-Tesla stuff anywhere on the news or on the internet it’s always from left-wing people who just hate Elon Musk and his massive wealth and see him as a modern day robber baron. It’s like saying the only people who hate on Uber are Republicans angry it’s reducing pollution by taking cars off the road.
While I know there is plenty of Tesla hate, I think this is a big factor. There have been several instances recently of Teslas being keyed. Now, clearly, cars getting keyed is not a brand new thing. But it is new to have 360 degree video coverage of the event, with high enough video quality to make out faces and licence plates.
And of course local news loves this kind of stuff. It’s a surprise to most people that Teslas are capable of this kind of thing, and just about everyone hates a car vandal. So the story gets a 3-minute bit in the local news and everyone knows about it. I’m sure thousands of other cars get keyed every day, but without a video no one cares.