from Hacker News

Elon Musk's Toxicity Could Spell Disaster for Tesla

by lemonberry on 2/16/25, 12:04 AM with 21 comments

  • by calrain on 2/16/25, 12:34 AM

    Every time I drive by a Tesla, the word Nazi pops into my mind.

    It's that type of word association and related customer behavior that will be a growing problem for them.

    I think an early indicator will be monitoring the secondhand market to determine if there are increasing levels of Tesla's as people move to other brands.

  • by c420 on 2/16/25, 12:17 AM

  • by nrclark on 2/16/25, 2:34 AM

    I believe it.

    My wife is boycotting Tesla, specifically because of Elon Musk's role in the destruction of our government. We're actively shopping for an electric car, and Teslas are off the table for us. I would guess that there are others who think the same way.

    Given that TSLA is a personality-driven meme stock, it's very vulnerable to public opinion. Musk is alienating a lot of people, and that is likely to reflect in Tesla's valuation and sales.

  • by duxup on 2/16/25, 12:20 AM

    It hasn't so far...

    Dude called that guy who rescued the kids "pedo" and nothing changed.

    I don't like it but it doesn't seem like it matters. I won't buy a car from Tesla as I want nothing to do with that guy, but he's the most classic "tech bro" / silicon valley jerk ... and he has managed to entrench himself in the leadership political party who talks about how much they hate "big tech" ... and that's who he is in all the worst ways.

  • by ggm on 2/16/25, 12:13 AM

    How hard would it be for either of tesla or spacex to unwind, or even just reduce his influence? Does it demand others (middle eastern banking) people to yank on a leash like the Twitter debt, or are the corporate structures able to do this purely from governance obligation perspectives?

  • by AtomicOrbital on 2/16/25, 1:31 AM

    US fed gov is long overdue for a hard reset ... Trump is not a politician so is not beholden to the deep state and/or neocons ... DOGE is exactly what is needed ... if you have done your homework to appreciate just how radically efficient Tesla, SpaceX, X and xAI are it's a gift to the USA tax payers to have Musk gut out the graft ... government is a monopoly with zero competition run by the non tech savvy ... Tesla is light-years ahead of ICE manufacturers and has an extremely deep bench ... Musk himself says cars will be a minor player in the Tesla portfolio

    haters dumping on Musk rn are running scared so expect ongoing hit pieces ... that Wired article is tat ... Buckle up and be prepared to hear devastating reveals from DOGE soon

  • by eucryphia on 2/16/25, 2:09 AM

    Belief in free speech and cutting taxpayer funding of activists is now ‘toxic’?

    You can donate your own money voluntarily to UNWRA via their website.