Summary
Donald Trump mocked Time magazine after its latest cover depicted Elon Musk sitting behind the Resolute Desk, questioning if the magazine was “still in business.”
While pretending indifference, the cover likely irritated him, as he was ecstatic just months ago when Time named him 2024 Person of the Year.
Speaking at the White House, Trump tried to dismiss the cover’s implications and praised Musk for uncovering “fraud and corruption.”
Despite his criticism, Trump has long craved Time’s approval, even displaying a fake cover of himself.
There are tons of Y competitors, just not yet from Lucid. It’s the most popular segment with the most competition. Regarding dealers, it’s not a universal benefit. Service and location matter. Rivian for example is really struggling with this. And ask the folks that spent $70k on a model Y a few years ago during the peak squeeze how great they feel about totally not paying a dealer markup. Software is interesting, Tesla does a good job at OTA but in general everyone I talk to seems to want less tech, fewer subscriptions, less invasive tracking, and manual buttons. Half the people I know want to just drive old Toyotas because of privacy. The tech stack and the software mean nothing to me personally. I do care about ride quality and road noise, and last time I was in a Tesla both were awful. Most folks charge at home and the supercharger network is less of an advantage every day. The people that need to cannonball run in subzero temps will drive ICE for another 5+ years anyway. Heat pumps are helpful but not that much. When it’s actually really cold the COP isn’t much better than 1-1.5, and when it’s mild and COP improves you don’t need much capacity anyway. I remember years ago before Tesla put in heat pumps everyone saying it didn’t matter. Sorry for the meandering rant here, the point here is that the Y is by no means a superior vehicle anymore. I personally value nothing that a Y has over an Ioniq 5, and that’s even ignoring that Musk is a Nazi that deserves universal boycotting.
They’ve both been getting better over time. My model y is quieter than my Subaru and better ride quality is better than my old Grand Am. The Juniper refresh coming out now significantly improves both.
This is an industry wide problem. Tesla is probably worst at collecting driving behavior but for personal info, it materially similar to what GM has been doing for decades and as far as I know, every modern car does. At least with Tesla, I feel like I get functionality. That doesn’t make it right, but easier to accept.
I completely disagree. Yes, charging at home is a no-brainer if you can: cheaper , can be always topped off, never goto a local gas station again. It makes an EV more convenient than ICE cars. I never want to go back.
But people always hesitate about road trips, as I did too. Then this summer I did a 1,200+ mile road trip, and the supercharger network and outstanding trip planning software made it easy. I was surprised at how well it optimized for overall time and I never had to stop more than 20 minutes (and that was lunch time). Once it recommended charging 4 minutes as efficient and best trip time. Granted I am in the NorthEast where superchargers are everywhere, but road trips are just as easy as ICE cars
Independent real world tests show 10-15% improvement in winter driving range
It’s kind of interesting that in this case im fine with a subscription.
I subscribe to”Premium Connectivity”, which I thought I’d hate doing. However I have full use of remote features at home over WiFi. “Premium Connectivity” is about the same price as putting any other device, like an iPad, on a 4g network, and much less than a phone subscription. For that I don’t think I get any more features, just that connectivity. It makes sense.
Meanwhile my ICE car wanted an even more expensive subscription for remote start. This was not available over WiFi, nor a key fob, and there was essentially no other functionality. I was NOT ok with that