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Consumer Reports recommends Tesla disable Autosteer and make changes to AutoPilot

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What I find funny is that we LOVED them 3 years ago and 2 years ago when they said "best car ever tested" and in 2015 "off the chart" performance. Now, after the article on warranty and complaints all of a sudden we hate them. Sort of inconsistent response from us right?
Why should there be a "consistent" response? It's not possible to always agree on every issue. Even among best friends and family it's not possible, why should we expect that people see eye to eye with a publication on every issue?

I think a lot of people rightfully feel that Consumer Reports overreacted. There are a vocal few that feel even the current changes are too much.
 
Also, CR doesn't have advertisers in order to retain independence.

They used to be independent, but now you can click "buy" next to the products they review. I have lost all confidence in CR. Cancelled my subscription. When you consider it, with the internet we don't really need their reviews anymore, the reviews that really matter are the ones that come from the people that actually drive the cars. By that standard, their negative views of Tesla seem pretty ridiculous.
 
They used to be independent, but now you can click "buy" next to the products they review. I have lost all confidence in CR. Cancelled my subscription. When you consider it, with the internet we don't really need their reviews anymore, the reviews that really matter are the ones that come from the people that actually drive the cars. By that standard, their negative views of Tesla seem pretty ridiculous.
You show me your product testing lab and I'll show you mine! ;)
 
They used to be independent, but now you can click "buy" next to the products they review. I have lost all confidence in CR. Cancelled my subscription. When you consider it, with the internet we don't really need their reviews anymore, the reviews that really matter are the ones that come from the people that actually drive the cars. By that standard, their negative views of Tesla seem pretty ridiculous.
What about their positive reviews including "best car ever!" those are ridiculous and don't mean anything either right?
 
What about their positive reviews including "best car ever!" those are ridiculous and don't mean anything either right?

One major problem I have with Consumer Reports' position on Autopilot is that they are supposed to be looking out for the best interests of consumers. If that were the case with Autopilot, you would think they would at least have polled Tesla owners to get their views on whether Autopilot should be disabled or not to find out what they think.

We have such a poll on TMC, and as of the time of this post there are grand total of 176 votes against disabling Autopilot, and ZERO in favor (with two undecided). Poll: To disable Autopilot or not?

A good case could be made that the average owner who has lived with and used Autopilot is just as qualified as Consumer Reports to evaluate Autopilot, if not more so. If Consumer Reports is supposed to be working on behalf of consumers, then why is it trying to take away a feature even though, according to the most lopsided poll I believe I have ever seen, that recommendation goes directly against what knowledgeable Tesla consumers/owners believe is the right course of action?

And why did CR not even bother to conduct its own poll of Tesla consumers to see what they thought before making its recommendation to take this feature away from Tesla owners, many of whom love it?
 
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One major problem I have with Consumer Reports' position on Autopilot is that they are supposed to be looking out for the best interests of consumers. If that were the case with Autopilot, you would think they would at least have polled Tesla owners to get their views on whether Autopilot should be disabled or not to find out what they think.

We have such a poll on TMC, and as of the time of this post there are grand total of 176 votes against disabling Autopilot, and ZERO in favor (with two undecided). Poll: To disable Autopilot or not?

A good case could be made that the average owner who has lived with and used Autopilot is just as qualified as Consumer Reports to evaluate Autopilot, if not more so. If Consumer Reports is supposed to be working on behalf of consumers, then why is it trying to take away a feature even though, according to the most lopsided poll I believe I have ever seen, that recommendation goes directly against what knowledgeable Tesla consumers/owners believe is the right course of action?

And why did CR not even bother to conduct its own poll of Tesla consumers to see what they thought before making its recommendation to take this feature away from Tesla owners, many of whom love it?
In fairness, has polling of a product's customers ever been a factor in CR's reporting on products? It might have been interesting for
them to include those results in their report, but asking them to base their report on such results is going a little far.
 
In fairness, has polling of a product's customers ever been a factor in CR's reporting on products? It might have been interesting for
them to include those results in their report, but asking them to base their report on such results is going a little far.

Polling is a normal part of CR's process..

For example, CR regularly conducts customer satisfaction surveys, where Tesla consistently places at the top of the industry by a large margin. Last year, CR reported that 98 percent of Model S customers would "definitely" buy the car again. Consumer Reports: Tesla Model S Rated #1 In Customer Satisfaction I believe another CR customer satisfaction survey should be out soon.

I would also note that CR's critique of Autopilot also departed from CR's normal process of attempting to objectively compare competing products in a holistic manner. If it followed that methodology here, it would have compared and contrasted Tesla's Autopilot system with competing systems from other manufacturers top-to-bottom and rated different aspects of the systems. It did not do that for some reason, even though every other independent comparison I have seen using similar methodologies puts Tesla far ahead of the competition.

Consumer Reports' failure to apply its tried and true methodology is a further indication that when assessing Autopilot it strayed from its mission of helping and informing consumers, which is unfortunate.
 
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In fairness, has polling of a product's customers ever been a factor in CR's reporting on products? It might have been interesting for
them to include those results in their report, but asking them to base their report on such results is going a little far.

It did send a survey to Tesla owners for reliability/problem issues as well as satisfaction and reported their polling accordingly (Too many reports of post-production issues--from very minor to major--but owners' satisfaction was 97%)
 
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In fairness, has polling of a product's customers ever been a factor in CR's reporting on products? It might have been interesting for
them to include those results in their report, but asking them to base their report on such results is going a little far.

Sorry, CR always polls me about products. At least 2-3 times a year.

But they didn't even do that for AutoPilot. I've answered a multitude of car questions for years for CR. They knew I had a Tesla. There were no questions whatsoever on AutoPilot, functionality, reliability, etc... Just the usual. How much did you pay for maintenance. What do you think of the car, etc.. Did you have problems with the electronics, suspension, wheels, etc...

Nothing EVER addressing AutoPilot.

In Fairness or more appropriately, in Accuracy, CR needed to poll it's subscribers--it's database before deciding what works, and what we should have.
 
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Perhaps inconsistent from them? They seem to be over reacting to criticism regarding their very positive early reviews ... perhaps also pressure from some advertisers?
I agree. I really am a CR fan and have used them often. I have kept my online subscription and still use it as a source. But they reaally did seem to over-react and in essence "appeared" to be swayed by outside forces. CR is labeled as a neutral observer making decisions on facts, not hype. In this situation they tarnished that view, IMHO
 
They used to be independent, but now you can click "buy" next to the products they review. I have lost all confidence in CR. Cancelled my subscription. When you consider it, with the internet we don't really need their reviews anymore, the reviews that really matter are the ones that come from the people that actually drive the cars. By that standard, their negative views of Tesla seem pretty ridiculous.
That "buy" button has been there for many years and it comes with full disclosure that any revenue derived from a buyers informed decision goes back into the non-profit. The review on customer issues with cars that caused them to remove Tesla from the recommended list was in fact based on customer surveys. So I go back to my original point, the people who "loved" CR when the data was good but are hating on them when the data is bad are being inconsistent. I can understand why, this is an enthusiast forum but it's important to point out this inconsistency is based on emotion and not fact. I am excluding non data based CR editorials such as their statements on AP from my view.