Negative response from strangers and other stupid things people say

[brianman]

In full transparency, I didn't save his life, but I certainly helped prolong it. Saving lives is an infrequent part of being an EMT. If you want to save a live, guaranteed, every other month, give blood (every 8 weeks). Every single time a person gets a transfusion it is by definition saving their life. Being an EMT if more like, getting them to someone who can save their life, ideally in better, or at least no worse, shape than you found them in.

Saving a life is a team effort. Thanks for doing your part. Try to forget and/or forgive the disrespectful and unappreciative people out there.

And thanks for being classy while representing the Tesla driver community.

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her son is in serious need of help and she's thinking and commenting about the kind of car your driving? odd priorities there....

I chalk it up to stress and parental concern, and related misdirected anger. Doesn't justify it for sure, but explains it somewhat.

 

[PhilBa]

I chalk it up to stress and parental concern, and related misdirected anger. Doesn't justify it for sure, but explains it somewhat.

You are probably right but as a parent when ever my kids were in need of medical help, the only thing on my mind was helping them.

I did have one negative thing happen the other day. I told my neighbor that I was getting a Tesla and she said "Oh, that's a status car, I thought you were better than that". I tried to explain that I was getting it because it's a great electric car and the wave of the future. She wasn't having any of it so I smiled and went back into my home. She wasn't my favorite person before that and nothing has changed. Guess I'm just going to have to live with some people going all "social justice" on me for driving an expensive car.

 

[DSJ]

There's nothing like responding to someone of this 'state of mind' with a polite smile and a confident response. There's no need to stoop to their level, no matter what their sentiment is.

I experience this almost every day in my business (think high volume restaurants) and not a day goes by that I don't have some type of conversation like this.

I'm preparing myself for the onslaught of questions and comments that I'll receive from my clientele when I receive my car. I'm not so much interested in the 'status' symbol of a particular vehicle, despite the inevitable comments from people that 'know' me. I'm more so interested in the reduced environmental impact, the incredibly low repair/maintenance costs, and the glorious notion of never having to go to another dealership!

Glad to see all of you are seeing an overwhelming sense of positivity from other ICE drivers on the road!

 

[Andrew]

The first incident was the husband of a friend. He said buying a Model S was ludicrous because, like flat screen TVs, in six months the price will drop to half and I'll feel like an idiot.

+1 what everyone else has said here. Thanks Mike for posting this story, for your service, and for taking the higher ground in all of this. I hope that Tesla owners will continue to be model citizens, and that we'll be able to develop a reputation of being "the good guys." (In other words, I don't want us to develop a negative reputation like BMW drivers! But I digress...)

I think an appropriate response to the first guy would be to tell him that you're actually doing him a favor. Flat Screen TVs (or any new tech) would not be so cheap now if they didn't have early adopters who were willing to pay a premium when they first came out. By buying this car now, you're supporting the technology, which will enable it to become cheaper later (specifically, in the Gen III).

She then stops in her tracks and turns to me and says "you should give more to charity and spend less money on flashy cars like that thing!" It was said with considerable venom.

It's funny, right before reading this thread, I had a sentence in my head that I was mulling over: If you are in the market for a car and can afford a Tesla, it is a moral imperative to buy one.

I truly believe this (on this forum I'm sure I don't have to explain why). I actually consider purchasing our Model S to be a mitzvah. In other words, paying the "premium" for purchasing a Model S could actually be considered a form of charity. It's paving the way for a better world.

 

[JohnQ]

No negative comments yet. And I don't really look at what hand signals other drivers are giving while I'm driving so no idea what their reaction is. As for giving more to charity, it's far more burdensome to give your time than it is to write a check. Glad Mike is one town south of me in case something unexpected happens while driving through.

 

[xray]

@mike_schlechter
http://www.teslamotorsclub.com/member.php/3164-Mike_SchlechterYour response was commendable and I applaud you. Amazing restraint.

 

[Kipernicus]

I'm sure that it was a stressful situation, but adversity reveals true character. And the character that was revealed was *******.

+1 well said!

This is what happens when war of the classes is promoted by your mainstream media and others ("fair share" comes to mind) .......

Rather than someone congratulating you on your purchase and success ... you are demonized for being rich (even if you're not).

Not like the old days when you see a rich guy and aspire to reach that level ... now it's entitled and if not, it's the rich guy's fault.

So with the current environment, I don't see it getting better anytime soon.

What confuses me about people is on one hand they worship celebrities and their excessive lifestyles (shows like "Keeping up with the Kardashians", and for the old timers "lifestyles of the rich and famous", and basically any rap video), but on the other hand they react so judgmentally when they see anyone else with something nice like a Model S. I wonder how that woman would react if she saw Justin Bieber climb out of his chrome Karma.

 

[derekt75]

If you are in the market for a car and can afford a Tesla, it is a moral imperative to buy one.

I don't agree.
For starters, you can buy a Leaf, Volt, or other environmentally friendly car.
I paid roughly $100k for my Model S. I could have done much more to help the environment by buying a Honda Civic and taking the remaining money and donating it to some charity.
Carbonfund.org claims that with only a couple thousand dollars they can save about as much CO2 as my Model S will save. Sure, my Model S helps Tesla and EVs in general gain broader acceptance, but it's hard to believe that my one purchase will sell 25 more cars.

I'm glad my car is more environmentally friendly than a typical car, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that buying a $100k EV is as useful as giving $100k to CarbonFund.org.

Getting even with Jerry Hathaway was a moral imperative. buying a tesla, not as much.

 

[Vger]

I echo the respect and admiration shown by all above, Mike! Bravo! I lived in CT for number of years (college and post-doc) and can picture and appreciate the service you do on those windy roads in your Model S.

For the record, I cannot remember a single negative comment while driving our Model S since delivery last December. Even when people ask the price and I hesitantly say "over 100", they usually nod and stay, "that's fair," or something like that. People SEE the quality. Many people just LOVE the looks, especially women I find. We have had multiple women of all ages come running up and say it is the most beautiful car they have ever seen.

So I think, Mike, you definitely took a stray bullet for the team, so to speak. That unfortunate and unhappy person is definitely an outlier.

Interestingly, I see a huge change in this public attitude since we got our Roadster just over three years ago. Back then, we definitely got snide remarks. It was still the small minority of responses, and most people loved the car. But on our first few road trips, we would get at least one complaint about the Roadster not being really green, about "good luck with those batteries", about "nobody can afford that," etc. It is very encouraging how much this negativity has receded in just three years.

Onward!

 

[strider]

Mike, as others have said, there is nothing you could have said or done to or for that lady. She is looney tunes.

But for your friend's husband I have had a few of those and since I know them I'll usually engage them in the hope that I can change a mind. The spirit of his "cheaper in a year" comment is correct as we do expect Gen III to be cheaper than MS. But as others have said, the later models will only be cheaper if people pay more for the earlier one. I would have asked him if he had a flat screen TV, microwave, smartphone, etc. If he answered yes to any of them then just repeat his line back to him.

For the tax subsidy things, I agree w/ rlawson and will talk about how my tax dollars are funding tax breaks for oil companies and the military so they can have cheap gasoline. If they really pi$$ me off I'll tell them that a good friend of mine's son died so they could have cheap gasoline.

It's hard to stay cool in these situations but that's the most important thing to do. Just keep laying out facts to counter their inaccuracies. If they are open you'll change their mind or at least begin to. If they aren't open there's nothing you can do anyway so getting into a fight is just wasting your time and adding pointless stress to your life.

 

[Andrew]

I don't agree.
For starters, you can buy a Leaf, Volt, or other environmentally friendly car.
I paid roughly $100k for my Model S. I could have done much more to help the environment by buying a Honda Civic and taking the remaining money and donating it to some charity.
Carbonfund.org claims that with only a couple thousand dollars they can save about as much CO2 as my Model S will save. Sure, my Model S helps Tesla and EVs in general gain broader acceptance, but it's hard to believe that my one purchase will sell 25 more cars.

I'm glad my car is more environmentally friendly than a typical car, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking that buying a $100k EV is as useful as giving $100k to CarbonFund.org.

Getting even with Jerry Hathaway was a moral imperative. buying a tesla, not as much.

Fair enough, and I certainly wouldn't try to stop someone from buying a Leaf or Volt!

I don't want stray too far off topic here, but I think buying a Tesla may very well do more towards the goal of mass adoption of EVs than buying a Leaf or a Volt will, as the Model S is a necessary step towards the Gen III...

(also, props for the Real Genius reference. well played.)

 

[Lyon]

For the most part the comments I've gotten have been positive. I did have one ancient dude flip me off as I passed him on the freeway. I was never behind him and I wasn't going all that much faster than him. The only conclusion I can come to is that he was making a comment about the car.

You showed far more restraint than I would have in that situation.

As for the why I bought a Model S and have an order for a Model X, well, I have two young sons who I'd really rather not see get drafted into the military to go kill folks in some country with a bunch of oil. I'm also hoping that they'll be able to breath when their my age and not have to spend all their time working to pay for gas.

 

[Jeeps17]

In full transparency, I didn't save his life, but I certainly helped prolong it. Saving lives is an infrequent part of being an EMT.

Hi Mike,

I am an interventional cardiologist, and regularly treat patients brought in with out of hospital cardiac arrests, resuscitated in the field.

Proper and rapid application of resuscitation protocols (with or without defibrillation) makes a HUGE difference in outcomes (both survival and functional).

I know you are being modest, and that all situations you deal with are not true emergencies, but EMTs / first responders absolutely do save lives, and deserve recognition (but are more often than not unsung heroes).

Kudos to you for doing this sometimes stressful job as a volunteer, and on how you handled the mother. She was totally out of line, but people sometimes have the strangest reactions to intense stressors.

 

[ggr]

Nothing new here, just want to echo appreciation for both your volunteer work, and the way you handled the situation.

 

[NigelM]

Mod Note: A bunch of posts went here - Politics-Quarantine-Thread

No judgement from me who's right or wrong, just that on any EV forum politics can get out of hand very quickly. Apologies to anyone who thinks they got caught in the middle of the moved discussion.

 

[Btrflyl8e]

Luckily, I've had nothing but extremely positive reactions... From friends, coworkers and total strangers. More and more people are at least aware of Tesla and that makes me happy. Those people are usually genuinely excited to see one in person, so I am more than happy to answer their questions.

Mike, sorry you were subjected to that woman's issues, whatever they were. Kudos to holding your tongue and being a decent human.

 

[EVNow]

The first incident was the husband of a friend. He said buying a Model S was ludicrous because, like flat screen TVs, in six months the price will drop to half and I'll feel like an idiot.

While the tone was obviously weird, the sentiment is not uncommon. A lot of people think EVs are like computing - and prices will fall a lot very fast. That is also a problem with the adoption of EVs. I keep telling them, yes, I wished the prices would fall very fast as I want everyone to get an EV, but they are likely to fall much slower.

 

[Grendal]

Mike. I echo all the other comments as well. I understand the need to bring it to the rest of us as well. When something like that happens an empathetic person needs to ask the question "did I do something wrong? Was it me or her?" I can answer that it was definitely her.

As someone who doesn't own a Tesla yet, I still like to comment on various Tesla and Model S articles. What was said is actually a fairly common statement by the uninformed. Those uninformed commenters often think the car is much more expensive than it really is, and most seem to think that the government has somehow subsidized your purchase. It's all fallout from the "loser" political debate where Tesla was polarized. There is also fallout from the Volt (bailout of GM) and Fisker (expensive car and company that went bankrupt).

 

[kinddog]

Hi Mike,

I am an interventional cardiologist, and regularly treat patients brought in with out of hospital cardiac arrests, resuscitated in the field.

Proper and rapid application of resuscitation protocols (with or without defibrillation) makes a HUGE difference in outcomes (both survival and functional).

I know you are being modest, and that all situations you deal with are not true emergencies, but EMTs / first responders absolutely do save lives, and deserve recognition (but are more often than not unsung heroes).

Kudos to you for doing this sometimes stressful job as a volunteer, and on how you handled the mother. She was totally out of line, but people sometimes have the strangest reactions to intense stressors.

post of the year.

 

[lorih]

I just read this whole thread. I agree with the comments. Mike was more than honorable in this situation, and all first responders are heros as far as I'm concerned. Thanks Mike!

I live in Silicon Valley, where we see Tesla's here all the time, and it makes me happy.

My experience is sort of the other side of the coin--

I was stopped at a light the other day. I was in the passenger seat and saw a Model S next to me. I kept smiling and waving at the car next to me, gave him a thumbs up. I kept expecting a smile back, but I just got a dirty look. Probably the guy was just having a bad day, but I was left wondering if the driver thought I was crazy, or some kind of "gold digger" when I was just admiring the car, and thanking him for reducing CO2.

So, if you see someone smiling and waving, feel free to wave back. I'm one of those 99.99% giving you owners the positive feedback.