NYT article: Stalled on the EV Highway

[brianman]

Given the blog post, it's probably both. Willful intent on the article, and idiot author for sacrificing his integrity, etc. for 15 minutes of attention.

 

[EarlyAdopter]

Wow. Just wow.

Busted, drawn, and quartered. Some people just have no integrity.

Can't wait to see what the NY Times does.

 

[Volker.Berlin]

Given the blog post, it's probably both. Willful intent on the article, and idiot author for sacrificing his integrity, etc. for 15 minutes of attention.

+1

How can someone be so stupid to assume he can get away with this? In an "iPad on wheels"? This was a great opportunity for Tesla to demonstrate how detailed their logs are. Revealing this information in this particular context doesn't leave a lot of room for critical voices (privacy concerns, trust in customers and journalists, etc.), and at the same time I'm pretty sure it won't happen again. By now, even the dumbest of journalists will have understood that you'd better not twist facts when it comes to Tesla's cars...

 

[brianman]

By now, even the dumbest of journalists will have understood that you'd better not twist facts when it comes to Tesla's cars...

Indeed. Globally. It's one thing if a small paper gets "cute". NYTimes has an impact on the world stage.

 

[FalconNinetyD]

Great response by Elon/Tesla!

 

[vfx]

Whoa! Driving in circles!

I really wish Elon had mentioned that the only picture of the car in the article was of it on a flatbed.

 

[Joyrider]

Actuallly, if the NYT will come out and admit that they were had by this reporter the whole incident could turn out to be a positive.

 

[AMPd]

My popcorn is ready
Good for Elon Musk, I hope the reporter gets fired
also hopefully he goes into a different career field, his integrity is shot

 

[vfx]

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive

View attachment 16493

I love how the stated settings were done just for a brief moment. It looks like he hit 54 MPH and 45 MPH as he said, but it was just for a second. That way he could honestly say he did it if he had to.

 

[brianman]

Can't resist

 

[Norbert]

Phone interview with Elon, incorporating info from the blog, on Fox Business:

Tesla Motors CEO Takes on NY Times Over Review | Fox Business Video

 

[brianman]

Cross posting from one of the sub-forums where they speak a language I don't understand.
Tesla tears down NYT Model S review with cars own logs - SlashGear

 

[AMPd]

Sent the blog to a tech site, hopefully they write an article about this

 

[vfx]

I wonder if the author's 100 space jerk circle action was captured on video cameras? Anyone nearby?

 

[dsm363]

Wow

As the State of Charge log shows, the Model S battery never ran out of energy at any time, including when Broder called the flatbed truck.

In the 10 e-mails I had back and forth with him, he forgot to mention this.

 

[brianman]

I wonder if the author's 100 space jerk circle action was captured on video cameras? Anyone nearby?

If someone published that footage, they'd get a ton of page hits today.

 

[hcsharp]

Wow. Just wow.

Busted, drawn, and quartered. Some people just have no integrity.

Can't wait to see what the NY Times does.

NY Times will probably do nothing. Doing so will only add credibility to Elon's blog which is actually quite poorly written compared to anything Broder writes (truth aside). Broder already responded by basically saying he did what he was told by Tesla employees (he didn't). While it's nice to know the truth, many people in the public will see a blog entry written by a whining non-journalist and compare it to a well written rebuttal from a seasoned journalist and make their judgements based on that. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[scriptacus]

As the State of Charge log shows, the Model S battery never ran out of energy at any time, including when Broder called the flatbed truck.

To be fair, there's no mention of what state the car was in when it was flat-bedded. If the following passage from the original article is true, not being completely empty is meaningless.

...very patient driver, Rick Ibsen, to rescue me with a flatbed truck. Not so quick: the car’s electrically actuated parking brake would not release without battery power, and hooking the car’s 12-volt charging post behind the front grille to the tow truck’s portable charger would not release the brake. So he had to drag it onto the flatbed, a painstaking process that took 45 minutes.

Broder clearly had an agenda (driving in circles at 0 range leaves no doubt in my mind) and certainly fudged his numbers, but I'd be surprised if he fabricated the parking brake related parts of that passage. Maybe someone will interview the driver.

 

[Norbert]

A Most Peculiar Test Drive | Blog | Tesla Motors

That pretty much clears it up.

As a side note, it looks like in terms of state-of-charge, it lost only about 7-8% overnight (corresponding to about 20 miles of rated range, I think), which if correct is much less than was in discussion. (And based on other info, it would lose much less from then on). (Or perhaps even less, since the 7-8% might include the battery conditioning in the morning.)

 

[sandb]

Wow, that's hella of a response! I think it sends a message to journalists that we are now in 21st century, and many old school gimmicks can no longer blind people since the truth is faithfully logged.