How Tesla Fumbled

Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

References

[Wendoverproductions]

One note: this video is going to get a lot of negative response, and we’ve made it with full knowledge of that. In fact, #TSLA investors pre-planned their brigading strategy for this video on Reddit, having seen it yesterday on Nebula, so take the comments with a grain of salt. 
A couple of things I’d like to highlight:
- This video is titled “How Tesla Fumbled.” It’s not “The State of Tesla in 2023.” This video is specifically focused on the ways that Tesla squandered its lead, so it inherently omits the positives—that’s the video we decided to make.
- The thesis of this video is not that Tesla will fail, but rather that Tesla made some missteps that squandered the massive lead it built for itself, and that it’s therefore going to be more difficult for the company to maintain a dominant market position (but not necessarily impossible.)
- This video has no undisclosed funding sources. Wren is the only sponsor on this video. I am not currently a Tesla shareholder, not do I hold any options on the stock.

[thatpersonsmusic]

You know what essentially does full self driving, without you needing to make any interventions? Trains

[benharmon]

Would have been good to touch on Tesla's anti right to repair as well.

[ryancartwright]

I work in a parts department, and every time we get in a used Tesla to sell at my dealership I die a little inside, we can't get parts from Tesla and have no way to repair them, can't even get license plate screws for them or wiper blades for some. It's so annoying, they operate like an Apple store not a dealership.

[NovemberOrWhatever]

I hope the trend of everything being a touch screen that Tesla started will reverse. They just aren't the best way to control a car. If you look at F1, they've got a foot pedal for gas and break and literally every other control in the car is mounted to the steering wheel. There's also only one screen and it isn’t touch-sensitive. Maybe that's too far the other direction, but I think it'd be nice in a consumer car. All-touchscreen was a terrible design choice by Tesla, making it unsafe and inconvenient.

[levigriffith]

The build quality issue is somewhat of a self-inflicted wound as well. I'm from Ohio, and Tesla was once offered the chance to buy a GM factory as long as they agreed to take the skilled workforce that came with it, and they refused because of the labor union that came with it. Now that workforce makes cars and batteries for yet another competitor

[bababababababa]

Electric cars, while somewhat better than regular cars for the environment, will never be as good and as helpful as just building a decent transport network

Lol 420 replies nice 🍁

[Josh-Teder]

As a Tesla owner who lined up for a Model 3, I agree with your points. The only thing I’d add is at least in the US, Tesla’s continued short term advantage will be its charging network. It’s 2023 and PBS Newshour just did a roadtrip with a Rivian in California and ran into all the issues we’ve seen before with these charging networks. Broken chargers, payment systems off line, it was kind of a nightmare. That stuff has got to get fixed before I’d ever have my primary trip vehicle be a non-Tesla EV. Superchargers just work. The company did get that experience right from the get-go, and the payment system is seamless.

[PaulHo]

Severely overlooked consequence: the drivers are gunning to outdo BMW drivers as some of the absolute worst on the roads. They either didn't know what they were getting and don't use any of the driving assist, still leaning with one arm on the wheel and riding the lane lines with a significantly heavier and jerkier steering ratio, or relying entirely on the driving assist and overly cautiously navigating traffic with extended braking distances and mile long lane changes. They're also really fighting for the reputation of not using turn signals.

[JoshHoulding]

The Cybertruck is appropriately named because it literally looks like a truck in Cyberpunk 2077 that didn't fully load, so just appears to be a polygon.

[nope]

The Tesla cult is real. It seems like they're taking the Apple approach: Sell a product not as a product but as a lifestyle. Then, it doesn't matter if the product is actually good in any objective way, people will buy it because of the lifestyle it represents. And will act like it's a personal insult whenever you point out the product's shortcomings.

Honestly I don't understand how people get so sucked in by marketing like that, but obviously it works.

[smollmoth]

Does anyone else feel like this is a concerningly more common issue with products now of days? Like even expensive products are built so cheap and are liabel to break early in their lifespan.

[risefuzion]

I know that right to repair wasn’t in the thesis for the video but I think it would have been a nice mention when you were talking about service centers. Tesla could provide better service if they provide parts and repair manuals to independent repair shops but instead they vehemently want customers to go through official channels only which is why they’re in that predicament.

[TimeBucks]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Tesla's superior charging infrastructure.

[Pushing_Pixels]

The EV market really needs to settle on a single charger design. If Tesla's is propriety, the rest of the market may be able to catch up by standardizing a design that they all use. Having the USB-C of chargers would help the rest of the market greatly.

[Graz-]

being in a tesla has the aesthetics of a dentists office with the comfort of an airport waiting area

[SaltpeterTaffy]

Elon Musk: "Delivery logistics hell."
Wendover: "Future content inbound."

[flynnparish]

As it turns out, building a factory that produces half a million cars per year is really hard.

[avnishbhatt]

My Tesla M3 has been sitting in the shop for the past 15 days of 20 days ownership.

[TheEvox]

The failure to deliver something compelling in the truck market despite turning the Tesla hype machine up to 11, nearly a half decade ago, is telling. But what that says about the future of their other models is very concerning, too. The Model S is over a decade old. There doesn't seem to be any move to update/refresh/replace it. And with all of their efforts focused on getting Cybertruck out the door, it's unlikely we'll see any movement on refreshing their existing lineup anytime soon.

There's a reason the established manufacturers have shortened their refresh cycles to as short as 2 or 3 years, on some models; and Tesla is not in a position to keep up. They no longer have the cache to coast by on "because it's a Tesla". They're just another car company now. And they need to start acting like it.