It should puzzle you that a Tesla crash resulting in a broken ankle is front-page news, yet the many thousands of people who die in US auto accidents each year get almost no coverage.560
Q: How do you stay positive when faced with public attacks and misrepresentation, without becoming resentful or cynical?561
It does get me down at times. It makes me sad. But at some point you realize these attacks are by people who don’t know you and their goal is to generate clicks. If you can detach yourself emotionally (which is not easy) and say, “This person does not know me. They’re just writing to get clicks” then it doesn’t hurt as much.562
It also helps to stay focused on our mission. Tesla’s motivation remains to make electric transport as affordable as possible. That informs all our actions.563
We put all our money and effort into trying to make the product as compelling as possible. The way to sell any product is through word of mouth. The key is to have a product people love. People will talk about the things they love.564
That generates real word of mouth, and that’s how our sales have grown. We’re not spending money on advertising, public relations, or endorsements. Anyone who buys our car bought it because they like the car, not their impression of the car.565
Tesla does not advertise or pay for endorsements. Instead, we use that money to make the product great.566
There are over a million internal combustion engine car fires per year resulting in thousands of deaths, but one Tesla car fire with no injuries gets the biggest headlines. Why the double standard?567
The problem is journalists are under constant pressure to get maximum clicks. They either earn advertising dollars or get fired. It’s a tricky situation, since Tesla doesn’t advertise and fossil fuel companies and legacy car companies are among the world’s biggest advertisers.568
Regulators tend to pay a disproportionate amount of attention to whatever is in the press. This is an objective fact. And Tesla generates a lot of press. In the United States, there are about forty thousand automotive deaths per year. But if there are four in a Tesla, they’ll probably receive a thousand times more press than any other incident.569
The reality is a Tesla, like most electric cars, is over 500 percent less likely to catch fire than gas combustion engine cars, which carry massive amounts of highly flammable fuel. Why is this never mentioned?570