I think, though, another interesting way of looking at the time since the Cybertruck’s announcement is Elon trying to depolarize electric vehicles. Everything about the Cybertruck, Tesla moving to Texas, Elon getting more spicy on Twitter, could be seen as him trying hard to appeal to red state people, culminating in his foray into the Trump-o-sphere. All of that has seemed surreal, but given the size of the bet Elon placed on the Cybertruck it makes a certain kind of sense that he would try everything to create a market for that thing, and it has all backfired profoundly.
It’s hard for me to see Tesla recovering, and sad to think we’d lose North Americas EV pioneer.
I used to think that all of his public positioning was to break EVs out of one political camp and make them cross-partisan. Given everything that happened since, I'm no longer as sure as I once was.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I was a sixth grader in Detroit Public Schools in the month of the Edsel launch, which was very big topic of discussion among us school boys, many of whom had fathers working for a car company. I recall the design of that initial 1958 Edsel was controversial from the start ... can you guess which part of the car design was likened immediately to a toilet seat?
Great article, and a great comparison.
I think, though, another interesting way of looking at the time since the Cybertruck’s announcement is Elon trying to depolarize electric vehicles. Everything about the Cybertruck, Tesla moving to Texas, Elon getting more spicy on Twitter, could be seen as him trying hard to appeal to red state people, culminating in his foray into the Trump-o-sphere. All of that has seemed surreal, but given the size of the bet Elon placed on the Cybertruck it makes a certain kind of sense that he would try everything to create a market for that thing, and it has all backfired profoundly.
It’s hard for me to see Tesla recovering, and sad to think we’d lose North Americas EV pioneer.
I used to think that all of his public positioning was to break EVs out of one political camp and make them cross-partisan. Given everything that happened since, I'm no longer as sure as I once was.
I think of that SNL sketch he did, something like “you didn’t think I was a chill normal dude did you?” I guess we can’t say we weren’t warned :)
Footnote 1 feels like the subject for at least one (maybe two?!) future posts.
I'll see what I can do!
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. I was a sixth grader in Detroit Public Schools in the month of the Edsel launch, which was very big topic of discussion among us school boys, many of whom had fathers working for a car company. I recall the design of that initial 1958 Edsel was controversial from the start ... can you guess which part of the car design was likened immediately to a toilet seat?
"The cybertruck is a much bigger failure than you think".
Inject this straight into my veins.