Interesting read: Ford Corp versus Tesla Corp

[DreamU]

Opinion | Ford Versus Elon Musk’s Tesla: Guess Which One Is Cooler - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

P.S. I have a NY Times subscription - hope it allows others to read this article? If not, NY Times says I can 'gift' the article to others with this link.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/04/...hwOmoT2iLle4fR2YXmnQ251DRu_j5Y&smid=url-share

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[AlpaChino]

Article:

Ford vs. Tesla: Guess Which One Is More Old-Fashioned

By Ezra Dyer
Mr. Dyer is a columnist for Car and Driver magazine.

Tesla had me convinced, for a while, that it was a cool company.

It made cars that performed animatronic holiday shows using their lights and power-operated doors. It came up with dog mode (a climate control system that stays running for dogs in a parked car), a GPS-linked air suspension that remembers where the speed bumps are and raises the car automatically, and “fart mode” (where the car makes fart sounds).

And, fundamentally, its cars had no competition. If you wanted an electric car that could go more than 250 miles between charges, Tesla was your only choice for the better part of a decade. The company’s C.E.O., Elon Musk, came across as goofy and eccentric: You could build great cars and name each model such that the lineup spells “SEXY.”

Or you would, if not for the party-killers over at boring old Ford. Ford thwarted Mr. Musk’s “SEXY” gambit by preventing Tesla from naming its small sedan the Model E, since that sounds a bit too much like a certain famous Ford, the Model T. So Mr. Musk went with Model 3, which either ruins the joke or elevates it, depending on how much you venerate Tesla and Elon Musk. I count myself as a former admirer of Mr. Musk and Tesla, and in fact put a deposit on a Model 3 after my first drive of one.

But the more I dealt with Tesla as a reporter — this was before Mr. Musk fired all the P.R. people who worked there — the more skeptical I became. Any time I spoke to anyone at Tesla, there was a sense that they were terrified to say the wrong thing, or anything at all. I wanted to know the horsepower of the Model 3 I was driving, and the result was like one of those oblique Mafia conversations where nothing’s stated explicitly, in case the Feds are listening. I ended up saying, “Well, I read that this car has 271 horsepower,” and the Tesla person replied, “I wouldn’t disagree with that.” This is not how healthy, functional companies answer simple factual questions.

That was back in 2017. In the years since, Tesla’s become even crankier, while its competition has loosened up. Public perception hasn’t yet caught up with the reality of the situation. If you want to work for a flexible, modern company, you don’t apply to Tesla. You apply to 120-year-old Ford.

 

[Deleted member 16048]

It was a good article. I definitely would agree with his stance. I wish he would have gone into more on the car quality itself issue as well or Teslas used to be seen as premium cars, but not so much anymore.

There are definitely a few things hurting them, but the biggest one is their CEO.

Ford has its cons as well with being so big. I've heard lots of red tap for things to get done, or long processes that slows development. Hopefully they can get that streamlined and efficient.

 

[glenthompson]

A few years ago I decided that I wouldn't bet against the established auto companies. Too many resources to compete against the EV startups. How long before a lot of them get bought by bought by other car companies?

 

[macchiaz-o]

Article:

Ford vs. Tesla: Guess Which One Is More Old-Fashioned

By Ezra Dyer
Mr. Dyer is a columnist for Car and Driver magazine.

Tesla had me convinced, for a while, that it was a cool company.

It made cars that performed animatronic holiday shows using their lights and power-operated doors. It came up with dog mode (a climate control system that stays running for dogs in a parked car), a GPS-linked air suspension that remembers where the speed bumps are and raises the car automatically, and “fart mode” (where the car makes fart sounds).

And, fundamentally, its cars had no competition. If you wanted an electric car that could go more than 250 miles between charges, Tesla was your only choice for the better part of a decade. The company’s C.E.O., Elon Musk, came across as goofy and eccentric: You could build great cars and name each model such that the lineup spells “SEXY.”

Or you would, if not for the party-killers over at boring old Ford. Ford thwarted Mr. Musk’s “SEXY” gambit by preventing Tesla from naming its small sedan the Model E, since that sounds a bit too much like a certain famous Ford, the Model T. So Mr. Musk went with Model 3, which either ruins the joke or elevates it, depending on how much you venerate Tesla and Elon Musk. I count myself as a former admirer of Mr. Musk and Tesla, and in fact put a deposit on a Model 3 after my first drive of one.

But the more I dealt with Tesla as a reporter — this was before Mr. Musk fired all the P.R. people who worked there — the more skeptical I became. Any time I spoke to anyone at Tesla, there was a sense that they were terrified to say the wrong thing, or anything at all. I wanted to know the horsepower of the Model 3 I was driving, and the result was like one of those oblique Mafia conversations where nothing’s stated explicitly, in case the Feds are listening. I ended up saying, “Well, I read that this car has 271 horsepower,” and the Tesla person replied, “I wouldn’t disagree with that.” This is not how healthy, functional companies answer simple factual questions.

That was back in 2017. In the years since, Tesla’s become even crankier, while its competition has loosened up. Public perception hasn’t yet caught up with the reality of the situation. If you want to work for a flexible, modern company, you don’t apply to Tesla. You apply to 120-year-old Ford.

Here's the rest:

OPINION
GUEST ESSAY
A 120-Year-Old Company Is Leaving Tesla in the Dust
March 4, 2023

Credit...Annu Kilpeläinen

By Ezra Dyer
Mr. Dyer is a columnist for Car and Driver magazine.

Tesla had me convinced, for a while, that it was a cool company.

It made cars that performed animatronic holiday shows using their lights and power-operated doors. It came up with dog mode (a climate control system that stays running for dogs in a parked car), a GPS-linked air suspension that remembers where the speed bumps are and raises the car automatically, and “fart mode” (where the car makes fart sounds).

And, fundamentally, its cars had no competition. If you wanted an electric car that could go more than 250 miles between charges, Tesla was your only choice for the better part of a decade. The company’s C.E.O., Elon Musk, came across as goofy and eccentric: You could build great cars and name each model such that the lineup spells “SEXY.”

Or you would, if not for the party-killers over at boring old Ford. Ford thwarted Mr. Musk’s “SEXY” gambit by preventing Tesla from naming its small sedan the Model E, since that sounds a bit too much like a certain famous Ford, the Model T. So Mr. Musk went with Model 3, which either ruins the joke or elevates it, depending on how much you venerate Tesla and Elon Musk. I count myself as a former admirer of Mr. Musk and Tesla, and in fact put a deposit on a Model 3 after my first drive of one.

But the more I dealt with Tesla as a reporter — this was before Mr. Musk fired all the P.R. people who worked there — the more skeptical I became. Any time I spoke to anyone at Tesla, there was a sense that they were terrified to say the wrong thing, or anything at all. I wanted to know the horsepower of the Model 3 I was driving, and the result was like one of those oblique Mafia conversations where nothing’s stated explicitly, in case the Feds are listening. I ended up saying, “Well, I read that this car has 271 horsepower,” and the Tesla person replied, “I wouldn’t disagree with that.” This is not how healthy, functional companies answer simple factual questions.

That was back in 2017. In the years since, Tesla’s become even crankier, while its competition has loosened up. Public perception hasn’t yet caught up with the reality of the situation. If you want to work for a flexible, modern company, you don’t apply to Tesla. You apply to 120-year-old Ford.

Tesla’s veneer of irreverence conceals an inflexible core, an old-fashioned corporate autocracy. Consider Tesla’s remote work policy, or lack thereof. Last year, Mr. Musk issued a decree that Tesla employees log 40 hours per week in an office — and not a home office — if they expected to keep their jobs. On Indeed.com, the question, “Can you work remotely at Tesla?” includes answers like, “No,” and “Absolutely not, they won’t let it happen under any circumstances,” and “No, Tesla will work you until you lose everything.”

But on the other hand, the cars make fart noises. What a zany and carefree company!

Ford’s work-from-home rules for white-collar employees, meanwhile, sound straight out of Silicon Valley, in that the official corporate policy is that there is no official corporate policy — it’s up to the leaders of individual units to require in-person collaboration, or not, as situations dictate. There are new “collaboration centers” in lieu of cubicle farms, complete with food service and concierges. That’s not the reality of daily work life for every person at Ford — you can’t exactly bolt together an F-150 from home — but it’s an attempt to provide some flexibility for as many people as possible.

Ford also tends to make good on its promises, an area that’s become increasingly fraught for Tesla. Ford said it would offer a hands-free driver assist system, and now it does, with BlueCruise; you can take your hands off the steering wheel when it is engaged on premapped sections of highway. Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system is not hands-free in any situation, despite its name, and Tesla charges customers $15,000 for the feature on the promise that someday it will make the huge leap to full autonomous driving.

If you want to pay $15,000 for a feature that’s currently subject to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall whose filing is titled “Full Self-Driving Software May Cause Crash,” don’t let me stop you, but a Tesla engineer also recently testified that a company video purporting to show the system in flawless action was faked. This makes sense, given all the other very real videos of Full Self-Driving doing things like steering into oncoming traffic or braking to a complete stop on a busy street for no reason. Tesla’s own website warns, “The currently enabled features require a fully attentive driver, who has their hands on the wheel and is prepared to take over at any moment.” So, full self-driving, except for that.

Tesla’s long-promised new vehicles, like the Cybertruck and a new version of its Roadster, also keep getting delayed. The Cybertruck was unveiled in 2019, and on Tesla’s most recent earnings call Mr. Musk admitted that it won’t be in production this year, which is becoming an annual refrain. Sure, Ford sold only 15,617 electric F-150 Lightning pickups in 2022, but that beats the Cybertruck’s sales by, let’s see, 15,617. Besides stealing Tesla’s market share on trucks, Ford’s stealing its corporate impishness, too — when the electric Mustang Mach-E was unveiled, Ford demonstrated its tailgating possibilities by filling its drainable front trunk (or “frunk”) with shrimp. “Frunk shrimp” became a meme, which surely tormented the emperor of try-hard social media posting, Elon Musk.

Speaking of which: Twitter. I will hazard the opinion that Mr. Musk’s $44 billion purchase of Twitter has not exactly burnished Tesla’s reputation. Besides showcasing the questionable decision-making inherent in paying that much for Twitter, Mr. Musk’s heightened profile on the platform hasn’t really done him any favors. For instance, when the bulk of your car company’s sales are in blue states, is it helpful to tweet, “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci”? Moreover, you’d think that the self-appointed class clown of corporate America would at least strive for a joke that eschews the hacky “my pronouns are/I identify as” construction. Maybe just go with “Fauci makes me grouchy?” Elon, let’s workshop this next time.

Maybe predictability isn’t trendy, but if you buy a new car you’d probably like to think that its manufacturer won’t cut the price by $13,000 the next week, thus destroying your car’s resale value. And you might hope that features you pay for work on the day you pay for them, and not at some unspecified future date. Maybe you want a car from a company whose C.E.O. isn’t indelibly associated with the product.

I just bought a Jeep and I have no idea who the C.E.O. is there. That’s cool with me.

Ezra Dyer is a columnist for Car and Driver magazine.

 

[Pushrods&Capacitors]

Ezra is one of my current favorite writers over at C&D, in fact, I can’t even tell you the names of the others, except for the old school at-large writers like John Phillips, Csaba Csere that I grew up reading. Ezra isn’t wrong.

 

[Blue highway]

A lot of car perception is no more than sheet metal and the UI software.

Ford will eventually figure out software, as will VW and others that are struggling with it.

Tesla sheet metal design language is starting to look dated... cool kids don't drive dated designs.

 

[Ghost Ryder]

How's this hit piece any different from anything that's written on Jalopnik or other Left leaning rag?

I keep hearing that Tesla is doom to fail, that Elon is alienating everyone. And yet they keep doubling their volume year over year. The problem is that people see tesla as only a car company, but in reality they are a software and electric infrastructure company. They're aiming to be the biggest "gas" station company, they provide battery and solar power on an industrial scale. Their FSD is not there yet, but they are so far ahead of what's commercially available.

I think most magazine dislike Tesla, because 1) They don't spend money on advertising, and sending these writers to all expense paid trips to review their cars. 2) Most writers are left leaning and they disagree with Musk politically.

 

[Logal727]

Love that art

 

[Mirak]

Love that art

The art kicks ass. The rest is trash. The vast majority of this article is just a left-leaning journo whining about Elon Musk. He loved Tesla until Musk bought his Twitter plaything and threatened to curb censorship.

To be clear, I don’t want to start a political debate, but I am simply pointing out that this article is just political sour grapes.

And speaking of sour grapes, I bought some today from the grocery store. They look perfectly normal, but they are not. Are you supposed to taste test them before buying?

 

[HGxxx]

Well it's his opinion, mach e is here because of Tesla. I don't think general public cares too much about a company ethos, as long as the product is good. And in terms of people who lost 13 k due to the price drop, it's up to them if they trust Tesla again

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

The terrible working conditions, the narcissistic CEO, the constant broken promises, and the inconsistent-at-best build quality are some of the reasons I wouldn't even consider a Tesla. I stayed with hybrids longer than I'd wanted because I kept waiting for a real car company to build a BEV.

 

[Deleted member 16048]

The terrible working conditions, the narcissistic CEO, the constant broken promises, and the inconsistent-at-best build quality are some of the reasons I wouldn't even consider a Tesla. I stayed with hybrids longer than I'd wanted because I kept waiting for a real car company to build a BEV.

I agree and think this really summarizes Tesla well for what they are at the core. It doesn't matter if you're on the left or the right. What it comes down to is how the company is run, and their focus. They care more about getting volume out and they exploit that people will buy their stuff no matter what. I don't think that's a wise long term model. People will figure it out and go elsewhere.

 

[SpaceEVDriver]

I agree and think this really summarizes Tesla well for what they are at the core. It doesn't matter if you're on the left or the right. What it comes down to is how the company is run, and their focus. They care more about getting volume out and they exploit that people will buy their stuff no matter what. I don't think that's a wise long term model. People will figure it out and go elsewhere.

My biggest disappointment in the EV world was when Tesla was taken over by Musk. I was so excited about the company and then... Meh.

I still hope it can survive or that it becomes a subsidiary of a real car manufacturer. And I will celebrate when Musk is no longer associated with the company.

 

[kindofblue]

I sold our MY this last year for an i4 because of the "phantom breaking" issue that their customer service rep says they're aware of (it's been a problem for years) but do not have a fix for, yet. It's downright dangerous when your car on cruise control suddenly slams on the breaks when you're doing 75 and there's no reason to do so. And then does it repeatedly when going down a fairly desolate, straight, divided highway.

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