Tesla Hate Is Making Insurance More Expensive for Owners

Nah. Insurance is based on the numbers, and Tesla is a shitty company to have financial liability to fix. There’s no parts, few shops, and lots of stuff to get stuck with.

A friend had a rental for 4 months when the panoramic sunroof cracked on his Tesla.

The vandalism isn’t computed in yet, and will immediately resulted in dropped coverage. If the Feds label it as terrorism, insurance generally excludes riot and terrorism from coverage anyway.

The whole point is new buyers..

People are protesting Musk. Something like 75% of Musk's current wealth comes from Tesla stock.

Tesla stock is going down.. so it is helping the cause

Sadly I think, and for some time now, we are well past the point where political action needs to make sense either to the people involved or to the people outside. The message, the narrative, they’re whatever you want them to be. Whether that makes sense - much less where the truth lies - is irrelevant.

Protests and ethics and capitalism and products and politics are more complicated than that. If collateral damage or somehow hurting anybody in "your" half of The Two Groups (which is a faulty premise to begin with) is ruled out, you're wiping out nearly all opinions and protest. Things just aren't that simple (though it's convenient to pretend they are when it lets us point a finger at the enemy out-group - look at their hypocrisy/in-fighting!)

That is not to say the opposite - that I think all anti-Tesla hatred/actions are justified. I'm just refuting your opinion specifically.

I have a lot of thoughts that run in both directions on topics like this, including this one. However, this specific case is especially far gone, in terms of drawing lines between "understandable" and "unreasonable" on any given anti-Tesla action/opinion, simply because of the fact that he and some of his supporters invoke Nazism. If it wasn't for that, I could more confidently say something like, "No, that one is over the line" for any given anti-Tesla thing. But I can't.

Usually this type of thing isn't really about a cause but making oneself feel better. The stuff that is actually beneficial to a cause tend to be less emotionally satisfying.

This probably doesn't fit the two-team paradigm. When you consider the objectives might be something different from ensuring democrats win offices in two years, the rationale may make more sense.

Thanks to Leon's salute, instead of buying 1-3 more Tesla's in my lifetime, I'm going back to plain gas powered Hondas. I'm choosing specifically non-turbo non-hybrid models. The American people, with their choice of President, have shown me they don't care about the present or the future. I'm sure their president will keep gas prices low. I don't see any reason for me to suffer for their benefit or anyone else's. The American people have chosen to doom us all, so why not just make life easy on myself.

Today I saw a diesel truck roll coal on anti-tesla protestors.

We've gone full circle.

This has more to do with Tesla's being totaled in fender benders than the events of the last two months because the cost associated with replacing and fixing the cameras, electronics, and sensors. I've had two friends who had rear end accidents with their Teslas. One took over a year for his car to be returned in full working order after being rear ended at a stop sign. The other backed into a pole in a parking lot and they totaled out the car. All this cool stuff made these vehicles unrepairable from what are minor issues with less advanced vehicles.

Absolutely correct. But also there could be other reasons. The Mercedes cars offer SAE Level 3 certification ("you are officially not driving the car or watching the road, but we may demand you take over"), versus the much more dangerous Tesla Level 2 ("you are still responsible for driving and must constantly supervise but also the car will be doing it all for you, please don't stop paying attention at any point").

There have been, what, more than 50 self-driving fatalities in Teslas already? Of course the insurance premium would be higher.

It fits the narrative, who needs logic?

Clearly the two are not connected - it just hasn't been enough time for insurance rates to be adjusted based on recent happenings. The industry does not react that fast.

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Isn't most law enforcement in the US at a state or local level? Why would that be completely different from a year ago?

Yes, after the recent promotional event at the White House I can easily imagine protecting Teslas becomes a top priority, and that damaging one is punishable by death.

Honestly, I don't think the article supports the headline.

ex. "The cost to insure a Tesla Model 3 went up 30 percent last year.". Nothing happening in March of this year is affecting the price of insurance from last year. I have no doubt that stuff happening in March of this year will affect insurance prices this year but Tesla insurance is just expensive because the availability of Tesla repairs is low.

Whether or not law enforcement (which is most likely state level and therefore didn't change this year) can figure out whose doing vandalism isn't going to affect the price as significantly as Tesla's own inability to repair vehicles.

The insurance in question is more about individual cars rather than stores;

And while Teslas have Sentry mode that could detect things like paint, door dings, tire vandalism to record a criminal act, law enforcement has rarely been able to enforce much except the extreme or flagrant.

Unfortunately a Tesla is not under $900

Law enforcement, comprised completely of government workers, is going to go out and find the people protesting against killing off their golden goose?

I think it's more likely they'll start enforcing jaywalking laws against children playing hockey in the street.

Now, I'm not saying anyone should vandalize someone else's car for political reasons but as a campaign to dissuade people from buying Teslas this seems to be quite effective.

I’m not.

>Why tear at a company that makes a great car over anyone's political preferences?

With how our society is set up, you are suggesting not holding any political viewpoints or preferences.

I had a whole diatribe typed up that I deleted because I realized I cannot actually empathize or have a theory of mind for how you could think this was an acceptable way to live life. Do you silo every interaction you have with everyone else?

> The phrase "shooting oneself in the foot" comes to mind.

It should come to mind for elon, not car buyers. He built a car company based on environmentalism that naturally appealed to people with environmental concerns and then pivoted to publicly insulting and denigrating those exact people.

It's not even really political. Elon isn't the first CEO to hold political values that differ from a majority of the company's customers. It's the fact that he goes out of his way to call his most likely customers retards.

It's at the bottom of all reliability lists so I'd argue it's not a "great car"

Making a sacrifice, whether great or small, is a very common ethical behaviour.

I refuse to make purchases on Amazon. Sometimes that's a minor inconvenience: perhaps the alternative has slower delivery. Sometimes purchasing elsewhere probably costs me more than it would on Amazon.

My purchase value is low considering the whole world, but it's not zero. I can also influence my employer's decisions, which are larger — and we use Azure rather than AWS.

The car isn't the problem, but it's tied to an incredibly overvalued stock, which in turn made it possible for Musk to buy massive influence and political power, and wield it irresponsible self-serving ways.

> over anyone's political preferences

I think this phrasing mellows the reality that he has, regardless of intent, displayed Nazi-like behavior. Why not tear at a company whose absentee CEO acts this way? Tesla is not the only great car or the only great car company. Let it thrive or die based on myriad factors, including leadership optics.

Because the better Tesla does the more financial leverage that Elon Musk, a terrible person who is causing a great deal of harm, has.

Just buy one of these "I bought this before we knew Elon was a piece of shit" stickers