2 thoughts on “Tesla response and mission statement”

1. Elon Musk is my idea of a 21st century visionary. I especially like his response to his critics.

2. I liked the article (and I agree 100% that the media reaction is overblown), but the statistics don’t sound right to me.

   Musk says that you are more likely to get struck by lightning than be involved in a Tesla with a fire. 1/6333 Tesla’s (probably all a year old or less) have had a fire. Is Musk saying that each year, more than 1/6333 people in the world are struck by lightning? There have been 3 Teslas involved in a fire accident … have there been more than 3 Tesla drivers hit by lightning since they bought their Tesla? I sincerely doubt it.

   Also, regarding the 1/1350 rate for fires in gasoline cars. I would like to believe that Musk is being fair and comparing apples to apples. To be fair, the numbers for both Teslas and gasoline cars should be an “annual” amount (and to be really fair, it should be compared to “new” cars, since all Teslas are pretty close to new). However, my guess is that 1/1350 gasoline cars will experience a fire sometime in their lifetime, and I don’t believe that it is an apples to apples comparison.

   I’m not trying to bash Musk, or say that I think Teslas are dangerous. If I had the money to buy a Tesla, I would in a heartbeat.

   I just don’t like it when people throw numbers around in a misleading way as Musk seems to have done.