This is one of the funniest things I've ever read

A Most Peculiar Test Drive | Blog | Tesla Motors

The lessons here:

1) Make sure the product you are reviewing doesn't have extensive data-logging capabilities before you lie in a review article.

2) Don't screw with Elon Musk... he's smarter than you.

3) the Tesla Model S is badass

 

Read this, and it wouldn't be the first time a smear campaign on electric vehicles has happened. Especially with people like the "good ol' boys" loving the NYT and that paper's ability to cater only to the type of people who stand to profit off of big oil and gasoline powered vehicles.

 

Tow Truck Driver At Center Of Tesla Controversy Unaware Of Controversy

 

Here you go


Rick Ibsen played a big part in a New York Times reporter's ill-fated Tesla Model S drive up the East Coast. He was the one who came to the car's rescue when it apparently ran out of power and stopped working on a Connecticut exit ramp. But until I spoke with him a few minutes ago, he was unaware that this had exploded into a huge controversy.

In fact, Ibsen, who works for Rogers Automotive & Towing in Milford, Conn., had not yet seen reporter John Broder's story about the drive, nor did he know that his picture was on the Times' website. (He said Broder was supposed to send him an email with the link, but he never got it. Broder's had a busy week and I've been guilty of this myself, so I'll give him a pass.)

But Ibsen, a veteran tow truck driver, was kind enough to take time out of his day to tell me more about his rescue of the stranded Model S. And for the record, he told me he didn't get the sense that this was something Broder wanted to happen, or tried to make happen.

On that late January day when the Model S required a tow, it was "somewhere between 0 and 10 degrees outside," Ibsen said, so both of them were cold and miserable.

"It didn't appear that the gentleman driving the car wanted it to not work," Ibsen told me. "I don't think he had any desire to stand freezing on the side of the road."

Much of what Ibsen told me echoed what his towing company coworker said earlier today. When he arrived, the Model S was stuck in park and its electric parking brake was on, making it very hard to get onto the flatbed. There was a way to jump the car's 12-volt battery, but that wasn't working, he said.

Now, the car's touch screen center console was working, and Ibsen was on the phone with a Tesla employee in California who was walking him through a process to get the brake off, but he wasn't getting the messages or menus on the screen that the employee said he was supposed to.

"We put the jumper box on to get the 12 volt battery working, but he said if it was completely dead it wouldn't work," Ibsen said. He siad the Tesla employee was helpful but understandably frustrated.

Eventually, through a 45-minute process, the car was dragged onto a flatbed. It would stay on the truck charging once it got to a nearby station until it had enough juice to take it out of park and to put the parking brake on. Broder said in his story that that took about 25 minutes.

Ibsen said the whole ordeal was quite tricky. He's towed exotic cars before, and you can often find guides on the Internet on how to tow those. No such luck with the Model S, he said.

Ibsen and I ended our chat with him saying he'd look at some of the stories on the Internet about the now-infamous Tesla drive. He wouldn't say it was the hardest tow he's ever taken part in, but it was certainly tricky.


Seems like old musk is full of bull****, telsa just doesn't want to go out of business e.g. people find out their cars are idiotic and ****ty.

 

So, because the author was an idiot and ran the car out of charge; than needed a tow... somehow that discredits Tesla?

If they guy had run out of gas in an STI and needed a tow, would that discredit Subaru?

 

Broder isn't the NY times main car blogger/reporter. He's more of an oil guy...

look at the rest of his articles. He's been slandering anything related to alternative energy

John M. Broder - The New York Times

 

summary

The NYT writes an article supposedly giving the ModelS a "real world east coast test" and ends up making Tesla look bad because the car did not go the range that the car said it would (and made the reporter drive with no heat in freezing weather, etc)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/au...agewanted=all&

This was debunked by Elon Musk himself with recorded data from the car on his Tesla blog:
A Most Peculiar Test Drive | Blog | Tesla Motors

Musk shows with the data log that the reporter clearly lied about the events in the article, as debunked by the data log.

As a reporter... Broder committed an unforgivable sin in journalism, and the NYT looses a LOT of credibility points on this one.

 

I posted the articles, was responding to slow04wrx

 

Elon Musk's Data Doesn't Back Up His Claims of New York Times Fakery - Technology - The Atlantic Wire

Here is the Atltantic Wire's analysis of Musk's data logs. Seems like both sides are trying to skew the data in their favor, but I think that the NY times article was more manipulative

 

oh... now I get it. My bad.

Yeah that didn't make sense when I realized that you are the OP.

 

Having driven one I'll say I'd love to have one if it wasn't so expensive! The car is a joy to drive!

 

Anyone else bothered by the detail and quantity of data is recorded by this car? Do they even need to physically plug into the car to retreave it or its all wireless (or bother getting your permission first)?

There are 2 of these driving around where I live...if you ever thought Prius drivers had a complex, these guys take it to a whole new level.

 

My Stepfather just picked one up they are bad ***!

 

A buddy of mine rented one. Very nice, very liveable car. But still a lot of range anxiety. And it's HEAVY and big. Feels like a 7 series BMW.

 

These all have reasonable rebuttals which make the article less full of "lies" (as the musk rebuttal attests) and more of mistaken use of the facts.

There is one single argument that was not rebutted and is fully in Musks favor: the early pulling of the charge, and the subsequent distance attempted on the partial charge. The original article claimed topping off the charge and that clearly was not the case as shown by the data, even if the time of events is mixed up.

I'm calling this one in favor of Tesla.