Tesla Birth Watch 13: Tesla Jumps the Shark?

Justin Berkowitz
by Justin Berkowitz

In Tesla Birth Watch 3, TTAC reported that Tesla pulled the proverbial wool over the drug-crazed eyes of the Woodward & Bernstein quality reporters at VH1, convincing them that the Roadster was real and on the road. Readers of Wired Magazine, however, are way too, uh, wired to be fooled by Tesla's press releases (which usually announce that announcements will be announced soon). Wired News has released its annual Vaporware Awards and – surprise – the Tesla roadster comes in ninth place. The eds introduce the losers thusly: "It's time again to inhale the fumes of failure." Reader nominations and hundreds of votes helped Wired sort out "the top 10 honorees for the 2007 Podium of Shame." And talk about shame: Tesla, the car company being run like a tech startup, can't even persuade the tech newsies that it's got its act together. Didn't the dot-com bubble burst in part because companies were making promises about tech they couldn't deliver? At least we've got internal combustion to fall back on.

Justin Berkowitz
Justin Berkowitz

Immensely bored law student. I've also got 3 dogs.

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  • Starlightmica Starlightmica on Dec 20, 2007
    Sajeev: Tesla could do worse: the Prius computer shutdown bug that left the car stranded and requiring a flatbed, similar the car(s?) bloodnok saw.
  • Sajeev Mehta Sajeev Mehta on Dec 20, 2007

    Nah, the Tesla can't get much worse. Its just that the Prius could do better. (and I'm sure it did)

  • Guyincognito Guyincognito on Dec 21, 2007

    I don't buy this, its only the transmission, story. If that were truly the case, why wouldn't they abandon the 2 speed transmission at this point? And why did they kick Eberhard out of the company entirely? I think there have to be serious problems at Tesla to justify the continuing delays and management shakeup.

  • Sammy Hagar Sammy Hagar on Dec 21, 2007

    Damn it Tesla, get your act together. Jennifer and I are supposed to go up to the mountains this weekend...I'm supposed to score! Hopefully my dad didn't loan our car to Biff again...

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