Yes and: Tesla sacrificed low defect counts for other qualities {1}. Such as high iteration, units shipped, reducing weight. {2}
Which could maybe be fine, if Tesla had also adopted the Bezos Amazon obsession with customer satisfaction. Bezos knew that given Amazon's growth there would be a lot of errors (defects). So they built out superior customer service infra, gave CSRs wide autonomy/authority to fix stuff, try to make every customer whole.
And Amazon's customers loved them for it, have high tolerance for mistakes, which would harm most other CPG brands.
Instead, Tesla adopted the Page Google antipathy towards customers. So dumb.
At some point, Musk will have spent all of his goodwill. Then Tesla's brand will suffer accordingly. And that kind of soft equity is wicked hard to rebuild.
These lawsuits are going to hurt Tesla's brand. Celebrity is a two-edged sword. The media that fawned over him for so long will now gleefully tear him to shreds.
{1} IIRC, Tesla's defect rate is %10 vs %3 for other "luxury" auto brands, however that's measured.
{2} Noting that defect rate varies across subsystems. IIRC, Tesla motors and batteries remain best in class; Whereas body, paint, interior, and trim suffer.
Which could maybe be fine, if Tesla had also adopted the Bezos Amazon obsession with customer satisfaction. Bezos knew that given Amazon's growth there would be a lot of errors (defects). So they built out superior customer service infra, gave CSRs wide autonomy/authority to fix stuff, try to make every customer whole.
And Amazon's customers loved them for it, have high tolerance for mistakes, which would harm most other CPG brands.
Instead, Tesla adopted the Page Google antipathy towards customers. So dumb.
At some point, Musk will have spent all of his goodwill. Then Tesla's brand will suffer accordingly. And that kind of soft equity is wicked hard to rebuild.
These lawsuits are going to hurt Tesla's brand. Celebrity is a two-edged sword. The media that fawned over him for so long will now gleefully tear him to shreds.
{1} IIRC, Tesla's defect rate is %10 vs %3 for other "luxury" auto brands, however that's measured.
{2} Noting that defect rate varies across subsystems. IIRC, Tesla motors and batteries remain best in class; Whereas body, paint, interior, and trim suffer.