>"The official policy to deprive customers and victims of information as much as possible is shocking from the standpoint of being flagrantly, cynically customer-hostile to the point of probable illegality, but it's right out of both Musk's normal playbook and that of his erstwhile colleagues at e.g. Paypal"
It seems like you're holding Tesla to a higher standard than any other automaker. Which other automakers reveal similar information willingly? Many (or likely most) other automakers have made deceptive and/or dangerous products, in just about every manner imaginable.
I say this as someone still driving a pre-emissions-control diesel VW: Volkswagen had long been positioning themselves as the market leader for diesel passenger cars in the US. Nobody else was doing as much to offer diesels across their lineup, or push them as the "green"/economical option. And they have been the biggest manufacturer in Europe for a long time, so it makes sense that the EU came down on them like a ton of bricks too.
There was a period in the early-mid 2000s where their diesels, along with Mercedes, got pushed out of California and CARB-compliant states. The opinion among diesel enthusiasts was that this was intentional on the part of CARB not just over NOx concerns, but also to help the market for hybrids grow. Otherwise, given the TDI's at-the-time superior highway mileage and the then-prevailing diesel prices, the VW diesel would have presented as the superior option to the Prius for a lot of people.
During this period, there was still a lot of pent-up demand for the VW and Mercedes diesels in California. Any car coming from out of state with at least 8,500 miles on the odometer was considered a "used car" and could be registered no matter the powerplant, so there was quite a cottage industry of putting that much mileage on brand-new out-of-state diesels and then turning them around on LA or SF Craigslist. The market here was primed to buy VW, but VW cheated to get in a position to sell new "CARB-compliant" diesels again. I'm not surprised that the prosecutors went after them disproportionately.
Being a mid-level cheater but taking all the blame is not "two wrongs don't make a right" material, unless you are duty bound to force your ethics choices through the nearest aphorism.
So you're blaming the regulators here for making an example of VW? Perhaps that may be valid, but if VW made the conscious decision to not follow government regulations, than that's on VW, not the regulators.
Example making can be rather distasteful, but it can also be an effective deterrent preventing similar things happening again.
VW was made an example of because they were far and away the biggest diesel passenger vehicle seller in the US. So even if their cheats weren't as egregious as other automakers, said cheats had far wider impact on consumers and the environment.
are you deciding that this is acceptable based on an assumption that it is commonplace?
because it sure reads like this is exactly what your view.
it doesn't matter if there's a double standard, it's bad behavior no matter what the rules are for everyone else. and if there is a double standard then that is something else that needs addressing. a double standard does not diminish the severity of these documents.
They spend all their ad budget for personal Musk propaganda, which is even more effective considering how the U.S. is very sensitive to the myth of the 'self made man who pulled up his own bootstraps' .
It seems like you're holding Tesla to a higher standard than any other automaker. Which other automakers reveal similar information willingly? Many (or likely most) other automakers have made deceptive and/or dangerous products, in just about every manner imaginable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_emissions_scandal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto#Fuel_system_fires,_...
https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/22/12007862/fca-jeep-grand-c...