Compared with "planting noodles", Tesla's bigger problem is "distrust"
On the first day of the first global A-class auto show in 2021, the car owners defended their rights on the spot, and the untimely response of the executives triggered condemnation from the authoritative media, which is indeed a "faced" thing for Tesla.
However, whether it is seen from the development of the rights protection incident or Tesla's various responses and statements, the world's leading electric car manufacturer is facing a bigger problem for consumers: "distrust."
Executives respond to being accused of arrogance
In fact, at the beginning of the "car-roof rights protection", Internet public opinion was more about watching the excitement, taking the auto show's tidbits as after-dinner talks, and many media criticized the excessive actions of car owners and supported the public security organs' handling of them. .
It was Tao Lin, Tesla's global vice president, who really turned the public's attention to dissatisfaction with Tesla.
He responded on the day of the incident. This time Tesla responded quickly, but such a tough attitude aroused a backlash in public opinion.
On the 20th, the central media also commented on Tesla's response: Who gave it the confidence to "uncompromise"?
While acknowledging that the truth is difficult to rush to a conclusion, the commentary focused on criticizing the arrogant response of Tesla executives.
The commentary believes that a company cannot satisfy everyone, but as a "star" company, it should have products and service attitudes that satisfy consumers.
If consumers can defend their rights smoothly, who would risk standing on the roof of the car to defend their rights?
Long Yongtu, the chief negotiator of China's WTO accession and former deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that trade negotiations are the art of compromise.
Tesla's uncompromising closed the door to negotiations.
After the "car roof rights protection" incident, a car company personally told the Beijing Youth Daily that car owners who came to defend their rights had been "clashing" with Tesla over rights protection, and there were many fierce behaviors.
Under normal circumstances, car companies will have dedicated personnel responsible for maintaining communication with car owners, and will not wait until the situation is so serious to think of the formation of a so-called "special team", and will not be "raided" at the auto show site.
"Tesla's response is too bad." The car maker said.
Tesla has long compromised in the U.S.
What is even more chilling is that Tesla, who put on a tough face in this incident, actually had a much more flexible attitude when encountering the "rights protection" of American consumers.
The "uncompromising" Tesla had already compromised in the United States.
In May 2018, Tesla settled a class action lawsuit against its autonomous driving system in the form of a settlement.
Some consumers who purchased Tesla's autopilot system upgrade from 2016 to 2017 pointed out that the system was unavailable.
As part of the settlement agreement, Tesla agreed to compensate these consumers who participated in the class action from US$20 to US$280.
In the same year, Tesla also settled a class action lawsuit against the accidental acceleration of Model S and Model X in the United States.
Six of the seven car owners involved in the lawsuit reached a settlement with Tesla, thereby reducing the class action case to a single lawsuit.
It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced after an investigation that Tesla did not have the problem of accidental acceleration. The more than 200 accidents received before were mostly caused by operational errors.
The representative of Tesla's owners who prompted the NHTSA to initiate the investigation also approved the official investigation results afterwards.
In other words, if the lawsuit was brought to the end, Tesla would have a high probability of winning the lawsuit. However, it chose to settle with American consumers when it had an advantage.
It can be seen that Tao Lin's "no compromise" seems to be aimed at Chinese consumers only.
After the data was publicly questioned
The arrogant response and the different attitudes inside and outside make it difficult to convince the public of Tesla’s willingness to solve the problem. Tesla has also fallen into a more and more tarnished situation, so that unprecedented measures such as "disclosing vehicle data" have never Can prove his innocence.
After the "car roof rights protection" incident, Tesla submitted vehicle data before the accident to the regulatory authorities.
After the results of the data were released, intensive public doubts arose. In addition to some professionals who analyzed the data and pointed out possible problems, more voices focused on the authenticity of the data itself, worrying that Tesla might Falsify data, or selectively publish data that is beneficial to you.
And Tesla's similar data does have loopholes, and even the company's CEO Musk himself can't convince the public.
On April 17, local time, after a Tesla crashed into a tree in Texas and caught fire and killed two people, Musk said on social media on the 20th that the vehicle in the accident did not turn on the autopilot system.
Musk wrote in a reply to a netizen: "...The currently restored data log shows that the Autopilot has not been activated, and the car has not purchased a Fully Automated Driving System (FSD). In addition, the standard autopilot system A lane line is needed to open, and this (incident) street has no lane line."
But this explanation was quickly questioned by American netizens.
Another netizen pointed out that Musk's interpretation of the data was incomplete. This netizen believed that Musk's so-called "data shows that automatic driving was not activated" did not specify whether it was the data immediately after the accident or the data a few seconds before the occurrence.
In addition, in response to Musk’s explanation that “the standard autopilot system requires lane lines to open”, more than one netizen had a video “slap on the face” and posted that his Tesla relies on standard autonomy on roads without lane lines. Video of driving system driving.
It can be seen that, whether in China or the United States, Tesla is facing a crisis of "distrust" to varying degrees.
In the 2020 financial report, Tesla emphasized the importance of the Chinese market: In this year of shrinking global auto market, Tesla's sales revenue in China was US$6.7 billion, accounting for 21% of global revenue.
This has more than doubled from 2019.
Industry insiders pointed out that even from the perspective of capital pursuit of profit, Tesla also needs to appease Chinese consumers and communicate with Chinese consumers in a more frank and equal manner.
Because Mi Lu said: "Attitude is everything." Wen/Yang Zheng