No, just because you hadn’t heard of it before doesn’t mean Elon Musk invented tire pressure monitoring
- Let’s be honest: some Tesla fans overstate the brand’s penchant for innovation
- Claims about “novel” features can be wildly exaggerated, sometimes to the point of cringe
- No, believe it or not, Elon Musk did not invent tire-pressure monitoring systems
It’s one thing to be a fan of a brand – be it automotive, clothing, or even a celebrity – but it is quite something else entirely to be so utterly and blindly smitten that one thinks the Earth’s sun rises and sets on the company you admire. Tesla, for whatever reason, finds itself with legions of these devotees, some of whom give the brand far more credit than it deserves. (Not to say it’s not deserving of credit – the automaker certainly innovates, sometimes in genius ways – but it’s not like Tesla invented the wheel.)
We’ve rounded a few examples to show you what we mean, boasts from Tesla owners about a feature or ability that, well, maybe isn’t worth boasting about. Is it somewhat ironic we collected most of these from Twitter? (Er, X? Xitter? Thanks for nothing, Elon.) We’ll let you decide on that.
Tire Pressure Monitoring and Blind-Spot Indicators
Off-road Articulation
But the level of blind faith was ratcheted into the stratosphere when the Cybertruck was announced. Think what you want about the pickup’s style (or lack thereof) it’s certainly getting the press and public alike talking about it — which, after all, is the goal of any automaker for its products. With the noise has come, well, more noise, a lot of it in the form of incorrect claims from Tesla zealots.
Four-wheel Steering
Payload and Steer-by-wire
Don’t get it twisted — Tesla rightly deserves a lot of credit for forcing legacy automakers to get off their duffs and make serious stabs as electrification, not to mention furnishing the continent with one of the only reliable EV charging networks in operation today. But, for the love of all that’s holy, fans need to fact-check some of their assertions before making dunderheads out of themselves on social media (the latter’s an activity with which, if we’re being honest, this author has plenty of experience).
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