Chinese car journalists are told not to be negative on Tesla as it sues customers and media - Related to program, tesla, told, tacoma, problems

Chinese car journalists are told not to be negative on Tesla as it sues customers and media

A new scathing analysis about Tesla just came out in China. It describes how the automaker is becoming trigger-happy, suing its own consumers and the media while auto journalists are being told not to be negative about the American automaker.

To this day, Tesla is the only foreign automaker with a wholly-owned car factory in China, although Toyota is expected to follow in a few years.

Elon Musk made the deal happen with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials back in 2018. Tesla Gigafactory Shanghai became the organization’s biggest production hub and its biggest source of revenue and profit.

Tesla would never be where it is today without Gigafactory Shanghai and the Chinese market.

Now, we learn that Tesla is willing to go to great lengths to protect that.

The Associated Press (AP) has just released a fascinating in-depth study about Tesla’s activities in China regarding clients and the media.

The research centers around a new perspective on the highly publicized battle between Tesla and one of its Chinese consumers who claimed a brake defect, but it also goes deeper by highlighting a shift in Tesla’s approach to criticism in China.

AP found that Tesla sued “at least six car owners in China who had sudden vehicle malfunctions, quality complaints or accidents they claimed were caused by mechanical failures.”.

Tesla also sued “at least six bloggers and two Chinese media outlets that wrote critically about the enterprise.”.

This is highly unusual behavior for an automaker.

The study also highlights the close relationship between Tesla and CCP officials, especially Li Qiang, the former party boss of Shanghai who is now China’s premier. He was involved in the Gigafactory Shanghai deal.

It’s not news that Tesla benefited from preferential treatment in China, but the study goes quite a bit further.

AP alleges that local media are instructed not to be negative on Tesla:

Tesla has profited from the largesse of the Chinese state, winning unprecedented regulatory benefits, below-market rate loans and large tax breaks. With a few pointed exceptions, Tesla has enjoyed largely ingratiating coverage in the Chinese press, and journalists told AP they have been instructed to avoid negative coverage of the automaker.

“We were told by our editor that we should not write negatively about Tesla because it is a key firm that was introduced and protected by the Shanghai government.”.

The study also explains how Tesla wins about 90% of the court cases filed against the automaker by consumers who claim a defect.

Many individuals complained of Tesla’s lack of communication, leading to filing lawsuits.

If they file lawsuits, they lose, and if they complain publicly, they are the ones getting sued by Tesla and forced to pay the organization and make a public apology.

That’s quite a analysis. It gave a new perspective on Ms. Zhang’s case. Her case made it to Western media in 2021-2022, but never with the level of detail in this analysis.

The facts are she got into an accident. She claimed it was due to a brake failure. Tesla claimed it was due to a driver mistake.

She felt compelled to protest Tesla over what she saw as a serious safety issue. She was quite persistent with it. Tesla sued her and won because she had no way to prove that a brake defect had caused the accident. She was forced to pay Tesla and make a public apology.

But we also learned that Tesla claimed that other entities were backing her despite no evidence of that whatsoever.

I think there’s room for reflection on Tesla’s part here. Is this what it wants to be: a corporation that sues its end-individuals and media over criticism?

Like some customers introduced in the study, Tesla could have avoided much that by simply having improved communications with customers.

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Tesla Trademark Hints At Robovan Sharing Program

Tesla applied for two "Robus" trademarks with the USPTO.

One refers to electric buses, while the other is for ridesharing services.

The Robovan made a surprise appearance during last year's Robotaxi event.

Tesla has submitted two trademark applications in the United States that might have something to do with its autonomous ridesharing plans. As first seen by CarMoses, the American EV maker is trying to trademark the “Robus” name in two different categories.

The first application submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office refers to electric vehicles, buses and electrically powered buses, while the second application caters to passenger transportation, time-based ridesharing services, peer-to-peer vehicle sharing and temporary use of vehicles.

We aren't certain that Robus will be the official name of Tesla’s Robotaxi and Robovan business, but these two trademark applications certainly support that theory.

For years, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has pledged self-driving cars will be coming “soon.” Those promises culminated in last year’s Robotaxi event that showed two futuristic vehicles without steering wheels but offered few answers to technical questions and logistical issues.

Currently, Tesla’s so-called Full Self-Driving (Supervised) advanced driving assistance suite (ADAS) relies on cameras to “see” the world, just like a human driver. That reduces costs considerably and makes changing components easy if something goes wrong, but other problems arise. For example, if the cameras get dirty, the system can't function so it shuts down—and there’s no automated cleaning setup in the works.

By contrast, Alphabet-owned Waymo, which already offers paid rides in multiple [website] cities, uses a multitude of sensors, including LiDar. That’s both for redundancy and for making sure the system keeps working if it’s raining or snowing or if there’s fog on the road. Considering there’s no one behind the wheel, it’s a welcome safety net.

Before we see driverless Teslas roaming across the land, the business will start a low-volume trial in Austin, Texas in June. "Teslas will be in the wild with no one in them, in June in Austin," Elon Musk unveiled during Tesla’s fourth-quarter 2024 earnings call. "This is not some far-off mythical situation, it's five, six months away."

As with all patents and trademarks, there's always the possibility that this may never see the light of day. Only time will tell.

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A new scathing findings about Tesla just came out in China. It describes how the automaker is becoming trigger-happy, suing its own consumers and the me......

Your Toyota Tacoma Might Have Problems if It Gets Too Muddy

Toyota is recalling certain 2024 and 2025 Tacoma pickups because mud and dirt build-up could wear a hole in the rear brake lines. It affects 106,061 trucks—ones with four-wheel drive, 16-inch brakes, and 17-inch wheels.

, mud and dirt build-up on the interior of the rear wheels can come into contact with the rear brake hoses, and, over time, may damage the hoses and wear a hole in them. If this happens, the vehicle could experience reduced braking power, increasing the risk of an accident.

Toyota began investigating the issue after receiving dealer reports regarding rear brake hose leaks last summer. The automaker didn’t find any problems in the manufacturing process, so it began to review the rear brake design.

The automaker discovered that the clearance between the 16-inch brakes and 17-inch wheels is less than other combinations. It also learned that the brake hose routing on the 16-inch brakes differed from the 17-inch brakes, positioning the hose outside the rear caliper profile.

Toyota replicated the mud and dirt build-up issue on trucks with four-wheel drive, 16-inch brakes, and 17-inch wheels. It couldn’t reproduce the problem on two-wheel-drive trucks, nor those with 18-inch wheels, but the automaker is continuing to investigate the issue.

Toyota will inform owners to take their trucks to their preferred dealer. A technician will replace the rear brake hoses with improved ones. The automaker will mail out notices to owners by April 7.

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