New York Times vs. Tesla.

New York Times automotive journalist John M. Border recently carved out what could be known as an automotive technology controversy on one of the most hotly argued topics — electric cars.

It is claimed that Tesla’s Model S could make a 200 mile trip between Tesla’s two ultra-fast charging stations at Newark and Milford non-stop with one full battery’s charge.

Mr. Border’s dramatically titled article in the NYT — “Stalled out on Tesla’s electric Highway” literally created sparks in media circles as he explained about how his performance electric car stalled in the highway and had to be hauled away on a recovery truck.

Tesla Chief, Elon Musk took charge and made an equally charging blog post with the title — “A Most Peculiar Test Drive” in which he talks about how the NYT journalist never stuck to what the Tesla engineers briefed him about, with definite accusations like “Cruise control was never set to 54 mph as claimed in the article, nor did he limp along at 45 mph. Broder in fact drove at speeds from 65 mph to 81 mph for a majority of the trip and at an average cabin temperature setting of 72 F.” and a lot more based on the data that was logged by the media vehicle’s pre-installed data log, an instrument more on the lines of a “black box” used in air crafts.

To quote Mr. Elon Musk — “After a negative experience several years ago with Top Gear, a popular automotive show, where they pretended that our car ran out of energy and had to be pushed back to the garage, we always carefully data log media drives. While the vast majority of journalists are honest, some believe the facts shouldn’t get in the way of a salacious story. In the case of Top Gear, they had literally written the script before they even received the car (we happened to find a copy of the script on a table while the car was being “tested”). Our car never even had a chance.” The car here being referred to is the Tesla Roadster that was reviewed by Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who needs no introduction about controversies and also about hammers. (You can find the legal notice right below the video player in the link.)

The idea of installing ‘black boxes’ in media vehicles, sparked yet another debate regarding whether they could be a privacy nightmare by restricting freedom of expression or a safety measure.

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