# Alex Roy Electrek hit piece



## M3OC Rules (Nov 18, 2016)

http://www.thedrive.com/opinion/21456/the-dangerous-difference-between-electrek-journalism-and-truth

I ran across this opinion piece on Thedrive. I don't read TheDrive regularly but I do read Electrek regularly. I was pretty curious what this major issue Alex had with Electrek. After reading it I have to say that it did not change my mind at all about Electrek. I read Electrek enough to know what I'm getting. Electrek is made up of Tesla and cleantech fans. I think they try to be objective and its not like they hide their biases. I like they way they distinguish their opinion in most articles. Alex clearly disagrees with their take on Autopilot but if you're going to go crazy on journalistic integrity you can't just disagree with someone.

I've never tried autopilot(Next week I will though! ) but I don't agree with this idea that the things needs to nag you to death. This is a step on the way to full self driving. Anything involving humans is going to be flawed which is why we need full self driving. Maybe level 3 isn't going to work but Tesla doesn't claim you can not pay attention. The argument is some people misuse it or are misled into believing its safe to not pay attention. I don't think there is conclusive data that is more safe to use it than not use it as Elon says but it may be. Hopefully Tesla starts releasing data that is conclusive. For now let's call that inconclusive either way. People can argue that we should error on the side of safety for new technology but what about the old technology. Why do we allow people to drive 100mph? Why do we allow cruise control without attention monitoring solutions? Why do we allow touchscreen navigation systems? It just doesn't seem like freaking out over autopilot is warranted at this point. And if you think eye tracking is required for autopilot then why wouldn't you also think that its required on all cars?

I remember buying my Acura TL in 2006. It was the only Nav system of the cars I looked at that you could fully program while driving. That was a selling point for me and I used it a lot. Now I'm using Waze which is probably worse. Hoping FSD solves all this but give me some autopilot in the meantime.


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## John (Apr 16, 2016)

I'm really looking forward to more sophisticated automation and FSD.

But if Autopilot never got any better—heaven forbid!—I would still love it for what it can already do.


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## KarenRei (Jul 27, 2017)

While I see nothing wrong with the Electrek's Take (and agree that it's good to clearly separate editorial from journalistic content), and I think most of this guy's specifics when he goes into specific articles are over the top (half the time he seems to be _agreeing_ with Fred), some of what they write is very fair.



> The Editor-in-Chief blocks legitimate journalists on Twitter and answers ethics questions with shameless #WhatAboutism


Fred really should not be a journalist. He blocks anyone who publicly disagrees with him (including me, when I disputed his notion that Tesla's Semi stats are impossible), and personally profits off of Tesla recommendations and sees nothing wrong with it or even a need to mention it at the bottom of his articles.

And for the record, I don't believe for a second that it was just "random" that he happened to win one of the Boring Company tours.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

M3OC Rules said:


> I ran across this opinion piece on Thedrive. I don't read TheDrive regularly but I do read Electrek regularly. I was pretty curious what this major issue Alex had with Electrek.


It's quite harsh, but I think Alex tells you exactly what his issues are with Fred in the article.


> After reading it I have to say that it did not change my mind at all about Electrek. I read Electrek enough to know what I'm getting. Electrek is made up of Tesla and cleantech fans. I think they try to be objective and its not like they hide their biases.


I read Electrek regularly as well. But the last word I'd use to describe that site is "objective". It's biased as all hell. And that's fine, but it makes for questionable "journalism". As long as you realize what the site is, it can be useful and informative.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

And for more views on Mr. Lambert and Electrek, from members of this forum:

Wow - is Fred from Electrec really this petty?


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## Troy (Sep 18, 2017)

I don't like Fred's journalism because he always supports Tesla whenever there is an issue between the customers and the company. Here are two examples:

TMC: Cracked A-pillar on a new Model S (TheDrive also covered this issue here)
TMC: Buyer beware. Buying a CPO Tesla feels like a SCAM

Fred didn't report either issue even though I sent him tips about these and similar threads. I find that approach too short-sighted. It's better for Tesla in the long run if people are honest about the things Tesla is doing wrong.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

I’ve always thought as Electrek as a blog, not journalism


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