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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

> Nobody at the traffic light made & makes fun of a Tesla

> consumers feel safe to buy a Tesla

That's a bit of a stretch. First of all, why would anybody in a supercar make fun of a Tesla, they're not aimed at the same market. Consumers feel perfectly safe to buy a Prius or Leaf and neither of those have Tesla like acceleration, and don't need it either.

People making fun of other people because of the vehicles they drive are just insecure.

If you really think that the acceleration characteristics of a vehicle is what sells your average car then you're mistaken, most people simply need transportation and don't want to do drag races in traffic.

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> most people simply need transportation and don't want to do drag races in traffic.

It's true that most people need transportation, don't want to drag race, and a really just need simple A to B stuff.

BUUUUUT that's not how America works. See - most people in America don't buy things based on what they need. They buy based on what they want and what they want their image to represent. Ever heard the term mall crawler? It's the term used for vehicles that have a ton of off-road gear/capability but never see anything but a mall. What percentage do you think of off road capable vehicles (like a Jeep Wrangler) see off road duty? How many trucks do you think regularly tow anywhere near their max? How many use the bed? How often do people fill up their giant SUV with stuff/people? Same with sports cars. Same with a bunch of vehicles.

People almost never utilize their cars to their built potential. They use them as A to B. It's almost completely about image and desire.

The original Tesla roadsters are expensive. People buying at that price point are doing so for features beyond mere transportation.

Maybe you don’t want a drag race but all the luxury spending 80k new can give you. However Tesla isn’t very luxurious, so they better be fast in comparison.

Quick acceleration has safety benefits. Not all, but some consumers look for that.

I don’t know about the “average car”, I think the market is pretty segmented actually and different buyers make their choice based on different things.

But the opposite is true, too: They can't, because their vehicle is not capable of it. You don't need to be doing 60 MPH in 3 seconds, but being able to it in 5-6 is much better (for everyone) when merging onto highways.

Have you ever accurately measured the time it takes you to get to ~60mph "briskly" and "aggressively", and compared it to the theoretical capability of your car according to say Car & Driver? I suspect people of generally having an unrealistic idea of how much of the performance of their car they do and can use.

Also, you know, there are a lot of vehicles that are much slower than 10 seconds 0-60 on the roads, even though 10 seconds has become pretty much the maximum for late model cars in the US. Commercial vehicles aren't going to disappear or do 0-60 in 5 seconds even if they had the power.

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