Oh good grief. Is this what HN has become? I want Tesla to suceed as much as the next nerd, but I'm not going to act like every negative experience is part of a conspiracy theory.
I'm an EV driver (Fiat 500e), I'm generally a Tesla fan (would love to be able to afford one), and I am tired of articles like this (where any failure of the car is somehow newsworthy) but treating it like a conspiracy is nuts. Of course there are going to be individual Teslas with problems or system failures.
These articles are nothing compared to the owner's forums. Go read what the RAV4 EV drivers think of Tesla (who provides the drivetrain for Toyota). There is definitely a suprising number of RAV4 EVs that have had this exact same power failure.
With the amount of negative news coverage that the Tesla has received in relation to automobiles in general, I think it's safe to say that they are being targeted. I don't think there is necessarily a conspiracy, however, a car salesman is quite possibly the least trustworthy character to trust for honesty in this matter.
Same thing applies here. It's valid to bring up his background, and considering his background I don't expect him to be unbiased in his assessment. I wouldn't even be surprised if he's actively working against Tesla.