In reality, they are more likely to get a patent on some trivial detail, turn around, and start suing the pants off Tesla for having the temerity to steal their 'inventions' - slide to unlock, revisited.
Price may be the differentiating factor, but I think most ppl would choose the innovator.
Regular consumers can careless about who had the original idea, they only care about who executed best.
People buy from whoever does the best marketing (that is, whoever makes them feel like they are getting the best product for them.)
> Regular consumers can careless about who had the original idea
(Nitpick: "careless" is not the same thing "care less")
Regular consumers probably do care about originality, which is why being "the original X" often plays a key role in marketing, in products in a wide array of different markets. If it wasn't something consumers tended to care about, it wouldn't likely be a perennial marketing point.
It is, of course, not the only thing consumers care about, obviously.
> they only care about who executed best
Arguably, they don't care directly about who executed best, they care about who they trust to execute best for them. Evidence about having executed well to others, like being the original in a category, may be indicators by which consumers judge that likelihood.
I think history has shown that most people will choose the imitator, if the imitation is a good one.