Harper Reed has been a loyal Tesla owner for five years, and he planned to continue to be, upgrading to an SUV for more room.
Along the way, billionaire Elon Musk bought Twitter and controversy followed. So much so that Reed just returned his Model S and canceled his order for a Model X, choosing instead to preorder an electric SUV from Rivian.
Reed, a Chicago tech entrepreneur who gained fame as chief technology officer for Barack Obama’s re-election campaign and e-commerce pioneer Threadless, revealed his decision—you guessed it— on Twitter. He already had bought a Volvo SUV and was going to continue driving his Model S until a Model X arrived but decided to end his lease early.
“Elon saying crazy stuff on Twitter wasn’t the only thing,” says Reed, who also mentioned price. “There’s the question of what sparks joy. Do I want to drive the MAGA hat around?
“Our decision had less to do with politics and more to do with how Musk has treated employees at Twitter. That was more impactful than the politics. For me, as a CEO, driving a Tesla says to my employees: Maybe I’m of the Elon camp. Those optics matter,” says Reed, who is working on a new startup.
It’s just one example of the collateral damage for Elon Musk’s other companies since he bought the financially struggling but enigmatic social media platform. Shares of Tesla, also run by Musk, are down 29% since he bought Twitter on Oct. 28.
I think in reality that's a stretch, but I do recognize that there are those who are upset over what's going on at Twitter. Musk is shaking things up at Twitter making very important revelations at the lengths Twitter has taken towards censorship of divergent opinions especially say anti-vax or anti-lockdowns for example.
And it's funny how now the debate is over whether or not free-speech prevailed over a site that was an "online town square". Some accounts such as former President Donald Trump and others have been reactivated to the public and some poepl have an issue with that.
With this said, consumers can do as they wish as Reed is doing. They don't support Musk's other business interests and his treatment of the employees who work there OK fine. I suppose the next question becomes when did the switch happen?
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