In theory, if you can provide enough evidence to prove someone wrong, that’s all it should take to change someone’s mind. Unfortunately for everyone, study after study has shown that’s not actually the case. Everyone is susceptible to the backfire effect, although cults are probably the most well-known example — their leader wasn’t wrong, he just misread the signs or whatever. But if you thought Tesla die-hards had gotten any less cult-y recently, a recent Wired article on what sure sounds like a classic Tesla bait-and-switch over its so-called “Full Self-Driving” software will quickly disabuse you of that notion.
You see, when Tesla announced toward the end of February that it would drop the price of the base Cybertruck to $62,235 (including destination) for 10 days, it was a bit of an odd move. Only 10 days? Really? That said, if you remember that Tesla sold half as many Cybertrucks in 2025 compared to 2024, though, it makes a little more sense — gotta try anything to boost sales. To sweeten the deal, Tesla also offered to allow current owners who had already bought the so-called “Full Self-Driving” software to transfer their license to their new car for free if they ordered a Tesla by March 31. Except, as Wired reports, Tesla quickly changed its mind:
Then Tesla quietly amended the language of the FSD transfer agreement, stipulating that customers would need to take delivery of a Tesla by March 31 in order to swap their FSD from their last vehicle to the next. With Tesla’s current production backlogs, that meant many people were committed to buying cars that would arrive too late to make the swap. The company gave buyers the option to cancel delivery and receive a refund of the $250 order fee.
On X—which Musk owns and frequently uses, making it a favored social media platform for Tesla enthusiasts—the community was livid. “Tesla still hasn’t fixed their blatant FSD Transfer lies for the $59k Cybertruck,” fumed the author of an account called The Cybertruck Guy, which is focused on the polarizing steel-paneled EV. “What a pathetic disaster.”
Dissent will not be tolerated
Personally, I would argue that if you still take Elon Musk at his word in the year of our Lord, two thousand and twenty-six, you deserve all the bad things that happen to you. But as you can imagine, some of the Twin Peaks regulars who ordered a new Tesla, assuming they’d be able to transfer for free like Tesla promised, were not happy when the Austin, Texas-based automaker decided to change “ordered by March 31” to “delivered by March 31.” In their time of need, where else is there to turn but Twitter and the Tesla fan forums?
Sadly, this isn’t a story about high school coaches who never left their hometown realizing they’ve been worshiping a conman and uniting to finally tell Elon they’ve had enough, are selling their Teslas. In fact, it’s largely the opposite. Some Tesla buyers got mad, including one Twitter account called The Cybertruck Guy that tweeted, “Tesla still hasn’t fixed their blatant “FSD [sic]” Transfer lies for the $59k Cybertruck. What a pathetic disaster,” but as Wired explained, that sentiment was far from universal:
Such comments are not taken lightly in the Tesla bubble, where insufficient fealty to the brand or Musk can be taken as an attempt to sabotage either. Another Tesla influencer screenshotted Cybertruck Guy’s post to say: “Disappointing to see what I thought as respectable tesla accounts calling Tesla ‘liars’. Time to block these morons.”
Logically, these chumps should be able to recognize that Tesla said one thing, people bought cars based on the thing Tesla said, Tesla later changed its mind, and now, the people who spent money based on Tesla’s announcement feel betrayed. That’s a normal thing to feel when someone lies to you, but their brains don’t think logically. Because, in many ways, Tesla is a cult. As for those who do get out, it sounds like witnessing “FSD’s [sic]” dangerous failures is what pushed them over the edge.
One complaint to rule them all
The third former Tesla enthusiast that Wired talked to is arguably the most important but also the least interesting, so let’s just go ahead and get Dan O’Dowd out of the way right at the top. If you haven’t heard of the software-engineer-turned-anti-Tesla-safety-advocate by now, you probably aren’t paying much attention to Tesla or the rest of the EV industry. But did you know that a decade ago, O’Dowd was a self-described “big fan” of Tesla who owned two Roadsters and a Model S? Well, he was, until early versions of Tesla’s so-called “Full Self-Driving” software proved too unreliable to be safe. In 2021, he launched the Dawn Project, and today, he might be Public Enemy #1 to the Tesla cult.
As correct as O’Dowd is about Tesla’s reckless disregard for safety, he’s also a billionaire who designed operating systems for fighter jets, which isn’t exactly “normal.” In comparison, Earl Banning, the Anchorage, Alaska-based psychologist sounds more like someone you might actually meet in public. As a healthcare professional, Banning told Wired that Musk’s pandemic-era posts kicked off his deconstruction, but what really sealed the deal was how dangerous the original version of “FSD [sic]” proved to be. As Banning explained to Wired, he realized that “either Elon is lying or he’s brain-damaged or something, because there’s no way you could sit in that car in 2020 and think that it’s going to be finished soon.”
Then there’s Jilianne (Wired withheld her last name to protect her privacy), a Los Angeles-based Tesla owner who claims she still loves her 2022 Model S Plaid but can’t stand how buggy “FSD [sic]” still is. She said it’s better now compared to earlier versions of the software, but not enough to match the level of performance Elon claims. As Wired put it, “she believes she was sold a driver-assistance feature that has failed to live up to the advertising, and no longer trusts what Musk or Tesla say about ongoing upgrades to it, or what level of hardware will be needed for truly autonomous driving, should the company ever achieve that.”
Lick the boot or else
Before Tesla released the original version of “FSD [sic]”, Banning and Jilianne were both active members of Tesla’s online community with large followings, especially on Twitter. If they’d just kept their mouths shut about their problems with the flawed software and continued showering a clearly naked emperor with compliments on his fine clothing, they probably could have maintained their level of popularity and made plenty of money doing it. But if there’s one thing you don’t do as part of Tesla’s online community, it’s question anything the God King says or does. Tesla is Elon Musk, Elon Musk is Tesla, and you better not have anything negative to say about either:
As Banning began to express his reservations about Tesla’s claims and Musk’s character, he lost scores of followers and fell out with friends on social media. The final straw came in December 2022, when Banning had the chance to address the CEO directly in a Twitter live chat. Banning says he told Musk of his concern that his incendiary political comments, which were becoming more frequent, could hurt Tesla. “I said my child is transgender, who had always been a big fan of Tesla, but at this point they’re not because of the things you’re saying about that community,” Banning says. Musk waved off the remark, saying he wouldn’t suppress his views to boost Tesla’s stock price.
As for Jilianne, who has now reportedly posted more than 170 hours of videos highlighting problems with Tesla’s Level II advanced driver-assistance software, pointing out problems. She lost followers, got blocked by other Tesla influencers, and found other community members weren’t receptive to any criticism of their favorite Boer or his electric car company that’s allegedly no longer a car company. “They would just say, ‘Oh, you’re ungrateful,'” she told Wired before adding, “They would make all kinds of excuses.” You know, because you should be grateful you’re lucky enough to drive a Tesla, even if it occasionally tries to kill you because the CEO’s too emotionally fragile to finally admit lidar makes self-driving cars safer.
Ultimately, there’s nothing logical about cult behavior, but according to Jilianne, the divorced dads who scream at umpires calling their kids’ t-ball games can’t stop doubling down on Tesla and Elon Musk for exactly the reason you’d expect — that sweet, sweet, wildly overinflated stock price that they need to keep going up at least until the heat death of the universe. As she told Wired, “To me it’s a lot about the money, more about the money than it is Elon—even though they say it’s Elon.”
There’s also more to the original post, and it’s some seriously interesting reporting, so be sure to head over to Wired to give the whole thing a read.
