Like some of his fellow libertarian Silicon Valley technoligarchs, Elon Musk recently fled the Nanny State of California and its socialistic insistence of the primacy of public health (and also on taxing people like him) for the free-enterprise haven of Texas. So, uh, how’s that working out for him?
Many electric grids aren’t equipped to handle those extreme conditions, putting them at risk for widespread failure.
That was the case in Texas, where millions of people suffered rolling blackouts. Grids in the Midwest and Southwest also were strained. Dozens of people have died in the storm or its aftermath.
Alas, it seems that Musk isn’t convinced by the argument that Texans like himself should suffer without electricity, heat and water—and, presumably, his foremost concern, the ability to build cars—in the name of freedom.
Hey, there’s always Vegas, we guess. Luckily, he’s got another option, at least for a day or so.
In 2019, Tesla released a vehicle with a “Camp Mode” feature that allows owners to use the car’s climate control for more than a day without depleting the battery.
“We had the power go out for 6 hours last night. Our house does not have gas, and we ran out of firewood . . . what are we going to do,” wrote one Reddit user on the forum r/TeslaMotors.
“So my wife my dog and my newborn daughter slept in the garage in our Model3 all nice and cozy. If I didn’t have this car, it would have been a very rough night,” the user added.
One Twitter user wrote: “I slept in the Tesla LOL. Pretty comfortable. More importantly, warm.”
Elon Musk slams Texas power grid operator for being unreliable [N.Y. Post]
No, Wind Farms Aren’t the Main Cause of the Texas Blackouts [NYT]