So, to those of you who are new FuelArc News readers, you should probably know: we’re a car and comedy publication. We cover the automotive news like The Daily Show covers the rest of the news. Everything we say here is true (to the best of our knuckle-headed knowledge), but we mostly cover news stories that make you laugh.
Occasionally, we do hard-hitting journalism. I know, it’s weird. I get that a lot.
Recently, we ran this headline as one of our features:
It’s Official: the Cybertruck is More Explosive than the Ford Pinto
And well, the story kind of blew up. We’ve gotten lots of feedback, most of it positive, some of it real spicy, so I thought I’d explain the “story behind the story” for you.
Our Stupid Simple Methodology
The outline of the story is stupid simple (which suits my journalistic skill level just fine). If we could compare the number of Ford Pintos ever driven to the number of Cybertrucks driven so far, and then compare the amount of both that have burned their occupants, well, that could be an interesting comparison. I’m actually shocked nobody else made this comparison first.
Point is: there is no room for bias in the methodology here. The numbers are what they are. The source for the fire fatalities are either well-regarded news sources for the Cybertruck fires, or the United States federal government’s report on the Ford Pinto.
Well Received by Better Journalists
Upon publication, our story was well received by the press.
We’ve been covered by (or had our coverage invaluably expanded by):
Futurism
The Houston Chronicle
Mother Jones (the same publication that broke the original Ford Pinto story that resulted in mass recalls and saved countless lives)
And others, like Yahoo Autos, MSN, News.com.au (hello to our new readers down under!). the list goes on.
Point is: these are not tin-foil hat publications, because this is an easy-to-verify story on a topic of great public interest.
Instantaneous Violent Reaction from Some Tesla Fans
Some of the reaction has been not-so-good. A reader in Berlin sends us a very reasonable critique of our inclusion of the Las Vegas case. We’re pleased to get this sort of feedback, I had a great conversation with a new reader, and we both walk away happy.
Within 24 hours of publication, it became clear that I had struck some sort of nerve specifically with Tesla fans and investors. Not my intention, but not altogether surprising.
What WAS surprising was the violence of the reaction: I got typo-ridden screeds. I got oddly ham-handed phishing attempts where folks were trying to determine my name and physical location. I got colorfully worded death threats. One death threat I included at the bottom of the original article, you can tell the writer just REALLY loves the Cybertruck… and the Tesla stock.
On a related note, don’t threaten me. In fact, if you feel moved to tell any journalist (or really anybody at all) to kill themselves, just don’t. Go touch grass, get therapy, work on yourself. That behavior is not acceptable.
Featured on FutureAzA as a “Lying Liar”
I was pleasantly surprised this morning when my Google Alerts told me I was featured on a Youtube video. A little less pleased when I watched the Youtube video!
The headline: “Media SMEARS Cybertruck While Tesla Insiders Sell – Coincidence?”
The thumbnail was an interesting choice. Personally, I don’t think a broad coalition of journalists accurately commenting on safety data is “TESLA UNDER ATTACK,” and I don’t think it’s a “SMEAR” either, but what do I know? I’m the world’s worst automotive journalist/comedian.
A bit… dramatic?
A Few of My Favorite Quotes from the Video (and My Replies)
But, let’s not judge a book by its (self-published) cover! Here are some choice quotes from the take-down, along with my thoughts:
“He got paid 500 bucks to write that piece of junk. I think it’s hilarious, he was lucky to have got $50, if he got paid at all.”
This criticism stings all the worse, because it delivered by a man who is proudly displaying his self-published Elon Musk biography behind him. Why read a fawningly sycophantic biography rather than the magisterial Walter Isaacson biography? I’m not exactly sure.
“This is a tiny know-nothing blog… written by Kay Leadfoot! That’s not a real name.”
Perspicacious. You have a future in investigative journalism, and it’s all ahead of you.
“Five reported fatalities if you include the man who committed suicide. Why wouldn’t we?”
I’m asking myself the same question, but in a less sarcastic tone of voice. This is controversial, I know, but I have no reason NOT to include the Las Vegas case. The numbers are still utterly abysmal with the Las Vegas case removed.
“It’s a no-name, no-nothing blog. It’s just a blog and it’s not a study… they took a number that was intentionally wrong and divided it by a number that’s definitely already out of date.”
They’re spending a lot of breath on discrediting the blog. I would have spent that time discrediting the numbers. The numbers are not intentionally anything, they just exist, and they look TERRIBLE. The number of Cybertruck units is not out of date, the study is current up to January 1st 2025.
“I never took stats…” (then proceeds to ramble for several minutes about quantitative methods)
Haha, well, that was obvious! I did take stats, turns out they offer that in public schools. The math here was, as I mentioned before, stupid simple. You can run the numbers yourself if you doubt mine.
“If they had done (the measurement of Cybertruck fatalities) on a different day, they would have had no deaths!”
Haha, god, I thought I was the comedian here! Yes, if you exclude all the deaths from your study of Cybertruck fire fatalities, you then have a truck that appears far safer… but maybe not a very accurate study.
“That’s not the objective of a blog who’s goal is to make you burn gasoline.”
I write car comedy. I prefer EVs to ICE cars. My insidious agenda is to make you laugh. Sometimes, I uncover pretty good news stories in the process.
And, my favorite of the Youtube comments:
“Its a hit piece. Probably got paid $5,000 by USAID. – not joking!”
I feel strange that I need to specify this, but 2025 is shaping up to be a strange year… I was not paid to write this article, much less a specific amount from the United States federal government.
Ultimately, You Decide
So, it’s a tale of two news stories: if you believe a wide cross-cut of journalists, FuelArc News broke an interesting public interest piece that other (better!) journalists are expanding on currently. If you are trapped in the Tesla investor echo-chamber, FuelArc News viciously SMEARED the world’s richest/most innovative man.
I trust your intelligence and value your independence. You get to decide which of those two mutually exclusive options is true.
PS: We’ll Keep Up the Good Work
I will say, in a lot of ways I’m a weird person, but in one way, I am absolutely factory-stock. I got a black temper, and I’m just plain petty. Threats don’t really influence me much, but you can really get a rise out of me with insults.
So, because I was so devastated to be called a “lying liar that lies” by these poster-boys of journalistic objectivity, I’m going to write another featured news story on Teslas, beyond the Cybertruck this time. I wasn’t sure I would after all the threats, but this Youtube video bugged me enough, it’s now definitely going to happen. And soon.
Stay tuned. And if you don’t like the coverage, well, send any complaints to the folks over at FutureAzA, because it wouldn’t be happening without their vital encouragement.
