Elon Musk Lashes Out At Customer Who Pointed Out Flaw In Tesla's Pricey Self-Driving Software

Elon Musk, head of Tesla Motors, recently fired back after a member of the car company's beta-testing consumer group mentioned some issues they were having with their car.

The beta-testing group is using a limited release of Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) service, which often runs Tesla drivers tens of thousands of dollars per year.

James Locke tweeted:

"Unfortunately I have to say I'm still having to intervene to correct #FSDBeta 10.69 in my area."

"Still lots of work to go."

"I know this is probably not a popular opinion but the focusing on the 'Chuck' complex left is getting ahead of the needs of some more basic control issues."

The Tesla owner elaborated on some of the issues they're having.

And why they felt any price increases might be premature.

They also stated they knew they'd get some angry comments for any criticism of Tesla.

And they were right.

Elon Musk—who has been criticized before for his Twitter impulse control—fired back:

Musk formerly said he welcomes critique and negative feedback on Tesla's projects, but not so, apparently.

James Locke—the driver in question and founding president of the Vancouver and Santa Clarita Valley Tesla Owners Clubs—immediately apologized to Musk for providing feedback.

Twitter, notoriously a hotbed of pro/anti Musk sentiment, was quick to jump on either side of this little spat.

On the side of the driver were those who argued Locke was in a beta-testing group and this is what he did—beta-test the car and provide feedback.

However, others were reflexively on the side of Musk and his vision, noting either the feedback needed to be more specific or a public forum—even if Locke hadn't signed an NDA—was the wrong place to point out Tesla's failures.

Tesla's FSD is still in limited release.

The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently launched investigations into Tesla's Autopilot system and whether or not they were involved with several crashes.

Musk said the yearly price for the optional FSD software feature for Tesla drivers will be increasing to $15,000.