As far as early adopters go, you’d be hard-pressed to fine as enthusiastic a supporter of nascent technologies and intriguing new products than Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. If there’s a wacky tech gadget out there, it’s a safe bet that Woz has at the very least taken a close and hard look at it. That said, Woz recently had some interesting and surprising remarks about Tesla and Elon Musk, which is to say that Woz no longer trusts anything Tesla or Musk has to say at this point.
The remarks were made earlier this week during a talk Woz gave at the Nordic Business Forum in Stockholm. What makes Woz’s stance all the more surprising is that he has long been an ardent supporter of Tesla. Not only is he a Tesla owner, Woz about a year ago called the company the “biggest disruptor” in all of tech while adding that the Model S had changed his life.
And now it appears that the love affair has come to an end.
During a Q&A session at the aforementioned talk (and originally relayed by Business Insider), Woz fielded a question about Tesla whereupon he couldn’t help but lay out a number of complaints about the company.
Woz went onto explain how he bought into Elon Musk’s promise of Tesla vehicles being able to drive themselves all across the country.
“Then they came up with some sensors that Elon Musk said would drive itself across itself the country by the end of 2016,” Woz explained. “And then … they got rid of their sensor company and put in new sensors — instead of one camera, eight cameras.”
Coupled with Musk continously pushing back the timeframe for a coast to cost autonomous drive from a Model S, Woz’s patience eventually wore thin.
“I believed that stuff,” Woz added. “Now I don’t believe anything Elon Musk or Tesla says, but I still love the car… But the trouble is Elon Musk is portrayed in a lot of movies with a lack of faith and trust. What he says, can you really believe in him? Is he just a good salesman, like Jobs, and may not be there [in the end]?”
