America being terminally car-brained didn’t help him when he unveiled the cybertruck and it looked like shit and then video emerged of it performing like shit. Lots of comments like “lol my 23 year old Honda sedan could go up that incline.”

It’s easier to be the Prince of Le Science when people aren’t in a rocket for an hour long commute every day. Cars? Everybody is in a car. Make a shitty car? Everyone can see it fail and understand the how and the why.