This Tweet About A Tesla Driver Having To Fill Up A Car With Gas Is A Remarkable Bit Of Current Automotive Cultural Madness

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We live in a transition era, automotively. Electric cars have now become mainstream, and while they still really only are around 1% of cars on American roads, they command an awful lot of attention, and there’s no denying that the future will be at least largely powered by EVs, though there will certainly still be plenty of combustion cars around for decades to come. At this moment, though, we’re still at the beginning of the transition, and the automotive world is still very much designed with ICE cars in mind. That’s why this particular tweet, seen by over 640,000 people at the time of this writing, is so gloriously stupid and absurd. It was sent by a proud Tesla owner, forced into having to drive his daughter’s combustion-powered Honda Odyssey, and describes the grueling ordeal he suffered through to fill the car up with gas. Yes, this is just a tweet from some guy, but it’s also a fascinating document of a strange mentality among some EV owners, and especially among a very vocal subset of Tesla owners, who seem to live with a single-minded determination to prove that life without a Tesla is an unbearable, nightmarish slog. Let’s just take a look here.

Here’s the tweet in question:

Right from the top, things seem off. The insistence on “Tier 1” gasoline I guess is fine, and just means that the gas (which is all pulled from communal sources across brands) has a particular set of additives and detergents and flavor crystals or whatever that may be beneficial for your car. Fine. Then, the person Googles for the nearest gas station, which, again, isn’t really something that regular drivers normally need to do since gas stations are, you know, absolutely fucking everywhere. The dude could have just gotten in and started to drive to whatever his ultimate destination was, and chances are really good, in most parts of America, that he’d encounter multiple “Tier 1” gas stations along the way.

He then describes some mishaps with an out-of-order pump, which, sure, happens sometimes. And he has some issues with the “negotiate payment” part, which sounds like he’s sitting down in a boardroom with the CEO of Chevron to close a lucrative 14-gallon contract. For the rest of humanity, this just means swiping a credit card in the little thingie.

Whatever. Dude had to go inside to pay, like a filthy animal. And he didn’t even get himself some Combos as a reward for enduring this considerable hardship. Anyway, after his nightmarish four-step process, he concludes with

“I miss my  @Tesla ????”

Don’t cry-emoji, buddy. It’ll be okay.

All of this is so performative and absurd, I can’t even. It’s filling up a car with gas. It takes five minutes. You can do it pretty much anywhere. It’s not an event worth a multi-paragraph tweet. The forced, inane difficulties this guy had feels like how those informercials for crap have to set up the concept that somehow carrying two things to your couch can nearly kill a healthy, full-grown adult. You know, this kind of crap:

Plus, the guy tweeting isn’t some kid with zero experience with combustion cars: he has a daughter old enough to drive a Honda Odyssey! He’s been around a while, he has definitely filled up cars’ gas tanks many, many times, and has somehow lived to tell the tale. He sort of addresses this baffling notion in a follow-up tweet:

He says

“Granted, all the familiarity and routine of filling up was long gone. The smells, the sketchy people hanging around, the grunge and pump damage obscuring the price … I’d forgotten about.”

This is all absolutely, patently absurd. The damage obscuring the price? Every gas station has the price in fucking three-foot-high numbers on a massive sign that if you can’t see as you drive in, you probably shouldn’t be driving. Sketchy people hanging around? Okay, that’s possible, but come on, this is not a major issue, and if it is, don’t forget you’re the one holding a super-soaker that delivers a stream of petroleum. The smells? Grow up. And somehow he forgot how to pump gas? Was he hit by lightning?

And what the hell does this mean?

“I’m the stranger moms warn about.”

That’s not generally a good thing to brag about?

Look, I get that charging an EV at home is very convenient. That’s great, I’m happy for you, enjoy that. But it’s not like public EV charging is even remotely as mature or easy as filling a car with gas. Tesla’s Supercharger network is by far the best of them all, but you’re not getting in and out nearly as fast as you would filling a car up with gas even in the best of circumstances, and the greater mass of EV charging stations are, charitably, a shitshow of reliability and accessibility problems.

Plus, gas pumps almost never trap your car when they’re not working right:

I’m not anti-EV by any means. They have so many advantages, and the charging infrastructure, while not there yet, is and will improve. Charging at home, if you have the sort of property that allows it, is great. But the idea that filling an ICE car up with gas is somehow hard? Come on. That’s just absurd, and debases everyone interested in EVs by even making the claim.

This era is interesting; the amount of people who have, for reasons I’m not fully able or qualified to fathom, have tied their identity up in something like a car company such as Tesla is far greater than anything I’ve seen in the automotive world before.

This tweet is such a perfect example of this. Why would someone so exaggerate such a mundane activity as getting gas, and then publicly describe the incident to anyone who will listen? Why is this man of a certain age so invested in you holding the same opinions he does as he tries to convince you an act you perform without thinking about it at all on a roughly weekly basis is somehow a labor on par with a spelunking rescue?

I debated about the newsworthiness of covering all this, but it was pointed out to me by enough people, and the number of views this is getting was enough to make me realize what we’re seeing here is a unique by-product of so many things: the transition to EVs, the influence of brand identities, the wild reach of social media, the fragility and insecurity of our own identities, the state of our refueling and EV charging infrastructure, and likely more.

It’s a deeply stupid tweet, sure, but it’s also a really effective mirror showing a genuinely perplexing subset of automotive culture.

What a goofy time to be alive.

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186 thoughts on “This Tweet About A Tesla Driver Having To Fill Up A Car With Gas Is A Remarkable Bit Of Current Automotive Cultural Madness”

  1. I really do hate putting gas in my wife’s car when I have to use it, but not nearly as much as I hate having to try to find and use a working DC fast charger.

  3. I had a 2019 Ioniq EV that I drove for a year and a half, before switching to a 2020 Ioniq Hybrid (130 miles range EV is NOT enough for a daily driver contrary to the hot takes on this site). For the first few months after switching to the hybrid, I had the thought of “how quaint and antiquated is this” when I fueled up. But I also realized just how shitty and inconvenient non-Tesla public charging is. I’ll give it a few more years before looking into EVs again. In the meantime, hybrids are the no brainer best-of-both-worlds that should be standard on every gas car.

  4. Jason, if you had a Tesla you’d feel the same, I’m afraid. In Tesla-world you kind of stay in your bubble since this nanny-car takes you to the place where you can charge, you just have to plug in and do your stuff, whatever it is (I sleep, play games or work on my foldable table with my computer), and you’re almost never in a dirty, stinky and loud place like a gas station is. I’m happy I don’t go to gas stations anymore. Even slow chargers are also in cool places like centres of cities and not at the edge. I actually never charge the car at a charger that is in a gas station, I’m cutting that experience out of my life, never liked it.

    2. Yeah, five minutes at a gas station (many of which are part of convenience stores and the like and thus not “dirty, stinky and loud” at all) is very trying when you could be sitting somewhere long enough to take a nap waiting for your death trap tesla to charge up.

  5. This reminds me of that “Simple Life” scene where Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie have to fuel up a vehicle, and pretend not to know how. IIRC, it came out later that it was all an act to play up “hey, look at these out-of-touch rich girlies!” for the show.

    This is the 2023 version. Like that, but way less hot. Like, whatever the opposite reaction to “that’s hot” is, that’s what’s going on with this Tesla stan.

      2. Yes! So true…will never understand how they even get full, and satisfied w/ what they’re eating…I’ve always said life’s too short to not enjoy what you’re eating!

  7. I’ve seen some Tesla chargers in some sketchy places. The darkened boundaries of box store parking lots where I wouldn’t want to be waiting alone wearing a two ton “I’ve got money” sign.

    At least gas stations are usually well-lit and have snacks available.

  8. Maybe it’s the 7 hours I spent driving today (not even on a fun road trip), but I can’t find where the Odyssey is mentioned specifically. Admittedly not reading the tweet thread that hard, but the white vehicle in the original photo doesn’t look like an Odyssey (or maybe a minivan at all). Odyssey doors are more swept back and don’t have a door frame like that, plus Ody’s have had chrome beltline molding for years now. 2022 base LX example, and a 2016.

    Not to detract from how silly the whole thing is, but that makes it feel more like an attempt at humor or trolling or something.

    1. OK, saw a mention of other Hondas and it does look like the doorline of a 2nd-gen Pilot. So that tracks more, and again assuming the space wasn’t needed it’s understandable to me to take a newer, more economical vehicle on the trip if you have the option. Still all silly, but questioning that part felt silly to read into out of the whole thing.

  9. I feel like “sketchy people hanging around” is way less of a problem with an ICE vehicle, because you fill up and leave in minutes, vs an EV where you’re a sitting duck (around me, Wawa and Royal Farms are the two biggest gas station chains, and also the two biggest Tesla Supercharger locations, and the parking lots of both are major social centers for Fentanyl enthusiasts)

    1. Not to mention the average price difference between the two types of vehicles, personality types that own them and good old fashioned victim selection.
      If I was a sketchy character I’d hang out at the nearly vacant charging station with all the time in the world to plan my attack.

      If I was a sketchy character.

  11. As irritating as this tweet is, I drive a model 3 and I’ve found it tedious when I have to fill my wife’s car up. It’s not that big a deal, but it’s a thing!

  13. Honestly, I hope he runs out of gas on the way home. There’s people out there just struggling to get by and you have the nerve to complain about the utter tragedy of having to pump gas? Shove it buddy.

  14. Did he grow up in Oregon? Not knowing how to pump gas… shame. I wonder if he can remember how to operate a rotary dial phone?

    His tweet is embarrassing. He demonstrated to us that he can barely function in public. I wonder if he had this much trouble figuring out how to plug his Tesla in for the first time? Could he even open the charging hatch, or did he flail against the panel like a caveman? He probably can’t grasp the concept of trading green pieces of paper for items at a store. Or even what a store is, because he just does all his shopping online. He’s gotta show us how modern a Boomer he is.

  15. I give this story only about a 20% chance of being true. This is likely just some passive-aggressive swipe at folks that use charge-pain as a reason for buying a gas-powered vehicles.

      1. That gave me a genuine nostril laugh.
        (nope.. wait, I think I’ve spilled some beer on my pants as well).
        Would’ve been a spit take if the timing was right. I’m still chuckling.

    2. Ignoring the whole Tesla-ness about the whole thing, if she doesn’t need the space for the trip, is the minivan that much better than any other vehicle? I assume if she had need for the things that make minivans ideal for a road trip – cargo and people space – she would have just stuck with that.

      But moreso I get the feeling he’s probably a big Autopilot fan the thinking was to use the vehicle with that for the trip.

  17. How this dude thinks he sounds: “Oh, my Tesla is so sophisticated and futuristic, I am truly a renaissance man for having one”
    How he actually sounds: “Booo Hooo I had to get up on my feet and there were strangers everywhere and the gas smelled and… and I had to pump it myself and I didn’t even get a treat for it and now I’m tired and cranky waaaaa”

  18. His aim is clearly to promote EVs, but stuff like this makes me not want to join the team, so to speak, even though I don’t fundamentally hate electric cars.

    1. He could have filled that Honda at any off-brand station this once and would have been fine. I’m not going to loom it up, but I assume the Honda Odyssey and Passport (whichever he was driving) both run on 87.

      Edit: Of course I googled after posting. They both take 87 Octane.

  20. Not EVERY gas station has the price in giant numbers. I go to a weird shed in an industrial area that doesn’t put their price anywhere but on the screen on the pump. Sometimes the screen is a bit broken. On the upside it reduces the price by 2¢/liter if you pay by debit.

    That’s not actually a joke. I have no idea how they stay in business but the savings are actually really significant – they’re sometimes over 10¢/liter cheaper than anywhere else.

    1. I live in a small, semi-rural town, and there’s a gas station near me like that. Just a few super old pumps, no sign with prices other than what’s on the pump LCD, no attendant, just automated pumps and a huge empty lot. You’d barely even know it’s a gas station driving by it. I like the station because it’s usually cheaper and has ethanol free gas.

      It always seemed so weird to me until I noticed the station sold farm diesel (tax free diesel with a dye intended for farm/offroad use). The station is really there to support the large agriculture business in the area, so when you do see someone else there, it’s usually a large truck with random farm equipment. I’m sure it gets a lot of business from all the local farmers.

  22. Loved the infofails these people are definitely
    1. Tesla owners to be this stupid
    2. The reason people hate and make jokes about white people.
    3. This guy is the guy who figures the mileage every stop, checks the oil and records it, takes a psi reading on every tire, and carries around a spray bottle of windex and rag because the station might not have a squeegee.
    He makes me miss my dad who was just like this.

  23. “Why would someone so exaggerate such a mundane activity as getting gas, and then publicly describe the incident to anyone who will listen?”

    Human beings are some of the most complex social animals on earth. We evolved to live in leaderless collectives far larger than those of our fellow primates. As individuals our ability to thrive depended on how well we navigated those relationships with one another.
    If the group valued us ,we could count on support, resources and probably a mate. If it didn’t we might get none of those. It was a matter of survival, physically and genetically.
    Over millions of years those pressures selected for people who are sensitive to and skilled at maximizing their standing. The result was the development of a Sociometer a tendency to unconsciously monitor how others in our community seem to perceive us. We process that information in the form of self esteem and such related emotions as pride, shame or insecurity.
    Then the internet happened, and social media.
    Facebooks “like” feature or some version of it which now exists on virtually every platform is the equivalent of a car battery hooked up to that Sociometer. It gives whoever controls the electric jolts tremendous power over our behavior. It’s not just that “likes” provide the social validation we spend so much of our energy pursuing it’s that they offer it at an immediacy and scale heretofore unknown in the human experience.
    Being a Tesla Stan is just one of the easiest ways to get those “likes” and social validation.
    This is simply a larger scale equivalent of picking fleas off another monkey’s back or making a cheap David Tracy rust joke here.
    This poor man is just trying to belong to a group in a social world that is spiraling out of control beyond what our human nature’s have evolved to deal with.

    Or something like that.

    1. Sadly, this is likely it. Demonstrating approval of something which other people approve is kinda our species’ bit, right?

      And if it’s social media and Tesla, a good return on one’s time investment. Less so, us here ranting about stuff like why some terrible car from the malaise era is actually wonderful or what’s with you morons and your popular crossovers damnit.

    2. > This poor man is just trying to belong to a group in a social world that is spiraling out of control beyond what our human nature’s have evolved to deal with.

      Nah, he’s an entitled sniveling narcissistic asswipe.

      1. And where exactly do you think narcissism comes from?
        Also, calling a fellow human an ass wipe seems down right narcissistic.
        Especially when you preface it with “entitled” and “sniveling” when you don’t even know the person.
        If you’re on a witch hunt for narcissistic assholes?
        Check your mirror’s buddy.

      2. Sorry. That didn’t come across as self-deprecating as my stoned brain intended it to be. (Haha calling a stranger an asshole for calling a stranger an asshole)
        I’m suddenly feeling that shame emotion I mentioned.

  25. At least he bothered to fill it up. He’s been a massive dick about it, but it’s nice to return a car full of whatever fuel it needs.

    I wonder if his daughter is going to drop the Tesla off with just a handful electrons left in it. One of the benefits of home charging is it doesn’t matter.

    (I’m still upset about my BMW after I loaned it out and got it back empty of both gas and coolant)

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