Tesla’s image and public perception was built mostly on the salesmanship of Elon Musk the man (mainly through self-agrandising promises, like the Cyber Truck and just straightforward deceit like calling their driving assist “full self driving”), on the consumer side more so early on and on the investor side still very much so even today (hence Tesla’s “Tech startup” kind of market valuation rather than an “auto maker” kind, though that seems to have started correcting).

So it absolutelly makes sense that as trust in Elon Musk the man goes down, so goes trust in his promises and favorable portrayal of his companies’ and their products, and hence the massive PR around Tesla built by him is collapsing along with the public perception of him (it makes no logical sense to expect that a company controled by somebody one sees as a scam artist would impeccably honest and ethical and their products trully delivered on what’s promised in their glitzy marketing materials).

Had Tesla’s image not been build up almost entirelly on “Trust Elon Musk he’s a visionary” you would’ve been right, but as it it is your “argument” comes out as one side “cake and eat it” fanboyism.