The second link was interesting, thanks (the first one had broken references to youtube and other sites, but the content is essentially the same as the site behind the second link anyway).
It's difficult to gauge the true magnitude of this resistance, as both of your sources claim the same small farmers' group in PA with their suggestions of laws focused on equestrian quality of life... but naturally there is always a level of resistance to every new technology, and, depending on how much superior it is to existing alternatives, the better the new, the less forceful the resistance.
What I don't read about, however, is how the government would've used taxpayers' money to buttress the automobile in the early 1900s and then legislate horses out of existence. Many sensible laws were introduced to regulate the increased volume and speed of traffic, but somehow the market solved the problem of horse manure accumulation on city streets on its own.
Not even did NYC bring forth any legislation to ban horse carriages, and state or federal mandates certainly didn't exist.
Heh, I knew someone would eventually bring up the A8
It was a difficult decision, but you know what, I admit to not being a 100% hardcore car guy, I learned to drive on a small manual Ford, then drove stick for quite a while, but apart from the 3-2 downshift, never enjoyed it
that much, so an automatic was always an option for me when buying a vehicle.
The experience to me is the overall package, starting with the exterior (Teslas look butt ugly to me, except for the practically non-existent Roadster), then the interior (little to no gauge cluster, no physical controls and a ginormous screen in the middle is an automatic no from me, if I want to interact with a big screen, I have a 49" monitor sitting on my desk, thank you), engine characteristics, responsiveness, acceleration, sound and vibrations, fuel economy etc.
My overall experience score for a Camaro as a fun vehicle is much higher than for a Tesla, even though it is arguably much quicker and accelerates harder than my car from a dead stop. To me it's always about the overall experience, not just one factor magnified to the sky to make sure our favorite "horse" wins. Now, however, if we talk about an inner city commuter pod, I wouldn't want to waste a Camaro on that and would seriously consider a plug-in hybrid or EV.
I don't have money to burn on a Plaid, but I'm sure it's incredibly fast in a straight line, the few EVs I tried were dogs compared to it.