It's been covered for at least the last 5 years by many reputable news orgs. That HN link (you looked at the link right?) includes several refs, and a Google search dozens more.
As someone who does not own a Tesla, but drives in a country where 25% of all new cars sold are now Model 3 or Model Y, we can all confirm this and it is now common wisdom to keep good distance if we are driving behind these vehicles. Beta testing in prod is great /s.
Personally, if I had to pay, I'd so much rather pay per view.
Subscriptions just tend to pile up and many of them sitting idle for long periods of time. I would love pay-per-view for streaming services as well, instead of having Netflix/Hulu/Disney+/Prime/etc subscriptions (as opposed to juggling between them, or choosing just one to stick with). Same with VPN that I use very sporadically, it feels stupid to pay a monthly fee for something I use maybe an hour per month on average.
Agreed. If you hate ads and are given a reasonably priced option of not seeing them, you should choose that option. To support that option and signal that people want that option.
Or add ads to it (most likely a mix of both: raise price and offer a version with ads that's at the former price, which is what Netflix did if you factor in their policy change on account sharing)