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Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

bloomberg.com

41–50 of 254 posts

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#41

Tesla, Inc. v. Tripp Nevada District Court, Case No. 3:18-cv-00296-LRH-CBC https://www.plainsite.org/dockets/3br5tkwuj/nevada-district-...

The fact that this publishes conference telephone numbers, complete with access code and security code, and that none of these numbers changes over a period of 6 months, is somewhat worrying.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Musk is heavily involved in the engineering efforts at Tesla and SpaceX. Is there any evidence of this, outside of him personally claiming this to be the case?

Just go to Blind. He is doing micromanaging. Also he is ,,managing by Twitter''. Whether that is good or bad is not clear, but so far he has a great track record. Just look at the $35k Tesla that he pulled off by kicking out sales. A regular CEO wouldn't have done that. With all the chaos it has caused, Elon understands that at this point price is the most important part in the decision for buying a Tesla for lots of…

> Just look at the $35k Tesla that he pulled off by kicking out sales. A regular CEO wouldn't have done that.

You know that's reversed right? https://paloaltoonline.com/news/2019/03/11/tesla-puts-brakes...

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#43
What I don't understand is why Bloomberg is not required to publish that they have any financial interest in Tesla. Bloomberg seems to only publish negative news about Tesla, and clearly has a bias, as if they hold or represent someone that holds a large short position.

The story published by Bloomberg does not actually cite any sources, only what is already publicly known and what Tripp has personally claimed; and seems to just run entirely on emotions, not facts. The whistleblower did, indeed, blow the whistle, and this seems to be one of only two provable and externally verifiable fact in the entire story (the other one being he once worked there and was fired from there; even the internal investigation at Tesla over Tripp's actions, according to that story, just seems to be Tripp's claims to such).

There is no proof that Tesla invented the shooter story, and it is also at least as equally possible that someone outside of Tesla saw a chance to throw a spanner in the works and take advantage of the situation. It is also just as equally possible that Tripp had expressed feelings of shooting up the place, but lacked the materials, know how, or actual willpower to achieve the act, and told someone they intended to perform the act.

If law enforcement believes that Elon, or someone from his company, made false claims to suppress Tripp's speech, then charges should be pressed. A quick Google tells me no charges have been pressed, and it does not seem likely charges will ever be pressed.

I know some people just have an eternal hateboner for Elon's style as CEO and the way he personally conducts himself as a human being, but the only thing I care about is facts, not feelings. This entire story is just summed up as "whistleblower ex-employee claims Tesla called cops on possible revenge shooting after being fired for violating employment contract; Tesla released statement claiming that they believed it was a credible threat and no shooting ultimately occurred."

What I said in quotes, obviously, does not sell newspapers and is not sensational enough to even warrant a second glance from a reader.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#44
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand what the story here is supposed to be. Did you catch the parts about Tesla harassing Tripp in a whole bunch of outlandish and basically thuggish ways in response -- ranging from a bogus $167m lawsuit up to apparently lying to the local police about him planning a mass shooting? That's what the story was about.

The article certainly makes those claims. But Bloomberg doesn’t seem to have any evidence of those things, beyond Tripp’s raw assertion that his friends didn’t make the call and he didn’t do what the lawsuit says. With no corroboration, why should we believe him over Tesla at this point?

Because musk/tesla have a... questionable record with truth and safety, and all these guys claims were about said transparency/safety? Why do you trust musk/tesla over tripp?

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#47
post #40

"Later that day, Tripp heard from the sheriff’s department in Storey County, Nev. Tesla’s security department had passed a tip to police. An anonymous caller had contacted the company to say Tripp was planning a mass shooting at the Gigafactory." Think of how this could have played out under different circumstances. We've already had numerous "swatting" incidents where innocent bystanders were hurt or killed. The mor…

Perhaps the whole point was making sure that side of the story never gets told to prevent any more reputational damage. Since Musk was personally informed that Tripp threatened to shoot people in the factory you'd expect some cooperation with the authorities. Instead the investigation was shut down when Tesla declined to make any possible witness available.

As a singular incident it wouldn't garner to much attention but Tripp's account is adding to the pile already.

Edit. Funny how all my comments received the same number of downvotes at almost the same time.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#48

As a person who really wanted Musk to be an exception to the rule of shitty billionaires, this story really is the last nail in the coffin. Way too much moral casuistry you'd have to go through to justify or cast doubt on all of these insane stories.

I wonder if the issue is that most people are just shitty but society acts as a check. When you're above societies rules you can act and do anything you want.

Possibly. I'd say there are a lot of people who are lacking in the principles / integrity department, but I also think Musk tends to stand out among his peers. He's not normal, even for that group of people.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#49
Bloomberg conveniently left out the reason why "Tripp has since changed lawyers". It's because he published on Twitter a trove of confidential internal Tesla documents. Once he did that his lawyer knew they had no case anymore. Tripp only deleted the documents after his lawyer was able to get in touch with him. This showed that he did in fact access internal Tesla systems and he did in fact exfiltrate this information. But somehow Bloomberg paints Tesla in a negative light, as they always do.

This is what's left of the fallout:

"B advised that the Tweets by Mr. Tripp yesterday were issued by him on his own accord. Mr. Tripp has clearly been impacted emotionally by what $TSLA has done to him.He is very concerned about being gagged & wants to protect the public, more than his own personal interest. ++"

https://twitter.com/StuartMeissner/status/103013836984050073...

"It is accurate that we no longer rep M.Tripp in any matter.Nor do we have a need for any connection whatsoever with his attys in his Nev civil action.There wont be further comment on this.We still rep K.Hansen with re to his SEC submission & do have confidence in his submission"

https://twitter.com/StuartMeissner/status/107295281670310297...

"Also Mr. Tripp's Twitter account WAS NOT suspended/removed by twitter this AM. He himself voluntarily terminated his twitter account on advice of myself, so that there will not b any more confusion re if he has published anything or not. There is enough confusion re $TSLA already"

https://twitter.com/StuartMeissner/status/103013943327684608...

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#50
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Musk is heavily involved in the engineering efforts at Tesla and SpaceX. Losing him would not be a good thing for these companies despite his public antics.

Is he? Musk has no engineering degree, he's never been the CTO of his companies, and most of his time seems to be spent on Twitter, dealing with media, and other PR things. I haven't seen any evidence that the engineering departments at either firm would be worse off without him.

He's CTO at SpaceX.
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