Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower • Hacker News Board

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#111

Post by AndrewBissell » Wed, Mar 13, 2019, 5:13 PM UTC

zmarty wrote: post #87

ucha wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could only find the lawyer's twitter account but not the tweets you're referring to.

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…

I don't see where Meissner says he knew they "didn't have a case" as you asserted in your OP.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#112

Post by blueboo » Wed, Mar 13, 2019, 5:14 PM UTC

zmarty wrote: post #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 informatio…

Hah. I knew the top comment would be an Actually, In Defense of Persecuting a Whistleblower.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#113

Post by SilasX » Wed, Mar 13, 2019, 5:15 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #86

zmarty wrote: post #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 informatio…

> 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 informat…

Agreed, and these kinds of criticisms always get me eye-rolling. "On the one hand, Megacorp committed . But on the other hand, Whistleblower stole internal documents proving them. So, you have to accept, there's wrongdoing on both sides."

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#114

Post by AndrewBissell » Wed, Mar 13, 2019, 5:17 PM UTC

u10 wrote: post #106

loceng wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funding in Elon's mind could have been secured - perhaps not to what SEC's requirements of what that meant however; if I had $100B to invest in taking Tesla private, I'd certainly give it to Musk - Saudi Arabia is throwing around huge amounts as well, which I believe was his believed source of funding.

What Elon believes the requirements are and what the legal requirements are two different things. Not to mention that Tesla failed to file an 8k form in a timely manner, and when it was finally filed it clearly showed that funding had not been 'secured' under any reasonable definition.

The idea Elon Musk "believed in his mind" that funding was secured is pure sophistry. He has done hundreds of fundraising rounds in his life and knows the various stages involved in intimate detail.

He was obsessed at the time with squeezing shorts and probably thought he could touch off a VW-style spike in the stock. Ironically, by capping the upside at $420, he presented shorts with one of the best risk-reward profiles in the stock's history, and that days intraday high has never been seen since.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#115

Post by Consultant32452 » Wed, Mar 13, 2019, 5:17 PM UTC

close04 wrote: post #26

antiviral wrote: post #5

This should be getting alot more attention. Even if Musk gets away with these things right now, this article raises awareness of what’s truly going on, raising the likelihood that future victims will be much more believable, similar to the way the dam eventually burst with Uber.

He gets away because people's attention span is short and they trust good PR and things that reinforce their opinions. So they will take the undeniably good stuff (SpaceX + Tesla successes), then assume everything else that's tacked onto them is also real, any other claim Musk makes on Twitter are real, and the bad press is just enemies and haters. Also his position and money make him more or less legally untouchable…

I have a different position, which is that I actively tolerate quite a lot of crappy behavior from great minds doing great things. Sure, when someone breaks the law, do whatever is normal when a person breaks that law. If he violated SEC regulations, okay the SEC will do whatever the SEC does. But I don't really care on an emotional level if some investors lost some money. And there's almost no manner of wrong-think or Twitter bullying or any other obnoxious but not illegal behavior that would upset me at all.

Have you ever noticed how many of the greatest actors/actresses are a bit on the crazy side? Genius and "craziness" tend to go hand in hand. I believe we'll all be better off if we tolerate quite a bit of craziness from geniuses. Better art, better science, better world.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#116

Post by raslah » Wed, Mar 13, 2019, 5:17 PM UTC

close04 wrote: post #70

RivieraKid wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really frustrating how many people don't see through this narcissistic double-faced CEO.

We should really learn not to bother. I see there's a flood of downvotes/flagging on any comment presenting Musk in a bad light in any way. Evidence be damned.

A site like this is going to be full of tech proselytes who still live and breathe the devine tech CEO BS from the last decade. It’s to be expected.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#117

Post by dagoat » Wed, Mar 13, 2019, 5:18 PM UTC

AndrewBissell wrote: post #97

dagoat wrote: post #90

"You have what’s coming to you for the lies you have told to the public and investors" For a hit piece on Musk, I don't think that's the most flattering quote for the victim in this story.

Tripp's courage is actually quite remarkable and admirable, as represented by that quote in particular.

Just glancing at your previous comments on HN (the most recent 2 pages of which are all Musk/Tesla related), it appears you are not a Musk fan. So I take this comment with a grain of salt.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#118

Post by kevin_thibedeau » Wed, Mar 13, 2019, 5:19 PM UTC

tdhz77 wrote: post #34

drugme wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite credible actually. Edit (now that the above post has been edited): I agree that the lack of an unequivocal follow-up to the SuperMicro story -- that is saying neither "we admit we screwed up" or "we stand by the main points of our original story" or even "we need more time to look into this pls" -- is quite troubling. Still, you have to look at their broader track record, compare them to other outlets in their…

I agree, very credible.

Without a retraction they have zero credibility.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#119

Post by ocdtrekkie » Wed, Mar 13, 2019, 5:21 PM UTC

navigatesol wrote: post #53

hxegon wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.quora.com/Does-Elon-Musk-do-some-very-technical-... I'm too lazy to track down more right now. I don't know of anyone claiming (with evidence) that he doesn't. In his biography there's interviews with people inside and out of spacex/tesla talking about it that are pretty convincing.

That thread has a quote from an interview, and then a bunch of random people saying he does. I already know the mythology surrounding his engineering credentials. But I think perpetuating it does a real disservice to the real engineers doing work on these products. Do people really think that a bright, "well read" physics undergraduate can lead the practical engineering work on rockets and cars? I find it hard to bel…

My guess is this guy probably has more claim to "actually makes rockets" than Elon does: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/25/tom-mueller-spacex-cto-who-m...

I'm sure Elon sticks himself into tons of meetings, and hence has a lot of knowledge about what's discussed. And I don't doubt that he sets the goals for the engineers to meet, makes aesthetic and design decisions like some of the interviews suggest. But I think the guys Mueller manages are the people who actually make Falcons fly.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#120

Post by AnthonyMouse » Wed, Mar 13, 2019, 5:26 PM UTC

camjohnson26 wrote: post #104

zmarty wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A "whistleblower" that first leaked all information to reporters, and then only claimed he was a whistleblower once Tesla figured out who it was. A "whistleblower" that a few months later publishes all of these internal documents ON TWITTER.

Who should he have leaked it to? Where should he have published it?

> Who should he have leaked it to?

The appropriate regulatory agency rather than the media.

> Where should he have published it?

Publishing internal documents is the last resort after everything else has failed.