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Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

bloomberg.com

131–140 of 254 posts

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#131
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.

Maybe he recognized that giving the information to SEC or DOJ would result in them dithering and keeping the information from the public for months or years on end as is their custom when facing complaints against well-heeled and connected corporate bad actors. Tripp believed dangerous batteries were being placed in Tesla cars being sold to the public. It seems like none have been seen in the wild -- maybe because he…

Even his own lawyer thought it was wrong to publish the documents on Twitter.

> Tripp believed dangerous batteries were being placed in Tesla cars being sold to the public. It seems like none have been seen in the wild -- maybe because he was wrong or maybe because his public revelations forced Tesla to change course.

Based on his actions and his credibility problems, it is reasonable to assume he was intentionally dishonest and was pursuing a personal vendetta, rather than acting in the public interest.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#132
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very deceptive to call what Tripp posted to Twitter "a trove of confidential internal documents." There were: - Photos of trailers parked outside the Gigafactory full of potentially hazardous battery waste. - Photos of shoddy workplaces within the Gigafactory and precision work being done with crude implements like Dremel tools. - VIN numbers of cars which Tripp believed had been fitted with batteries with possibly p…

> crude implements like Dremel tools Woa, woa, woa! You're hurting your credibility with this one!

Sometimes a job calls for duct tape.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#133
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You're in a burning house and people are shouting at you to get out, and your response is "you sure talk about this fire a lot, I'm gonna take your advice with a grain of salt."

Another reply and another HN user with a history of negative Musk/Tesla comments. What are the odds?

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#134
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.

I believe this underestimates his ability to see beyond what’s possible today and set game-changing goals and direction for those engineering teams.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#135
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It might be because your comments aren't really adding much to the conversation other than wild speculation and hyperbole.

My comments are mostly based on the information in the article and common sense. Anything in particular you have to object to the comment above? Feel free to object in a productive manner. With words and arguments should you have any, not generic accusations.

Also when I said “all my comments” I actually meant all my comments that could be downvoted. Full day. Nothing to do with the value of the comments.

Might I add the irony of you replying to my comment by speculating?

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#136

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.

That reminds me of one point: I highly respect that Elon Musk doesn't wall himself off from the mind of the internet (aka the populace). It's something you won't see other CEOs do, unless it's a PR stunt meant to achieve some positive PR statistics.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#137
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, very credible.

Without a retraction they have zero credibility.

Fine for you, but I'm not a black-or-white person.

I would say their credibility stands at "significantly compromised", which is damning enough.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#138

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.

Waaaat who told you this? An ceo directly interfering with engineering is a huge nono. Do you think this guy is Tony stark? He's a up jumped Web Dev.

The movie version of Tony Stark was actually modeled on Elon Musk.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/true-story-elon-musk-robert-d...

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#139
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Funny thing is, it’s actually incredibly reasonable to compare this CEO to an eccentric actor/actress. It’s about all his theatrics have amounted to: entertainment.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#140

Not saying the article is or isn't true, but how credible is Bloomberg as a news outlet these days after the SuperMicro story?

I found Bunnie Huang's talk on supply chain security a reasonable picture of the issues underlying the Bloomberg story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqQhWitJ1As With the caveat that I find Bunnie Huang credible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Huang_(hacker)

Can you TL;DR it for us, please?

Specifically - does it make Bloomberg's telling of event more or less credible?

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