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Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

bloomberg.com

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Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#191

Post by AnthonyMouse »

gamblor956 wrote: post #159
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Whistleblower protection laws generally do not require that the "appropriate regulatory agency" be the only person to whom disclosure is made... Publishing internal documents is the last resort after everything else has failed. No, that's usually the first and best option once the company has been made aware of the problem and chooses not to correct it...as is what is alleged happened here. Why make vague statements…

> Whistleblower protection laws generally do not require that the "appropriate regulatory agency" be the only person to whom disclosure is made...

Whistleblower protection laws in some cases don't even exist and even where they do you're typically not going to have a fun time if you have to use them. When it comes down to it you do what you've got to do, but going there first rather than last is not a really great idea.

> No, that's usually the first and best option once the company has been made aware of the problem and chooses not to correct it...as is what is alleged happened here. Why make vague statements that Company X ignored Problem Y when you can just provide documents proving your claims?

For one thing, documents rarely prove anything on their own (how do you even know they're not forgeries?) without the investigatory powers needed to verify the information in them. Which the government has and Twitter doesn't.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#192

Post by xkjkls »

lifekaizen wrote: post #134
xkjkls wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Set game-changing goals like promising a self-driving car without LIDAR or other technology every year for the last three? I feel like every single Elon Musk "game-changing goal" is met with severe criticism by many of the engineers working in the field and setting their heads down to get things done.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#193

Post by jakobegger »

sweden wrote: post #154

I usually like Bloomberg, it's one of my favorite news sources but this article seems way off. They begin by talking about Martin Tripp's story (without any real details of what exactly happened), then they move to some random security guard with claims of sex and drugs in the factory, then they jump back to Tripp's story again and it takes a while for the article to get to the real point of Tripp's story which is: >…

> So he actually leaked information.

Well, that's what a whistleblower does, isn't it?

How would a whistleblower reveal that a company is doing questionable things without leaking information?

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#194

Post by gamblor956 »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #191
gamblor956 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whistleblower protection laws generally do not require that the "appropriate regulatory agency" be the only person to whom disclosure is made... Publishing internal documents is the last resort after everything else has failed. No, that's usually the first and best option once the company has been made aware of the problem and chooses not to correct it...as is what is alleged happened here. Why make vague statements…

> Whistleblower protection laws generally do not require that the "appropriate regulatory agency" be the only person to whom disclosure is made... Whistleblower protection laws in some cases don't even exist and even where they do you're typically not going to have a fun time if you have to use them. When it comes down to it you do what you've got to do, but going there first rather than last is not a really great id…

For one thing, documents rarely prove anything on their own (how do you even know they're not forgeries?) without the investigatory powers needed to verify the information in them. Which the government has and Twitter doesn't.

We don't. The government is also not the only entity that can perform forensics on purported documents. News companies do it all the time, and their are hundreds of e-forensics firms in the US and EU that could happily do it for a fee. There's also thousands of people with access to Twitter and the spare time to dig into any purported document leaks to verify them for accuracy. In fact, Twitter is a good (but not even remotely the best) way to get all the interested/competent parties aware of the documents.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#195

Post by rabidrat »

coldtea wrote: post #148
aerovistae wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t even know what to say to the first sentence in your comment.

Just admit it? Being a "sports car" doesn't make it any better, in the same way a Ferrari is not better than a Lexus.

marketing matters. electric cars have been around for 100 years, but they weren't getting any measurable adoption until Tesla came around and made them seem cool. I don't like a lot about Tesla or Musk, I'm not sure they have what it takes to mature, but you can't dismiss the effect their shenanigans have had on the industry.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#196

Post by vbuwivbiu »

I'm going to separate Musk from the other asshole billionairs, for now, because I truely think there's a higher purpose here that his companies are helping bring about. I think his heart's in the right place too. Something happens to people when they become that rich and are surrounded by sycophants. I wish he had respect for his staff and treated them well, same with Bezos but Tesla is more useful to the world than Amazon.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#197

Post by loceng »

AndrewBissell wrote: post #114
u10 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 prof…

So let's do an exercise. You have someone you trust someone's word, they tell you they're going to pick you up at X time and Y location. Do you trust them, why do you trust them? So now, why can't this same scenario exist for Elon and someone, say Saudi money, for securing funding - someone saying they will give you all the money he needs to take Tesla private? You're presenting no proof it was a fallacious statement from him, based on his belief of what funding secured meant. You're also presenting a very one-sided argument. Elon also yes "hates" - so arguably it makes at least equal sense, if not more, that he'd legitimately want to take Tesla off the stock market.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#198

Post by ocdtrekkie »

meowface wrote: post #179
coldtea wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which doesn't mean anything really. If you have founded the company and own it, you can be CTO and delegate all the real engineering / research work.

You can, except he says he spends the vast majority of his time doing engineering. There are lots of videos of him with a hardhat on working in his factories. Not PR videos, either. He's the head of product development for the cars, not just the CEO. Hate the guy for his personality all you want; I can certainly understand why. But there's no need to downplay his achievements or skills.

Except the engineering work is usually not done with a hardhat on, "working" on the factory floor... that's production. I guarantee you if you see video of Elon Musk with a hard hat on doing anything other than touring the facility[1], it is marketing.

[1]Presumably, if he's down on the factory floor looking at things, he should be wearing a hard hat, so good for him. If he's bolting together cars himself, that's probably marketing.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#199

Post by [deleted] »

ams6110 wrote: post #165
rchaud wrote: 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…

I can conclusively say that I will never be giving Tesla any of my money. I can grant credit where credit is due, Tesla did show the world and the market that an electric vehicle can have appeal and doesn't have to look like a glorified golf cart. But I'm not going to reward them for the appalling behavior of their CEO and/or people acting at his direction in other areas.

[deleted]

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#200

Post by crb002 »

tedivm wrote: post #152
joekrill wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how we're jumping to the conclusion that Musk is responsible for this. No one seems to be claiming the "anonymous call" was made up, as far as I can tell. For all we know Tripp made the call himself to make himself look like more a victim. It's no less plausible than suggesting Musk made the call himself, or had someone make it on his behalf.

The sheriff debunked it, and then Tesla tried to get the sheriff to hype up the event. The sheriff declined, and then Tesla (according to the sheriff) leaked it to the press. https://twitter.com/willCIR/status/1105906726782435328

In Iowa they would have faced criminal blacklisting charges under Iowa Code 730.
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