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

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#231

Post by Consultant32452 » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 1:17 AM UTC

AndrewBissell wrote: post #121

Consultant32452 wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Elon Musk is really not a genius or a great mind. Both his companies appear to need large amounts of government mandates & subsidies and constant injections of capital to stay afloat. Teslas are neat cars but their environmental benefits are questionable and far more expensive than other methods of carbon abatement. Landing rockets is cool but the jury is out on whether it's financially better than the disposable one…

It's true, he might ultimately be unsuccessful at getting us off ICE vehicles or to Mars. But he's surely made a better go at it than anyone else. At this point his ultimate success or failure has no bearing to me on whether it's worthwhile to just ignore dumb things he might say on Twitter or otherwise. And he is almost certainly a genius in the technical sense of high IQ.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#232

Post by vbuwivbiu » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:15 AM UTC

iamdbtoo wrote: post #227

vbuwivbiu wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ahem...apart from that...I was referring to the higher-purpose of accelerating the much-needed transition to electric vehicles - it's kind of obvious that was my meaning from the context - I'm saying, yes this is shitty, but look at the bigger picture.

There's absolutely nothing that Elon Musk has done for the electric car market to excuse this kind of behavior. He could've changed the market just the same without acting this way.

ok yes I agree with you

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#233

Post by zaptheimpaler » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 2:26 AM UTC

This should be much bigger than an SEC problem.

Spreading rumours Tripp is homicidal, or secretly surveilling texts & emails without his knowledge - both alone could be prosecuted as criminal charges. Instead the absolute worst that will happen to Musk or anyone involved is being thrown out of Tesla.

The sheriff "says he’s told his force not to bother investigating crimes at the Gigafactory unless Tesla starts cooperating."

Remember folks, if you wanna be a criminal, start a company first. That way, your crimes become the companies crimes and your jail time becomes a fine! Thats the American Way.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#234

Post by shkkmo » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 4:05 AM UTC

protomyth wrote: post #168

shkkmo wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not prioritizing the investigation of complaints filed by Tesla when they refuse to cooperate and not issuing press releases on command is commendable. Publicly announcing that no crimes at the Gigafactory will be investigated seems like dereliction of duty and abandoning the tax paying workers of Tesla to a potentially unsafe environment.

The key part of the phrase is "unless Tesla starts cooperating". I'm sure Tesla will actually cooperate if there is an actual danger as opposed to another attempt to get the Sheriff's office to lie for them. The Sheriff is not doing anything wrong, and Tesla should have learned the whole cry wolf thing long ago.

Again, saying they won't investigate crimes reported by Tesla is very different from saying they will investigate no crimes at the Gigafactory.

You seem to think that I am saying something I am not.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#235

Post by elisharobinson » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 4:21 AM UTC

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…

How much did Tripp make for providing this valuable service to society . If stomping on a quick buck making piece of shit is the elon way I'm down with it.

Not to mention that Bloomberg and his chrones want Tesla dead at any cost and are so blinded by thier ego and the fact that elon doesn't kiss the ring of the "wall Street analyst" ass clowns. I mean who even gives a shit about Twitter the guy speaks his mind , if I were interested in investing I would focus much more on value created .

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#236

Post by HNLurker2 » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 5:07 AM UTC

Mr_Shiba wrote: post #208

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…

> The more I see Musk doing stupid pseudo-celebrity stuff like appearing on a kiddy Youtube channel to "review memes" False prophet, this is why celebrity cult sucks

I can't get 2 hours without seeing a meme of him, HN article etc. Been happening for 2 years.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#237

Post by unityByFreedom » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 5:28 AM UTC

AndrewBissell wrote: post #18

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> Why should we believe him over Tesla at this point? "Funding secured." Also, your assertion that there is no corroboration is wrong, the new whistleblower Sean Gouthro is corroborating Tripp's claims. This behavior is also well in line with Elon Musk's established pattern of paranoid behavior in surveiling employees.

Gouthro or Gourthro?

Interesting, he was formerly "head of investigations" at Tesla and was involved with spying on Tripp back in August 2018:

> Police eventually reached Tripp, who said he was at a local casino with his family and would meet with officers. Police then heard from Gourthro again and informed him that they were set to speak with Tripp at an undisclosed location. Gourthro correctly guessed the meeting spot, telling police later that he knew because “little birds sing.” [1]

Now this guy is saying,

> “They had the ability to do things I didn’t even know existed,” he says. “It scared the shit out of me.” [2]

And Tesla is saying,

> A Tesla spokeswoman said in a statement that Gouthro’s allegations “are untrue and sensationalized,”

When you fire your head of investigations who was previously unconnected with the whistleblower.. and then deny that anything he says is true.. Yikes.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-01/tesla-s-p...

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-03-13/when-elon... (this post's article)

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#238

Post by mg794613 » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 8:52 AM UTC

mg794613 wrote: post #76

I'm not American and so not familiar with the laws. But can someone please contradict me on the fact that money equals liberty in the USA? Or are all these things that Elon do legal when you are poor too?

I dont get the anonymous down votes. Please argument becaue I am serious. Is it because it is very clear and apparent and I ask a stupid question? Or is it because we dont want to talk about it? Confused here.

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#239

Post by coldtea » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 9:03 AM UTC

marvin wrote: post #203

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.

Even Tom Mueller, propulsion engineer & co-founder of SpaceX, publicly acknowledges that Musk is heavily involved in key engineering decisions. I get that Musk gets a large amount of hate these days, but at least find something material to criticize. "He's not even an engineer" isn't just an irrelevant argument, it's also wrong. (Except in the "certified engineer" sense, which I don't think anyone is claiming).

>publicly acknowledges that Musk is heavily involved in key engineering decisions

Is his salary in any way tied to touting Elon Musk?

Re: Elon Musk Tried to Destroy a Tesla Whistleblower

#240

Post by w1nst0nsm1th » Thu, Mar 14, 2019, 10:02 AM UTC

burtonator wrote: post #205

ams6110 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

He's really gone off the deep end and I'm wondering if this isn't a little bit of mental illness. I'm WAY less bullish on Tesla than I was a year ago. His behavior is insane. The value of the Tesla just isn't there either and it COULD be but the over-promising and under-delivering needs to end.

Musk seems to have narcissist issue, IMO.