
Tesla says it has health official's OK to run California plant - rmason
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/mobility/2020/05/17/tesla-approval-california-plant/111790978/
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new_realist
So, Tesla can legally open according to the original county timeline, before
Elon’s hissy fit, even though in actuality they’ve been producing cars for
Europe and China for a week.

~~~
pmorici
It's unclear that the county was planning to follow this "original" timeline
until after public pressure brought about by Elon's tweets. At this point it's
impossible to tell if that are simply saving face.

~~~
gamblor956
This is a false narrative.

The original timeline was always to reopen certain businesses May 18th, since
the first extensions of the lockdowns were to expire on May 15th, and as
demonstrated by the _entire rest of the state_ opening up according to that
schedule without anyone else throwing a tantrum.

Also, the county doesn't need to do anything to save face. They have nothing
to prove. The elected officials can always say they were acting on the
information of health experts, and the health experts can always point to the
CDC, China, and even the re-emerging outbreaks in Wuhan, Italy, and Germany as
reasons for not allowing Tesla to restart operations ahead of schedule and
before Tesla had demonstrated they were willing to protect their workers.

~~~
watwut
But throwing a tamptrum and making yourself look like you won feels so
powerful, so ...

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neskiredk
Not much different that what you're doing right now ...

~~~
watwut
Nice try, but no. Criticizing someone is not throwing tantrum, really.

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SpicyLemonZest
Alameda County has announced they're moving into Phase 2 this week, which
means basically everyone other than restaurants and public gathering spaces
can reopen.

~~~
dmix
Alameda County is also dropping faster than other parts of California:

[https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/17/coronavirus-new-
cases...](https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/17/coronavirus-new-cases-drop-
in-alameda-county-rise-elsewhere-in-bay-area/)

33 cases today, region of 1.6M people.

~~~
usaar333
A single day means nothing - there's high daily variance just from reporting
issues and test sites not being open on weekends.

Alemada County is alright by California standards, but is the worse performing
Bay Area county (hospitalizations are flat for a month, rather than dropping
like its neighbors). And 33 a day for 1.6m people is actually on the high side
by northern California standards. (As a point of comparison, Santa Clara is at
about 15 a day for 1.9 million)

~~~
mehrdadn
Do you happen to have any ideas why Alameda county is performing worse?

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londons_explore
I'm kinda wondering _why_ he wants to reopen the factory.

Car demand is sure to plummet with a long economic depression coming, and
electric cars moreso since the price of fuel is the lowest it's been for
decades.

Considering that, if I were in Elons position, I'd prefer the state to be
paying my employees salaries, and leave most of my factories closed. Keep the
R&D department going so I have some awesome new products in a year's time when
the economy starts recovering.

~~~
kortilla
Paying employees is a blip on the OPEX that company deals with. If they don’t
crank out cars they will need to raise even more money.

Until the upper middle class and up start losing jobs, Tesla will still have
plenty of demand. Their core customer wasn’t line cooks.

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tito
Anyone else out there surprised to see Elon "zag" so badly on COVID, including
this?

I've always been impressed by his agility with ideas, zigging and zagging and
I've been there cheering him on. But on this one it seems like he....went off
the cliff, Wiley E. Coyote style.

~~~
tachyonbeam
I think part of it might be that he's a really high energy kind of person,
working 12-18 hour days everyday. Being forced to stay quarantined, to stop
his life's work, probably drives him insane. He really wants to progress on
his projects, which he considers to be very important for the future of
mankind (which, let's face it, they could be).

Besides that, he's a contrarian. With COVID, we're faced with a situation
where there is an extremely strong pressure to conform. There's one narrative
being pushed and there's no real dialogue. Elon has a contrarian narrative:
our basic human rights have been taken away (freedom of movement, etc) in the
name of the greater collective good. He argues that people should be given the
tools to help protect themselves but that the government should leave it up to
individuals to decide how they manage this.

I tend to agree with him. We're told a vaccine could be two years away (or may
never come). The fatality rate in my age group is about the same as the flu. I
happen to be single, and at the moment, where I'm living, if I have a date
with someone, I could technically be fined $1500 (and there have been a few
reports of people going on tinder dates who have been). Since when has it been
the government's business to legislate in these sorts of matters? I have been
making efforts to socially isolate, but it's pushed me into a depression, I
started taking antidepressants a month ago. I know two of my friends have done
the same.

~~~
brainless
It is interesting to read this. So let me say something as someone:

\- who is respecting isolation

\- been in depression for a decade and have been in 8 or 9 sessions of
counseling

Shut up! You are being so selfish that I can not imagine. The only reason I am
not moving is because if I learn that I caused even one person to die by being
asymptomatic - my life will completely derail.

I have killed exactly 1 cat under my running car once (8 years back) and I
still remember that incident when I could not act fast enough, it brings me
into tears sometimes even now.

The emotional burden will break my life into pieces. Depression my ass man,
you have no clue what these mental issues are and to live with consequences.

~~~
tayo42
It's been really interesting(and frustrating, I'm trying my best to not argue
lol) to see some people so intensely defend their selfishness online.

Pretending to be psychologist for a second, I wonder if these people know it's
wrong, but trying to make them selves feel better about it. Otherwise if you
truly think you're in the right, why defend your self so intensely to so
strangers online

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hbogert
I read 'california plant' as a euphemism for weed. Do these really cramped
titles also read very ambiguous for native english speakers at times?

~~~
TLightful
LOL .... gave me a good chuckle. Thanks.

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thdrdt
There seems to be more going on here.

The Tesla California plant has a very bad record when it comes to safety
issues. California helped Tesla by looking the other way because they knew the
company was starting and that they are very valuable for California.

And then Elon called them fascist because he could not open up the factory due
to the virus. Of course officials then would like to approve the safety
standards before opening up the factory again.

On the other hand nothing is going on here. The county already wanted to open
up the businesses.

Elon lost a lot respect in all this. Maybe he has a lot on his mind like
becoming a father again, the virus, selling all his properties, wanting to go
to mars earlier than possible, his brain implant project, and so on. To me he
sounds a little exhausted. In the latest Joe Rogan he also looks very tired
and dim.

~~~
XorNot
I'd say the evidence is mounting Elon probably has some type of undiagnosed
(because lol money) mental health condition he'd benefit from treatment for.
His latest episodes on twitter have looked like a bipolar's manic phase except
he hasn't been able to (I presume) talk the ear off employees at one of his
companies.

~~~
nickik
People really need to stop with the armchair psychology nonsense. Not
everybody who send an angry tweet is now biopolar. And not everybody who
disagrees with your opinion is psychologically damaged.

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jennyyang
If health care workers can't avoid getting themselves infected, even though
they have expertise and training, there is no way that Tesla will be able to
prevent the virus from spreading within the factory. It's a ticking time bomb
at this point, just like the meat packing plants and the other factories that
have spread the disease. Once a single person with COVID-19 comes into the
Tesla plant, it's guaranteed to spread like wildfire. Things like social
distancing is merely a tactic to slow the spread down, but it won't actually
help you if someone 6 ft from you has COVID-19 and is breathing vigorously or
is eating lunch 6 ft from you.

If Musk isn't right there on the factory line among the workers and
endangering his life along with the workers that he is forcing to come work
for him, then I will lose a tremendous amount of respect for him. If anything,
this should be a good opportunity for the factory workers to unionize and
demand better treatment.

~~~
m0zg
He's not "forcing" anyone to come in IIRC. Workers can remain furloughed if
they'd like. It's just that out in the real world, people need to work in
order to survive.

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mikeyouse
"Come in or lose your unemployment benefits" isn't a choice in any sense of
the word. It's a shame we've done so poorly at managing this virus and have
provided so little support for people who choose to prioritize their health.

~~~
natch
Staying at home is not in any way prioritizing health, if, like most people,
they themselves or any household members continue to go out to shop for food
and other things. If anything, the clean factory environment should be safer
than most stores and households.

~~~
mikeyouse
This is asinine. They _still have to go to stores and shop for food_ , going
to a work at a factory is just one more place to get infected. And as
demonstrated by the meat-packing plants, a much higher risk of infection than
most everyday locations.

~~~
natch
Look at which two types of factories/plants you are equating, as if it's not
apples to oranges. Tesla factory versus meat packing plant. And then look at
what adjective you used at the start of your post. I could be forgiven for
thinking your introductory sentence is meant to apply to the rest of your
comment.

