
Ex-Tesla worker escalates battle by blowing whistle to SEC - Whiteskin_Kanye
https://www.autonews.com/article/20180711/OEM/180719910/ex-tesla-worker-escalates-battle-by-blowing-whistle-to-sec
======
hamiltont
A better title would mention this is an Ex-Tesla worker currently being sued
by Tesla...

I'm not saying there is no story to be read, in fact I plan to look in depth a
bit later, but the current title is somewhat misleading

~~~
laveur
More importantly it should mention that he was caught red handed stealing
company secrets and sending them to others. This one is a bit better coverage
of it: [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/07/tesla-
whistleblo...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/07/tesla-
whistleblower-tells-sec-of-alleged-wrongdoing-at-gigafactory/)

~~~
jonknee
> More importantly it should mention that he was caught red handed stealing
> company secrets and sending them to others

That is a roundabout way of describing a whistleblower. He didn't give
information to competitors, he gave it to journalists and the SEC.

~~~
mr_toad
Which journalists? If he did, they don’t seem to be in a hurry to print what
he gave them.

~~~
jonknee
I'm not sure if there is a list, but he definitely gave info to Business
Insider and that is apparently what set Elon off:

[http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-whistleblower-martin-
tr...](http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-whistleblower-martin-tripp-elon-
musk-waging-war-on-him-over-leaks-2018-6)

This is the piece they used his info for:

[http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-model-3-scrap-waste-
hig...](http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-model-3-scrap-waste-high-
gigafactory-2018-5)

~~~
iamshs
Why would anyone leak to BI? I is already hard to trust anything on that
website.

------
typon
The media reports on this story are quite conflicting... Not sure who to
believe. Is this guy an innocent whistleblower who's being targeted by Tesla
or someone with an agenda against Tesla trying to sabotage the company?

~~~
jtbayly
That’s why we have courts. It’s not our job to decide he said she said cases
like this in the public square where we simply cannot have access to the
necessary data. Not saying courts are perfect, but at least they have the
ability to get the necessary data.

~~~
falcolas
It's just a shame someone has to do crowdfunding to afford a fair trial.

------
27182818284
As a Monday morning quarterback of Tesla, I'm really curious to see how this
turns out. On the one hand, I see whistle blowers as heroes and if they have
information about dangerously using unsafe batteries, then that's great.

On the other hand, if the early allegations are true that the employee was
altering code and logging in under usernames other than their own to do so,
that sure doesn't feel like whistleblowing.

~~~
danso
The civil complaint doesn't say anything about logging under other usernames,
just that his data-scraper-exporter was running on other people's machines:

[https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/06/tesla-sues-
emplo...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/06/tesla-sues-employee-
alleged-to-have-stolen-gigabytes-of-data/)

> _His hacking software was operating on three separate computer systems of
> other individuals at Tesla so that the data would be exported even after he
> left the company and so that those individuals would be falsely implicated
> as guilty parties._

I guess it's possible that Tripp did indeed add some code that explicitly
tried to frame actual employees. But the fact that his code ran on other
people's computers, without any other specific evidence (which may be
forthcoming, of course) does not necessarily entail that he intended to frame
people.

~~~
stephengillie
How did he have permissions to run unauthorized software on other computers -
let alone his coworkers' workstations? Where is the OpSec?

~~~
Klathmon
In just about any office I can see it being pretty trivial to walk over to a
co-worker's PC and insert a USB drive and run a program. It would take
seconds, and unless all employees lock their PCs 100% of the time even if they
walk away for a few seconds, there isn't much in the way of "opsec" that can
stop it (just things like cameras that can find the guilty party after the
fact).

Things like disabling USB ports or requiring passwords to be entered
constantly for everything would most likely impact the business enough that it
would be more harmful than any single instance of stolen IP, and even then
they only reduce the likely hood of an attack like this, they don't stop it.

------
codeisawesome
> Tripp’s allegations were summarized in a statement from Meissner Associates,
> a New York-based law firm that represented a former Monsanto Co. employee
> who was awarded $22 million in August 2016 for tipping off the SEC to
> improper accounting.

 _much later down the winding language of the article_

> Meissner said he won’t be representing Tripp in the federal lawsuit in
> Nevada. Tripp “is in the process of interviewing attorneys,” he said in a
> phone interview Wednesday. “It’s not easy to find counsel. There’s almost a
> cult of Tesla.”

Why not present these facts together in one paragraph? Because people don’t
read all the way through, and it helps feed rumours.

Just another article hitting the HN front page with a sensationalist title and
breathless writing.

------
staunch
Tesla should have an internal whistleblower program. Elon Musk should run it
himself with a dedicated email address that strips "From" information to
anonymize the sender.

Really, any CEO of a large company should do this but he's the kind of person
that would actually care to hear about problems rather than ignore them.

------
olefoo
"a cult of Tesla"

Nope, not possible. I mean it would be ridiculous if a large number of people
displayed unthinking loyalty to a money-making venture just because it
projected an image that catered to their prejudices, wouldn't it?

~~~
pwaai
> Nope, not possible. I mean it would be ridiculous if a large number of
> people displayed unthinking loyalty to a money-making venture just because
> it projected an image that catered to their prejudices, wouldn't it?

basically ICOs

~~~
olefoo
I'm pretty sure some of the people involved in IOTA are going to wind up
living in a commune and wearing identical tracksuits.

I do find it interesting how personally invested many people on this site are
in the success of Elon Musks ventures.

I mean it's OK to be a fan; but when you start rejecting evidence of mistakes
or even malfeasance and attack other people for showing signs of critical
thinking on the topic. That gets to be a problem.

~~~
pwaai
so 99% of ICO isn't a scam or never deliver? are you involved or invested in
crypto or ico?

~~~
olefoo
Your reading comprehension is as evolved as your attitude.

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pwaai
should i withdraw whatever money I have left in my stock brokerage or

go all in on nearly expiry puts

~~~
stephengillie
Please have a discussion with a financial adviser or other qualified
fiduciary.

[https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiduciary.asp](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/fiduciary.asp)

~~~
pwaai
how will that help me?

