
Tesla Enters “Whistleblower Hell” - AndrewBissell
https://www.thedrive.com/tech/29089/tesla-enters-whistleblower-hell
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vikramkr
Tesla (or at least Elon) has a terrible habit of engaging with critics in
deeply unproductive ways, such as all the anti short seller stuff they pulled.
It makes them look very defensive and seem like they feel vulnerable/cant face
the criticism, and maybe it's because they actually are vulnerable and doing
things that merit short selling and whistleblowing.

At least from a PR perspective you dont want to engage like this if you have
nothing to hide, so either they're doing something wrong or they have terrible
terrible PR sense. Both seem equally likely right now.

~~~
ghostly_s
If you have any examples of companies who _weren 't_ doing something unsavory
and had a recurrent problem with whistleblowers I'd love to hear them.

~~~
ryandrake
Well, whistleblowing, by definition, requires the target to be doing unsavory
things. Otherwise, it's just "leaking" and many companies have ongoing
problems with things like product plans being leaked.

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Lendal
I never see stories about Ford's current lawsuits, or GM or Chrysler. I'm
curious what goes on behind the scenes to get stories like these published and
pushed out onto social media sites across the globe. Must be a pretty
expansive operation because I see it every week, same stuff week in and week
out. Is it true that other companies don't have disgruntled employees? I find
that difficult to believe.

~~~
grecy
There are trillions of dollars at stake in the auto industry that Tesla is
trying to seriously disrupt.

There are trillions of dollars at stake in the launch industry that SpaceX is
trying to seriously disrupt.

There are trillions of dollars at stake in the ride-share/taxi industry that
Tesla/Elon is trying seriously to disrupt.

There are a lot of people who are working very hard to paint a very negative
picture of Elon/Tesla/SpaceX right now.

It's amazing that stories like this make headlines while the news that the
Tesla Model 3 is outselling every other electric vehicle combined doesn't make
a blip.

Follow the money.

~~~
joshuamorton
Over what timescale?

United Launch Alliance, SpaceX's main (only?) competitor pulls in a few
billion in revenue a year. Profits are well under $100 million, so we're
talking Trillions over a couple thousand years. Arguably, if we're disrupted
into a spacefaring species, this could change, but there's physical problems
with that.

You _might_ be correct about rideshare/taxi industries over a 100 year
timespan or something, but not before Elon dies.

So that leaves car industries. Which are the closest, but EVs aren't going to
take over any time soon, and other carmakers are better at logistics than
Tesla, and that's the important part.

~~~
rcMgD2BwE72F
>EVs aren't going to take over any time soon, and other carmakers are better
at logistics than Tesla, and that's the important part.

Ask Norway.

~~~
Fins
It's quite unlikely many other countries are going to go quite as far
disrupting natural pricing to make Tesla look almost affordable as Norway did.

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pmorais
Disappointing that the majority of the comments here are conspiracy theories
about nefarious short-sellers somehow influencing coverage (including this
article) and not a single person is discussing the seriously damning
allegations of 1) millions of dollars of embezzlement 2) connections to
organized crime and Mexican drug cartels 3) systematic firing of those who
report impropriety to upper management and 4) using law enforcement to
intimidate whistleblowers

Seriously this comment section of conspiratorial Tesla apologists is pathetic.

~~~
unityByFreedom
I feel the same way. If I could find another tech forum where I could find
topics like this and discuss them without hearing from anti-media conspiracy
theorists I would join it in a heartbeat.

Even just a view of HN comments without having to weed out the threads
complaining about fake news would be great. I bet it's not so hard to train a
classifier to identify comments that amount to "This article is paid for by
short sellers". They all make the same point and never address the issues in
the article.

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shiftpgdn
620 lawsuits over about 10 years seems remarkably small for a company the size
of Tesla. Is there an attorney who can shed light on how many lawsuits a
company with a 50 billion market cap would normally receive?

Anecdotally: I worked for a company with a sub hundred million dollar market
cap and they had /thousands/ of open lawsuits every year.

~~~
Waterluvian
What industry was the company in?

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imfromit
Can someone explain to me (a simple European scrub) why these sorts of
lawsuits seem to invariably target Elon directly? Surely they should be
directed at Tesla, you know the company that employed them? Does adding Elons
name to the lawsuit actually do anything in US law? Or is it merely to gain
publicity by adding celebrity to a complaint?

~~~
choppaface
In at least one instance, there's evidence that Musk personally instigated an
effort to use a Nevada Sheriff to retaliate against a whistleblower:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19378658](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19378658)

------
xrd
"Pablo Escobar’s brother recently demanded $100 million in cash or Tesla
shares from Musk for purportedly stealing his flamethrower idea, but the
Escobars are Colombian."

(Edit: sorry, didn't see the first part where it is stated that the lawsuit
includes Mexican nationals. But, I still think it's crazy that this is
included in an article about Tesla and whistleblowers)

~~~
PhantomGremlin
It's not clear from your one word comment exactly what you're "whatting"
about. Perhaps it's the silliness of the demand. Perhaps it's the "Colombian"
thing at the end?

If it's the Colombian bit, what you didn't quote makes clear what's happening.
The lawsuit alleges links to a _Mexican_ drug cartel. The _Colombian_ comment
at the end was to make clear that the Escobars are (allegedly) part of a
different drug cartel.

Here's the full paragraph:

 _Paragraphs 16 through 19 of the lawsuit identify thefts ranging between $37
and $150 million dollars, along with links to a Mexican drug cartel. (Pablo
Escobar’s brother recently demanded $100 million in cash or Tesla shares from
Musk for purportedly stealing his flamethrower idea, but the Escobars are
Colombian.)_

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lovemenot
I have no perspective on the merits of these claims, but the approach smells a
bit off.

1\. Make a name as a whistleblower

2\. Invite further insiders to volunteer new negative stories

3\. Solicit "the right people" to fund your operation

The concern here is insider trading. It's implied that funding contributors
(Tesla shorts) may receive preferential access to negative news stories.

Edit: insider trading is not the correct legal term. Extortion perhaps? Which
law would prevent them from just coming out and saying "fund us and get the
scoop on bad news for Tesla"?

------
Tistel
I have not been in a Tesla with Full Self Drive (FSD) and I was hoping someone
here can confirm/deny my theory. The theory is that there will be this
dangerous trough with the FSD feature. So at the no FSD end of the speactrum
the driver is engaged mentally trying to safely get to were they want to go.
At the other end of the spectrum, with fully working FSD that is better than
people can drive you are are by definition safer. But! In the middle you have
this dangerous middle ground. Its dangerous because the car is doing say 85%
of the work, but, you need to be eagle eyed to grab the wheel and/or hit the
brakes when the FSD falls into the 15% not working part. The fact that the car
is doing most of the work is going to lead to people being bored and spacing
out and not being ready to hit the brakes. For example:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki9RK_JDtIg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki9RK_JDtIg).
To anyone who has spent time in a FSD car, is that the case? Or is it
sufficiently fear inducing that you pay super attention?

