Tesla CEO Elon Musk has accused a Tesla employee of "quite extensive and damaging sabotage to our operations," according to an email obtained by CNBC. In the all-hands email to Tesla staff, Musk wrote that the employee had made "direct code changes" to the company's production systems, as well as exporting "large amounts" of Tesla's data to unknown third parties.
According to Musk's email, the unnamed employee claimed he had become disgruntled after failing to receive a promotion. However, the Tesla CEO also suggested the alleged saboteur could have been working with short sellers, oil and gas companies—whom he described as "sometimes not super nice"—or "the multitude of big gas/diesel car company competitors." Of this last group, Musk reminded his employees that, since the traditional OEMs have been known to cheat emissions tests, "maybe they're willing to cheat in other ways."
[...] Tesla has faced plenty of criticism about its ongoing troubles in ramping up Model 3 production. But that may have been unwarranted if those problems were due to sabotage. We reached out to Tesla regarding CNBC's story, but the company declined to comment at this time.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 19 2018, @09:46PM (4 children)
Get in here kurenai, it's habbening! (At least it's not SpaceX.)
If this is a "boy who cried wolf" play to keep the stock from tanking, Musk will never live this down. Even if the sabotage is true, will it help him get the company back on track and hitting/exceeding production targets? ie. How bad was the alleged sabotage, and if fixed, how much will Tesla's production rate increase? And forget about extracting money from any backers of sabotage, since that would mean a years long court battle.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday June 20 2018, @02:06AM (1 child)
Musk's story smells bad even with the very little I've read. Without RTFA, I can see he is exaggerating and even imagining the supposed damage that occurred.
> exporting "large amounts" of Tesla's data to unknown third parties.
So, some data was copied? But, it wasn't maliciously altered or deleted? Musk, dude, that's exactly what patents are for, at least in theory. You go public with innovations, and in exchange we the people protect your company from copycats. Of course the patent system is a huge mess, and maybe you didn't patent everything under the sun. Even without patents, you still have the first mover advantage. However much copying happened, that alone does not stop the company from functioning, because nothing was lost. Copying should be a non-issue.
That Musk apparently doesn't understand this doesn't speak well of his supposed genius.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday June 20 2018, @02:33AM
ELON MUSK: 'If We Published Patents, It Would Be Farcical' [businessinsider.com] (SpaceX)
All Our Patent Are Belong To You [tesla.com]
Tesla battery patents further proof of Elon Musk’s duplicitous views on patents [ipwatchdog.com]
Tesla continues to rack up patents despite Elon Musk’s supposed distaste for patents [ipwatchdog.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday June 20 2018, @03:55AM (1 child)
Just give it some time - the first SpaceX sabotage will be done by Putin himself.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday June 20 2018, @04:17AM
No:
Russia may lack the funds to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket [arstechnica.com]
More likely is United Launch Alliance for the sabotage play, and China for stealing as many SpaceX trade secrets as possible by hacking or spies within the company.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]