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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 19 2018, @09:47PM (8 children)
The search for a scapegoat started. This means that Musk will have to surrender some position, and there is no way to cover it up. He also preemptively attacked the likely critics. A sad sight.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday June 19 2018, @09:53PM (6 children)
It would have been easy to believe the sabotage story months ago, but with stuff like this coming out, you have to wonder if it is just a desperate strategy to keep the hype train moving full speed ahead:
Elon Musk's Pravda: "'Rate My Professor' but for Journalists" [soylentnews.org]
Why did it take so long to discover the sabotage? Has it been going on for months? For what purpose is Musk working/sleeping in the factory 24/7 [electrek.co]? Maybe to clean up after "sabotage"?
Whether or not sabotage did happen, what effect will this email have on the employees? Musk is known for being a tough boss that stresses his employees, but now severe paranoia will be thrown into the mix.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Sulla on Tuesday June 19 2018, @10:32PM (5 children)
Fairly common theme in science fiction where the current powers do everything they can to stop disruptive technology. Everything Musk is working on is a disruptive technology and for him to not be paranoid is stupid. There are all sorts of people out there that crave Musk's failure so they can compliment themselves on how they knew he would fail to build a space company, build a cheap electric car, build a tunnel from LA to SanFran, etc.
Regardless of his faults, we should also root and desire his success as the things he is working on are revolutionary and good for the nation and the world.
Things that will die or lose significant money if Musk is a success
- Amtrak, GE Transportation, EMD, etc (passenger train construction and operation)
- Freightliner, Kenworth, Peterbilt, etc (truck manufacturers)
- Ford, GM, Chrysler-Fiat, etc (auto manufacturers)
- SunPower, Heliene, Canadian Solar, etc (solar cells)
- ConocoPhillips, BP, Exxon, etc (conventional fossil fuel)
- Panasonic, AESC, Samsung, etc (electric car batteries)
- Boeing, Arianespace, ULA, etc (rocketry)
He is putting egg on the face of nearly all of the world major companies even when he fails as he shows how little anyone else even tried. Industrial espionage is known to have happened for everyone forever, so why is it unreasonable to expect it now? When you are a company competing with him and you are afraid that Tesla might achieve goals and if you can just break the momentum a bit, why not go for it? Dodge lets people die for years before addressing significant safety issues with a recall, so how bad is a little sabotage in the big scheme of things? Hell its all justifiable too depending on the person, see it all the time in financial fraud cases. "Well if I can slow down production for a couple months it might help my friends at UAW not lose their jobs.."
He is paranoid, but that doesn't mean the world isn't out to get him.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 19 2018, @10:48PM (3 children)
The problem is that a lot of car companies are throwing tons of money into electric cars. They aren't trying to crush it, they're trying to tap it. Which could lend credence to "exporting large amounts of Tesla's data to unknown third parties". Perhaps they are only entering into the market because they have benefited from things Tesla has done, such as battery production, Superchargers, or opening up patents. But they are going into that market nonetheless.
Ford Investing $4.5 Billion to Bring Electrification to 40% of Its Vehicles by 2020 [soylentnews.org]
Aston Martin is the Latest Car Maker to Announce an All-Hybrid or EV Future [soylentnews.org]
Ford to Invest $11 Billion in Electric Vehicles and Produce 40 Hybrid and Electric Models by 2022 [soylentnews.org]
The Model X vs the I-Pace: A luxury electric SUV face-off [engadget.com]
(etc.)
Panasonic has invested billions in Tesla's battery production, so they aren't exactly about to die because of it:
Panasonic executives reportedly cautious about future Tesla commitments [cnbc.com]
SpaceX is where I can believe that competitors would do anything to kill it. As good as Falcon 9/Heavy is, there will be no credible alternative to the BFR once it launches. Successful BFR would hit ULA like a brick to the face. SpaceX is also projecting many billions in revenue from becoming a LEO satellite-based ISP, bringing in even more enemies.
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(Score: 2, Interesting) by Sulla on Tuesday June 19 2018, @10:56PM
One of my favorite SF books is Pillar to the Sky by William Forstchen about a billionaire spending ~100 billion to build a space elevator.
We are on the cliff of a new technological revolution. Partners can become enemies quickly when the winner stands to win the solar system. In SF what company/industry is almost always the most powerful? The ones that figured out how to make spaceflight work affordability.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday June 20 2018, @06:01AM (1 child)
True, but they wouldn't be above trying to kneecap Tesla while they scramble to catch up in EVs.
I've shared this before, but my brother is an automotive engineer in the R&D division at Ford. Ford just got a new CEO recently, and the word out of the confab with his exec team last summer was, "Tesla, Tesla, Tesla." In their minds, they're chasing Tesla.
Meanwhile at the auto shows this year nearly every major company was showcasing its own EVs. My brother says the timeline from debuting a concept at an auto show to a production model is 5 years. So if we take that as an expectation, then we're talking about 4-5 years before the general supply of EVs on the market really begins to swell. Tesla could grab a lot of market share in that time, if they can get past this Model 3 production bottleneck. Worse, given too much of a lead they could establish themselves as the standard that would position them with a lot of pricing power in the EV market.
We already know that the Model S has been out-selling its competitors at the high end of the market. Those are the models where Mercedes and BMW make most of their money. So it's a big deal for them.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @12:56PM
Meanwhile, it looks like Chevy Bolt sales are slightly exceeding the production schedule, see https://insideevs.com/chevy-bolt-continues-to-slide-while-volt-gains-ground/ [insideevs.com] This is pretty recent, from June 1, 2018:
Chevy Malibu sales (to pick just one car line) are still more than an order of magnitude higher than the electric Chevys -- http://gmauthority.com/blog/gm/chevrolet/malibu/chevrolet-malibu-sales-numbers/ [gmauthority.com] has a table of sales by month for anyone interested.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @02:05PM
I disagree,
The rail infrastructure companies will likely grow as E-cars become accepted. Like it or not they are always going to have a range issue, and rail is more efficient than cars or trucks for long hauls. The more likely scenario is that as cars go electric, rail picks up the long haul slack as fuel prices rise. This is not lost on the big players, which is probably why ford just bought the Detroit rail terminal.
Note that transportation is not the biggest component of consumer energy use. HVAC is. Note also that Amtrak is federal funded as doesn't own the rail they traverse. So the the idea that they care is unlikely. Some of the private rail companies might care. But rail expansion is going to require a period of eminent domain unlike anything this country has experienced. The existing carriers are likely to end up with many more operating routes at highly subsidized rates. So they also benefit.
The cost of switching to a high efficiency economy is going to actually increase initial energy spending due to the utterly massive infrastructure costs. Over the short term many of the energy companies will see growth.
What is going on here is not about what the pie will look like. It is about bankers burning down barns so they can buy farms cheap. As far as sabotage goes, I can think of 3 companies and 1 government agency that GM has fragged over the past 30 years. And I haven't been paying attention that much. So yes, this sort of thing is totally in their wheelhouse.
Personally I hope it's a ruse. The shorts short, and find themselves with their dicks in their hands when Tesla makes their numbers anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20 2018, @12:52AM
No worries until he moves into a hotel and wraps himself in saran wrap.
Come to think of it, there aren't likely any germs on Mars.