Are we not talking about the way cool new Tesla lorry and Roadster?

[Por_sha911]

Prediction: History will repeat itself and Musk will become desperate and follow in the footsteps of Delorean by smuggling drugs to keep the company afloat.

[legion]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/apr/12/tesla-media-strategy-discrimination-car-crash

Tesla had a clear message to DeWitt Lambert, a black employee alleging racial discrimination: take our money and stay quiet.

“In terms of settlement, we are willing to pay Mr. Lambert [redacted], but only if we are to resolve this matter before there is media attention, preferably within the next few hours,” the Tesla general counsel, Todd Maron, wrote to the worker’s lawyers last year. “If there is media attention first, there will be no deal.”

The message, which a lawyer shared with the Guardian this week, provides a stark illustration of what some say is Tesla’s aggressive legal and media strategy in the face of serious complaints and potential negative press. The controversial PR tactics of Elon Musk’s car company have been on full display this week as the corporation has worked to publicly blame the victim of a fatal crash involving its autonomous technology.

In the three weeks since the death of Walter Huang, 38, whose Tesla Model X crashed while in Autopilot mode in California, the company has repeatedly argued that the victim was at fault, not its nascent technology, and it has openly feuded with US investigators about the release of information.

The defensive statements amid the current tragedy and the settlement offer in Lambert’s labor dispute provide a window into the way Musk’s firm has tried to silence critics – or publicly attack them. It’s a familiar approach in Silicon Valley, where companies work to block bad publicity by keeping complaints out of court and resolving high-profile disputes behind closed doors.

But some say the tactics are particularly intense at Tesla, a firm that often receives fawning coverage from the tech press surrounding Musk’s ambitious projects and celebrity status.

Lambert, an electrician hired as a production associate in 2015, alleged in a harassment, retaliation and discrimination lawsuit that he was subject to “repeated racist epithets for months”, including “violent” rhetoric and attacks using the N-word. Last year, Tesla emphatically denied the claims in lengthy statements that sought to cast doubts on Lambert’s character and alleged that his lawyer was engaged in a “media blitz in an attempt to create a disingenuous narrative”.

Lambert’s attorney, Larry Organ, who has faced repeated criticisms from Tesla surrounding his civil rights litigation, shared the attorney’s settlement email with the Guardian as an example of the corporation’s efforts to stop bad press and silence workers with complaints.

The March 2017 email from Maron said if Lambert rejected the settlement and spoke out, “we will of course point out all of the facts in the attached document”. The document, according to Organ, attacked Lambert’s character.

Organ further said Tesla had offered to have Musk meet Lambert as part of a settlement.

“Tesla is a big corporation, and they feel like they can bully people,” Organ said in an interview.

“And shut them up with money,” added Navruz Avloni, another attorney representing Lambert.

A Tesla spokesperson did not deny the contents of the email, but alleged that Maron was responding to Organ’s “breathtaking” demand for money and threat to go public with a story.

Organ told the Guardian the offer they discussed was just under $1m: “It seems to me they put a fairly low value on stealing a man’s dignity.”

There are numerous examples of highly combative PR and legal strategies by Tesla in the wake of scandal.

This week, attorneys for Huang’s family alleged that Tesla’s Autopilot feature was “defective” and “likely caused Huang’s death” when the car collided into a median. Tesla, however, said it was Huang’s fault: “The crash happened on a clear day with several hundred feet of visibility ahead, which means that the only way for this accident to have occurred is if Mr. Huang was not paying attention to the road, despite the car providing multiple warnings to do so.”

Tesla’s statement expressed condolences to the relatives, who gave a television interview about their grief. But the company also said: “The reason that other families are not on TV is because their loved ones are still alive.”

On Thursday, Tesla also went after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), a US agency that accused the company of improperly releasing information about the crash investigation.

“It’s been clear in our conversations with the NTSB that they’re more concerned with press headlines than actually promoting safety,” Tesla said in a statement announcing it would make an “official complaint to Congress”.

Tesla has previously attacked the media in response to reporting on discrimination claims. After a female engineer shared her allegations of harassment with the Guardian, Tesla issued lengthy statements criticizing the woman and ultimately fired her, accusing her of pursuing a “miscarriage of justice”. Tesla has also vehemently denied her underlying claims. Musk has also been personally defensive about claims that his factory is unsafe for workers.

After the first fatal crash involving Autopilot in 2016 – when Tesla’s technology did not prevent a car from colliding with a large white truck – the company defended its product.

The family of that victim, Joshua Brown, eventually released a statement that said “Joshua loved his Tesla” and that the car was not at fault. Paul Grieco, an attorney for Brown family, said this week he couldn’t comment on whether Tesla paid money or had relatives sign any kind of confidentiality agreement. Tesla also declined to comment.

“The parties were able to resolve their disputes amicably,” Grieco said, later adding: “I cannot comment on any of the settlement terms.”

[cairns]

He pissed off the NTSB too. This guy's arrogance is catching up with him. It's the most shorted stock on Wall Street.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Is anyone surprised by that? Tesla, the company, is all about hype. They make low quality cars at a lower rate than promised, introduce products late and often lacking features, make bold claims that independent testers are rarely able to duplicate, and lose money doing so. They are smoke and mirrors, of course they will do everything possible to maintain the image that has propped them up since day one.

[mikehinton]

The only people who act surprised are either fanboys, or those that have been living in a cave for the past several years.

[McLovin]

It will be very interesting to see what happens to Tesla, and how long it takes to happen.

Are they going to be deemed Too Big To Fail and be propped up for many many more years?

Or will the Govt pull the plug (pun intended)?

And if/when (I think when) they do go down, the post mortem is going to reveal an incredible story.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by McLovin

It will be very interesting to see what happens to Tesla, and how long it takes to happen.

Are they going to be deemed Too Big To Fail and be propped up for many many more years?

Or will the Govt pull the plug (pun intended)?

And if/when (I think when) they do go down, the post mortem is going to reveal an incredible story.

I don't see the current administration propping up what is essentially a "green" company that has been funded by subsidies since inception.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I've seen 5 of those new smaller cars driving around here.

[sc_rufctr]

This guy is interesting. He's built a working Tesla from salvaged parts> He likes the cars but isn't a fan boy.

[Holger]

Tesla stopped production of Model 3.
Employees have to take 4-5 days vacation or unpaid stay at home.

[onewhippedpuppy]

I think everyone with an ounce of common sense believed that the development timeline and production ramp-up of the Model 3 was a total pipe dream. Thus far they have delivered very few of the cars, which supposedly have been very low quality, and have not been able to scale production volume anywhere close to promised.

[cairns]

That boy's ego is hurting people.

Inside Tesla’s electric car factory, giant red robots—some named for X-Men characters—heave car parts in the air, while workers wearing black toil on aluminum car bodies. Forklifts and tuggers zip by on gray-painted floors, differentiated from pedestrian walkways by another shade of gray.

There’s one color, though, that some of Tesla’s former safety experts wanted to see more of: yellow—the traditional hue of caution used to mark hazards.

Concerned about bone-crunching collisions and the lack of clearly marked pedestrian lanes at the Fremont, California, plant, the general assembly line’s then-lead safety professional went to her boss, who she said told her, “Elon does not like the color yellow."

https://www.thedailybeast.com/tesla-says-its-factory-is-safer-but-it-left-injuries-off-the-books

So the answer is no; we're not talking about the "about the way cool new Tesla lorry and Roadster". Only a moronic die hard Musketeer could still be impressed with his bull sh it.

[svandamme]

That does not look like a modern car assembly place to me..

[legion]

Originally Posted by Holger

Tesla stopped production of Model 3.
Employees have to take 4-5 days vacation or unpaid stay at home.

I almost posted an article about this last night. Tesla says the production stoppage was "planned", but it sounds like no line employees or anyone outside of Tesla knew about it.

We have a car factory here in town. It used to be owned by Mitsubishi and is now owned by Rivian (which is an electric car startup that hasn't actually produced anything yet). I know lots of people that worked at the factory when it was Mitsubishi. In general, the factory was shut down for two weeks over Christmas and New Year's (mostly because so many people wanted to take off it was hard to keep production up), and a week over the summer for cleaning. Every 2-3 years they would shut down for multiple weeks to retool for a new model. All shutdowns were planned out at the beginning of the year and everyone who worked there knew when they would be. There were no surprises. Edit: There were some long shut downs some years when cars weren't selling and piling up on the lot outside the factory, but everyone saw those coming a mile away, and they were announced months in advance. Even when the factory closed, no one was surprised.

Tesla has had two weeklong shutdowns in as many months, and it appears they were called for at the last minute. This is not normal in the auto industry. To me, this means that they are chasing down major production issues and trying different things to solve them--apparently without luck.

[cairns]

Being forced to take vacation or unpaid leave at the last minute is not the way to improve employee morale.

[Holger]

Originally Posted by svandamme

That does not look like a modern car assembly place to me..

That does not look like a regular Tesla-assembly line.

[tcar]

Originally Posted by svandamme

That does not look like a modern car assembly place to me..]

That is NOT the Tesla assembly line.

[Holger]

Now Musk has increased the goal for output from 5,000 to 6,000 cars per week, until today not reaching 2,000 yet. Any department or vendor having a problem wth that has to give a solid reason and provide a solution. Is this guy completely nuts now?

He does not achive the primary goal of 5,000 cars and now puts the (already high) burden of a higher capacity goal on the vendors and employees. Unacceptable. I hope people run away from Tesla.

[astrochex]

Originally Posted by cairns

That boy's ego is hurting people.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/tesla-says-its-factory-is-safer-but-it-left-injuries-off-the-books

So the answer is no; we're not talking about the "about the way cool new Tesla lorry and Roadster". Only a moronic die hard Musketeer could still be impressed with his bull sh it.

If only half the claims in this article are true, that is some major BS going on at Tesla. Where is OSHA in this?

[mreid]

I’ve toured the Tesla plant, the picture shown earlier in this thread is not the Tesla plant.

My former company financed almost 10% of the consumer auto loans for purchasers of Tesla and I was fortunate enough to get an inside tour in 2016 and a chance to drive a dual engine Model S in ludicrous mode. It was, well, ludicrous. I was also struck by how poor the interion choice of materials and fit and finish were.

Their plant looks very different from any other auto plant I’ve toured (I’ve been in over a dozen plants from stamping to final assembly). Everything is red, gray, black or white, with significant automation and human break areas, vending machines and potted plants mixed in sporadically. The thing that struck me was how much non-value added movement of parts and assemblies takes place. There is a general flow of assembly, but significant inefficiencies. I also think they have expanded their model line up too fast and do not have the room or efficiency of scale to increase production speed. These workforce issues may be their end as the shine tarnishes and the blind love the government has for Tesla fades. For all of these reasons, I removed Tesla from my portfolio. Best of luck to those who didn’t and I hope I’m wrong.