Fired Tesla employee files defamation lawsuit against the company

[Polycount]

What just happened? Former Tesla employee Martin Tripp was let go several months ago after he allegedly hacked into the company's databases and leaked incriminating information. After his firing, Tesla was quick to sue Tripp, but now he's fighting back by filing a countersuit alleging that company CEO Elon Musk has defamed him.

It seems Tesla's headaches aren't limited to its CEO's questionable behavior on social media or its recent issues with Autopilot. Martin Tripp, a former company employee who was fired and then sued, has struck back at his once-employer with a lawsuit of his own.

If you're not up to date with the situation, here's a summary: Back in June, Tesla filed a suit against Tripp alleging that he snagged confidential company information and shared it with "Third parties."

This information reportedly contained details that didn't cast Tesla's Model 3 manufacturing process in the best light. Among other things, Tripp claims his findings revealed that 1,100 damaged batteries were installed in Model 3 cars, all of which still shipped out to customers and are likely on the road today.

...Tripp's lawsuit against Tesla seeks a whopping $1 million in damages, and is based on his belief that CEO Elon Musk defamed him...

At any rate, Tripp's lawsuit against Tesla seeks a whopping $1 million in damages and is based on his belief that CEO Elon Musk defamed him in recent statements.

These statements include Musk's claim that Tripp had threatened him via email, as well as claims that Tripp had told a friend he was going to "shoot up" Tesla's Gigafactory. Tripp's lawyers claim the latter event never occurred.

"Mr. Tripp never stated, to a 'friend' or otherwise, that he was 'going to ... shoot people' at the Gigafactory or that he was going to 'shoot ... up' the Gigafactory," Tripp's countersuit reads.

Naturally, legal assistance for a lawsuit against one of the most prominent EV makers around doesn't come cheap. As such, Tripp has set up a GoFundMe campaign, seeking $500,000 to cover his legal bill. So far, the fundraising effort has earned Tripp roughly $16,000 in donations.

It's tough to say who is in the right here, and it will likely be some time before a judge answers that question for us. In the meantime, though, we'll be keeping an eye on the situation and we'll update this article if either party reveals new information.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/75770-fired-tesla-employee-files-defamation-lawsuit-against-company.html

 

[Uncle Al]

The parallels between Musk and Henry Ford and very interesting. Both men are innovative, ahead of their time and despised by their employee's. Both started out with excellent reputations but as time has gone by and we get to know more about them, their images tarnish rather quickly.....

 

[Puiu]

The parallels between Musk and Henry Ford and very interesting. Both men are innovative, ahead of their time and despised by their employee's. Both started out with excellent reputations but as time has gone by and we get to know more about them, their images tarnish rather quickly.....

I doubt that he's really despised by his employees as much as some people like to think. Tesla alone has almost 40k people employed directly. I don't doubt that there is some dissatisfaction but it's exaggerated. UAW has been doing a lot of shady things to become the go to union for Tesla workers.

 

[JaredTheDragon]

The guy is despised not just by his employees, but by any thinking person at all. He's a complete fraud from top to bottom. His name even tells us so, for Pete's sake.

I hope this Tripp character wins. But begging for money to pay lawyers makes one think this is just a scam, probably brought on by those same lawyers.

 

[ChrisH1]

The guy is despised not just by his employees, but by any thinking person at all. He's a complete fraud from top to bottom. His name even tells us so, for Pete's sake.

I hope this Tripp character wins. But begging for money to pay lawyers makes one think this is just a scam, probably brought on by those same lawyers.

A complete fraud? What, PayPal doesn't exist or wasn't a success?

SpaceX hasn't been the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to reach orbit, be recovered, send a spacecraft to the International Space Station, into geosync orbit, reland an orbital rocket's first stage on land or on an ocean platform, relaunch a used orbital rocket, escape Earth's gravity?

It doesn't have an estimated 65% of awarded satellite launches for 2018?

Tesla doesn't exist, and isn't producing cars? Sure, there is concern that Tesla may not be able to make a profit doing so, but business risk is inherent in any business venture, you don't know before you start/try.

Elon is a word derived from "Oak tree" in Arameic, the meaning of Musk is relatively clear - how does his name tell us he's a fraud?

I simply don't understand what you're saying.

 

[JaredTheDragon]

He had nothing to do with Paypal, he was just a figurehead face. Not even a chief investory.

He had nothing to do with SpaceX, he was just a figurehead face. They haven't been profitable, weren't necessary, and haven't done anything. Most of their "work" is just crappy CGI. I happen to do CGI for a living and you don't, so perhaps that could excuse why you can't spot the reversed footage and garbage graphics. My own brother does the same so I don't really blame you, but research isn't that hard.

He had nothing to do with Tesla, he was just a figurehead face. Their cars are terrible, unsafe, hazardous to make (evidently) and to drive. But he has never had anything to do with their design or production. That's what being a figurehead face means.

His persona is a complete fiction, including his last name. Think "Mask", not a smelly odor.

 

[JaredTheDragon]

Since you didn't bother to research his first name, I'll do it for you:


Etymology of the name Elon
The name Elon is the same as a noun that's been produced by two separate roots, with the same meaning both times:

Abarim Publications' online Biblical Hebrew Dictionary
אלל אול יאל
Across two root groups — אלל ('ll) and אול ('wl) — the Hebrew language seems to insist on a direct relationship between oaks and foolishness/worthlessness. Then there are two roots יאל (y'l), of which one is comparable to one of the two roots אול ('wl), while the other denotes the showing of willingness or determination:


אלל I

The root אלל ('ll I) isn't used as verb in the Bible, and its meaning is assumed to be to be weak or insufficient. Its sole derivative is the masculine noun אליל ('elil), meaning worthlessness or a worthless thing. In the Bible this noun is used predominantly for vain worship or idols (Leviticus 19:4, Isaiah 2:8, Ezekiel 30:13). Zechariah speaks of a worthless shepherd (Zechariah 11:17) and Job laments worthless physicians (Job 13:4).

So we have follishness, worthlessness, willingness, and the vain worship of idols attached to his name. But most people don't know that, don't study the language, and just do a Google Translate or something and assume the oak tree meant strength. The oak tree is strong. The name is not the tree, though. The name is telling us exactly who and what this guy is.

I'm not religious but I'll sure enjoy his fall. Watching false idols destroy themselves is among the best things in life.

 

[ChrisH1]

He had nothing to do with Paypal, he was just a figurehead face. Not even a chief investory.

He had nothing to do with SpaceX, he was just a figurehead face. They haven't been profitable, weren't necessary, and haven't done anything. Most of their "work" is just crappy CGI. I happen to do CGI for a living and you don't, so perhaps that could excuse why you can't spot the reversed footage and garbage graphics. My own brother does the same so I don't really blame you, but research isn't that hard.

He had nothing to do with Tesla, he was just a figurehead face. Their cars are terrible, unsafe, hazardous to make (evidently) and to drive. But he has never had anything to do with their design or production. That's what being a figurehead face means.

His persona is a complete fiction, including his last name. Think "Mask", not a smelly odor.

-----------

I simply don't understand you, I have no idea why you're posting this stuff.Musk then founded X.com, an online payment company. It merged with Confinity in 2000 and became PayPal, which was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion in October 2002. These are simple registered facts.

In May 2002, Musk founded SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company, of which he is CEO and lead designer. If you're saying SpaceX hasn't done anything and it's all CGI, you'll have to contend with the thousands of people who have videoed the rockets taking off, and say that NASA, which is using SpaceX for resupply of the ISS, a 17,000 people organisation, are all in on the 'plot' to make him look good, and the ISS is being supplied from somewhere else. or perhaps you believe the earth is flat, and NASA is a publicity front, I dunno. But simple logic suggests 17,000 people cannot maintain a convincing lie.

If you're saying he's not a rocket scientist, perhaps he's not. But any company needs a leader, a CEO. I doubt you'll find many CEOs who are intimately and personally involved with the everyday design of their product.

The public record is that SpaceX has had over 100 launches on its manifest representing about $12 billion in contract revenue as of March 2018. There have been some failures, but rocket science is bleeding edge. Their success rate is 98% which copares reasonably well with Soyuz and NASA itself.

As far as Tesla cars are concerned you have to contend with one of the highest NHTSA safety ratings of all time, for the model S and X - unless you're saying they are all complicit too, and faking it. And the highest owner satisfaction rating in surveys.

A lot of what you're saying seems to be opinion, a lot of it just parroting of the New York Times 'Opinion' piece. As an opinion piece it doesn't have to be factual, as neither do yours. Anyone can say almost anything as an opinion and get away with it. I could say *in my opinion* the editor of the New York Times is not actually a person, but is in fact just a highly complex and advanced form of combine harvester. Doesn't mean it's true, or indeed that there's any point in saying it.

As before: I cannot see why you want to say these things. They seem crazy to me.

 

[ChrisH1]

Since you didn't bother to research his first name, I'll do it for you:


Etymology of the name Elon
The name Elon is the same as a noun that's been produced by two separate roots, with the same meaning both times:

Abarim Publications' online Biblical Hebrew Dictionary
אלל אול יאל
Across two root groups — אלל ('ll) and אול ('wl) — the Hebrew language seems to insist on a direct relationship between oaks and foolishness/worthlessness. Then there are two roots יאל (y'l), of which one is comparable to one of the two roots אול ('wl), while the other denotes the showing of willingness or determination:


אלל I

The root אלל ('ll I) isn't used as verb in the Bible, and its meaning is assumed to be to be weak or insufficient. Its sole derivative is the masculine noun אליל ('elil), meaning worthlessness or a worthless thing. In the Bible this noun is used predominantly for vain worship or idols (Leviticus 19:4, Isaiah 2:8, Ezekiel 30:13). Zechariah speaks of a worthless shepherd (Zechariah 11:17) and Job laments worthless physicians (Job 13:4).

So we have follishness, worthlessness, willingness, and the vain worship of idols attached to his name. But most people don't know that, don't study the language, and just do a Google Translate or something and assume the oak tree meant strength. The oak tree is strong. The name is not the tree, though. The name is telling us exactly who and what this guy is.

I'm not religious but I'll sure enjoy his fall. Watching false idols destroy themselves is among the best things in life.

-----

Thank you for this detailed information about the etymology. Sorry if it what I was saying is wrong. But I was merely confused, not understanding how the guy's name told us anything about the guy himself. My name is Christopher, and I know its derivation quite well, but I assure you I have not personally carried a young saviour across a river, and whatever positive or negative connotations you may find about the name itself will tell you very little about me.

He may succeed in what he's doing. or, as you imply, he may fail. I hope he doesn't, but if he does, at least he will have failed doing things that are worth doing. The advent of electric cars, the resuscitation of space programs are worthwhile things imho.