Elon Musk Accuses Tesla Employee of 'Extensive and Damaging Sabotage'
Elon Musk sent a company email to all employees on Sunday night, June 17, where he claims that there's a saboteur among their own ranks. This rogue employee has been going about sending sensitive data out without authorization and even making changes to product software, according to the Tesla CEO.
The company, which is under immense pressure to produce at least 5,000 Tesla Model 3s per week by the end of this quarter, has also been hit by yet another factory fire that halted production for several hours, according to CNBC.
Musk is now seemingly in the middle of cleaning house, by making sweeping layoffs in a bid to improve profitability and, perhaps, get rid of saboteurs in the process. About the most recent factory fire, which has been the fourth one already in four years for Tesla, Musk was already on the look-out for culprits in the rank and file.
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"Could just be a random event, but as Andy Grove said, 'Only the paranoid survive.'" he wrote in an earlier company-wide email.
Now, his worries seemed to have been confirmed this week, as he wrote in an email about "some concerning news."
"I was dismayed to learn this weekend about a Tesla employee who had conducted quite extensive and damaging sabotage to our operations," Musk wrote, keeping the employee's identity under wraps.
"This included making direct code changes to the Tesla Manufacturing Operating System under false usernames and exporting large amounts of highly sensitive Tesla data to unknown third parties," he continued in the message as obtained by CNBC.
According to Musk, the culprit has apparently admitted to some of his actions and also admitted that his motivation for what he has done is related to a promotion that he did not receive at the time.
Musk then asked employees to be on the lookout for anything suspicious and encouraged them to submit confidential reports. "Please be extremely vigilant, particularly over the next few weeks as we ramp up the production rate to 5k/week. This is when outside forces have the strongest motivation to stop us," he wrote.
