‘Only the paranoid survive’: Elon Musk on edge after ‘extensive’ sabotage and fire in factory
The suspect allegedly exported data to others outside the company; CEO Elon Musk also separately emailed Tesla employees about a small fire that halted production Sunday night
Elon Musk has urged paranoia among his staff after Tesla suffered “extensive and damaging sabotage” by an employee and a fire that paused production of his Model 3 cars.
Musk, Tesla’s CEO, emailed employees on Sunday night to allege that an employee had exported data to people outside the company, and cautioned that many people “want Tesla to die”. The following day, a small fire briefly paused production at its electric vehicle plant in Fremont, California.
“Could just be a random event, but as Andy Grove said, ‘Only the paranoid survive,’” Musk wrote on Monday, referring to the late chairman and CEO of Intel Corp. “Please be on the alert for anything that’s not in the best interests of our company.”
The alleged Sunday sabotage saw the suspect carrying out “quite extensive and damaging sabotage” to Tesla, including changing the code to an internal product and then exporting data to others outside the company, a CNBC report said.
“The full extent of his actions are not yet clear, but what he has admitted to so far is pretty bad,” Musk wrote in his email, cited in the report. “His stated motivation is that he wanted a promotion that he did not receive. In light of these actions, not promoting him was definitely the right move.”
Tesla declined to comment on the email, the report said.