Category Archives: Elon Musk

Elon Musk's concerns about an "underpopulation crisis" may not have much of a leg to stand on.

2021 saw a mini baby bump among U.S.-born mothers, according to a new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). While the fertility rate declined in 2020, a small baby boom helped it bounce back beyond pre-pandemic trends by 6.2%. The mini boom resulted in a net increase of 46,000 births, the study found.

Its the first major reversal in U.S. fertility rates since the Great Recession, the NBER researchers wrote: "large enough to reverse two years of declining fertility rates." The total number of children a woman was projected to have during her lifetime dropped from 2.1 to 1.6 from 2007 to 2020, and birth rates hit a record low during the pandemic. It's all prompted some demographers and Musk to fear a demographic crisis (other experts have said the declines are nothing to worry about if our economy adapts accordingly). But the NBER researchers attribute the drop in fertility rates in 2020 to fewer births among foreign-born mothers, who couldnt travel to the U.S. during lockdown.

The researchers looked at births in the nation from 2015 to 2021 and in California from 2015 to August 2022, noting that the California data tracks "closely" with overall U.S. data. They found that this bump was most evident among first-time mothers and women under 25, leading them to believe that the pandemic sped up family planning. Indeed, spending more time at home created boredom or baby fever for some Americans; a 2020 Fortune poll found that 34% of respondents were planning to start a family earlier than expected due to the pandemic.

The bump was more pronounced for women aged 30 to 34 as well as college-educated women aged 25 to 44, the study found. The researchers suggest that the ability to maintain job security and work remotely made it easier for these demographics to have children. Recessions typically go hand in hand with declines in birth, as people tend to wait to have kids during times of economic difficulty. But the coronavirus recession ended up being different because of extra unemployment assistance from the government, the rise of remote work, and less access to abortion or reproductive care, the researchers wrote.

Story continues

U.S. fertility rates have been declining for decades, falling in line with worldwide trends. It's partly the result of economic progress, as more women push back having children to prioritize their career or decide not to have them at all. An analysis from Professor Myers for the New York Times found that birth rates were declining more in places with more career opportunities.

But children are also expensive, especially in this economy. Even though federal assistance helped households save more, inflation has bumped the cost of having one child to around $300,000. The childcare crisis has only made raising a kid even more pricey. Finances often deter individuals from having kids, the Pew Research Center finds.

As Americans dip into their savings, who knows how long the nations baby bump will last?

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Turns out Elon Musk is wrong. There was a COVID-19 baby bump after all - Yahoo Finance

WILMINGTON, Del., Sept 26 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk's tendency to dish out insults while being questioned under oath will be tested anew this week, when lawyers for Twitter Inc (TWTR.N)are expected to interview the Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO about his abrupt decision in July to ditch his $44 billion deal for the social media company.

Testifying in past legal battles, the world's richest person has called opposing attorneys "reprehensible," questioned their happiness and accused them of "extortion." He asked one attorney if he was working on a contingency because the lawyer's client was allegedly behind on child support payments.

"So probably you're on a contingency or you're taking that kid's money. Which is it?" Musk asked a lawyer for a whistleblower in a case against Tesla, according to a transcript of the 2020 deposition.

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The high-stakes Twitter interview is closed to the public. A court filing last week said the Musk deposition was scheduled to begin on Monday and run into Wednesday, if needed. Sources with knowledge of the deposition said Musk was not questioned on Monday and they did not know what day it would begin nor did they give a reason for the delay.

Musk's lawyers will want to keep him focused on answering questions, but that can be a challenge with such a smart and opinionated witness, said James Morsch, a corporate litigator who is not involved in the court battle.

"I would compare it to trying to hold a tiger by his tail," Morsch said.

In a 2019 deposition in litigation over Tesla's takeover of solar-panel maker SolarCity, Musk refused five times to answer one of the initial questions because of the way it was worded, the transcript shows.

"We can stare at each other until you rephrase it," Musk told opposing attorney Randall Baron, according to a transcript.

"I'll guess we'll just cancel this deposition," Baron responded. Baron suggested that he would seek an order from the judge directing Musk to answer questions, which seemed to get things moving.

Twitter declined to comment and Musk's legal team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Twitter's attorneys are expected to use the interview to try to show that Musk abandoned the deal due to falling financial markets and not because the company misled him about the real number of users or hid security flaws, as he alleged.

Musk wants a judge to allow him to walk away without penalty, while Twitter wants an order forcing him to buy the company for $54.20 per share. Twitter's stock ended up 0.4% at $41.58 on Friday.

A five-day trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 17 in Wilmington, Delaware.

Dozens of depositions are scheduled in the case, including of Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, as each side questions witnesses and gathers evidence to make its case.

Agrawal was scheduled to answer questions from Musks lawyers at a law firm in San Francisco starting at 9 a.m. local time on Monday, according to a court filing, although sources said that deposition was also postponed and did not give a reason.

Twitter co-founder and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was scheduled to be deposed last week.

Musk at times has shown in his depositions the charm and wit he deploys on Twitter, where he has built a cult-like following.

The Twitter deposition atmosphere could be especially fraught. Its legal team includes the firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and the main lawyer on the case, Bill Savitt, initially represented Musk and Tesla in the SolarCity deal, although not during discovery and depositions in the litigation.

Savitt did not respond to a request for comment.

Twitter is also represented by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.

A constant in the three depositions reviewed by Reuters is Musk's dislike of attorneys representing the opposing side, who he accuses of "trickery" and pursuing him merely for money.

"I heard yesterday that 3% of the U.S. economy is legal services. That's one of the saddest facts I've heard in a long time," Musk said to Baron, the lawyer in the SolarCity deposition.

The deposition in the litigation with the Tesla whistleblower, Martin Tripp, who accused the company of wasting raw materials, began with Musk being asked if he understood the oath he took to testify truthfully.

"This sounds like some sort of legalese, semantic argument. The -- what is the whole truth of something?" asked Musk, according to the transcript. "You say, 'Is that a tree? What kind of tree is it? Is it a tree with lots of leaves?' Or is -- if you're saying something is a tree is the whole truth? No, of course not."

Tripp's attorney reminded Musk that the judge warned he would oversee the deposition in person if questions weren't answered properly.

"Do you intend to comply with the judge's admonition there?" asked attorney William Fishbach.

"Of course," Musk said.

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Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin in San Francisco; Editing by Amy Stevens and David Gregorio

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Thomson Reuters

Award-winning reporter with more than two decades of experience in international news, focusing on high-stakes legal battles over everything from government policy to corporate dealmaking.

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Twitter to interview Elon Musk, known for combative testimony - Reuters

Patents are for the weak retorted Elon Musk to veteran broadcaster Jay Leno while giving him a tour of SpaceX. Leno, during the latest episode of Garage, had asked Musk if he had patented his engines, which the worlds richest person described as the most advanced ever made.

Musk went further still on intellectual property, adding patents dont actually help advance things, they just stop others from following you. Theres a touch of hypocrisy here given the patent portfolios Musk has amassed for Hyperloop and Tesla.

Hes also wrong.

Its easy for Musk to dismiss the value of patents. The man and his money have established a dominant position in the space engineering sector, faced with little competition, where exclusion from the market is the absence of funding rather than patent thickets.

However, if youre a founder of a tech startup looking for funding, its a fundamentally different story and it isnt what you believe in its what others believe in that counts.

Think about it this way. IP protection and patents should be considered from the well-established maxim that the customer is always right. Often, founders will determine what technology customers need, develop it, make it, and then sell the technology to those customers.

This same logic applies to seeking investment: investors will want certainty around the protection enjoyed by innovation that theyre committing to. A successful exit is likely to turn on having IP. If youre a founder that approaches an investor without a sensible IP strategy in place, this restricts your ability to play the long game to reach a successful exit and limits your potential pool of investors along that path. Patents may well be the answer and that is not a sign of weakness.

After all, if an investor is pouring millions into your company, it only makes sense that theyd expect the innovation to be protected. Its not just a game either. Many economists believe that between 80% and 90% of a companys value lies in its IP from this figure alone, its already obvious that patents arent for the weak theyre for the investment-savvy.

Funding a startup tends to begin with founders asking friends and family for money until they eventually have to approach professional investors, who will most likely employ an IP lawyer to conduct IP due diligence.

Most tech investors insist on having a cohesive IP strategy, to provide a degree of exclusivity, and to support valuation on exit. They dont want to fund R&D just for the sake of it there is no money in that!

Some founders see patents to be an expensive internal distraction and a game that has to be played out to some extent to appease their investors. However, this is a total fallacy. In many cases patents are ultimately where your value as a company lies, or at least thats what the investor or any potential acquirer will believe. The time spent investing in a robust patent strategy from the beginning will see a return on that investment later.

Filing a patent application isnt always straightforward. Often, founders run the risk of filing too early to satisfy due diligence demands, despite certain ideas and innovations not being fully developed.

Theres also the case for trade secrets when it comes to developing a robust IP position. This is why its vital for founders to keep their powder dry, and their options open, until theyre ready to file a patent application and only file if it is the right thing to do. The use of trade secret protection instead of a patent isnt a weakness either.

Timing is everything, and for a patent to present a true competitive advantage, founders must consider three questions: whats the innovation? Whats the best way to protect it? When should we act? These questions are becoming increasingly important in the increasingly competitive funding environment where investors are doing more focused due diligence and becoming pickier.

These issues dont concern Musk; he has his huge pool of privately funded investment on tap. However, more traditional startup founders must come armed with their competitive advantage, which more often than not lies in a protected idea and commerical IP strategy.

Peter Finnie is partner and patent attorney at IP law firm Potter Clarkson.

Image credit: Daniel Oberhaus (2018) via Flickr.

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Elon Musk is wrong about patents. Here's why IP isn't 'for the weak' - UKTN (UK Technology News

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk stands on the podium as he attends a forum on startups in Hong Kong, China.

Bobby Yip | Reuters

Elon Musk has run two ambitious tech companies at the same time ever since he became chair and later CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla while also leading SpaceX, his reusable rocket and satellite internet business.

He went on to launch a computer-brain interface startup, Neuralink, and a drilling business called Boring Co. in 2017, and is in the midst of a contentious lawsuit with Twitter over a buyout gone awry.

With his attention divided, Musk relies on a large team of deputies more than 20 people today to keep business rolling at Tesla. His cast of direct reports shifts often with strategic or organizational changes, occasional "spot firings" by the mercurial CEO, and resignations.

Here are the direct reports we know about as of September 2022. The data was gathered from interviews with current and recent Tesla employees, LinkedIn profiles, internal and public records from Tesla, and may not include all of the people who report to him.

Headcount numbers are approximate and refer to the number of people each of Musk's direct reports was managing as of early September.

About 22% of the CEO's direct reports are now based in Texas, around half are still based in California, and more than 90% are men.

Musk will need to lean on these deputies as Tesla works to bring its new factories in Gruenheide, Germany, and Austin, Texas, to full production, and to demonstrate progress on his many other goals.

Musk has told shareholders and fans that Tesla will "solve Full Self-Driving" this year, improve vehicle service and repairs, and start deliveries of the experimental Cybertruck pickup by midyear 2023. He also said that Tesla would shore up its battery-manufacturing capabilities to be able to produce 100 gigawatt-hours worth of 4680 batteries on its own this year, enough to power more than 1 million of its cars.

Musk's direct reports have also recently needed to navigate through headcount reductions amid uncertain economic times.

The CEO abruptly announced a steep cut to the Tesla workforce at the end of May during a challenging second quarter that was marked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Covid-19 outbreaks in China.

In June, Tesla closed an entire Autopilot office in San Mateo, California, and dismissed at least some employees who were previously authorized for remote work but who did not agree to an order by Musk to work at a Tesla office at least 40 hours per week. The CEO cited a"super bad feeling"about the economy in an e-mail to Tesla staff in June.

Tesla's former senior director of artificial intelligence, Andrej Karpathy, was not among those who Musk laid off or fired, however he announced his resignation from the company formally in July. Autopilot leader Ashok Elluswamy is reporting directly to Musk for the time being.

Other Musk direct reports who parted ways with Tesla in 2022 have included former Nevada Gigafactory VP Chris Lister, as CNBC previously reported, and Jean Frazier, who was Tesla's senior director of employee relations, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC.

David Searle, who previously headed up Tesla's legal department, is still employed there, records indicate. Insiders said they expect Searle to leave in coming months as he previously managed more than a dozen employees, and now has only one direct report listed on internal organization charts.

According to public and internal records, Senior Director of Legal Dinna Eskin is now acting as the manager of Tesla's legal department and is effectively the company's general counsel. Tesla hasn't employed a person with the title of general counsel officially since late 2019.

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Elon Musk has more than 20 direct reports at Tesla here are the ones we know about - CNBC

Billionaire Elon Musk backed a prominent Wharton economist who accused the Federal Reserve and its chairman Jerome Powell of completely botching their response to the current economic slump.

Musk reacted to a fiery rant from Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel, who told CNBCs Halftime Report on Friday that the Feds current policy path is way too tight and makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.

Siegel, who admitted he was very upset about the Feds handling of the situation, accused Powell and his colleagues of waiting far too long to hike interest rates. Now, Siegel argued, the Fed is tanking the economy by being too aggressive with rate hikes despite signs inflation is already easing.

Its like a pendulum. They were way too easy, as Ive told you and many others, through 2020, 2021, Siegel said. And now, Oh my God, were going to be real tough guys until we crush the economy. Poor monetary policy would be an understatement.

Siegel is obviously correct, Musk tweeted on Saturday in response to a clip of Siegels rant.

Siegel accused Powell of ignoring several economic indicators, including falling commodities prices, a slowdown in the US housing market and declines in money supply.

Musk is among many business leaders who have held a pessimistic view on the state of the US economy in recent months. In June, Musk teed up layoffs at Tesla while warning he had a super bad feeling about the economic outlook.

Earlier this month, Musk joined others in warning that the Fed risked causing deflation, or a damaging collapse in prices, by hiking rates too aggressively despite a slowing economy.

The stock market has plummeted deeper into bear territory since last week, when the Fed implemented a super-size interest rate hike for the third straight month. Central bank officials indicated that further sizable increases are likely in the months ahead a sign the Fed is maintaining a hawkish course to combat decades-high inflation.

Thats despite warnings from Siegel, Musk and others that the Fed could steer the economy into a lengthy downturn. US GDP has already declined for two consecutive quarters the widely held definition of a recession.

Last week, Powell reiterated that the Fed planned to raise its benchmark to a restrictive level and keep it there for some time until meaningful signs that inflation had receded.

Powell admitted the stance would likely result in job losses and a major correction in the US housing market.

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Elon Musk says it's 'obviously correct' that Fed is tanking US economy - New York Post

Tesla Inc. TSLA and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Sunday posted a picture of himself with former girlfriend Grimes, in costumes they donned for a Saturday Night Live episode in May 2021.

What Happened: Musk is seen in the costume of Mario arch-rival Wario while Canadian singer Grimes is portraying Princess Peach.

The worlds richest person contrasted the picture with one of animated Mario and Princess Peach sitting at the edge of a Castle's roof. "Of course, there's no way to prove we're living in a simulation," the accompanying text reads.

Why It's Important: This isnt the first time that Musk has teased the possibility of us living inside a simulation.During an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2018, Musk said were most likely in a simulation, the NBC News reported at the time.

If you assume any rate of improvement at all, games will eventually be indistinguishable from reality, Musk reportedly said before concluding.

Musk again teased the idea in a tweet in November last year based on the 1972 video game Pong. 49 years later, games are photo-realistic 3D worlds. What does that trend continuing imply about our reality?, the billionaire quipped.

The simulation hypothesis has other prominent proponents, including astrophysicistNeil deGrasse Tyson.

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Elon Musk Shares Photo Of Himself And Grimes: 'No Way To Prove We're Living In A Simulation' - Tesla (NAS - Benzinga

With the addition of the McMurdo Station in Antarctica, SpaceX says its orbit-based Starlink broadband service now reaches all seven continents.

On Sunday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the high-speed internet service routed through low-Earth orbit is truly available globally.

The service has just recently become active in Africa, starting in Mozambique and Nigeria, and is rolling out by the end of the year in the Philippines to begin making inroads in southeast Asia.

As Musk himself notes, the service is even in use at the bottom of the world by scientists in Antarctica.

Starlink has been active for a while now in Australia, New Zealand and a number of countries in the Americas and Europe.

Notably, though, it has not been activated in the physically largest country on Earth, Russia. SpaceX activated Starlink in Ukraine earlier this year shortly after Russia invaded. Thousands of Starlink receivers have also been sent to Ukraine to keep war-torn regions connected. Musk has also reported that Starlink has managed to resist Russian attempts to jam it.

There are currently over 3,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, and SpaceX will continue to add at least a thousand more under its current license from the US Federal Communications Commission. The company has expressed a desire to grow the mega-constellation to as many as 50,000 flying routers.

Musk revealed via Twitter in June that Starlink subscriptions were approaching half a million.

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Elon Musk: Starlink Satellite Broadband Now Active on All Continents - CNET

Corporate culture comes from the top in America. At least thats the platonic ideal. How a company sets its global image, how it treats its employees, what it values that all starts in the so-called C-suite. In some companies, that ethos can be found in a single man they are almost always men who emerge as the face of the firm. (Think Steve Jobs at Apple or Jeff Bezos at Amazon.) That letat, cest moi approach is evident at Tesla. Elon Musk is Tesla, and Tesla is Elon Musk. This has been true since the South African became CEO and wrested control of the electric-car company from its founders in 2008. The board is not forcing Musks hand. (It was Musk who decided Tesla would move its corporate HQ from California to Texas.) At times he can be so hands-on that he has overnighted at the Fremont, California, factory where the cars are manufactured. Musks tweets can make Tesla stock rise and fall. The personal and the corporate are inseparable.

This is not in dispute.

This summer was a busy one for Musk. He decided to buy and then decided not to buy Twitter. He fathered children Number Nine and Number 10 with a female executive at another of his companies. (Simultaneously, Musks father, Errol, admitted to having fathered a second child with his stepdaughter.) His third child disowned him. He denied concurrently that he broke up the marriage of the co-founder of Google and that he offered to buy a flight attendant a horse in exchange for an erotic massage.

The flight attendant received a settlement that was billed to SpaceX, Musks rocket company. It hasnt been a great year for women at SpaceX. In December, former SpaceX engineer Ashley Kosak published an essay meticulously detailing alleged sexual harassment at the company. That was followed in June by a group of SpaceX employees releasing a statement saying Musks frattish behavior was a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment and asking Musk to stop being, well, a creep. SpaceX investigated their complaints for 24 hours, and then announced that SpaceX had terminated a number of employees involved.

On a not-unrelated note, Musk continued his longstanding love affair with 69 memes, often tweeting them to his 105 million Twitter followers. This is not an accident. Musk has made geek loucheness his personal brand and a component of Teslas marketing strategy. It may have even helped to save his company. By 2016, Tesla had released two models, the S and the X; both were critically acclaimed and massive hits for the previously tiny electric-vehicle market, but not enough to keep a giant company afloat. The next car would make or break Tesla. After building a roadster and an SUV, Teslas third car was going to be a sensible sedan, but Musk had to make it edgy. His plan was to name the crossover version the Model Y and the sedan the Model E, completing his S-E-X-Y line of cars that he had hinted at in tweets and speeches for years.

Alas, Ford, the historical home of the Model T, rumbled about trademark infringement and possible litigation. So Musk changed the cars name to the Model 3. The company began selling T-shirts and coffee cups with a logo reading S3XY. Get it? (It wasnt just about the cars torque and acceleration.) Wordsmiths groaned but Musk loved it. We just trademarked sexy, boasted Musk in an interview.

With increased public demand for EVs and backed by the S3XY campaign, the Model 3 was a megahit. Since the car was released in July 2017, Tesla has sold 3 million 3s, and the companys stock has risen from $62 at the beginning of 2018 to a high of more than $1,200 a share on Nov. 1, 2021. The 3 is the bestselling electric vehicle in the world and is as omnipresent in Americas affluent neighborhoods as lacrosse sticks.

Musk became the richest man in the world and continued his frat-boy-as-businessman strategy. He announced in July 2020 the sale of a limited number of red satin short-shorts with the word S3XY written across the ass, ostensibly tweaking Tesla short sellers who lost billions as the stock rose. Only $69.420, tweeted Musk. (He is also big into weed memes.) They sold out in minutes.

Alisa Blickman didnt know any of this in 2021 she just needed work. She had been laid off from her job in Oakland as the pandemic crushed the Bay Areas economy. What Blickman did know was that she was the sole provider for her child and Tesla was offering $21 an hour, with the promise of overtime.

Blickman applied online last fall and was quickly hired. A few days later, she made the 50-mile drive from her Pittsburg apartment to a Marriott near the Fremont plant for orientation. She alleges that the sketchy vibe began the moment she walked into a conference room. A man in a S3XY T-shirt welcomed her and the other new hires. The man soon began talking about the company, telling the new employees that Teslas are so sexy and These are some sexy cars.

Blickman wasnt a Tesla fangirl, so she didnt understand why there was so much talk of sexy at an onboarding session for a global corporation.

I just thought it was very weird, Blickman tells me. We are sitting in the deserted pool area of her apartment complex. Its June, but shes in a puffer jacket and occasionally shivers. I wonder whether it was because of the morning chill or talking about her experiences working at Tesla.

A year after being hired, Blickman is one of seven former Tesla workers who have filed sexual-harassment lawsuits against Musks car company in the past 10 months. The women, most of whom were let go, allege a level of sexual harassment that paints Tesla as more like one of William Blakes dark Satanic Mills than a high-flying Silicon Valley corporation saving the environment.

The following story is based on court documents, including those filed on behalf of the women, and Teslas filings in these cases, as well as interviews with five of the women, their friends, and co-workers. In their lawsuits and their interviews, the women describe a workplace rife with sexual harassment and a culture of indifference or hostility to their concerns and complaints.

Tesla, which has not had an active public-relations department since 2020, does not typically respond to press inquiries, and did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. In its court filings in the womens cases, Tesla invoked the arbitration clause in its employment agreement and has denied the womens claims. Tesla has always and continues to strictly prohibit its employees from engaging in any form of sexual harassment, Tesla asserts in filings in one of the cases. The company emphasizes that it works to ensure a safe and respectful work environment, backing this up with multiple declarations by employees in various roles. And it cites its anti-harassment training and See Something Say Something and Take Charge programs that empower employees to report any issues, and claims it promptly and thoroughly investigates...sexual harassment and, if substantiated...takes appropriate disciplinary measures, up to and including termination. When reached by phone, the companys lead lawyer, Sara A. Begley of Holland & Knight, acknowledged that she had received Rolling Stones inquiries, and then offered a terse no comment.

Tesla didnt answer questions about Musks sexually charged public persona and how it might trickle down in potentially damaging and unforeseen ways.

In Blickmans case, she claims, problems started at her onboarding session. She recalls the man in the S3XY T-shirt starting to read in a monotone about Teslas various policies. Eventually, he came to the companys policy on sexual harassment. According to Blickman, he played an instructional video. Many of the examples in the video were of women harassing men. She couldnt believe it.

I thought, If Im sexually harassed, theyre not going to care, Blickman says.

On her first day at work, Blickman alleges she watched a male Tesla worker take photos of a womans backside as other men watched quietly, as if the man was hunting big game. The photos were soon circulating around the factory. On a break, Blickman says, she went up to the woman and asked if she was OK. The woman just shrugged.

Im used to it, Blickman says the woman told her. Shit like that happens all the time here.

At first, Blickman says, she kept her mouth shut. Almost every day, she alleges, she heard the male workers in the factory sizing up women: Oh, Id do her. Id fuck her. Her ass is a 10. She had spent many years working in a predominantly male world as a delivery driver, and knew how to maneuver around a bad seed or two. The problem at Tesla, she says, was there were too many bad seeds.

A few weeks into her time at Tesla, she alleges, a male worker inched into her workspace and began intentionally touching her with his arm and then his leg. The man walked up to Blickman on a break and smiled. Youre a pretty little white girl.

She also alleges the man lied and told her he was a lead, a.k.a. a supervisor, which dissuaded her from complaining about him. On another occasion, she says, she told the man to back off. She claims the man told a couple of co-workers that he wanted to kill her and another employee. Eventually, management moved him to a different part of the factory, but Blickman still had to see him on a regular basis.

Blickman tried to focus on her work, but says that she remained afraid.

Its awkward, and Im not an idiot, Blickman tells me. Ive just started, whats it going to look like if I say Im being sexually harassed right away?

Blickman began commuting with another worker, Jessica Brooks, one of the seven women who have filed suit against Tesla, who claims she eventually began piling boxes around her workstation so Tesla workers couldnt gawk at her body, and confirms Blickmans story. Brooks and Blickman talk about how all the catcalls and awful behavior made them want to call in sick. Daily, they both allege, they heard men talk about female employees, debating which ones were fuckable. Blickman claims she heard one male worker shout about another woman employee.

Id like to bend her over and spread her cheeks.

Another man blurted out his sexual preferences: I like to spit on a girls face when Im fucking her.

Blickmans first supervisor wouldnt help because, she alleges, he was one of the worst offenders. Each day, she claims, he approached Blickman from behind and gave her an unwanted massage on her lower back. Blickman just gritted her teeth under her Covid mask and waited for it to be over. (In another one of the womens lawsuits, Tesla filed a sworn statement from a female worker who allegedly worked close to Blickman and Brooks, saying she didnt hear or see any sexual harassment at the factory, and multiple other Tesla employees submitted declarations along the same lines, insisting that if they had, they would have reported it.)

Tesla requires its workers to do a few minutes of stretching every morning before their shift. One day, Blickman alleges, her supervisor came up behind her and whispered in her ear.

I hear you dont like to scream loud enough.

Blickman says she broke for a moment and turned toward her supervisor.

What?

The man backed away and rephrased his statement, she claims.

Uh, I hear you dont like to scream teamwork loud enough.

Later, that supervisor was transferred to a different part of the factory. His parting gift? According to Blickman, he told his replacement that she was not a valuable team member and suggested she be exiled to a harder job outside in the tents, one of the factorys least desirable areas to work.

Outside of work, Blickman says, she ran into a female Tesla worker. They talked a bit and Blickman confided to her that she was a lesbian. Blickman says the woman then aggressively came on to her, but Blickman told her she wasnt interested in going on a date. The woman grew angry, and Blickman alleges she outed her to the rest of her Tesla workers.

Blickman says this resulted in a new wave of harassment. The woman who outed her would, Blickman claims, get her attention by making thrusting motions. She says the woman followed her into the bathroom and dropped to the ground and looked under the stalls for her.

Blickman says Teslas HR was less than useless. (From a statement issued by Tesla and from its filing in the womens cases, the company claims it later amped up some of its sexual-harassment training and processes.) Blickman says she did find one male worker who was sympathetic to her. Hed listen as she detailed her complaints. He was definitely not a pig, remembers Blickman. But he was only one in a sea of pigs. There were just too many in there.

The months passed and Blickman found it increasingly difficult to drag her body out of bed at 4:30 a.m. to make the 90-minute commute to her 12-hour shift. She was drinking and smoking too much. Every break, she had an urge to bolt the factory. Blickman tells me that in the fall of 2021, she asked to be transferred to one of Teslas service centers. There was a problem with her paperwork she doesnt know if this was done on purpose or was just incompetence.

In October, Blickman took Covid leave. She emailed Tesla HR while away and told them she needed to take stress leave. She detailed some of the harassment she claims that she and others had suffered. HR replied about meeting in person, but then, Blickman says, she didnt hear anything else, so she didnt go back to the factory. She was fired when she didnt return to work after getting a letter from Tesla in November saying that company policy might result in the termination of employees if they didnt come to work for two days in a row without notification.

There are people in that factory who see Elon Musk as a god, one of the women tells me. If he talks like that, they know they can, too.

After remaining stoic through most of our conversation, Blickmans eyes fill with tears: I was just looking for a place where I can work and not be bothered, not be harassed. Is that too much to ask?

I ask her if she thought Musks slavish devotion to frat-boy humor contributed to Tesla workers saying whatever they wanted to women.

Of course, she says. There are people in that factory who see him as a god. If he talks like that, they know they can, too.

There is no evidence suggesting that Musk knew about the alleged harassment going on at Teslas Fremont factory before the women filed their lawsuits. But for a guy who claims to be so hands-on, its hard to imagine he wouldnt have picked up on complaints about the allegedly pervasive culture. And if he didnt know, why didnt he know?

THERE IS A COMMUNITY coming to life on the once desolate land adjacent to Teslas Fremont factory. For years, the Warm Springs neighborhood was a dreary industrial area that had become a haven for folks dumping trash and junking cars while participating in other unsavory activities. Now, theres a new elementary school, the first one built in Fremont in 25 years. Its just a 15-minute walk on freshly paved sidewalks to a recently opened Bay Area Rapid Transit stop connecting the blue-collar town to San Francisco. The boulevards are wide, and the charging stations are plentiful. Townhouses at the corner of Innovation Way and Synergy Street are going for $1.4 million.

Currently, Fremont produces more than half of the Teslas in the world. The factory is on the grounds of a former General Motors plant that was bought by Tesla for $42 million in 2010. Just 12 years later, Fremont has become the most productive auto plant in the country, building almost 8,550 environmentally friendly electric cars a week in 2021. The numbers are trumpeted as further signs of Musks genius.

However, Tesla isnt a stranger to litigation about its work culture. In 2021, a jury held the company liable in a racial-discrimination suit filed by a Black worker who alleged the use of the n-word was common at the factory and that racial slurs were scrawled on the walls. (Tesla disputed the judges findings after the verdict and assured its employees that the facts didnt justify the jurys verdict.)

This spring, 15 Tesla workers filed a suit against the company alleging that Black workers were often greeted by white bosses with comments of Welcome to the plantation. The suit also alleges that Black workers were given the most daunting physical assignments. Race plays no role in any of Teslas work assignments, promotions, pay, or discipline, lawyers for the company said in a statement. Tesla prohibits discrimination, in any form.

This followed a February lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing against Tesla for racial discrimination and harassment at the Fremont plant. (In a statement, Tesla called the lawsuit misguided and denied the allegations, dubbing the proceedings unfair and counterproductive, especially because the allegations focus on events from years ago.)

Teslas defenders would argue that every large company will at times face lawsuits, HR challenges, and disgruntled employees. However, Tesla seems to be an extreme case both in the quantity of legal actions brought in quick succession and the consistent nature of the allegations. And most companies dont have a rule-defying leader like Musk, what with his tweets floating the idea for a new school whose acronym just happens to spell out TITS Am thinking of starting a new university: Texas Institute of Technology & Science. It will have epic merch.

The womens legal filings detailed alleged incidents ranging from being asked for hand jobs to being stalked by drunk-on-the-job employees in the parking lot. While the cases make their way through the system and Tesla pushes back against the allegations, the fallout has been catastrophic for the women. One couldnt leave her bedroom for weeks. Some feel ashamed, a common reaction among sexual-harassment victims. And many are having trouble jump-starting their careers after their time at Tesla left a black hole on their rsum. The women tell Rolling Stone they cant understand why the kind of behavior they claim they experienced was, and possibly still is, being tolerated by Tesla and Musk. They believe Musk should be held accountable.

The never-modest Musk recently proclaimed that he would jack up Fremonts production by 50 percent in the near future. That means more jobs. Musk is offering something to workers who could never buy a $60,000 entry-level Tesla, much less a million-dollar home: a $21-an-hour wage. This is manna for blue-collar workers in America, where most of the factory jobs that used to support manual labor have been shipped overseas or down to Mexico. Men and women from economically distressed towns like Antioch, Stockton, and Modesto talk excitedly about doubling their take-home pay. Yes, 90-minute commutes each way exponentially longer if you are relying on public transportation are a nightmare. And, yes, you are standing on your feet for 12-hour shifts in a nonunion shop where you can be fired without cause. And, yes, there was a killing in the parking lot last December, when one worker allegedly laid in wait for another worker and gunned him down. Still, there is optimism in the air. Even the women bringing the lawsuits tell me they had been excited about working at a place with cool tech that was making our air a little better.

Then, they say, reality settles in.

ALIZE BROWN THOUGHT that if she covered her body head-to-toe in oversize clothing, she would be left alone.

It was November 2020 and most of the Bay Area economy was still on Covid shutdown. She was 21, had a three-month-old son, and her partner was out of work. Brown didnt hesitate when a recruitment agency offered her a job casting metal parts for Tesla. She tells Rolling Stone she had heard from a female cousin who had worked at Tesla that it was a tough place for a woman to work. Brown says she thought they were being dramatic.

According to Brown, she kissed her baby goodbye a few days later and left for work at 4:30 a.m. At 6 a.m., she clocked in and learned her station wasnt in the factory but outside in an area commonly known as the tents, where she would be dunking metal parts into a hot chemical liquid to prepare them for shaping. She was given work gloves to protect her hands from the toxic liquids, but tells me she soon noticed other workers had burns on their forearms where the gloves ended. She was then required to grind the pieces into shape with a tool.

She says she also soon learned that there were other dangers. First there were catcalls from male workers. Her court filing detailed some of them:

Are you single?

No, I have a partner and a baby.

Brown alleges the men would just laugh.

Whatever man youre with doesnt care about you because youre working.

(Tesla filings include a sworn statement from one of Browns supervisors claiming that he had not seen or heard any sexual harassment targeting Brown.)

Brown tells me that she informed her Tesla supervisor that she was breastfeeding and would need to pump during her 12-hour shift. She says that information spread throughout the department. This quickly became a subject of sport with her co-workers, particularly one male worker who became obsessed with her. He started making comments about her breastfeeding, often referring to her as a cow, or saying that she was milking. She says that when her breast milk leaked and stained her shirt, he would say things like, I see youre milking today. According to her complaint, the man would spend most of the workday bothering Brown, following her around. And he was always talking, she claims.

Youre looking hella thick today.

Brown decided to do what she could to deter the unwanted attention. Thats when she bought an extra-large mechanics jumpsuit to envelop her body, and started wearing a wool hat to cover her hair and a big scarf for making her neck invisible. Other than her face, hardly an inch of her skin was exposed.

I just wanted to blend in and somehow disappear, Brown tells me at a Starbucks not far from her apartment. Shes wearing a jaunty straw hat and has an easy smile, but her fists keep clenching in anger. I just wanted to do my job and go home. They wouldnt let me.

After a month or so, she says, she went to her male supervisor and complained about the creepy co-worker. He is saying very inappropriate comments to me. Im feeling uncomfortable. Can you say something to him?

According to Browns court filing, her supervisor, who she claims frequently looked her body up and down, brushed it off. (In a filing by the supervisor in another one of the cases, he claims none of the employees he supervised ever complained to him about other employees using harassing language, and that he would have escalated any such complaint to HR.)

Things somehow got worse. The Tesla factory is immense, with 10,000 employees. Besides lunch, workers receive two 15-minute breaks during their 12-hour shifts. Brown would have to walk quickly just to reach a toilet and get back in time. Brown alleges the co-worker followed her to the bathroom. She says she begged him to stop harassing her. He just laughed and went back to his crude talk. Brown alleges she went to her supervisor and asked him to move her to a different part of the factory, but, she claims, the man soon moved there, too, and continued harassing her.

In my heart, I wanted to strangle him, she says. Like with both hands and both feet. But I knew I had a baby and Id go to jail. So I couldnt do anything.

Brown says he wasnt the only man to bother her, and alleges that she pleaded with her co-workers to knock it off. Were not at a party, were here to work, Brown says she told the men. Im not here to flirt with you. I need this job. Please leave me alone.

Brown tells me a story that is also in her court filing. There was another male worker who reeked of booze and began asking her personal questions about her life and what she liked in a man. One night, she finished her shift before dawn (the Tesla factory runs 24/7) and started making her way to her car in the vast parking lot. The lot wasnt a picnic in the best of times this is where the worker allegedly shot another employee. That night was worse, Brown says. She heard the drunken man shouting for her to give him a ride home. He staggered after her. Brown started running in a jagged pattern trying to lose him, but the task was made harder because she was wearing so many layers of clothes. She eventually lost the man and slipped into her car. She let out a scream of rage before driving home.

I grew up in Oakland, and I know how to avoid people on drugs or drinking, but I didnt think Id have to do it at work, Brown tells me. It was Covid. I needed the money for my baby.

She brought the workplace home and would yell at her partner to not touch or comfort her. He suggested she quit, and Brown snapped back that they needed the money. So she kept going to Tesla. About two months later, Brown went to work and found out her badge would not let her enter. She called a co-worker, who asked a supervisor about it, and they reported back to Brown that her contract had been terminated. The reason? She says Tesla argued that she had been away from her workstation too much. She was crushed.

I was just trying to get away from the men who were harassing me, Brown says. I begged them to move me or them. They never listened. Instead, they fired me.

That was 18 months ago. Since then, Brown says, she has battled anxiety and gets nervous about leaving her house to run routine errands. She now has a job in a San Francisco hair salon, but she says she has trouble riding the BART train to work. I cant handle anyone sitting behind me or getting on and sitting next to me, Brown says. Im working on it.

Now, that fear and depression seem to have turned to anger. At the end of our conversation, I ask Brown if people would buy Musks car if they knew what she alleges happened in his companys plants. She lets out a little laugh and considers what she would do if someone gave her a Tesla.

Id drive that Tesla down to the factory, Brown says. And Id burn it.

EDEN MEDEROS DIDNT LIKE to fight traffic, so she often spent 14 hours a day working at the Centinela Tesla service center in suburban Los Angeles. Arriving around 6:30 a.m., she liked the first hour in the morning twilight. Mederos wasnt getting paid for that first hour, but she got a lot done, unlocking the place, scheduling appointments, and getting keys ready for customers picking up their cars. The other thing she says she cherished about her morning time was that no one was harassing her.

She claims it started early in her time at Tesla. Mederos job title was concierge, but her responsibilities ran from organizing maintenance appointments to dealing with Tesla owners grappling with the latest update to their cars digital dashboard. Mederos doesnt have kids, so there were no cute snapshots to personalize her desk, but dinosaurs take her to a happy place. Im a big Jurassic Park nerd; thats my guilty pleasure, Mederos tells me. I just love them; they make me smile.

So she brought in some dinosaur figurines to decorate her desk one morning. She placed the dinosaurs and went off to help a customer. A half-hour later she came back, and claims she could hear many of the almost-all-male staff giggling: The dinosaurs had been rearranged in sexual positions. This wasnt a huge surprise to Mederos, she alleges, since Musk had ground the 69 meme into dust, captioning a screenshot with Nice after his twitter followers hit 69 million. Mederos and the other women Rolling Stone spoke with say male Tesla workers found it hilarious, the female workers did not. She restored her dinosaurs to their original positions, but every time she stepped away, she alleges, someone fucked with them, so she took them home at the end of the day.

By that point, Mederos felt that complaining wouldnt do any good. She says shed already stopped eating at work because whether it was a banana or yogurt, someone would make sex noises and ask her How much more can you fit into your mouth? Mederos claims co-workers passed the time throwing coins and crumpled paper at her and other women, aimed to go down their shirts.

Mederos recently moved from Los Angeles to the Portland, Oregon, area. She likes the laid-back feel and says she had mostly healed from working at Tesla between 2016 and 2019. But after talking to her Im not so sure. She was stoked when she was hired by Tesla after working for 10 years with special-needs kids. I thought I was pretty tough, says Mederos. Ive been knocked down a flight of stairs at work. Mederos says she was psyched to be working for Tesla, a company trying to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. We are watching our planet dying. It was great wanting to be a part of something doing something about that.

But there were warning signs. The center had about 30 employees, and only three were women. (The other women Rolling Stone talked to also cite a rough 10-to-one male-female ratio at Tesla.)

Shortly after starting, Mederos says, she told her boss that she had problems hearing certain tones and voices with her right ear. This got around, and apparently many of the men she worked with thought she was deaf. A technician allegedly called out Ive never seen a white girl with an ass like her. The same tech guy eventually learned that Mederos was half-Cuban. One day, she claims, he sidled up to her. That explains why you have an ass. This atmosphere encouraged two other workers to ask her if she could hold a cup up with just her butt. The tech guy, per Mederos legal filing, also once remarked on the breasts of a girl visiting the center, and was unfazed when he was told the girl was 12. Those tits are not 12, he allegedly said.

The place was toxic before Eden got there, says a former Tesla employee who worked with Mederos and left company feeling the culture was inappropriate and obnoxious. A guy would start there and seem like a nice guy, but then he wanted to be part of the group and just started being awful. Other women got harassed Eden just got it more.

Mederos says her first supervisor was sympathetic but useless, telling her thats just how men talked at Tesla. Occasionally, employees would be compelled to watch videos on sexual harassment. That only made things worse, according to Mederos. Men would touch Mederos arm and leg, and say in a mocking tone, Oh, no, Im sexually harassing you. After the announcement of the S3XY line, the men at the service center started calling everything sexy This pen is so sexy, this stapler is so sexy.

There were conversations about it, says Mederos. They would say, Well, [Musk] says it, so why cant we say any of this stuff?

Her second supervisor, according to her filing, was even more of a nightmare. He would block doorways as she tried to enter offices, she claims. One day, Mederos alleges, she and that supervisor took a Tesla for a test drive. She claims that before they pulled out of the parking lot, her supervisor placed his hand on her shoulder and told her that her strong personality was holding her back at the company.

You should be calmer; that is what is expected of a woman.

Mederos says she jumped out of the car at the first red light and walked back to the center. Eventually, Mederos alleges, she reached out to HR to plead her case. The HR rep listened and agreed to meet with her. Mederos says she was somewhat optimistic as she arrived for the meeting in a conference room. That was immediately crushed. She opened the door, and her boss was sitting at a table with the HR rep. Mederos couldnt believe it. She felt like she was going to throw up.

Youve made some aggressive accusations, she says the HR rep told her.

Mederos tried to explain her side of things. But she says her supervisor shouted her down.

Everything you say is complete bullshit!

He kept yelling until he stalked out of the room, she claims.

Mederos couldnt stop crying. The HR rep told her to take the rest of the day off.

She pauses when she tells me this part of the story. Its been two years, but she still blames herself.

First I was shocked, recalls Mederos. And then I was just so angry at myself. Everybody had told me that if I go to HR, this sort of thing would happen. I knew from then on, I was gonna be so screwed.

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How Many Women Were Abused to Make That Tesla? - Rolling Stone

Billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk is determined to build his sprawling Starlink satellite internet network, but, naturally, he's faced some setbacks along the way.

Back in February, 38 of Musk's Starlink satellites were annihilated by a "destruction event," per Newsweek, and these incidents are expected to get worse in the near term, peaking in 2025.

What happened, exactly?

An explosion on the surface of the sun caused a wave of energetic solar particles to wash over our planet, heating up the Earth's atmosphere and spiking the density of the minute amounts of air at the level of the Starlink satellites' orbit. The satellites began to sink and, ultimately, burned up at thousands of miles per hour.

Related: Tesla Billionaire Elon Musk's Demanding Daily Routine

A study published by researchers in China and the U.S. in August revealed the economic toll: tens of millions of dollars. Still, in the grand scheme of things, the loss was a minor bump in the road for SpaceX, which has more than 3,000 Starlink satellites in orbit and plans to launch approximately 40,000 more.

But the company can also expect similar challenges ahead, as the sun's activity, and this accompanying space weather, escalates in keeping with its 11-year solar cycle set to peak in the summer of 2025.

Related: Here's What You Need to Know About Elon Musk

Musk built the potential for such setbacks into his Starlink strategy, though, releasing the satellites at a low altitude so they're destroyed quickly in the instance of failure and don't get stuck in space.

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Space Storms Destroy Elon Musk's Starlink Satellites, and the Problem Is About to Get Worse - Entrepreneur

AUSTIN, Texas Tesla CEO and internet personality Elon Musk shocked the nation Monday by announcing that, in a last-ditch effort to buy the publics love, everyone could pick out any one toy from Walmart.

I just want you to love me, Musk said outside the Walmart. So I mean it, everyone go and pick out one toy, its on me. Im not skimping on the type of toy either, make it a LEGO set or a Switch game, I dont care. And before you ask, yes, you can have two small toys in place of one big toy if you so choose. Will this buy your affection for a while? You all like me now, right? Im the cool tech guy that buys people things. I care about the water in Detroit or something like that. I said Id fix that, right? And its fixed now? Never can remember how that ended. Anyway, go enjoy your toy, and keep it in mind when my next scandal comes out, please.

Some Americans felt that this move was symbolic of their relationship with Musk.

This actually completely puts everything in perspective: Elon Musk is like our rich deadbeat dad, said local man Mark Harpo. Every once in a while he swoops into our lives and just when you think he might be reformed, he fucks up worse then ever before. You can tell he wants to be liked from the material things he flexes, but his actions are cruel and cold. Reminds me of my dad.

At press time, an increasingly magnanimous Musk announced that he is allowing all Tesla employees thirty minutes to see their families one last time.

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Elon Musk Announces Nation Can Pick One Toy from Walmart in Latest Attempt to Buy Public's Love - Hard Drive