Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/16/whistleblower-says-tesla-spied.html
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They were probably just going to wait and see if the meth improved productivity without increasing the number of workplace accidents.
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Look, lots of tech companies provide coffee for their staff, Tesla just wants to go one further than the competition. Got to keep those production targets somehow, right?
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Funding secured!
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Nobody likes a NARC. That sounds like it would beat the hell out of the free frozen yogurt Musk was talking about.
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Tofutti break!
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So the SEC allows companies to run their own investigations?
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Hey, it worked for the Air Force.
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I’m imagining Breaking Bad, but with a tech entrepreneur turning to drug manufacturing to keep his startup afloat, and using the company to launder the proceeds.
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The thing that makes this all feel plausible is that Tesla feels like it’s being run like a software company, not a physical goods company. You can feel the whole vibe of getting viable product out first, worry about security later. A “running with scissors” mentality. The problem is that you can’t just update factories and automobile parts over the air, you can’t treat your employees like beta testers.
The other interesting thing that the story (if true) implies is where the priorities lie – the company is more afraid of employees blabbing and goofing off with their phones than they are about drug abuse and actual illegal behaviour.
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Gritty reboot of the John DeLorean story?
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They refer to pre-production cars as “release candidates”…
“Move fast and break things” isn’t so cool when you’re making physical things that move fast…
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I suspect exaggeration on the part of the fired employee. I have worked in manufacturing for many years and have seen night shifts that ran on meth without the knowledge of management. Also it is not unusual to have company provided WiFi with a monitored net nanny. Large buildings can make actual cell service unreliable. This is no defense of Tesla in general as the current car manufacturers are more capable and will build more electric vehicles as soon as there is a real demand.
The thing that makes all this feel implausible is that this is the second Tesla employee passed over for promotion who is accusing Tesla of mundane things using sensationalist terms, and is represented by the same scumbag lawyer as the first saboteur. A lawyer so expensive, btw, that one one feels compelled to say that his fees are crowd-funded by the usual suspects, because his specialty is not the recovery of due damages, but bad press and extortion.
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Oh, of course, and basically it’s attacking an exposed flank. That’s another facet of what I said, that the image Tesla has been cultivating is one that leaves them vulnerable to these sorts of claims. I cannot say if the claim is true or not, but that Telsa itself does not have much trust left to burn.
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Ok. 
Tho not so sure about the trust left to burn - there is almost nothing unusual to Tesla about any of this as far as the allegations go - almost all manufacturers see the same issues. The one big difference is that Tesla represents trillions in lost income and stranded assets to many of the world’s largest and most unscrupulous corporations. So, huge grain of salt.
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So, let me get this straight… You have a cell phone, you connect to the company wifi to make a phone call and you expect that LAN traffic on a corporate network won’t be logged and analyzed. News flash kiddos, anything you do on a corporate network should be logged and analyzed. Companies have an obligation to their shareholders to take every reasonable step necessary to secure company assets, remain aware of how those assets are being used, and provide an auditable log of such activity.
Specialized as in “does the same thing every other enterprise grade router should do with WiFi traffic”
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Even private companies care about security. There are constant fishing scams and probes for people to break into corporate servers and reek havoc.
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Start up car company and drugs…History is rhyming REAL HARD here.
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Yeah, what is it with rich guys, their unique car brands and drugs?
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