A Facebook cofounder’s assaults on Tesla continue, with one of his most audacious charges against the firm to date: Tesla is the next Enron.
Dustin Moskovitz, a Facebook cofounder who subsequently founded Asana, alleged in a Threads post on Wednesday that the EV manufacturer had deceived consumers “on a massive scale,” accusing Tesla of lying about its Full-Self Driving software and car range.
Tesla and Asana spokespeople did not reply to requests for comment.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, did not explicitly respond to Moskovitz’s charges, instead hurling obscenities and a slur at the Facebook cofounder on Friday.
Musk immediately made another tweet, saying, “I’d like to apologize to Dustin Moskovitz for calling him a’retard’.” That was incorrect. What I intended to say was that he is a pretentious moron whose head is so far up his own ass that he is technically blind. I wish him all the best and hope to be friends with him eventually.”
I’d want to apologize to Dustin Moskowitz for labeling him a “retard.”. That was incorrect.
What I intended to say was that he is a pretentious moron whose head is so far up his own ass that he is technically blind.
I wish him the best and hope that we might become friends eventually.
Elon Musk (@ElonMusk) April 26, 2024.
Moskovitz has not yet responded to Musk’s postings on Friday.
On Wednesday, the Facebook creator addressed the seriousness of his remarks in a social media message.
“I know I sound crazy to most people who don’t follow $TSLA closely, but at this point it really needs to be said,” he said in a blog post. “This is Enron now, folks.”
To summarize the two-decade-old controversy, Enron, the energy behemoth, declared bankruptcy in 2001 after being found using creative accounting to conceal billions of dollars in debt and lying about its sources of revenue. In 2006, the company’s main executives were convicted of fraud and conspiracy.
Moskovitz did not provide detailed evidence for each of his allegations, but he did share graphs from Tesla that he claims show how the automaker is attempting to demonstrate an increase in miles driven with FSD, Tesla’s driver-assistance technology that is critical to the company’s path to autonomous driving and robotaxis.
The tech pioneer predicted that individuals would wind up in jail.
Tesla officials have not been charged with any crimes, and the firm has never been proven guilty of consumer or securities fraud.
The firm has faced lawsuits and investigations from federal authorities over Tesla’s FSD technology, Autopilot, and vehicle range, but there are no legal issues connected to the carmaker deceiving users about mileage usage using Tesla’s driver-assistance function.
The majority of lawsuits have been filed by drivers who claim Tesla misled them about FSD’s capabilities. So far, the corporation has either settled or been declared not responsible.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday that it was looking into whether Tesla had satisfactorily resolved vulnerabilities with its Autopilot software following its December recall of 2 million vehicles.
Tesla is also under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bloomberg reported last year that federal officials are looking into how Tesla’s driver-assistance software was promoted and if Musk was involved in the promotion of the technology.
Drivers have also accused Tesla of exaggerating its car range, prompting a class-action lawsuit against the corporation. In March, a court ruled that claimants would have to go through individual arbitrations.
In its 2023 third-quarter earnings release, Tesla announced that the Justice Department had subpoenaed the firm for information on “vehicle range” and other issues.
Moskovitz has always been wary of Elon Musk’s efforts.
Last year, the Asana creator stated that Tesla and SpaceX are overpriced and that their CEOs are given too much credit.
“The point is, I don’t really see these companies as having a having a dispensating impact, or at least don’t give nearly as much credit to him as others do,” Moskovitz said in an interview with Threads. “If they were really built on outward lies, rather than just self-deceptions (rose-colored glasses), then we should really see them as scams he got away with.”
Moskovitz has even called on Musk to resign from his senior positions at all of his firms after Musk referred to an antisemitic remark on X as the “actual truth.”
“I call on Elon Musk to resign,” Moskovitz wrote on Threads last year, adding that he should resign from “everything.””
