Elon Musk: "What, Me Worry?"
Tesla Model S – Click above for high-res image gallery
One thing we can now say about Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, is that he's not taking the lawsuit from Martin Eberhard as a sign to tone down his language. The man who called the NYT writer a "douchebag" appeared at WIRED's business conference, Disruptive by Design, in Manhattan yesterday and said the following while declaring that he'd like a chance to run Detroit:
It's not out of the question to have unions, but if there's going to be a union, they'd better understand that they're on the same side as the company. I'm against having a two-class system where you've got the workers and then the managers, sort of like nobles and peasants [...] Most of our experienced factory workers come from unionized environments, and we asked them what benefit did they see in unions. They said, 'Well, if their boss was an asshole, they had recourse.' "I said, 'Let's make a rule: There will be no assholes.' I fired someone for being an asshole. And I only had to do that once, actually.Note he didn't mention Eberhard by name, but who else has Musk fired that the crowd would care about? Musk also called the Prius "not a true hybrid" and said electric cars were "an inevitable thing."
Oh, and WIRED might be giving Eberhard's lawsuit more ammunition. One of Eberhard's charges is that Musk falsely claims that he is the founder or creator of Tesla Motors. WIRED's headline: "Tesla Motors Founder: Let Me Run Detroit." Whoops.
UPDATE: WIRED has changed their headline. Just for the record, there are screen grabs of the two headlines after the jump.
Gallery: Tesla Model S: LIVE REVEAL
[Source: WIRED]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jharlan 8:54PM (6/16/2009)
What an arrogant asshole. Really nice looking car though.
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ShaunneyCakes 8:54PM (6/16/2009)
Elon only has one lawsuit to worry about... the one that his mouth will cause when one of his childish jabs turn into slander. There is a reason why PR workers exist Mr. Musk
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Matt Welke 11:57PM (6/16/2009)
As successful he is and what a great job he's doing shifting the auto industry towards sustainable, environmentally-friendly vehicles, he definitely IS an arrogant asshole.
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why not the LS2LS7? 12:39AM (6/17/2009)
Apparently Elon can be as big an asshole as he wants and no one can fire him.
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Ideno 1:14AM (6/17/2009)
I like him :)
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matt 7:57AM (6/17/2009)
me too... I think he's funny.
Matt 9:03AM (6/17/2009)
So, I guess Weblogs, Inc. is case sensitive with the avatars...
jpm100 6:13AM (6/17/2009)
There's some product liability lawyer out there dreaming for a case against Tesla and such a sound bite.
Then the gags will come out.
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joegibes 10:13AM (6/17/2009)
So he calls the Prius "not a true hybrid," but badmouths the Volt? What is a true hybrid, to him?
I'll start paying attention to Musk when his company can start producing cars faster than I can build them in my garage, or when they have one under $40k.
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meme 1:06PM (6/17/2009)
You can build nearly 100 cars a month in your garage?
Jruhi4 8:05AM (6/17/2009)
Ha Ha, the folks at WIRED must have read Sebastian's comment about the story title giving Eberhard more ammo in his lawsuit and retitled it "Tesla Motors’ Musk: Let Me Run Detroit"
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Serge 9:30AM (6/17/2009)
What's interesting is that four days earlier, they got the organizational structure "almost" right in
http://www.wired.com/autopia/2009/06/eberhard/ (s/b co-founder, not founder).
Was this a blooper or an attempt to fan the flames?
Serge 9:25AM (6/17/2009)
I would be curious to see the results of an anonymous employee survey at TM on the question of: "Was the REAL asshole fired?"
ABG, perhaps you can run a poll here as well, to gauge public perception of the issue.
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Woodenbee 10:04AM (6/17/2009)
Elon needs to realise he lives in a culture where there is not real criticism, people can spend their whole lives as fat lazy wrongheaded douchebags (Bush voters) and not one person will ever point this out to them to their face, this could be why theres so many fat lazy douchebags. This creates people like Eberhard who are so shocked by someone actually pointing out their faults that they will expend the rest of their lives trying to punish whoever did it, and desperately trying to cover up how much of an ahole they are. I say if you know a scumbag, tell him he's a scumbag, and yes he will probably make your life miserable trying to discredit you in lots of sad and dumb ways, but you can rest assured he knows he's a scumbag, and he always did
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Throwback 10:33AM (6/17/2009)
Looks like the EV fanatics have found their Bob Lutz. This guy needs a few PR lessons.
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Yanquetino 11:25AM (6/17/2009)
Unbelievable. Talk about thick.
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Doug 11:38AM (6/17/2009)
" ' "There will be no assholes." I fired someone for being an asshole. And I only had to do that once, actually.'
Note he didn't mention Eberhard by name, but who else has Musk fired that the crowd would care about?"
I didn't hear this particular talk, but to be fair, I've heard Elon tell that "no assholes" story before. And at the time I didn't have the sense he was referring to Martin. Seemed he was referring to some mid level manager.
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Tyler Durden 12:22PM (6/17/2009)
Criticize Mr. Musk all you want.
But, at the end of the day, you will eventually be driving his cars.
That's all that matters.
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Serge 1:21PM (6/17/2009)
Who knows what will be?
On the whole "pure" EV vs. hybrid debate I find similarities between Mac vs Windows debate on the issue of backward compatibility. While Apple pushes the edge with "cleaner design" at the expense of BC, Microsoft deals with "kludginess" thereby maintaining BC to a greater extent. For decades Microsoft maintained market dominance, because the majority of customers are slower adopters.
Back to automobiles, my prediction is that pure EVs will be a niche market in the near to mid-term, while hybrids will bring pioneering technologies into the mainstream and gain market share. The losers (of market share) in this game seem to be "pure" ICE vehicles.
Throwback 2:07PM (6/17/2009)
Not unless they are 25K or less.