A Facebook cofounder’s assaults towards Tesla continues, and it comes with one in all his boldest allegations towards the corporate up to now: Tesla is the subsequent Enron.
Dustin Moskovitz, the Facebook cofounder who later went on to begin Asana, claimed in a Threads put up on Wednesday that the EV maker has misled shoppers “on a massive scale,” accusing Tesla of mendacity about its Full-Self Driving software program and the car’s ranges.
Spokespeople for Tesla and Asana didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk didn’t immediately handle Moskovitz’s allegations however as an alternative, on Friday, hurled insults and a slur on the Facebook cofounder on X.
Musk then adopted up with one other put up: “I’d like to apologize to Dustin Moskovitz for calling him a ‘retard’. That was wrong. What I meant to say is that he is a pompous idiot whose his head is so far up his own ass that he is legally blind. I wish him the best and hope that someday we can be friends.”
Moskovitz had not but addressed Musk’s posts on Friday.
On Wednesday, the Facebook cofounder acknowledged the gravity of his feedback in his social media put up.
“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 wrote. “This is Enron now, folks.”
To recap the two-decade-old scandal, Enron, the power large, filed for chapter in 2001 after it was caught utilizing inventive accounting to cover billions of {dollars} in debt and mendacity about its sources of income. The firm’s chief executives have been discovered responsible of fraud and conspiracy in 2006.
Moskovitz did not define detailed proof for every of his allegations, however he did share graphs from Tesla that he claims reveal how the automaker is making an attempt to indicate a rise in miles pushed with FSD, Tesla’s driver-assistance know-how that’s crucial for the corporate’s path to autonomous driving and robotaxis.
The tech founder went so far as predicting that individuals would find yourself in jail.
No executives at Tesla have been charged with against the law, and the corporate has by no means been discovered accountable for shopper or securities fraud.
The firm has confronted lawsuits and probes from federal regulators relating to Tesla’s FSD know-how or Autopilot and its car vary, however there aren’t any authorized challenges associated to the automaker deceptive individuals about mileage utilization with Tesla’s driver-assistance function.
Most lawsuits have come from drivers who alleged that Tesla is deceptive clients about FSD’s capabilities. So far, the corporate has both settled or has been discovered not liable.
On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration mentioned it was investigating whether or not Tesla sufficiently addressed points with the corporate’s Autopilot software program after its December recall of two million autos.
Tesla can be going through a probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bloomberg reported final yr that federal regulators are investigating how Tesla’s driver-assistance software program was marketed and if Musk had any involvement within the promotion of the know-how.
Drivers even have accused Tesla of inflating its car mile vary, bringing a class-action lawsuit towards the corporate. A choose mentioned in March that plaintiffs should undergo particular person arbitrations.
In the corporate’s 2023 third-quarter earnings report, Tesla disclosed that the Justice Department subpoenaed the corporate for data associated to “vehicle range” and different issues.
Moskovitz additionally has lengthy been skeptical of Elon Musk and his ventures.
Last yr, the Asana founder advised that Tesla and SpaceX are overvalued and that the businesses’ chief is given an excessive amount of credit score.
“The point is I don’t really see these companies as dispensating impact, or at least don’t give nearly as much credit to him as others do,” Moskovitz mentioned on 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 known as on Musk to resign from his govt position in all his firms after Musk known as an antisemitic put up on X the “actual truth.”
“I call on Elon Musk to resign,” Moskovitz mentioned on Threads final yr, including that he ought to resign “(from everything).”