It is no surprise to anyone that Elon Muskthe tycoon CEO of companies like SpaceX either teslaIt's one of the most controversial characters of today. On the one hand, his business skills stand out, which has been reflected in his incredible fortune, but on the other hand, he is also known for not keeping his comments to himself, which are often erroneous or biased according to his own beliefs. That personality trait of his has already played several tricks on him, including problems with Tesla workersthe electric car giant that from time to time makes the news for problems inside its plants.
An example of this is the allegations of unsafe working conditions in Fremont, California, where numerous cases of workplace injuries and questions about safety practices were reported. Or also the case of Lukasz Krupski, a former Tesla employee in Norway, who transformed from hero to villain for the company.
Lukasz Krupski: Elon Musk's enemy
“Congratulations on saving the day!” Musk wrote by email to Lukasz Krupski after saving his Tesla exhibition center in Oslo from a fire. It all started in 2019, when said incident occurred in which A mishandled charging point burst into flames, so the employee acted quickly to extinguish the fire. No small feat that initially earned him the title of hero within the electric car company.
But despite the initial congratulations, his Subsequent complaint about a lack of safety measures – such as no fire extinguishers being available – resulted in hostile treatment from colleagues and superiors. And not just any deal: as he later stated, he ended up working in the basement and was threatened by a co-worker who claimed that he would stab him with a screwdriver.
So time passed, and After years of harassment and deteriorating mental health, Krupski was fired in 2022 for alleged bad behavior and poor time management.
The media battle
Of course this didn't end here. After his dismissal, Krupski decided to make the company's failures publicly known, accessing confidential data from Tesla's internal platform and without the need for hackers. This story became public at the end of 2023, when the same former employee decided to tell the truth about him with The New York Times.
That's how accessed 100 GB of confidential Tesla data and leaked more than 23 thousand documents, including thousands of customer complaints about the Autopilot FSD system, through means such as German newspaper Handelsblatt.
The complaints included problems such as sudden acceleration, poor braking and phantom braking, which led to various investigations for violations of data protection law in Europe and the US. In addition, they contributed to the NHTSA will force Tesla to review more than 360 thousand electric vehicles for alleged problems with Autopilot.
In response, Tesla took legal action to prevent further leaks and asked a court in Norway not to allow new leaks by the former worker.
Meanwhile, with the support of the NHTSA and other activists, Krupski plans to sue Tesla for the physical and psychological damage suffered, going down in history for being one of the few people who has decided to confront one of the most influential companies in the world. . Will he win? This story is in development.