Former employee sued by Tesla says he was a whistleblower,alarmed by company practices and Elon Musk

Source: Washington Post

By Drew Harwell
June 21 at 10:09 AM

Tesla sued a former employee Wednesday, accusing the man of hacking the automaker's computer systems and stealing company secrets, shedding light on what chief Elon Musk had suggested was the work of a secretive internal saboteur.

But the employee, Martin Tripp, told The Washington Post that he did not tamper with internal systems and is instead a whistleblower who spoke out after seeing "some really scary things" inside the company, including dangerously punctured batteries installed in cars.

Tesla attorneys wrote in their lawsuit that Tripp, a former technician at the company's Gigafactory battery plant in Nevada, wrote software to aid in an elaborate theft of confidential photos and video of Tesla's manufacturing systems. The firm's attorneys said Tripp worked at Tesla from October to last week, when company investigators confronted him with evidence.

Tripp, attorneys wrote, also gave journalists false information about the company, including claims that defective batteries had been used in Tesla's Model 3 sedans. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/06/20/tesla-sues-former-employee-as-elon-musk-signals-hunt-for-saboteurs/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b28c59651b56