Hacker News Reader

Comment by calafrax | Hacker News Reader

I think Tesla's and Elon Musk's response of publicly attacking this woman almost certainly indicates that they are at fault.

If this woman's claims were false they would do best to keep quiet and wait for the legal process. They have a huge advantage with both the money to pay lawyers and many fawning media outlets willing to support them so if they were in the right they would be guaranteed to win if they just waited it out.

Going on the offensive is dangerous because it makes them look bad and draws more attention to the story.

Attacking this woman would be very stupid unless they are actually in the wrong, in which case it makes perfect sense as an attempt to intimidate other employees into not speaking out.

View on HN

> Attacking this woman would be very stupid unless they are actually in the wrong

Or unless they think they are very right. I find them opening their mouth at all to be quite surprising. I find the firing with a reason given even MORE surprising.

This is either complete and total incompetence (not at all impossible), or the Tesla lawyers must think they are on amazingly solid ground.

> This is either complete and total incompetence (not at all impossible), or the Tesla lawyers must think they are on amazingly solid ground.

They seem to feel extremely confident indeed, this is from the previous the Guardian article on this story:

Tesla has continued to strongly reject Vandermeyden’s claims. A spokesperson said the company had “conducted a thorough internal investigation” and “extensively re-reviewed all the facts”, repeatedly concluding that her allegations were false.

Yeah, I wouldn't go so far as to say that this means they're at fault and they've messed up just because of what they said, but I do think it's hurting them more than its helping.

As mentioned - yes, this very well could be a legit problem! I don't mean to dismiss this employees' claims lightly. With the person Musk is though, I bet he sees it as a petty "human" distraction towards getting his larger goals for humanity. That doesn't excuse the way he handles it, but just gives perspective on his response. He seems to be a little bit of a robot sometimes - I don't think human empathy is his strong suit.

I agree attacking women or anyone is stupid in general. Instead, hear the person out and promise to investigate. Then take action if necessary and if not, share the facts. I don't think anyone can disagree with that course of action but hotter heads prevail sometimes on short notice like this.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com