Data theft is an pretty interesting way to frame giving information to the media.
Also, giving information to the media isn’t necessarily an honest act of whistleblowing. Depends on what you’re exposing and if it’s accurate in the first place.
But that's the rub, does he believe that or not, or was it as Tesla contends a lie to hurt an employer that passed him over for promotion? The court case is definitely one to watch, particularly if he can provide evidence of his claims.
Whistleblowing is not simply just telling random people, or media contacts, inner workings of companies that are protected and trade secrets. That's not how that works. There are specific ways to do it to protect yourself legally, or you can leak to Wikileaks or media outlets using TOR and other methods to keep yourself safe, but the latter method is illegal while the former method is legal, if not nearly as effective.
For a company that prides itself in it's manufacturing process (even if it isn't as-promised), it seem like this could even be perceived as IP theft.
Munro & Associates did a complete Tesla 3 teardown and disassembly in order to sell what they've learned to Tesla competitors for hundreds of thousands of dollars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpCrkO1x-Qo&t=4828s)
So did some German engineering company (https://cleantechnica.com/2018/02/19/tesla-model-3-stuns-ger...).
Apparently there are plenty of companies interested in how Tesla's cars are made.
> Apparently there are plenty of companies interested in how Tesla's cars are made.
Disassembing a rental car is ..uh.. rude, but other than that this is completely ordinary, and not even done in secret.
When I worked at BMW, we once went down to a big room where an entire VW (Golf?) was disassembled and on display, all its components laid out on long rows of tables.
I can't remember any access restrictions on that room -- it was just a place you went to look at how other engineers had solved particular problems, learn new tricks, or get inspired.
It's essentially the code reading of the mechanical engineering world.
Tesla claims this is a lie because no punctured cells were ever used in vehicles. This would be true even if - as the article claims - modules were punctured, the battery cells were damaged, and those modules were fixed and put into cars rather than being scrapped, just so long as any obviously punctured cells were replaced in the process. The article is rather vague on that crucial detail. In fact, Tesla's claim would be true even if damaged cells were shipping in actual Model 3s and they knew they were, so long as those cells weren't punctured.
In reality, a lithium ion cell with a small hole will slowly have the electrolyte evaporate, the internal resistance will increase, and the cell will stop being useful. If that's one cell out of 10,000 on a car, it's no big deal.