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Comment by pu_pe | Hacker News Reader

Volkswagen was caught cheating on its emission data and the CEO got fired, then prosecuted. Why shouldn't that be the case here?

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The really weird thing about the diesel emissions scandal was that someone actually got in trouble for it. It is _rare_ for companies to be punished, particularly criminally, for that sort of thing.

Usually they'd get a DPA

Well, it wasn't a US company so..

You’d need a coalition of Democratic attorneys general to bring a case in the mould of Big Tobacco.

We'd need a third party if you'd actually want to fight american corporations. Unless you intended "small d" democratic

Good news, the CEO of this American corporation is making a third party… (the monkey paw curls)

A third party... that sounds exactly like the other two.

Where is the anti-capitalism party? The anti-war party? The anti-corruption party? Aren't political parties supposed to represent DIFFERENT interests? Instead we're forced to choose between a party hates immigrants and a party that hates immigrants slightly more

And like you can criticize republicans, but they actually invested in intel. Wrong company, but a step in the right direction.

> anti-capitalism party? The anti-war party? The anti-corruption party?

The first two aren’t as popular as you think. The last is a constant source of political capital.

Usually it has to be a non US company

Firing the CEO is nominally up to the board of directors.

In Tesla's case, the board knows that the valuation of the company is wildly irrational, and they feel that the valuation is tied to the CEO.

> U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom, who presided over the case, said in an order that she did not find “sufficient evidence” that Tesla’s failure to initially produce the data was intentional. She ruled, however, that Tesla was required to reimburse the plaintiffs for all the costs related to retrieving the data themselves.

Seems like that's the wrong way round, that the court has to find sufficient evidence. I'd prefer it if Tesla had to provide sufficient evidence that their processes were followed correctly and that there was no intention to hide crash data.

Volkswagen is an European company. You simply can't do that to American companies.

Because it's a completely different situation. The only commonality is that both involve a car company.

Maybe the Tesla CEO should get fired and prosecuted, but not because the VW case sets some kind of precedent.

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