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Elon Musk Threatens to Move Tesla's HQ After County Blocks Its Reopening (arstechnica.com) 359

Posted by EditorDavid from the making-a-move dept.
Saturday Elon Musk announced he'd "immediately" relocate Tesla's headquarters and "future programs" to Texas and Nevada, reports Ars Technica.

While California lifted its restrictions on manufacturers and businesses, the county of Alameda (where Tesla is located) says the company's manufacturing plant does not yet meet the county's requirements for safely reopening. "Frankly, this is the final straw," Musk tweeted. Musk also announced his intent to file a lawsuit against Alameda County officials "immediately," adding, "The unelected & ignorant 'Interim Health Officer' of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!" Musk also encouraged Tesla shareholders to file a class-action suit against the county.

The latest back-and-forth between Tesla and Alameda County officials began on Thursday, when a memo sent to Tesla employees indicated that its Fremont plant would reopen "at 30% our normal headcount per shift," as reported by TechCrunch. Alameda officials responded on Friday with a firm reminder that the county's stay-in-place order would remain in effect for Tesla, and all other "non-essential" operations in the county, until May 31, with the exception of "basic" operations...

"We have informed Tesla of all of the conditions that must exist for phasing in the safe reopening of various sectors of the economy and the community. Tesla has been informed that they do not meet those criteria and must not reopen. We welcome Tesla's proactive work on a reopening plan so that once they fit the criteria to reopen, they can do so in a way that protects their employees and the community at large."
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Elon Musk Threatens to Move Tesla's HQ After County Blocks Its Reopening More

Elon Musk Threatens to Move Tesla's HQ After County Blocks Its Reopening

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  • Tesla Shrugged (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @05:17PM (#60041660)
    Do it, Elon. Just do it. Bug out. On principle. California is only ever going to get steadily worse.

    • Re:Tesla Shrugged (Score:5, Insightful)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @05:30PM (#60041710) Homepage Journal

      Imagine working there and being told to come in. Maybe you have a family, elderly parent you are looking after, new baby, child off school... With the number of employees they have an these things will be true for a large number of people.

      • So ... don't work there any more? Because there will be no vaccine any time soon. Months, years possibly. Let me guess: you'd prefer the company go down in flames and the employees get ever more debt-backed entitlements, instead of those willing and able to work with updated hygiene/safety conditions getting back to producing things. I'm tending to an elderly parent and working 60-70 hours a week. I've had to utterly change how I interact with client projects on site, and hold client hands through all sorts

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Testing and PPE are needed. And a good policy on time off for self isolation.

          • Testing and PPE are needed. And a good policy on time off for self isolation.

            Agreen, ideally that would be the ultimate situation.

            But that isn't reality at this point in time.

            At this point in time, we currently have...mass unemployment, that is growing.

            We have small businesses (and large) going out of business and filing for bankruptcy.

            We have indications, granted, on small data sources, but then again ALL data sources are limited at this time)...that the infection rate may be MUCH higher and started e

            • Re:Tesla Shrugged (Score:5, Insightful)

              by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @07:37PM (#60042140)

              We also have many, many MANY people out there broke and starting to go hungry....have you seen the lines for food help lately?

              After the largest corporate tax cut in this nation's history, those people should have been saving the money which trickled down to them. That way they wouldn't have ended up like all those companies who got the largest corporate tax cut in this nation's history coming hat in hand to the taxpayers to bail them out again after they blew all that money on frivolous purchases like executive bonuses and stock buy backs.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Luckyo ( 1726890 )

            In many jobs, PPE is not a solution, because their require working for prolonged periods of time in very cramped quarters and are often already wearing PPE.

            Notice how slaughterhouses in US are having problems over this. That's because modern slaughterhouse is a marvel of optimized work flow. They can fully process about a ton heavy cow carcass in less than ten minutes as a matter of routine.

            But there's no going around the fact that this requires a crew of slightly less than ten people basically on top of on

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by lgw ( 121541 )

        magine working there and being told to come in. Maybe you have a family, elderly parent you are looking after, new baby, child off school... With the number of employees they have an these things will be true for a large number of people.

        Imagine working there and being told not to come in. Maybe you have a family to feed, rent to pay, an elderly parent whose nursing home you're paying for.

        You know, maybe you want to earn a living?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Yeah, it's easy to forget how fucked up things are there, not living there. Even in California. No furlough pay scheme like we have here.

          You have cheques coming though, right? I guess it's not enough to survive in California. Here we have mortgage and rent holidays too.

          Difficult situation. Tesla is apparently doing well though, they could offer to help out.

          • Yeah, it's easy to forget how fucked up things are there, not living there. Even in California. No furlough pay scheme like we have here.

            Of course we have 'normal" safety nets, for normal times.

            But at some.point, even those run out of money.

            I saw a week ago, that some states were already down to two weeks left of unemployment funds....what happens when those run out?

          • "Tesla is apparently doing well though, they could offer to help out."

            Tesla is not doing well. They're one of the only big companies in the entire state who stopped paying their locked-down employees.

            Musk isn't begging to reopen for the employee's sake. Remember, his ultimate goal is 100% automation of his factories so there are no employees. He's acting like TSLA is only days away from bankruptcy again.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by lgw ( 121541 )

      Do it, Elon. Just do it. Bug out. On principle. California is only ever going to get steadily worse.

      On behalf of Texas, you're welcome here Elon. Texas is only ever going to get steadily better. Keep turning Boca Chica into the new Space Coast. Seems like there are 100 new jobs there every week, as you build the worlds first high-production rocket factory. All those Tesla jobs would just be more of a good thing.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dfghjk ( 711126 )

        You don't speak for Texas, they wouldn't have you. You're right though, that Texas will get steadily better as it marches inevitably towards returning to being a blue state.

    • Do it, Elon. Just do it. Bug out. On principle. California is only ever going to get steadily worse.

      Come to Arizona, Elon. Lots of buildable near-urban land with infrastructure, cheap compared to California.

  • What's going on here? At first this post was "archived"

    First /. gets rid of AC posting, now there's a delay before we're allowed to post?

    • I had never seen a /. story with kkk0mments disabled.

      Very, very weird.

    • When I first saw this story it seemed normal, but there was no FP. I happened to have submitted the same story, so I could and did quickly cut-and-paste my previous submission comment, which applied just as well here. It did appear that I had "captured" the FP by some fluke, but obviously not.

      In light of your [Sebby's] report, I'm guessing the actual situation was more complicated. The reply to your comment from mosel-saar-ruwer makes me think that there was another FP in there somewhere, one of the typical

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sebby ( 238625 )
        Took a good 30 mins for the story (not “post” as I wrote) to become ‘open’ to comments. Guess this delay might be the ‘price’ to pay to avoid the annoying FP spam.

  • So the crucial problem is Covid-19. It's messing up the economy something awful. Major crisis. So the solution is to move from where Covid-19 is relatively under control to where it's about to explode?

    Sorry, Elon. You're losing it. YUGELY.

    My theory is that Musk was always something of a fraud, but he's been able to surf the popularity waves and keep his head above water the rest of the time. But now he's obviously panicking and we'll soon know why. Most likely that his businesses are imploding and there's n

    • >"So the crucial problem is Covid-19. It's messing up the economy something awful. Major crisis."

      The governments are what is "messing up the economy something awful." They are doing it for a reason, but let's not pretend otherwise. If there were ZERO closings, just warnings and education about handwashing/distancing/etc, there MIGHT have been a temporary overwhelming of the healthcare system in some areas, but that would not have affected the economy even a fraction of what was done.

      >"So the solutio

      • Re:Start the countdown to implosion (Score:5, Insightful)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @06:40PM (#60041924) Homepage Journal

        They tried that on Sweden and the economy was hit just as bad. People stopped doing non essential stuff, cancelled purchases, asked to work from home etc. Their death toll is higher than their neighbours who did shut down.

        • >"They tried that on Sweden and the economy was hit just as bad."

          That assumes that people here would make the same decisions. It is also hard to compare the two economies. It is a valid point, but how valid it is, not sure.

          >"Their death toll is higher than their neighbours who did shut down."

          Different peoples, different cultures, different systems, lots of differences one would have to also take into account. But most importantly, Sweden will likely have a much smaller "second wave", so what matter

        • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

          by Train0987 ( 1059246 )

          Sweden's death toll is only marginally worse than her neighbors while managing to preserve most of their economy. Long-term, the damage to those neighboring economies will cause those death tolls to surpass Sweden's. Right now Sweden is being seen as the model for future pandemics.

          • Re:Start the countdown to implosion (Score:5, Insightful)

            by Admiral Krunch ( 6177530 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @09:29PM (#60042428)

            Sweden's death toll is only marginally worse than her neighbors

            Nope that's just as wrong as when Lynnwood tried to claim it [slashdot.org]
            Have you seen a map of Europe?

            Deaths per million [worldometers.info], Sweden (319) is considerably worse than the nearby countries Norway (40) Finland (48) Denmark (91) Germany (90) Poland (21). More deaths per capita than all those countries added together in fact.

            while managing to preserve most of their economy.

            That just isn't true either and also a Lynnwood claim. Sweden's economy to contract as severely as the rest of Europe. [cnbc.com]

            You a sockpuppet of his or just get your talking points from the same place?

            • Deaths per million [worldometers.info], Sweden (319) is considerably worse than the nearby countries Norway (40) Finland (48) Denmark (91) Germany (90) Poland (21). More deaths per capita than all those countries added together in fact.

              But Netherlands has 316 and Belgium has 747 despite massive lock downs.
              The truth is we don't yet know what will be the best long term strategy. And until other countries start opening up we don't really have any fair short term comparisons either.

              One thing seems to be objectively true though, and that is that we failed to protect the elderly in nursing homes.
              And my personal opinion is that we were probably too slow in the beginning.

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by Fringe ( 6096 )

              Sweden's death toll is only marginally worse than her neighbors

              Nope that's just as wrong as when Lynnwood tried to claim it [slashdot.org]

              snip...

              You a sockpuppet of his or just get your talking points from the same place?

              Wow, you're not only completely uninformed but also astonishingly rude!

              The question really should be, how is Sweden doing relative to Neil Ferguson's models, those that came from the Imperial College upon which the lockdowns were based.

              His model specifically for Sweden with no lockdown estimated 40,000 COVID deaths by May 1, and 100,000 by June.

              Sweden has only had 3,220 deaths so far.

              You're also looking at per-capita without looking at who the capita is. Sweden over-accepted migrants recently, compared to

      • >"So the crucial problem is Covid-19. It's messing up the economy something awful. Major crisis."

        The governments are what is "messing up the economy something awful." They are doing it for a reason, but let's not pretend otherwise. If there were ZERO closings, just warnings and education about handwashing/distancing/etc, there MIGHT have been a temporary overwhelming of the healthcare system in some areas, but that would not have affected the economy even a fraction of what was done.

        The thing is that in the countries where the government has tried this, the people end up locking down themselves. The archetypal example is Brazil. The problem is that when the people do it themselves without government support they do it inconsistently, incompletely and too late. This means that the lockdown is less effective and comes as a reaction to a massive death rate. At that point the economy tanks anyway but the recovery takes much longer. Countries like Taiwan, China and New Zealand that wen

      • Just look at Sweden as an example for what you're suggesting. Ten times the number of deaths compared to their neighbors, and "the economy" is going to end up worse because the lack of a lock-down is going to make the outbreak last longer. Norway is down to roughly one death per day, and they can soon start to open up the economy without killing off all the old people. Sweden is averaging 73 deaths a day with no sign of it coming down any time soon, and there's been no benefit to it. Their GDP is projected

    • Re:Start the countdown to implosion (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Train0987 ( 1059246 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @05:51PM (#60041760)

      Musk can't cook the next financial filing if everyone on the planet knows production has stopped. That's why he's desperate.

      I look forward to the Musk cult coming to tell us how they've suddenly changed their minds and we should open back up immediately.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by shanen ( 462549 )

        Hmm... My feelings towards Musk are actually mixed, though perhaps I muddled things by just pasting my version of a submission for the same story (but linked to a different website). Let me try again?

        I think Must is clever enough, and he's been lucky, too, but either the adulation has gone to his head or he's trying too hard to milk it. At the same time, he has way too many irons in the fire. As you [Train0987] noted, he has to keep filing those financial statements...

        Then along came Covid-19 and suddenly h

        • The CCP is very upset that the new China Tesla plant is idled because parts are no longer coming from Fremont. They are about to take that new factory away from him a few years earlier than they had originally planned to when allowing him to build it in the first place.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by shanen ( 462549 )

            Well now you're just saying that Musk is an idiot, and I doubt that. I'm not saying that Xi isn't capable of pulling such a stunt, but why would he? Since Xi controls the courts and access to the Chinese market and 20 other levers there is no reason to resort to stupid weapons like clubs and seizing factories.

            Sounds like you [Train0987] are just mindlessly reacting to the "Communist" menace buzzword. What's that got to do with the price of tea in China? Both as a classic joke and as commentary on the realit

            • There are a few native Chinese EV companies that would love to have that factory. That's why China allowed Musk to build it there.

  • He's welcome to move it (Score:4, Funny)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @05:17PM (#60041670)

    to Mars

  • Here in NY, we're starting to see some of the crazies coming out of the woodwork demanding that they be allowed to spread the virus around more and get their businesses or employers opened up. One thing I worry is going to happen is that business owners are going to put enough political pressure on public officials (a la Elon's tweet threatening to leave CA) the same way they do here in NY. New York business owners are famous for throwing temper tantrums about taxes and regulations, and using the public ann

  • Elon does cool stuff but... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lasermike026 ( 528051 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @06:05PM (#60041794)

    I really don't care about his opinions or problems outside of the cool work he is doing. He comes off an entitled a-hole. You can't tell a guy like that to be quite because he just start screaming louder. Do you self a favor, stop listening.

    • Re:Elon does cool stuff but... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Moof123 ( 1292134 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @06:15PM (#60041816)

      +1. He has become rather off-putting as of late, basically becoming quite the liability to Tesla's brand appeal. I wish the other car companies would get their EV act together and stop half-assing their efforts. I'd much rather buy a Toyota with Tesla specs and charging network than one from Musk's carnival shit-show.

    • He comes off an entitled a-hole.

      Well, when it comes to the ultra-rich... this is the norm, not the exception.

      Here's an idea - he should move the plants to his native South Africa. They could certainly use the extra jobs, and as a bonus he wouldn't have to deal with pesky HR, health, and safety regulations.

  • Seems to me that this should e public data and yet finding the requirement they are fighting about is impossible as both sides are taking steps to not say them publicly.

    So what is this really about?

  • Stable Genius (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mamba-mamba ( 445365 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @06:52PM (#60041974)

    Elon Musk is a stable genius. We are so lucky here in America to have so many stable geniuses!

    All kidding aside, I am optimistic about spacex and the man does deserve a lot of credit for what he has been able to achieve so far in the electric vehicle space. But I think the time may be approaching when he has to pass the reins of Tesla to someone else. He needs some R and R.

    • If Musk is replaced with anyone else the fraud will be exposed and made public about 15 minutes later, it's that obvious. Without Musk cooking the books Tesla closes its doors and a lot of people will be facing justice..

    • I think that SpaceX works, to the extent that it does, because Musk isn't running it.

      The guy clearly has (or perhaps, had) vision and smarts, but he makes a lousy CEO or COO. Some of his recent pronouncements have bordered on the loony IMO.

  • Elon, Elon. Maybe you're hitting the bong too hard. People aren't interchangeable parts, remember? I guess not.

    Go ahead, move that factory, after all Tesla is making money hand over fist and you'll hardly notice the enormous moving costs compared to waiting another couple weeks. Oh wait...

  • Any tax breaks or subsidies or any other inducements he received gets paid back before he goes. If he doesn't pay it back, property gets confiscated to make up the difference.

    What's that? You thought he could milk the taxpayers and walk away?

  • I know the professionalism bar is very, VERY low for these assclowns at Slashdot who call themselves "editors". But really, is a basic knowledge of geography too little to ask?

    Tesla's HQ is in Palo Alto, which is in Santa Clara county, NOT Alameda county. So, "Editor"David... and your unearned "editor" title, I use very, Very, VERY loosely you incompetent bint... just why the hell do you imagine that Alameda county has any say whatsoever at what Musk does at his HQ in Santa Clara county?

  • Close proximity = Outbreak ... (Score:4, Informative)

    by kbahey ( 102895 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @08:20PM (#60042240) Homepage

    Unfortunately, the facts remain that people in close proximity will have an outbreak, unless the virus has never made it to that area, and nobody ever left or new people come in ...

    Here are some examples from Canada in the past two weeks:

    - An outbreak started at Cargill Meats in Alberta. They refused to close down when they only had 10 cases or less. Then they closed down when they had 35 cases. That outbreak developed to the largest cluster in North America with some 2,500 people infected, and so far 2 dead. Read about it here [newsinteractives.cbc.ca].

    - An outbreak in Conestoga Meats, a pork processing facility in Breslau, Ontario. Same situation, but less cases, and they shutdown.

    - An outbreak in Maple Lodge's chicken processing facility in Brampton, Ontario. Also shutdown.

    - Another recent outbreak in a chicken processing facility in British Columbia, which is doing the best among the most populated provinces in Canada, and despite early outbreaks in senior homes.

    - The same is repeated in many places in the USA.

    And it is not only meat processing ... anywhere people are in close proximity for extended times, the virus finds new hosts to invade. There was a study that the New York subway spread the virus around (confined space, lots of people, extended time). This study was disputed, but empirical evidence from elsewhere supports it. Bus drivers caught the disease in various places in the USA and Canada.

    So, Elon Musk may get to open his factories, only to shut them down in a few weeks ...

  • Texas? What a Moron (Score:3)

    by JenovaSynthesis ( 528503 ) on Saturday May 09, 2020 @09:53PM (#60042472)

    Yeah.. move to the state that bans the sale of his primary product. Not to mention the legislature goes out of its way to make owning a Tesla car painful in Texas. This is probably another one of his big-mouthed lies that will get him in trouble with the SEC again.

  • local government, what a drag (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Goldsmith ( 561202 ) on Sunday May 10, 2020 @02:47AM (#60042980)

    If there's anything this pandemic has taught us, it's that we all need to pay more attention to local government. If your local government isn't effective and responsive, then you need to do something about it.

    Let's put the joking about Elon's "exaggerations" catching up with him aside. If a major company in your area is experiencing an existential crisis during this pandemic, and you're part of the local government, you need to work with that company to find a solution. Sending press releases and working through third parties in a "my way or the highway" approach is not good government (even if what they're insisting on is good policy right now).

    The lack of engagement by local government in Alameda is a result of the "party machine" style of government in place there. That's a local government focused on national issues, not the details of their local constituency. There are plenty of practical people in the bay area who should have long realized this is a broken system, and there's been lots of time to change things. It's too late now.

    Our company had an actual phone call with our local government within hours of the shutdown order to understand our responsibilities and conditions for operation (which is amazing, my company is very small). We're also in California, but not in a "party machine" county or city. Paying attention to the people they serve is necessary for the individuals who make up my local government. Elon's issue here is not a "California" problem, it's an "Alameda" problem.

    In the end, it doesn't matter how many twitter followers you have or what your market cap is, a small town city council can shut you down if you're in that city. Pay attention and work with your government when there isn't a crisis so that they know how to work with you when there is a crisis. If your local government is broken, fix it before there's a crisis, not during one.

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