Criticism of Tesla, Inc.

Critics have noted that some Tesla cars have had poor build quality due to rushed testing, leading to a high ratio of flawed vehicles.

[43] Legal scholars William Widen and Philip Koopman argue that Tesla has misrepresented FSD beta as SAE Level 2 in order to "avoid regulatory oversight and permitting processes required of more highly automated vehicles.

[48] Bryant Walker Smith, an autonomous vehicle law expert at the University of South Carolina, said "it's so obviously clear that there's a contradiction" between what Tesla is saying in its marketing of Full Self-Driving versus what its lawyers and engineers have told the DMV.

Tesla has been accused of gaming the California Air Resources Board system for zero-emission vehicle credits by launching a "battery swap" program that was never made available to the public.

[91][92][93] In 2018, the state of Oregon reclaimed $13 million from Tesla after an investigation found that SolarCity had falsely inflated the prices on 14 large-scale solar projects in 2010–2014 by over 100% in order to qualify for higher tax credits.

[94][95] Since 2019, Tesla has sold a 94-mile range Model 3 in Canada in order to thwart their limits on electric vehicle tax incentives,[96] which has cost Canadian taxpayers C$115 million.

[97] Aaron Wudrick, director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, accused Tesla of gaming the system by listing the no-frills model one dollar below the program's cut-off price of C$45,000.

[117] Ed Niedermeyer characterizes the culture that Tesla has fostered as "ambitious, aggressive, ruthless, defensive, and unapologetic"[118] and has speculated that Musk orchestrated a "hype campaign" to gain fans and positive media coverage.

An article from Deutschlandfunk describes how "online armies take on defense work and information policy for Elon Musk" via tech blogs and social media.

[146][147] In January 2024, Tesla agreed to pay $1.3 million in civil penalties and $200,000 to reimburse investigation costs for the alleged illegal disposal of hazardous waste in 25 counties in California.

Fortune also pointed out that Musk has frequently claimed that "accidents cannot be the fault of the company, as data it extracted invariably showed Autopilot was not active in the moment of the collision".

[177] Senator Ed Markey praised the NHTSA investigation, criticizing Tesla for disregarding safety rules and misleading the public about its "Autopilot" system.

[187][188] In February 2022, Tesla agreed to remove the "rolling stop" option from the add-on after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration complained the practice is unsafe, and illegal everywhere in the United States.

[237] A lawsuit was filed against Tesla in 2022, alleging that after the suspension failed on a 2021 Model 3, the vehicle's undercarriage impacted the roadway, igniting the batteries; after colliding with trees, the driver and passenger died.

A day after the investigation was officially launched, Tesla responded with an over-the-air update that disabled Passenger Play for vehicles in motion and making it only accessible while the car is parked.

[262] In August 2019, a class action lawsuit was filed in Northern California, claiming that a 2019 over-the-air software update throttled the Model S battery life, some by as much as 40 miles.

[276] In February 2020, Tesla drew criticism after removing Enhanced Autopilot and Full Self Driving Capability on a Model S after a customer bought the car from a reseller, despite the third-party dealer having already paid for the feature.

[298][299] Between 2014 and 2017, ambulances went to Tesla Fremont over 100 times to provide emergency services to workers exhibiting symptoms including fainting, dizziness, abnormal breathing and chest pains resulting from the physically demanding tasks associated with their positions.

[312] In May 2021, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) upheld the 2019 court ruling, ordering that Ortiz be reinstated with back pay and that Musk delete an anti-union tweet.

[320] In April 2023, the NLRB ruled that Tesla violated labor law by prohibiting workers at an Orlando, Florida service center from discussing pay or raising grievances about working conditions with upper management.

[322][323][324] In 2019, IRAdvocates, a US-based NGO filed a class-action lawsuit against five large technology companies including Tesla for "aiding and abetting the use of young children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) cobalt mining industry."

"[351] Furthermore, in July 2021, former employee Melvin Berry received $1 million in his discrimination case in arbitration against Tesla after he claimed he was referred to by the N-word and forced to work longer hours at the Fremont plant.

One of the seven, Brooks, told The Washington Post that "I was so tired of the unwanted attention and the males gawking at me I proceeded to create barriers around me just so I could get some relief" and "[t]hat was something I felt necessary just so I can do my job."

[411] Similarly, in July 2018, Bloomberg News reported that Elon Musk enlisted the help of the head of the Sierra Club specifically to deflect criticism over his donations to Republicans.

He called it a "salacious story" and provided data, annotated screenshots and maps obtained from recording equipment installed in the press vehicle as evidence that the New York Times had fabricated much of the story.[418][...]

As soon as I found the Supercharger, I plugged the car in.During further investigation by the media, Musk said "the Model S battery never ran out of energy at any time, including when Broder called the flatbed truck."

In the days that followed, NYT public editor Margaret Sullivan published an opinion piece titled "Problems With Precision and Judgment, but Not Integrity, in Tesla Test".

[428][429][430] In 2021 and 2022, an index constructed by researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that bitcoin mining consumed more electricity during the course of the year than the entire nations of Argentina (a G20 country) and the Netherlands.

"[448][449] In June 2024, CNBC revealed that Elon Musk ordered Nvidia to redirect "a sizable shipment of AI [artificial intelligence] processors that had been reserved for Tesla to his social media company X".

[450] Musk responded to concerns by saying "Tesla had no place to send the Nvidia chips to turn them on, so they would have just sat in a warehouse," until the south extension of the Gigafactory Texas is complete.