Tesla is just as fraudulent as defunct energy giant Enron, one of Facebook’s co-founders has boldly claimed – shortly before receiving a fiery response from Elon Musk.
In a post on Threads – Facebook’s take on Twitter, now called X – the social media giant’s co-founder Dustin Moskovitz called out Tesla by comparing the electric vehicle (EV) maker to Enron, the energy giant which went bankrupt in 2001 following years of fraudulent behaviour.
Mr Moskovitz, who now heads software firm Asana, said some of Tesla’s executives will eventually end up in jail, claiming the EV brand has “committed consumer fraud on a massive scale” by lying about the capabilities of its so-called ‘Full Self-Driving’ (FSD) semi-autonomous driving system, among other reasons.
“I know I sound crazy to most people who don’t follow $TSLA (shorthand for Tesla stock) closely but at this point it really needs to be said. This is Enron now, folks,” Mr Moskovitz said in his post.
“It may keep going, but people are going to jail at the end. The data is presented in fraudulent ways, and it doesn’t say what they claim it says even when they make it up.
“Tesla has committed consumer fraud on a massive scale, from lying about FSD, ranges, and (recently, unconfirmed!) even inflating odometers. Many times now, also securities fraud.”
For context, neither Tesla nor any of its executives have been charged with fraudulent behaviour, and the carmaker has avoided punishment in multiple instances where its semi-autonomous driving systems were blamed for fatal crashes.
Elon Musk
Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to Mr Moskovitz’s comments in his own posts on X – which he also owns – first by calling the latter an ableist slur, and then by retracting it but continuing to berate the tech executive.
While Mr Moskovitz didn’t provide evidence to back his allegations, he did make a separate Threads post outlining his belief that Tesla is doctoring its data to show more people are using Full Self-Driving than the reality.
The spat between the two executives comes less than a month after Tesla reported its lowest quarterly deliveries since 2022 to start the year, despite hitting a production record in 2023.
Its operating margins also sat at 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2024, down from 11.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2023.
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