Elon Musk’s last few years have been bizarre to watch. Inside Tesla, it’s been even weirder. Over the past six months, we’ve communicated with dozens of current and former Tesla employees on what's going on behind the scenes. This is what we found 1/ wired.trib.al/7HvpRB9
At Tesla, Musk is both despot and savior. A day at the company can include grand pronouncements, searing interrogations, and a laser-like focus on doing what no one has accomplished before 2/ wired.trib.al/7HvpRB9
Former employees say Elon Musk is the smartest person they have ever met. He’s not only Tesla’s visionary, he’s its emotional leader. But sometimes, they say, his emotions become tirades 3/ wired.trib.al/7HvpRB9
Musk’s moods were once easy to navigate. That changed after Tesla received 325,000 orders for the Model 3 in the first week it was made available to order. Tesla’s stock price soared, as did the pressure to produce 4/ wired.trib.al/7HvpRB9
In the summer of 2016, Musk called a meeting and said that Tesla had to move faster. Its factories needed to be fully automatic. Executives argued with him, saying it was too unrealistic 5/ wired.trib.al/7HvpRB9
A former high-ranking executive said that in the summer of 2017, the stress of the Model 3 marked a “downward spiral” for Musk. Over the next few months, former employees said, the situation at Tesla turned from tense to hellish 6/ wired.trib.al/7HvpRB9
Musk began working nonstop. High-ranking executives started to leave 7/ wired.trib.al/7HvpRB9
In June of this year, Tesla made 5,031 Model 3s in a seven-day period. The company had finally hit its original goal, albeit six months late and at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars 8/ wired.trib.al/7HvpRB9
But in August, Musk sent the famous tweet about taking Tesla private. The SEC sued. Musk and Tesla eventually settled the SEC charges for $20 million apiece, and Musk was forced to relinquish his chairmanship of the board 9/ wired.trib.al/7HvpRB9
Tesla continues to build Model 3s and made a record profit of $312 million in Q3 this year. It's still working to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. All of this makes Musk’s behavior even more conflicting 10/ wired.trib.al/7HvpRB9
Tesla was given extensive summaries of the reporting in this article. Their responses are included in our reporting, including the one below. Read the full story here: 11/ wired.trib.al/7HvpRB9
