Thread by @Tweetermeyer

Over the past year or so I have wanted to believe that the Tesla story had turned a corner, and that long-overdue consequences had become inevitable. Today I find myself recommitting to the one thing that has been true all along: nothing is inevitable. Justice must be fought for.

Everyone has been so focused on the tech and the money, that nobody has made an accounting of Tesla's human cost. The workers at all levels who were chewed up and spit out. The customers who were induced into overreliance on unsafe tech, injuring and killing themselves and others

We still have not yet confronted Tesla's most monstrous creation: a set of incentives that encourages anyone who wants to be the richest person in the world to recklessly endanger the public and simply lie about it. Left unconfronted, these incentives guarantee a dystopian future

It seems increasingly clear that our elected officials either do not see the tragic human cost that this company has imposed, let alone the horrific incentives its leader has created, or they do not care. This battle has been left to those of us who were elected by what we know.

Make no mistake: this is a battle. There are people inside the highest corridors of power, in finance, technology and politics, who will always back Musk. It's not about money or votes, especially now... it's a deep and unreasonable loyalty, extending to the point of criminality.

At every step of this journey, my biggest mistake was believing that the cavalry would come. That it wouldn't be up to me. I know it doesn't seem like it, but I've resisted this fight in so many ways.

No longer. Today I once again spit on my hands and raise the black flag.

I'm not fighting for myself. I'm fighting for Josh Brown, Jeremy Banner, Walter Huang, Gao Yaning, and everyone else who has been hurt or killed by Tesla's cynicism and greed. The countless unnamed workers and their families. The critics and whistleblowers, mocked and attacked.

Maybe, someday, when this is all over we can talk about why such obvious justice must be fought for in this country. Maybe we can learn how fraud and cynical public endangerment were allowed to flourish, and even be seen as heroic.

But first we must fight. And fight I shall.

I have countless partial drafts trying to bring the whole story of Autopilot and FSD into a manageable length, but it's hard. You have to start at the beginning, with the story of where Autopilot even came from. It's shocking how few people know this:

thedrive.com/tech/29877/dr-…

Then you have to explain a century of human-automation interaction research, and explain "ironies of automation" [PDF]: ckrybus.com/static/papers/…

You have to explain #autonowashing and why it matters: sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

You have to see it in action: aaafoundation.org/impact-of-info…

You have to understand how much has been done to fool the public about what Autopilot is, and sell us its nonexistent safety benefits.

thedrive.com/tech/26455/nht…

https://twitter.com/Tweetermeyer/status/1341576697410293761

https://twitter.com/Tweetermeyer/status/1488673180403191808

You have to realize that @NTSB has been raising the alarm about these issues since 2020.

You have to accept that @NHTSAgov has been in absolute dereliction of their duty this entire time.

You have to accept that @SecretaryPete doesn't get any of this.

I've been struggling to get this all into a concise, readable draft for a long time now, and it's been the challenge of my career.

Today I'm committing myself to trying harder. We need to understand this. We can't let this situation sail by. There's too much at stake.

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